This week I created a mood board and did some character design for a game idea around exploring an empty house as a kid. The game hopes to evoke feelings of child-like curiosity and playfulness as the audience explores and interacts with the various empty rooms.
I think character animation in games can make a huge impact on how it feels to engage with a space. It’s a unique opportunity for animation to be used as a lens to inspire empathy or varied perspectives.
I am Inspired by “Untitled Goose Game” by House House (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9LL2AtHo1gk) and “The Last Guardian” by Team ICO (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4cDuKShhQOA) that both utilise highly evocative character animation to inspire player behaviour and to frame the experience of the narrative.
My work this week was development on a game idea I’ve had for a little while. This made it quite engaging work as I had a strong conceptual foundation to build upon and I could focus on fleshing out smaller details. It also occurred to me how important character animation is to me in my own practice as it often plays a critical role in my conceptual goals.