Drawing for games is a unique challenge, as more often than not you have to illustrate play.
This makes it kind of like map-making: on top of the aesthetic design of each individual element, it has to also be a clear, functional space demonstrating action and rules.
It’s kind of like combining character design, environment design and traditional animation layout into the same piece.
You want to have pleasing composition, but that can’t betray the actual play too much. You wouldn’t (shouldn’t?) release shots of a first person shooter from a third person, low angle shot. Not exclusively, anyway.
The point of all this is that it’s hard. You’re doing a lot in a single drawing. But exploring 'play' this way is wonderfully effective for early inspiration and identifying potential gems ...and disasters.
The images below are all from an unreleased prototype called Rolli-Pollies, or internally, Hamsterland. It was a physics platformer where you played as a hamster in a ball journeying through fantastical settings. These sketches were the very first things I did in my role as Visual Specialist at Denki.
It's about play rather than details -- and to be honest it took me a while to let go of the need to 'polish' each drawing.
Some of the mistakes directly informed Denki's visual design thinking going forward.
I like how you can see the 'play' decision in this one.
Eventually you can get a real sense of wher you fall 'tonally' -- which can inform all performance and visual design going forward.
You can see the final in-game look of Roli-Polies HERE.
