Month: October 2024

Adopting A Beloved Cartoon Style Of Art

If you’ve read my previous blog post about the beginning of developing my video game, you’ll know I was not satisfied about the initial concept design of the user interface. Everything just doesn’t feel right and looks really bizarre. It’s because I’ve used a realistic photo of a cat as reference instead of cartoon-style drawings.

I’m drawing everything really simple! So simple that I can be confident about designing and coding the game in Unity Game Engine. The inspiration comes from my childhood. My childhood cartoons were Disney and Looney Tunes…it was never about Japanese Anime. With that idea in mind, browsing through references on Google for inspiration was a breeze.

This is what I came up with:

The goal of this now new design is to have no sharp edges as sharp objects would make it look scary and curved edges would make it look harmless. At least that’s how my imagination works when it comes to cuteness.

I’m so proud of myself on the rework of the game asset UI design. Things just keep getting better and better. I’ve had flashbacks of my old art style when I did merch designs before and thought those skills from my past would be applied to video games.

This is the finalization of my concept art / design for my video game. The next update about this game is the coding part. Should I also make a portfolio page here? I’ve already made a few pencil and ink drawing illustrations for my video game anyways and having a showcase of my latest skills would be beneficial for promoting my talent and the game itself.

I’ve been brainstorming a video game of my own for so long. This dates back when I lost my career interest in becoming to be a bad-ass illustrator in comic books for Marvel and DC or even a manga artist in Japan.

My Pet Game Concept

I’m not going to hide my major influence for this video game. The game is called “Tamagotchi” and it was once a huge craze when I was a kid. It’s one of those core memories between me and my mother. When I was young, I kept nagging my mother buy me a Tamagotchi but she doesn’t want me to get addicted to it. When I persisted and she bought me my favorite toy…that’s when I knew my mother really loved me. Overall the theme of the game is Medieval Fantasy Pet Game.

Sketching The UI Design

First I started off with a really rough sketch with the layout of the user interface. I want the overall aesthetic of mobile pet video game to look really cute. The game will be Rated-E for everyone from young and old to play. It’s a game for all ages.

On the top you see in-game icons like Home, Inventory Bag, Food & Water, and Hunting. In the bottom you’ll see Health, Food, and Water bars to monitor the survival of your digital pet. During the sketching period, I know the design isn’t what I really envisioned. It looks really weird since a realistic photo reference was used. Even for the icons, I’ve used references using Google Image Search.

Laying Down The Ink

I’ve redesigned the pet. Tried to make it more simple by inking with less details but I’m still not satisfied. I still don’t feel satisfied about the style that I’m going for. This was a tiring process to deal with. I really just wanted for this phase to finish.

You can see how I wanted this to look like an American Cartoon with rounded eyes. Even made it to have a happy expression with a happy smile and tongues out. Also added a heart shaped fur on the chest yet everything still seems lacking something.

Future Changes To The Design

Since I’m not really satisfied of the Inking results of the initial sketch. I will surely try my best to make the design as cute as I can. I don’t feel the game will be loved by the masses. What needs to be done…is more brainstorming in the weekends.