The revenge list
Designer and Art Lead
During the third year of university, we had to create a professional project (in our case, a game), together with a team we had previously assembled, and mentored by Rockstar Games.
I took part in the organization and recruitment of the team, the brainstorming meetings, the communication, the pitches and presentations. My main role concerned the art team (a character or sprite artist, a background artist, and an animator), and connecting the art side with the programming side, including documentation and implementation.
The Revenge List is a 2D comedy-action game with rhythm game elements. The player is put in the shoes of a cartoony, over-the-top villain, who keeps a list of people she holds a petty grudge against for minor offences.
Presentations, pitches, and documentation
After getting the team together, I wanted to come up with a concept that would have the entire team motivated. Some team members were shy, and having had experience with brainstorming sessions, I was afraid the few confident members' ideas would prevail and the quieter members would be afraid to speak up if everyone already agreed on an idea.
So, I created a Google form to assess what everyone's preferences would be. This form had various sections, such as questions about the genre of game everyone wanted to create, and specific questions about what area of expertise: for example, I asked the artists what they would like to draw/improve on, and what they'd rather not draw.
This was great at informing the real brainstorming sessions, where I presented the form results in a powerpoint presentation.
After deciding on a concept, we worked together on presenting our ideas and visualizing everything properly on our pitch, which was accepted by the lecturers and we were able to carry out the game as a student-led project.
I assigned each person from my team a page or section to gather or create material for in order to have a strong sense of collaboration right from the start.
The style guide was something which evolved greatly during the development, and a document which was of great help as a reference for the artists to follow in order to keep a coherent look to the game.
This wasn't easy, as our artists came from different backgrounds, and we had to face several challenges in order to find a style which would fit all of our styles and vision.
UI Concept
I started by sketching out my vision for the game - what the main viewport was going to look like, an early, and a few different concepts for representing the main character's health, both on the top and on the bottom. The whole team was consulted.
I also designed, and came up with, the rhythm segments of the game as a darker overlay during boss fights.
The player needs to move the sword around the 4 directions in order to strike the skulls to the rhythm.
Slashing them works, but in order to get the most points, the player has to poke them in the middle.
Some of the finished UI assets I created for the game and its tutorial.
Development Diary
Pre-Semester
Carried out search and networking for artists
Made polls to organize preferences of every group member
Met with team and got to know the art team
Brainstormed ideas, story and art style with group
Created mood boards with inspiration
Created and iterated pitch presentation
Week 1
Discussed of colour and style direction with art team
Brainstormed story with producer
Drew concept art
Week 2
Worked on UI and neighbourhood concept art
Set up each artist on their initial task for a quick test on how the art styles would mix
Week 3
Worked on Rockstar presentation
Created an initial style guide as a reference to artists
Designed boss mechanics + assets together with the team
Week 4
Discussed feedback from Rockstar, both between us and with Martin, and how to implement it
Started creating an art asset list for a “beautiful corner”
Worked on implementable UI layered assets
Recorded SFX for the game
Worked on progress presentation for next week
Week 5
Art scaling testing and decision making
Discussed how to differentiate background from prop art
Discussed tile-able size and techniques alongside Mairi
Filled in for Milla’s producing tasks on Tuesday’s work day
Made placeholders for pause menu and buttons
Finalization of Rockstar presentation
Meeting with Darshana to discuss narrative design
Art implementation for first Rockstar build
Week 6
Talked to artist about how to implement Rockstar feedback
Kept working on iterated UI for pause and dialogue
Discussed art style with Robin, and planned a meeting with the art team to make art style more coherent
Week 7
Met with the art team and made decisions (shading, no straight lines, timeline)
Did art asset list on Jira
Drew throwables
Worked on dialogue integration and matching each line with a sprite
Note-taking and organizing at play party
Week 8
Discussion with art team about Rockstar feedback about misogyny
Worked on font and icons
Week 9
Discussion about parallax
Made some UI tutorial text
Worked on new Rockstar presentation
Art integration of neighbourhood level
UI creation for main menu
Took pictures of microwave
Week 10
Discussed viable ways to improve neighbourhood with artists
Modified Rachel’s Revenge List sprite for different points in the game
Fixed more collider and scaling issues in engine
Week 11
Worked on new Rockstar presentation
Did asset implementation and colour grading
Discussed visual effect production with artists
Note-taking and organizing at play party
Week 12
Started work on final style guide
Made temporary assets for parallax
Further art integration and scaling, testing and collider fixes
Tested game and filled out test cases
Week 13
Tested game further and integrated final art changes
Designed the itch.io page
Check out the itch.io page!
(And try the game out for yourself)
