Miscellaneous Projects
Characters
Guinness Vox
My most recently developed upon character, Guinness was born into the game of Pathfinder, a table-top role-playing game not unlike Dungeons & Dragons. She was created as an Aasimar, a celestial-like humanoid, and a Gunslinger. Her hair, eyes, and fair skin were designed around the culture and lore of Aasimar creatures. Her clothes were designed around the time period and steampunk-esque coomunity she was a part of. I incorporated her into my Advanced 3D Modeling course, and she went from sketch to playable 3D character.
Below is her backstory, written by myself:
"Guinness Vox was born to two “human” parents—a cleric and a blacksmith—donning a bright halo above her head. Neither parent knew how this could be, as they hadn’t a clue about Aasimar ancestry on either side of the family. Nonetheless, the two felt blessed to have an angel for a child. Guinness looks rather human, despite the halo and the indescribable radiance she emitted. Around the age of 10, she learned how to hide her halo to protect herself from predators seeking the miracle child. She had a good childhood with lots of friends and admirers.
Her mother, a cleric of Sarenrae, encouraged her daughter to also become a cleric; it seemed only natural, right? A blessed girl to be a blessed worshipper, to spread the word of the Goddess. While Guinness enjoyed her religious studies, she was more fascinated by her father’s work as a blacksmith. She often went to work with him and learned the ways of smithing. She found her calling in gunsmithing though, when her father’s shop ordered a shipment of new products: guns. A new science to the area, Guinness applied her working knowledge of blacksmithing to the study of gunsmithing. When she turned 14, she took a job as an engineer, and eventually turned her work into her lifelong aspiration. Rather than making them, she wanted to be good with guns as weapons of battle. And thus, Guinness Vox began her quest as a gunslinger."
Officer Layla Greene
Layla Greene was designed for the original game, Memento, by my company, Blind Horizon Studios. Below is her backstory.
"Greenhorn" - Age: 23
About her look: Layla has a feminine side, but when it comes to her job, practicality is her objective. She ties her hair in a french braid to the side, as to keep her hair loose but out of her face. Tying it to the side prevents the braid from being a tool to disable her. Most of her team wears the long-sleeved uniform, but she gets away with a half sleeve, allowing her more flexibility and little hindrance to her hands.
Summary: The daughter of an unmarried, single mother, Layla was born on mother Dina’s deathbed; her mother died giving birth to her. Layla was immediately put up for adoption, but did not take long to find a family. Her new parents led lives of average well-being. Her father is a successful veterinarian, and her mother is an independent author.
Growing up working by her father’s side, Layla developed a big heart for most animals, and learned quickly how to care for them. She wanted to be just like her father, and take care of injured pets. That is, until she encountered an incident in her early teens that changed the course of her direction. Walking along the sidewalk near her home, she noticed a young girl and a dog being attacked by a strange man. It seemed the girl was trying to protect her furry friend from this dangerous stranger. The man grabbed a thick branch from nearby, and was about to swing at the pair when Layla jumped on his back and squeezed his neck as hard as she could. The man threw her off, but before he could bring his weapon against her, a police offer making rounds in the area stopped his plight. The man was arrested and taken by the officer. This is when Layla decided that instead of waiting for animals, and now people, to be injured, she would become a defender of justice, to stop criminals before they strike.
Layla joined the force at a young age, and although relatively new to her work, she’s been waiting for her chance to be someone’s hero. What she isn’t prepared for is to be a hero at any cost…
Visit the page on Memento to see her in action!
Atum
Atum was designed for the original game, Breaking Fate, by my company, Blind Horizon Studios. He, along with the rest of the project, was made in only 48 hours or less. We needed an interesting character to go along with our rapidly fleshed out idea. The theme of the Global Game Jam during this time was the ancient symbol of Ouroboros. So we decided to make a game where the player gets thrown into a dungeon that he can only get out of if he beats the final boss; otherwise, he starts all the way back at the beginning of the dungeon.
Atum came to be as a cool, warrior-like character that could beat anything. In reality, he was just a kid with some irrational fears. The weapon in his hand became a chakram in a similar shape to Ouroboros. The player must battle his way through five levels of terrifying spiders, skeleton dogs, and ghosts.
Aaron
Aaron was designed for the original game idea, Fantastic Youth, created for Game Design and Development I. She's a normal woman in her twenties that unknowingly gets mixed up into a twisted scheme by a manipulator of fabric and space-time. This game, among twenty other game ideas in the class, placed in the top five best by vote, which became one of the group's projects for that quarter. Below is the original narrative I turned in for class:
“Fantastic Youth is an adventure game in which fantasy overrides reality. The main character is Aaron, a young woman looking for a tailor to fix a torn memory—literally. When she stumbles in to Wondrous Weavers, she finds Tyko, a mysterious and cranky old man with talent like no other. Little does she know that this talent of his isn’t just in sewing articles of clothing: Tyko has the strange, unexplainable power to sew powerful elements into his clothes. Although Tyko himself cannot benefit from this power. The tailor helps Aaron, but leaves a red scarf in the bag she brought home. This scarf, when worn, gives Aaron the power to call upon fire.
This is only the beginning. Fantastic Youth is an adventure beyond just the title of the genre. Aaron must complete various missions and quests in order to prove to the tailor that she has the ability to master them. The missions are generally simple, everyday crises in which the player must find the best and most effective way to use the power they currently have, similar to a puzzle. There are also side missions for training that give the player new abilities and moves once completed. Main missions, on the other hand, level up the player and her power and brings them closer to their next power up. Once all main missions for that particular power are completed, Aaron will have the ability to complete the final challenge—the final exam for that power.
Of course, the player will be able to go back and complete minor missions in order to earn new abilities. As the game progresses, the player maintains every scarf she has successfully mastered, and will be able to switch which power she currently has equipped. At the end of the game, once all scarves are mastered, the player goes to Tyko the tailor one more time to see if there is anything left for Aaron to learn. Tyko creates a ploy in which Aaron must save his life, as he is old and dying. Aaron’s final scarf has the power of time, and must use this to turn back the clock on Tyko’s body. The tailor becomes young again, and reveals to Aaron that the only reason he could never wear the scarves was because his body was much too old when he discovered his power, and would have been destroyed. He takes all of the scarves away from Aaron, and runs rampant on the city. Tyko is the player’s ultimate challenge. Aaron feels vulnerable and helpless—until she discovers that the powers she mastered stayed with her."
Models
Guinness Vox
Buster Blade from Final Fantasy VII
For Introduction to 3D Modeling with Brian May.
Project file: here
