Laurie's MA Games Design Blog

As well as concepts for the two brothers, I also agreed with Josh early on that I would produce concepts for a mule-type fantasy creature that the caravan would use to transport everything when moving camp every few days. I also considered that the brothers might take the creature with them on expeditions to carry back their finds, having it wait outside sunken ruins for them to come back out for example. I eventually decided against this second idea because I wanted expeditions to be a space for interaction between just the two of them. I also thought that depending on the design I went with, it might limit their ability to move quickly or perhaps keep a low profile on the off-chance that a raiding party has ventured into the harsher lands the caravan sticks to. I started by sketching various forms for the creature, as at this point I didn't have anything particularly concrete in mind: As you can see, I played with both quadrupedal and bipedal forms, as I really didn't have a ...

 After starting this project, I spoke to Josh (course leader) and we agreed that each Friday we would discuss briefs to guide my practical work on this project for the upcoming week. The initial brief was to establish designs for the two brothers that the story of this world revolves around. The central concept for their background is that as part of a small caravan community travelling through the desert landscape, they go out on expeditions each day as a two-man party, searching for supplies to bring back to camp. They fulfil this role because they are young and able, unlike some of the more elderly members of their group. On their expeditions, they search for the sunken remains of ancient civilisations lost to the sands, as these ruins provide the best chance of useful finds. Aside from aesthetic values, it was hence important that their clothing would reflect their practical needs. I started the design process by gathering references of ancient near eastern dress and styles. Ne...

  Near Eastern Fantasy World Project Since wrapping up on my four week diagnostic project, I've made a start on my semester 1 practice project. Sticking with concept art, my new project is to create a fantasy world that takes inspiration from Ancient Near Eastern civilisations. Some prominent examples include the Assyrians, Sumerians, Babylonians, and the Achaemenid Empire. My justification for this project is that I feel that the rich cultures of  the Ancient Near East are heavily underused when it comes to historical influences in games, and pop culture in general. Having studied this area of history quite heavily during the final year of my bachelors, I've realised how interesting it is, and I'm now hoping to draw inspiration from it to develop a concept for a fantasy world that feels refreshing within a medium that is saturated with the more widely known Norse, Greek or Japanese influences, to name the obvious examples. The ideas for this world have been floating around...

Over the last four weeks, I've been working on a concept for an apocalyptic settlement based in the UCLan campus and set in the Last of Us universe. With this project, I set out to explore working styles to figure out what suits me. I went with an established universe because creating something completely new and cohesive might have been a little ambitious for four weeks, and I chose TLOU because it is a world I'm very familiar with, and fond of. In emulating the styles, themes and ideas of the franchise, I hoped to find out how much I enjoy working within the scope of a 'dark and gritty' vision (overused phrase, I know). Having reached the end of this four week period, I now know that I really enjoy working with darker themes and material, which is perhaps unsurprising given that media operating within this zone often appeals to me above most other things. However, it also kind of made me want to now explore areas that lend themselves to a more vibrant,  joyful or free...

 These last few days I've been working on a concept for a Canopy-like structure positioned in the middle of the PMA compound. The initial idea came when I was creating an initial batch of thumbnails depicting key aspects of the compound, which I shared in a previous post. As a reminder, here's what the canopy idea looked like at that stage: As soon as I thought of the concept I was drawn to the idea of a towering and intimidating structure that was visible from beyond the compound. However, as I mentioned in the earlier post, we agreed in a discussion at the studio that the structure looked too neat and well constructed for the setting. I was advised to explore a more chaotic, jumbled appearance that would make it feel suitably apocalyptic. I decided that I would try to incorporate the design ideas of worlds such as that of Mad Max and Rage, which differ greatly from TLOU's. The idea was to create a contrast that would make the structure stick out like some kind of abominat...