Title screen concepts and final piece [WEEK 15]

 Before i could make any sketches or concepts, my director provided me with quick mock ups of how the UI might be laid out on top of my image that i am going to create, this was incredibly useful as i could pick one and use it to inform what elements should go where to ensure the title screen is both usable and nice to look at. These sketches she did were based on some games she looked into with good examples of title screen UI, these are her sketches below.

Of all of these i liked the last one best, and had a really strong idea of what i wanted to draw for this, my idea in my head was to have the main player character as a silhouette in the front of the screen in amongst the deep jungle, through the thicket would be the expanses of the new greened Sahara, i feel this idea would display the themes of discovery, mystery, the greening of the Sahara, and show a bit of the overall feel of the art style [even if it is not drawn in the style of Micah Lidberg]. Instead i would like it to be somewhat realistic to show that although our game is quite heavily stylized, that this still has some realm of believability to show how the greening of the Sahara is not entirely fiction, but something that could one day be believable. To take this concept from out of my head and onto canvas, i created a photo bash of the general idea of what i wanted to do using copyright free images on google.

With Niamh's UI design

Basic photobash

Alternate concept for the title screen

I really liked how the first photobash turned out with its texture, complementary colour pallete and use of tone to separate the deep jungle and the bright sahara into the foreground and background elements. I think it still allows the UI to be readable, and in general draws me into the game much more than the alternative concept art. Presenting this to my team, they all seemed to like my first idea best, so moving on from here i used my photobash as reference to create my final image. I mostly used the marker, pencil and airbrush tool to achieve the final effect, colour picking elements from my photobash to build up texture and depth to imply a wild jungle setting. Here is the final image that i made for the title screen.

I used the same canvas size as the HUD designs i had made previously, so that it is as true to what would be in the game as possible, I am very very happy with the amount of detail in this piece and overall i think the canted camera angle really helps frame the figure in the foreground better and make for a more visually interesting piece. The only concerns i might see is the placement of the title going at the top and how it might get lost in the picture, however i might just move the title over to the lefthand side along with the other UI elements so that they all take up the darkest part of the canvas to provide the best contrast. I tried to use leading lines from the sunlight to guide the viewers eye through the scene, as well as using contrast to highlight the Sahara as that is the main environmental aspect the viewer should be drawn to. The figure [cedric] in the foreground is separated from the dark elements of the jungle using the light streaming in through the opening in the jungle, this makes him easily readable and makes sure he doesn't get lost in the foliage. I think i translated the idea i had in my head quite well onto the canvas and i really think this could be an interesting title screen to entice the audience to play the game, it sets the scene, tells you a little about what your role in the game is, and makes you interested to explore the environment. I think the title screen being in a different style to the game could either be a nice interesting touch, or something that puts people off from the game. A game that comes to mind that does this is terraria, it's splash art and title artwork is in a drastically different style to the game, i don't think in my opinion this detracts from the draw of the game, rather i think it's interesting to see how these highly stylized elements would look like to the player character. Below is the example of terraria's Splash art compared to the actual gameplay. I think this is something that could either be very cool or very disappointing depending on who plays the game, but generally i imagine that is the case with most games that have artwork as their title screen.

Terraria's steam page artwork

Terraria Gameplay

Gantt chart -

Adding onto my Gantt chart i have now completed the title screen and one of the 4 concept pieces i would like to do. I also need to finish the plant journal pages which i keep forgetting to do so i need to get onto doing that, i would also like to make a logo/title name for our game, though this is something that really won't take much time so it isnt that big of a priority right now. I think i'm going to do some more concept work of areas in the game and finish the plant journal entries, then when we head back to confetti i will help out on any unreal work as well as if i am needed to make anymore 3D models.