The Art of Belonging

Disclaimer:

Most of the projects that I will be doing are for a game that I am developing on my own code named Project Ninjio. In short, the game is a story action driven role playing game (common referred to as an action RPG). It features 2 uniquely styled areas, one in which the cities are built to flow along with nature, and the other where the cites are hyper futuristic. The game is set in a futuristic China, where after a large war, the country is split into the two settings described above. The game is built in the Unity 3D game engine.

The Art of Belonging

Wait, what does that mean?

Yeah, I know that the title may seem very awkward at first, but I assure you that it will make sense. The title of this post should really be The Art of Belonging to, Identifying with, and Representing a group of people though visual means but I don't think that it flows quite as well. What I am trying to answer here is how one can visually be identified as part of a larger group.

So what does this have to do with your game?

The characters in Ninjio are varied, ranging from a ex-prince set out for revenge to a hacker trying to install the truth. This variety in both motives and physical appearance raised an interesting question for myself to answer, how do I make sure that they all seem like the belong together as part of a common force trying to remove evil? There are many ways of answering this question, ranging from uniforms to common symbols found on them.

The cast of Star Trek in their character's outfits.
Notice how they all have the same, uniform, look to them.

I originally planned for each of the characters in Ninjio to wear a uniform, however I have since moved away from that idea as it would limit the amount of personality that I could add into a character. I could also do something like in Star Trek where the character's outfits are similar to each other with only the colors of them changing, however this once again would limit the personality that I could infuse into a character.

The other option is for each of the character to have a symbol or object that all the characters have on them in some form or fashion. I think that this route would be best as it would not restrict my designs for the characters as long as the symbol is something small , like a flower.

What is that symbol then?

The design for Bing Nu, note
the magenta gemstones throughout
her design

The symbol that I am planning on using for the characters found in Ninjio is a gem of some sort. In my plans for Bing Nu's design, I included a gem stone in her outfit. This was originally included in her design as part of one of my friend's idea to have the personalities of the characters be symbolized in the colors of the clothes that they wear based off flowers and what different types of flowers symbolize (see image for more information).

A chart of what each color of
flower symbolizes

I feel that the gem stones could be used to symbolize different things based on their colors and where they are on the character. For example, I plan on making the villain in the story wear a black gem on a ring positioned as far away from the heart as possible to help convey the fact that he is a heartless ruler.

This week's work log:

Monday October 2nd: Finalized the shape of Bing Nu’s body

Tuesday October 3rd:  Started work on Bing Nu’s head

Wednesday October 4th: Halfway done shaping the head of Bing Nu

Thursday October 5th:  Finished the head of Bing Nu and attached it to the body

Friday October 6th:  Day Off: Teacher In Service, some initial work on the next character's sketch