Art Style - Final Comprimise

I quite like this, it doesn't have all of the outlines but it does enough of it to create an effect. This is how I picture the game to look like:

Art Style - Possible Comprimise

After some thought and fiddling around with the Toon Shader in Unity, I am beginning to think that the Japanese painting style may take up way too much time or might not be possible within Unity. Although apparently its possible to script the Shader to work in a particular fashion, once again this may take too much time and might be too difficult with some of the models.

The alternate Art style I propose however would still be 'toony' but not to the point of outlines, rather the amount of detail could be limited instead along with the textures and colors. Noticeably lesser poly models could be implemented to also emulate this as well.

Storyline + Enemies

I have given some thought into the actual story line and found that its a bit ironic. The hero appears after the world has been mutilated, the natural life within the world have become deformed in different ways - making even the most harmless creature seemingly deadly. The hero's task is to restore balance, discovering what cataclysmic event caused all of this mutation on the way along with defeating the dark figure which seems to be orchestrating everything. Its pretty standard and common, except for the fact that the main character is probably the most unnatural being in its universe.

I put some thought into what the world would look like, whether it should reflect Earth or should it be a completely different universe along with the fact that I want that Japanese painting style. I needed the player to see that obviously the creatures that the Godai was facing was unnatural and if it was a completely new animal then that would be rather difficult without making it particularly grotesque.

Below is a picture of what I thought would be nice, considering that its a good example of something that shouldn't really be a threat. Its a 'Fire Chicken', the idea is it to run around crazy leaving behind flames - kinda like a standard, patrolling enemy. This is however based on the "Basan" - A Japanese Legendary creature which is actually a fire chicken.

This one represents the Mizuchi, which is another Japanese Legendary creature which is a snake which controls the rain. I figure this creature would be a good one as an obstacle which just slithers on around at the top, dousing out any flames that are below it.

A Short Video of Godai's Transformation

The Video above shows off how the Godai would change into its different forms along with a few of the abilities the Godai would possess using these different forms. Here is a run down of what happens within the video:

The Air Element strolls along and passes through objects, using the force of its momentum to create wind and knock over a rock on a boulder. The next rock that falls over however smashes another rock, causing sparks to fly and ignite a fallen branch creating a fire.

The Godai moves through the fire and becomes a tornado of flame. The tornado lights everything in its path on fire, sucking in loose leaves and wood from trees and growing in size because it starts to fade out. The Godai increases its size, creating a larger cyclone which pulls in another branch therefore fueling it some more.

The Godai passess through a waterfall and takes on the water form which allows him to douse fires, move through small gaps and eventually take over animals. The Godai freely controls the bird and flies through a small gap in a mountain face which otherwise was impassable.

However the bird's liquids begin to drain and the Godai reverts to its air form before arriving at mud and therefore takes on the earth form.

Then the Earth Form absorbs loose stones from the boulder, which increases its arm size, and promptly destroys it to open the way.

The Side scrolling view is actually in more favour now as it would probably be better to make it more simple that way, allowing more focus on other areas.

Task Break Down

This is an estimate, some things may take considerably more or less time depending on whether or not some factors are significantly more easier or difficult than imagined. Should I be working on this alone, the scale of the game such as levels and the introduction of enemies may or may not exist.

I would imagine that the time it would take to make this would probably exceed 3-4 months but its a rather large commitment and scaling it down from it would probably be wiser. Should the project seem to much of a task to handle, several things can be dropped:

Enemies
Path-Finding
3-Quarter View (Replaced with a side-scrolling view using 3D models in Unity)

Should the Side Scrolling be the path to take then the implementation of enemies would be simpler and there would be no need to path-finding whatsoever.

However if not, then all should be going to planned.

VERY BASIC Level Layout

Above is a very basic level layout which introduces some of the aspects of gameplay:

1. Player enters the level and notices that the path is blocked by a stone slab. The player notices there are areas surrounded by mud and moves through the level to find a room filled with stone debri. Entering the mud, the player take the form of the Earth and then moves toward the room of stone thus taking on the Stone Giant Form.

2. Moving between each area surrounded by mud, the player maintains his form and moves toward the much more smaller stone slab and easily destroys it.

3.The player notices a bush on fire within the room and that the next exit has been blocked by vines. The fire form burns through fuel way too fast for the player to try to rush toward the vines and thus notices the vines have grown throughout the whole room. Taking the fire form and igniting one of the vines, the fire burns all the way toward the door and takes out the vines leaving the gateway intact.

4. The player returns to his basic form and moves toward the exit, completing the level.

This details of how a very basic level would appear, an example of a complex level using the same level layout would be the player would have to find a way to create the mud puddles in order to create his form using water sources or having to find a way to ignite the fire within the room.

Animation Detailing an Example of Gameplay

Above is a small Flash Animation detailing of how the game will be like should the player be using the Earth Godai to solve a puzzle. To set this video into context, the player is blocked by a massive boulder and needs to destroy it to get past. Using the Earth Element the player absorbs any form of earth, should it be dirt, stone or metal and absorbs it to create a more powerful form.

As the obstacle is stone itself, it can be absorbed just be being near it. Each different type of 'earth' the player absorbs increases an attribute of the Godai. Stone increases the mass of the 'arms', wood with the legs and metal with the body itself. Stone increases the force and momentum of the Godai's attacks, which allows him to easily destroy the stone in his way.

Hopefully I will be able to conduct a visual aid to show how the Godai changes and creates ways to change into different forms.