6

1. Louis Dodds-Rodgers
Production
Reflection

2. Process
Firstly I created a background scene for one of my characters to go on, this will be
one of the maps featured in my game as each character gets their own base map.
Originally my feelings towards the background were mixed but as time went on
and I learned more about drawing in pixels I began to find it easier to work with
so I started adding stars and a bit of shading to the clouds for the aesthetic
appeal.

3. Process
I then created my actual sprite, to do this I used a size one brush and slowly filled in a pixel at a
time to create the retro pixel effect. Whilst doing this my thoughts were a bit all over the place
regarding my design as I wanted to make it looks as professional as possible but with my
limited knowledge about pixel art I struggled to get anywhere near the quality I wanted to but I
finished my sprite and was happy with it. I feel as though with a bit more research about pixel
art I could have made not only my characters more professional looking but my entire game as
almost everything is made from pixels in my app.

4. I then turned to pixilart and decided to try create my other avatar there, I preferred pixilart a
lot more to photoshop in regards to drawing pixel by pixel as it was a lot easier to locate
smaller sizes of the brush, a lot of different shades of colours to help create shadows and
shading on my designs and it was also in general a lot easier to use due to the simplicity of
the website. Firstly I decided to create a character with some mystery, hence the hockey
mask I put on him and second I wanted to give him a cool type of ability so in my game his
main attack is based around his sword you can see coming from his back, I did this to make
my game more challenging as playing against this character will be quite difficult and also
playing as him will intrigue a lot of players due to his special abilites and unique style.
Process

5. After deciding I was happy with my two characters to appear in my game demo I
decided to get to work on animating my characters to fight, this was a challenge as the
movements with the timeline are very linear and basic putting a lot of obstacles in my
way as I wanted to make a high pace fighting game but using photoshop restricts you
to being able to move left, right, up and down. I made my way past this though and
worked with what I had and I was pleased with the end product although, if I could go
back I would look into some different ways to animate pixel art as photoshop put too
many obstacles in my way as well as being very linear it took far too long to work out
how to export my end product and this was costing me time.
Process

6. Process
Finally I created my app logo, to do this I had an image in my mind of what I
wanted it to look like so I went back to pixilart and started drawing up a
sword for the cover. Once the main parts of the sword were completed I
started shading the edges of it giving it a more polished and professional look
to it which is exactly what I wanted, I then decided to add a bit more colour
so I put red at the bottom to signify a ruby at the bottom of the handle as a
prize jewel, this could fit into the lore of my game and characters. After I was
happy with my sword I exported it and put it into photoshop where quickly
put together a pixel map of the world to match the name of my game and
then added my sword in along side some text with a custom font and then I
added a few strokes to my images to make them stand out and finally a
couple of drop shadows just to give it a nice finish.