I’m kind of all over the place lately. Sorry about that.
I think I can get away with any level of paintery-ness I’m comfortable with if I just use my dark outlines properly. I’m not sure about the map mock up, but I’m thinking it probably is best to cut down on the painted style for the characater animations. Makes the mesh tweaking look better. The cel-shaded is also nice contrast on a slightly more painted background/map.
I guess the answer I came up with is basically cartoony with wiggle room style wise to get as close to serious as we want or need to at the drop of a hat with no.. real set backs. We can pretty much be whatever. always.
I’ve been gone for a bit, but I’d never desert you. Let’s talk mood and tone.
The development cycle of this game has been pretty stupid, in that we have done things in a terrible order. Or rather, I have done things in a terrible order. Hawk tries to blame himself for a lot of this, and that’s fine. He can have all the blame he wants. <3
Ideally, I would have made several usable style mock-ups for this game. In reality, I've made next to none. This is a huge blow to my credibility, I should definitely known better. In that spirit, it's never too late to start, especially since uh. How the game functions keeps shifting in ways that will require me to redo certain things.. functionally. Maybe this is all Hawk’s fault!
Okay, let’s tackle this problem like adults and start from the top with a simple question: Do we have anything that is definitely locked-in and can’t be changed because it would be a monumental waste of time? The short answer (dontyellatme) is no, not really, not from a tone perspective anyway. YES, the art for the animation is pretty locked-in and I ain’t redoin’ it. However, recoloring the body pieces or adjusting the way the heads looks if need be is not a big deal. So, with the answer of “no” in place, let’s explore a bit. I don’t think this is a game that can have a super serious art style or tone. We’re all basically agreed on that.
