GAME ART & DESIGN
Viral Quest is a self initiated 2020 project to explore the creative aspects which go into a mobile game.
An experiment in motion graphics using After Effects.
Choose your Enemy
Viral Quest is inspired by the Covid-19 global crisis, which has been morbidly inspiring.
The first screen, which settled the drawing, UI and design style of the made up game, is the opponent selector.
Start Screen
The second screen I created was the start screen which solidified the design style of the game and refined the illustration work. Other than that, the project included designing a logo.
Settings Screen
One should never underestimate the importance of the drier areas of UX flows like sound controls, so this was a must to me in order to have a feeling of project completion.
This screen design provided great opportunities to focus on the challenges of iconography.
It is the first time I have experienced the world having one single common enemy.
Animated in After Effects with intentions to add it to the start screen. However, I decided to save it for my training in Unity.
1. Put it on Paper
Like most personal projects, I sketch thumbnails and brainstorm in a sketchbook. For Viral Quest this included rough wireframes of UX designs and quick drawings to find the shape style of the game. If the project was a team effort I would've used digital/online tools for this stage like miro and google presentation.
2. Trial and Error
Once a composition had been chosen, I jumped onto either Illustrator, Photoshop, After Effects or Krita to start the long process of creating the pencilled designs from my sketchbook. This include drawing, colour selection, animation etc.
3. Pixelperfect
Lastly comes the polish, which takes as long as step 2 - especially for Viral Quest. I wanted the screen designs to reflect the industry standards and therefore made them pixelperfect. The finalisation process happened in Adobe Illustrator.