The Outcast of Parvus- Design Bible (re-issue)

The last attempt of uploading this didn't work out so well, so I'm trying to again with it saved as a PDF.

Character Project Presentation

Character- Bee Weaponry

Character- Venenum Concept Art, Turnarounds and Expression Sheet

Character- Parvus City Concept Art

Character- Mater Concept Art, Expression Sheet and Turnarounds

Character- Hero Concept Art and Turnarounds

Final concept painting for Lecti with turnarounds to show his anatomy and design.

Character- Game Play Development

This is a concept drawing of what the game would look like if it existed. It is a 3D video game to be played on consoles, and the target audience are young teenagers. In this still image, Lecti is faced with two wasp beasts, who are guarding the wilderness from the citizens of Parvus.

The wasps are the main enemies that Lecti has to face, and so there is combat between him and the beasts. On the drawing, below Lecti are two coloured bars. The red one measures Lecti's health, and the green one measures his stamina. I was going to add more health bars to the screen the show the status of enemies that Lecti fights, but I didn't want the screen to become too busy. So I came up with an alternative way to show the health of Lecti's enemies.

Under the enemies are glowing platforms, these are what give away to the status of any foe.

1. Red- the foe is aware of the player's presence, and intends to attack. This would be the colour that shows up in combat.

2. Green- either the foe hasn't detected the player's presence yet, or the foe has a reason to not attack, meaning it may be safe to approach.

3. Blue- the foe is sleeping or has been knocked out during combat.

4. No colour- this means that the foe is dead.

As the enemy takes damage, the colour platform starts to shrink, when it disappears that means the foe has been defeated.

When the player takes damage, they can restore their health from finding items to eat. Different items can provide different things for the player.

Flowers- increase the rate of health regeneration.

Red Apples- restores health.

Purple Berries- applies poison to weaponry for a short time.

Carrots- give night vision to player for a short time.

Green Apples- restores stamina.

Honey Orb- player takes no damage for a short time.

Character- Main Character Concept

My original idea for my game was to have it as an RPG, allowing the player to create their own character. However this made it difficult for me to design a main character, as that would be left to the player to make. So I played a few video games (for research) and I've decided to fix a character to be the centre of this game. This is Lecti, a male bee who was born with an extremely rare defect. He was born without a sting, and to a bee a sting is the most important part of their anatomy. The sting is the natural weapon of the bee which they'd use in battle to defend their Queen. It is a symbol that defines them as being part of a hive, and to die in battle whilst from using the sting is seen as a great honour.  

However Lecti has no sting, and is banished from the hive with disgrace, as he is seen to be rebelling against the queen for being this way. And so Lecti must now live out his life as an outcast, away from the protection of the hive. Optimistic as he is, Lecti sees the positive aspects of this outcome. He is free to determine his own lifestyle and can do what he wishes without the restraints the hive has on the other bees.

The name Lecti is one I've made up, taken from the word 'electi' which (according to Google) is the Latin word for 'chosen.'

Character- Wasp Weaponry

The wasp designs are based on predatory animals, such as big cats, wolves and birds of prey. This means that their fighting style would resemble that of an animal. So when sketching weapons for the wasps, I focused on enhancing what the wasp beast naturally have.

   

Wasp Beast without weaponry. 

1: Tail Blade- made to enhance the strike of a wasp's sting, and also help to protect it in combat.

2: Tackle Mount- to prevent enemies from striking the back, and also is used to impale any creature standing in the way of a running wasp.

3: Swipes- to extend the length and attacks of the arms.

Venenum has a tail blade which is known as the 'Queen Cleaver,' made especially for killing queen bees.

Character- The City of Parvus

The game is set in a fantastical city called Parvus. The city is ruled by Mater and her hive, and the citizens are made up of different species of insects. 

 Like most cities, Parvus has a class system which is determined by species. Creatures such as ants are classed as workers and are made to work in the city mines until they die.

The working class live in very organic style homes. They don't build their houses, they grow them, as this is more affordable and convenient. However naturally made houses are not so comfortable and tend to decay after a period of time. This means that they have to be constantly re-planted.

The higher class citizens are more beautiful species such as butterflies. They have ownership over the workers and live in a district of the city known as 'Lofty' which is located close to the hive. 

 Their house are more artificial in style and are influenced by stone plant pots and greenhouses.

Character- Mater Concept and Weapon

Mater is a large, powerful character, and so I want her design to reflect on that. 

 When it comes to her weapon, I feel she would have a bulky war hammer. It would be a symbolism of her power and status as a Queen, which means it should look valuable as it would represent her royalty.

Character- Wasp Beasts

When researching bees for this project I found out that wasps actually attack and eat bees. I wanted to incorporate this into the game, by designing the wasp characters in a more carnivorous style. I looked at predatory animals such as birds of prey, big cats, wild dogs and even species of apes. Earlier this week I saw a nature program called 'The Hunt.' This show has detailed footage of different predatory animals hunting for their food. There was one part of the program that feature chimpanzees hunting a small monkey. When they caught it, they started ripping it apart amongst themselves. Something about that gave me shivers, seeing chimpanzees, a close relative to humans, catch and rip apart a monkey with their bare hands seemed diabolical to witness. I would like to bring that kind of horror to this game through the wasp characters.

Character- Re-designing Mater (feedback would be lovely)

After speaking with Justin today, I realized that Mater (queen of the bees) needed more work on her design to give way hints of her personality. She is a figure in the game who is suppose to be the ally of the main character, however she does not act like it, and can be considered a villain in the story. I tried to portray this in the alternative drawings I've done here, and I wanted each design to look very different to each other. Feedback would be greatly appreciated, it would be good to have outside opinions on these designs. 

Character- Venenum Sketches

Venenum is a prominent character in the story of the game. She is queen of the wasps and the enemy of Mater (queen of the bees). Venenum's colony live in the dark over growth on the outskirts of Mater's land, however they are always plotting on taking the hive for themselves.

Character OGR

Character OGR

Character- Research and Re-think

For this project I decided to watch a documentary on honey bees. I found that a bee hive is made up of female bees, and the roles of both female and male bees are very different to each other. Female bees have a number of jobs, such as guarding the hive, protecting the queen, packing away the honey and scouting outside of the hive in search of pollen and nectar. The queen's job is to lay eggs that will hatch into the next generation. Male bees have one job, which is to impregnate the queen. Once a male has mated with the queen, he instantly dies. If a male bee is unsuccessful when trying to mate with the queens, he is thrown out of the hive and left to die in the outside world. The different roles that each gender holds gave me an idea to incorporate into the game. The player is put into a world where females are the dominant sex, and the majority of sexual discrimination is targeted on males. Also I've decided to scrap the wasp characters and focus mainly on the bees, as I think I can get a descent narrative from focusing on the bees and their hive.   

Character Project- Wasp Nest Environment Thumbnails

I've been scribbling down a few ideas for the wasp nests. I've tried to make these sketches contrast with the style of the bee hive thumbnails.

Character- Hive Heist: Solusa NPC

In my game I want there to be lots of different quest lines for the characters. I also want to incorporate other animals in the game so it can add more variety in terms of characters. This non playable character is a spider called Solusa. If you choose to play as a wasp you have to obtain honey for your queen. One quest the player can do is to seduce Solusa and get her to give up her personal supplies of honey as gifts. However the only way this can happen is if the main character marries Solusa, in which she will give honey to her groom. Yet the groom can not stay for long as Solusa has a reputation for eating her husbands on the wedding nights. And so the character must seduce her whilst avoiding her constant suggestions to go to bed.

  

Character- Hive Heist: Sketches and Thumbnails

There were a couple of things I wanted to change about the Queen Bee and the Wasp Queen characters. I wanted to experiment with a new look but was struggling with drawing out sketches in Photoshop, so I went back to using pencil on paper to do my sketches.

Queen Bee Sketch

Wasp Queen Sketch

I also started doing some thumbnails on some of the environments in the game. These thumbnails are of what the bee hives may look like. I tried to reference from real bee hives but also incorporate some medieval architecture into the sketches, such as castles and cathedrals.

Bee Hive Exterior

Bee Hive Interior

Character- Hive Heist Character Concepts

I decided to change the name of my game from 'Honey Heist' to 'Hive Heist' as I feel it's more appropriate for the tone of the game. I've also made concept art for the four character options in the game.

Hive Heist is a brawl game where there are two teams fighting against each other, bees and wasps. The bees guard their hives from intruders whilst the wasps attempt to brake into those hives and steal honey from inside.

 The Queen Bee is a mage fighter, which means she uses magic for combat and is able to inflict a high amount of damage. If the player chooses to be a Queen Bee, they must either take over a bee hive and claim it for their own, or start their own hive and colony of bees. Once in charge of a hive, the Queen Bee must give her colonies orders to maintain the hive. If she doesn't do this well enough, her colony will over throw her and she will be kicked out from her own hive.

 Serving the Queen Bees are the Bee Guards. These characters are the best warriors in the game and have the most powerful melee attacks.

Wasp Thieves have the task of stealing the honey from the bees. They are built lightly for stealth and sneak based attacks. They serve a Wasp Queen by gifting her with golden honey and in return she'll use her magic to grant them certain powers. Unlike the Bee Guards, Wasp Thieves can serve more than one Queen, as they can gain more variety in powers depending on which Queen they serve. 

Wasp Queen is a character that deals in dark magic. Like the Queen Bee she is a mage fighter and uses magic in combat. She is more of a villain character and I know from experience that it's always fun to play the bad guy once in a while.