Week 7

Kryat

Third playtest with item cards

During this week we first completed another playtest where we included the item cards and event cards into the game that gave the player more options instead of just capturing creatures and using the abilities.

The item cards give the players other options like the “Ancient shield” card which allows the player to guard against an enemy attack an ability that can be used against other players like the “Frostbitten hand” item that allows the player to force another player to give up their turn

The event cards or as their known in game the “Journey” cards give the player a scenario that they have to follow in that moment that adds some story to the adventure and quest of the game but also allows for cool mechanics like the “Lush woodlands” card that allows a player to draw two creature cards from the deck and choose one to add to their hand and return the other one, giving the players more ways to get creatures and die.

From this playtest we found that.

Even though the players can no longer lose all of one type of their die due to the rule that we made a few playtests back that you have to own one of each dice type, some players reported still feeling hopeless and that comeback was impossible due to not being able to gain any more die because they most likely lose against capturing creatures and also they cant get enough die to justify fighting the beast making the game pointless in their eyes.

How we improved from this

In order to improve the game based on what play testers had said we first decided to add some new card ideas that would help counteract the losing feeling one being the “eat the rich” card that sees the player in first giving two dice to the player in last and the player in last gets to choose which dice the player in first gives them. As well as the “fallen grace” card that allows the player with least dice (last place) to gain one die of their choice to add to their hand - These cards allow the player whose furthest behind and who evidently has the worse luck to have a chance at a comeback

We also added a new public style card called the trading post which is a card players can draw that allows them to travel to the trading post (which will be a mat in the middle that they can move their model too) and trade certain cards weather that be creatures, dice or items with other players - This mechanic allows for the players to strategize and use the different abilities of creatures and items to their advantage.

Making polymer clay models

This week i decided to start making the models for the game first starting off with the hunter model, i decided to make the model out of polymer clay and paint using acrylic paint, i decided to use polymer clay as i could get more detail then i could through blender and 3D printing as due to the size the 3d print would need to be little groves in the hair and markings and creases on clothing would not show up very well however, if after making a few of the models i find that the clay is too brittle i can use them paired with the unis 3D scanning ipads to create a file that can be used for printing meaning that i don't have to spend time making the blender files.

I had to change the way that the model was posed however due to the balancing of the characters body weight so i added an arrow that had the wire frame in it so that it could hold the weight up and also for this reason i had to redesign the character so i decided to make him slightly older and a more seasoned veteran to hunting so that he is using the arrow as a type of walking stick.

Thief Character Designs

Furthermore, this week i talked through the ideas fro the remaining characters with the group and me and Logan (group leader) decided on doing a hunter (model already in development) a veterinarian, a thief and a ranger character, but this week i looked more into the thief designs and started by looking at some images online of stereotypical of thief and burgulers to help me come up with some design ideas.

After looking at these images on google of stereotypical thief i have noticed some similarities, for one they always cover their faces to avoid being caught and carry some sort of equipment.

After, researching images of "thief's" and "Burgulers" i started to draw some designs of thief characters following the descriptive words below that i want the character to be able to portray;

Scary
Inconspicuous
scoundrel
"Road-man"
Chav

I used those words to make these designs as well as the images above, I decided to have two designs one of a guy with a black mask covering his mouth with only his eyes showing to show him as scary and inconspicuous and then in order to make a more comedic character I went for the more stereotypical burglar.

However, after talking to the group, especially logan about these designs it was suggested that these designs don't seem very fitting of a forest/woodland area at which point it was suggested to us by Another classmate (Phil) that maybe we should base the game in a certain time period or around a certain time period so its easier to correlate lore and clothing etc.

me and Logan loved this idea so much that we both starting thinking of time periods when instead of thinking of a specific year or decade etc. we decided to go foir a more lose terminolgy of time as "Medival era" which according to (www.medievaltimes.com/education/medieval-era)

"The medieval era, often called The Middle Ages or the Dark Ages, began around 476 A.D. following a great loss of power throughout Europe by the Roman Emperor. The Middle Ages span roughly 1,000 years, ending between 1400 and 1450."

using this information i started to compile so reference images

All these images are what I found on different "medieval" styles for thief's, first i instantly thought of the assassins creed series specifically the games that take place towards the end of what is considered the middle ages (medieval times) that being the 1450's which is when I believe assassins creed two was set and assassins creed one being set in like 1150 AD meaning that the style of clothing is considered medieval and the assassin characters are basically thief's by definition so there clocks and the idea of keeping themselves hooded is a big idea i took into consideration.

I also started to look into medieval style masks that may help the individual hide their identity and found the following mask in the middle that looked interesting and like it would add some life to the character and upon further research according to

(https://legendsofthemultiuniverse.fandom.com) its a "Astaroth mask" which is a gender-unknown Astaroth Empire follower in Rise of Qliphoth era, who wears a black crow-like mask and dressed up as some medieval plague doctor in order to hide their identity. i chose to have my character wear this mask as it doesn't only conceal their identity it also has ties to the period of time I'm looking at 470 BC - 1450 AD as well as some rather interesting demonic lore.

And the last image on the left here is a cosplayer who is dressed as a medieval/middle ages thief/bandit

I used these images as inspiration and then created some concept art on what i imagine the thief character to look like

I kept the idea of hiding the characters identity using a mask inspired by the Astaroth mask because one i like the idea of the thief looking scary and inconspicuous base don the words above that I wanted the character to portray and using a demonic mask did just that also as well as this the character wearing a mask adds for a lot of representation of gender or sexuality or ethnicity etc. to be decided by the players as it could be anyone from any walk of life under that mask.

This idea was inspired by one of my personal hero's Stan lee who used the same idea of hiding the identity meaning bit could be anyone under the suit when he created Marvels' Spiderman

I also took inspiration from assassins creed and the cosplayer with the hood that covers up most of the characters hair and other features that may not be hidden by the mask, this furthers the characters scary look and makes them look more intimidating which can help them rob people the rest of the clothing is mainly taken from the cosplayer as the only other reference I had for a full body was assassins creed and while the long white robes are iconic they are not very historically accurate and don't allow the character to easily blend into the woodland environment of Kryat as much as a brown and black outfit would.

The drawings are also done as concept art for what I imagine the final models will look like that's why the character is in that sneak pose because I want the model to look dynamic and in an action pose of sorts so having the character sneaking seems fitting to a character who steals things from others.

Unknown the Thief (the "name" I chose to give them) carry's a knife and a bag the knife has been kept from my original thief burglar designs because I feel like a thief needs a way to threaten their victims that is not just through their menacing appearance and a bag that they can stash all the goodies they swipe from people inside.

Finished polymer clay hunter model

Thankfully the change of time era that effected clothing choices was decided whist I was mid way through making the first model meaning that I hadn't quite yet finished adding the clothing to the model, so before I continued I looked up images of medieval hunters and found the below image which I believe was a premade unreal engine model.

This hunter carries a curved wooden bow as well as a quiver on their back, the coat is a long brown trench coat that has a hood with an undershirt, brown tight trousers and high boots, the colors of this hunter suit the woodland environment of Kyrat's vertical slice perfectly and I have taken forward this reference in the design for the clothes on the hunter model below:

You may see some differences however in this final design compared to the reference clothing image, I kept the brown jacket/trench coat however the characters hood (which for reference is detailed on his back) is not up this is for two reasons, as well as its good to follow Stan lees quote for some characters its not for all characters its good to have some faces showing and the other reason is due to balancing issues that i fixed by making him hold an arrow which tended to look a bit like a walking stick/cane so i decided to have his hood down, so that his hair could be shown off and the grey that gives him his seasoned veteran hunter look can be seen.

Furthermore the bow, you may notice is curved at the end like the reference image I found online and has a string which in my past concepts was not a thing because I thought it would be too brittle however, after working with the polymer clay I realized that it "cures" and once its "cured" it requires quite a lot of force to break it out of shape.