When it starts to get colder, I always start thinking about TotemHead more and more. Recently I've been trying to develop my User Interface pieces for my portfolio, and I think TotemHead lends itself to some interesting GUI work. The mechanics of the game are based on communication, so keeping logs of dialogue and maps of characters is essential to the game. That's why this week I've been developing new interface pieces for the project. You can see some below:
Above you can see some character tokens as well as the basic aesthetic for dialogue boxes and buttons. This is the foundation for the design for TH's GUI. Organic elements (particularly trees) will be essential to the design pieces, and I'm going for a Royal color tone; golds and deep reds are visible here.
Here's a quick breakdown of the wooden token I used for the character markers. These tokens are meant to indicate the location of each character on the map, and upon rollover you can view your conversation history with them. In a conversation-based game this is pretty essential and the player will be looking over it a lot - so it's gotta look good! First we have a totally naked slab of tree. I used references from hiking and google images for the shape. I needed to make sure the bark wasn't too intrusive and distorted the roundness of the wood too much. After laying out the initial shape and color, I added a blended texture on top (the one I used is from a gross piece of paper I scanned into my computer). Next we have is the not-as-naked wood without any character painted on. To create the grain work, I started in the middle drawing circular shapes and slowly worked my way to the outside layer. I made dips and notches in the pattern as I went to match the bark. When I finished the pattern I switched it to a blending layer (maybe overlay?) and lowered the opacity. Aaaand finally I drew the characters. Just a quick drawing that I blocked in a solid color. I adjusted the color to a brighter orange and blended it on top of the wood grain. Lather-Rinse-Repeat for all five characters. Ta-daa!! |