Battery Bees

There are a couple of tutorials that I want to try out over the next few days before I can comment about them, so I thought I would just post my work that I did for another university project.

This is re-posted from my work press blog, and will probably take up quite a few posts. Here we go:

A quick introduction is in order methinks!

My name is Rachelle Fryatt, and I’m a student at Glyndwr University. I’m specifically interested in creature and character concept art for computer games and films, and really enjoy using digital media to draw and paint with.

Our brief for this project is to design something that could possibly be used by Wrexham council around the theme of batteries and bees. The aim is to make something interesting and eye-catching that will draw in people, especially young kids, in to want to learn about the environment around us and how to preserve it.

So my first thought was that bees are adorable!! Well, I think so anyway. And then I realised that it might be hard to make a bee (something people will automatically squirm away from) into something cute and enticing. Kids especially seem to be frightened of them, and so, although I think they’re cute, I think I’m going to have a job on my hands to make them more appealing.

As I am working in a group with some good friends, we had a chat and decided on what we were going to come up with for this project. The final idea would be a flash or java based game that would be aimed at kids. We have two ideas for this kind of game, I’ll explain both in detail below-

Idea 1: There is a bee at the bottom of the screen which you can scroll left or right. The scenery behind would be of a bright, beautiful landscape, perhaps hills and a river, or a forest. The environments would change with every level you complete.
Batteries fall from the sky, and the bee (that is the player) must catch them before they hit the ground. The more batteries you catch the higher your score will be. How ever, if you miss a battery, then it will add to the pollution of the environment, and the scenery would actually change to look polluted, i.e the sky would go grey, plants would wilt, etc.

Idea 2: Again, there is a bee at the bottom of the screen, which the player can scroll left or right. This time though the environment moves, and there are bins scattered through out the course. The player has to move the bee into position to shoot a battery into the bin and then dodge before flying into it. The more batteries you get in bins, the more you score, and you’d score double points for getting multiple batteries in the same bin. As the game progresses, it would become harder, with the screen moving faster.

So my job in the group is to design bee’s that could be used in the game, do level concept art, and I have also decided to make a logo for the game too. The others in my group will be creating an animated demo of the game.

I will be uploading some quick concept sketches of the two different ideas, bee designs, enviornment designs, and a logo.