26/01/2021-Concept Art & Loading Screen Development
A feature Ollie and I thought of during the discussion was the ability for the player to grab other enemies. Utilising the uniquely crude art style of the game, I have made some concept art for what this feature could possibly look like.
I also wanted to try and see what we could do outfit wise for Bilgert, so I gave him a spacesuit. This shows how the feature could possibly work, with Bilgert using his toad tongue to grab bird brainz by the neck.
02/02/2021
A concept I slapped together from different sprites and elements made for the game. Bilgert was made by Oliver, boss and grunts as well as the health bar by myself and the backdrop by Michael.
Oliver wants to make the rat smaller when it comes to making the actual game, so I’m thinking about developing a scale sheet and placing it on this page for grunts, bosses and otherwise.
25/02/2021- Loading screen concept
I will be reusing the health bar sprites to resemble a loading time measurement, and create backdrops for the loading screen of different events in-game, the one I’m doing for the concept entails the final boss fight against crackbeak.
26/02/2021– Loading screen complete, with multiple variants. This is the version I sent to Luc for in-game use alongside the health bar sprites which we are going to reuse for the timer. The loading screen depicts the final face-off between Crackbeak and Bilgert, both battered and bruise in the final boss arena– crackbeak’s nest of DOOM!
here’s some concept I threw together after finishing.
1/03/2021- More Loading screen stuff
I started designing this piece on Friday afternoon, the 26th February, and now I’m getting into the flow of design properly. This will be the loading screen for the demo, or level 1, displaying the enemies facing off against Bilgert in a DOOM inspired outnumbering.
I have redesigned Bird Brainz, however I do not think I am going to redesign his in-game sprite. I think this works well considering it’s a mere loading screen. I suppose this can also serve as concept art.
2/02/2021
I have copy-pasted the helmets I made to create a big horde of enemies, as well as a pile of helmets for how many Bilgert has already defeated. At the top, the boss of level 1 will be present.
18/03/2021- I have done all I can with this loading screen, and now I am going to hand this piece over to Oliver to draw Bilgert, as I feel he can do him way better justice than I ever could.
24/04/2021- Loading screen finish
Decided I would get back to this once I had finished most of the enemies for the game and some other stuff, super happy with it. I used one of the in-game sprites for Bilgert drawn by Oliver and reused existing pieces of Captain Vermin to make him look beaten up.
23/04/2021- Fitting The Brief
Luc, Michael and Oliver have managed to get three outfits completed for Bilgert, and hopefully more to come too. This was something, truth be told, we should have implemented earlier than we did, but it’s here now.
We are going to aim for 5 different outfits to claim in-game, and I am going to try to see if Luc can lock some of them behind level walls (example: green trench coat after beating level 1, the heart pants after the entire game or something).
This will most likely come later during the polishing phase, or just approaching it, as right now our main priority is getting this stuff in so we hit the brief.
Credit to Luc for the GIF and in-engine work, Michael and Oliver for their contributions to the outfits listed below:
Outfit Showcase:
22/04/2020- MY outfit designs!
I decided, out of pure drive to work, boredom and curiosity to create one of my concepts and make it a reality. I am happy to present ‘Pest Control Bilgert’, which I designed to be a reward for defeating Captain Vermin and beating the first level. Not sure if it will be implemented that way but I will make sure to tell Luc about this on Monday when we get the chance.
Inspiration for this piece:
My inspirations were drawn from the Hazmat suits used in Call of Duty: Black Ops II Zombies, and similar to ones in the Stranger Things TV show and otherwise.
Joel's blog 