When setting out in writing my brief for the semester I had a rough idea of what I wanted to create, however at first I didn’t know how to break it down into individual components. Understanding every aspect of the brief, to me, feels like a vital part in creating an end product at the best possible standard.
There was an initial learning curve involved for some terminologies for my brief and the emphasis on certain components. A few things I learnt after research which I didn’t know prior, were small components which felt insignificant but they all play an integral role in the branding of any company. These include: Typography Research, Working with colour palettes, sticking to and working with a permanent name (For company and IP) and constantly re-working ideas. It might seem blatantly obvious that idea development is integral to creating a product however many times in the past I have never critically evaluated or reworked ideas, I feel as though this is a good skill to foster to be able to progress as a designer and to ensure a project has the best possible outcome if the choices of development have justification behind them.
Development Plan
The development plan below details a time scale for different elements I’ll work towards in order to create a final completed brief. Certain areas will require more time dedicated to them depending on the complexity and workload required. I feel as though a time plan will help to organise a project of this magnitude and should also be a useful skill to learn for other briefs/modules in the future.
Week 1 – Research/Project Planning Stage
- Name for the IP
- Name for the Company
- Research on inspirations
- Look at survival games & horror games
- Progression with the Logo/Overall Branding
- Research websites and output formats from similar companies
Week 2 & 3 – Concept art and further ideas development
- In-depth game research (What is expected of a protagonist, how will the game work? what is inspiring about other games of a similar nature?)
- Rough sketches (Concept art, Environments, Character art, Item art, HUD’s, etc.)
- Work towards finalising and completing the Logo
- Experiment with branding packages (How does the logo look? What can be improved?)
- Highlight a particular element of the game, stick with it and use it as a point of reference for further work on concept art.
Week 4- Concept and Promotional Art
- Finalised Logo (Reach a point where I feel only minor changes are needed)
- Typeface evaluation, new choices from old, variations and how well it works
- Further Character concept art, overall game aesthetics, further environment exploration
- Screenshots of sketches, evaluate likes and dislikes
- Further develop environments, showcase significant features from the game
Week 5 & 6 – Advertising
- Experiment with poster design (Change concept art into more polished versions, play with the sketches and try to create promotional advertisement material)
- Create mock up websites (evaluate other websites, what elements work? How can I make informed choices about my own website?)
- Finalised Company colour palette
- Examples of merchandise and other outputs including the logo
Week 7 onwards – Polishing Output Formats
- Have a finalised web output (Document the constant progression of ideas, what works/doesn’t etc.)
- Have a finalised poster (Include the company’s brand, and the smaller aspects of the brief, integrate into a final professional document)
- Create mock-up documentation for my proposed company (Does the brand work? what can be changed?)
- Finalised corporate branding package (finalised logo usage on documentation, merchandise, office items etc.)
Research & Source Material
Below are a few YouTube videos I will use to guide me through creating: concept art, character designs, environment art and general help towards illustrating my own vision for my project.
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