My Quest for Glory (ish) art

[JustLuke32]

The general art thread is getting rather cluttered and I've decided to leave it to far better artists than myself. All of my stuff will be posted here, because it's all based around a single question: what might a Quest for Glory game with an East Asian setting look like?

Here's where I'm up to with the hero model:



I was going to dress him in a QfG2 style outfit, but I've decided to create a costume more suitable to my setting. More on that later.

Of course, there's no point in being a hero if you don't have anywhere to be heroic, so I've started work on a simple environment for him. The concept is "QfG2 plaza meets Chinese courtyard". It's early days, but I think that it already has a nice feel to it.



A bunch of traditional (ish) Chinese buildings will tower over the walls. This should help lend the courtyard the appearance of being part of a densely packed city. Eventually, I'll overlay the hero onto this scene as a sprite, emulating the traditional sprite+background technique of the first four QfG games.

Ok - that's all folks. Feedback would be appreciated!

[oughtobe]

I don't like the hero, I think he should but much more QFG style and less anime, especially with the background...

the background is a really good start though, it feels like a chinese raseir...

[Solarkid]

Anime?
I'm not sure if I would agree with that.....

But i think your modelling of the hero is fantastic, the colouring and shadowing and perspective are all fantastic, i do feel that a different haircut, possibly some stubble and a little less stern looking would be just mint though

Dave

[MusicallyInspired]

The courtyard is fantastic. Can't wait to see it with more details.

The hero (while extremely well-rendered) looks a little too childish. That's my only gripe. Still interested to see what it looks like finished.

[JonWW]

I agree the Hero character looks a bit childish... Is this Hero the son of another Hero we all know and love, or is this a unique Hero we will get to know.

[Blackthorne519]

I think it all looks amazing. Can't wait to see where you keep going with it. Great work, man.

Bt

[JustLuke32]

Kind of in answer to various comments: I wanted to reimagine the hero as a young man who is fresh faced and naively eager for adventure. More of a hero in training than an actual hero. If you want to tie it into QfG mythology, perhaps he's the nephew of the QfG hero. Maybe he found a Famous Adventurer's Correspondence School leaflet at the back of his uncle's old sock drawer and, suitably inspired, decided to set off for an adventure of his own in foreign lands. Perhaps I should follow up on this with a model based on his appearance after his adventures are over and done with - grizzled, burnt out, fourty pounds over weight, thoroughly beaten up, jaded, and fed up with the whole hero business.

And, um, in case anyone gets the wrong idea about this, I'm not actually making a game. I'm just making a mock screenshot. I can write interesting stories or I can make pictures, but that's all - the AGDs are the real deal, not me.

[JustLuke32]

Yet another update. I've quickly thrown a bunch of stuff into one shot. I believe that it conveys a better idea of what the finished "screenshot" will look like. The background buildings are just placeholders. I have a "prop" file full of little bits of Chinese architecture that I've modelled from reference photos, and I use the contents to quickly block out scenes such as this one - very useful!



The bottom part of the screen is to be left sparse. I'll be layering an icon/inventory bar across the bottom of the screen, so any detail that I located there would be obscured.

3d has many drawbacks, but one of the useful things about it - particularly for a "game" featuring a city comprised of courtyards connected by alleys (similar to QfG 2) - is that once the art assets have been modelled, they can be snapped together in many different configurations. I could make dozens of different courtyards with very little effort by moving around the prefabricated props and tweaking the lighting and camera angles.

[MusicallyInspired]

Sweet.

[Spanky]

I like it. Just make the hero taller and older in appearance. Add some stubble, a defined jaw, and give him a bulkier figure. That should do the trick.
And tell him to put on a damn shirt!

[MusicallyInspired]

But....

Kind of in answer to various comments: I wanted to reimagine the hero as a young man who is fresh faced and naively eager for adventure. More of a hero in training than an actual hero.

[JustLuke32]

First pass at clothing:



I'm sure that he'd prefer to have some feet. No stubble or extra muscles, I'm afraid.

[Tehseen]

will look good if you change the lower and add a robe , and if possible change the hair style too

[dungeonsofdorks]

Eh, I'm not a fan of the idea of an oriental hero, myself. It bores me and it seems unnecessary. There's enough oriental fanboy/girlishness going on these days anyhow.

[Solarkid]

Hey speak for yourself I think he has a great idea.

Dave

[Ikkyu Sojun]

I always wished that there was an oriental setting for one of the quest for glory games...

I mean, I love all of the games that were released and all of their settings were well fleshed-out, but it did become a little Euro-centric (settings-wise) for my personal tastes... especially by Dragonfire.

My two favourite settings in the released games were Shapier and Tarna, although I do come from a Slavic background so the Mordavian setting brought back memories of my grandparents telling me old tales.

Sure, the games happened the way they did and I love them all, really... however mostly I love them for their wit, the characters, the concept of developing an Ego from being a no one to a real Hero and also the whole adventure-game-meets-rpg style.

But I just think that there is such a wealth of material for a QFG game to be found in Chinese and Japanese mythology, not to mention other asian mythologies.

Justluke32, you've done an awesome job with the background and the Ego, there.

Not sure about pink for the colour of the shirt, but hey, you're quite the 3D artist.

Just curious, what are you thinking of doing with this QFG(ish) art?

[dungeonsofdorks]

Hey speak for yourself I think he has a great idea.

Dave

I WAS speaking for myself.

Though I realize I said nothing positive. Having stated my opinion already, let me just say that the model and texture work you've done is fantastic.

[PotatoSlayer]

I'd like to see an Indiana Jonesish character. He could still be in the Chinese setting, I really like that, but I feel like a hero should be a tough guy. I'm interested in how you put a spin on the character you're making

[JustLuke32]

I always wished that there was an oriental setting for one of the quest for glory games...

Yeah, me too.

My two favourite settings in the released games were Shapier and Tarna...

Again - yeah, me too.

But I just think that there is such a wealth of material for a QFG game to be found in Chinese and Japanese mythology, not to mention other asian mythologies.

And again - yeah, me too.

Justluke32, you've done an awesome job with the background and the Ego, there.

Thanks, but they both could be better. Especially the background, which I'm rethinking a little bit.

Not sure about pink for the colour of the shirt, but hey, you're quite the 3D artist.

No, I'm not sure about the colour of the shirt either. It was white at first, but I wanted him to be a little more colourful.

Just curious, what are you thinking of doing with this QFG(ish) art?

I don't have any plans beyond finishing it. If I'm happy with the finished article, I might try a mock wilderness scene, or I might even fake up a battle screen. I don't intend to make a game out, if that's what you mean. It'd take a team of talented and committed people a long time to do that, and while talent is easy to find on the internet, commitment is sadly in short supply.

[JustLuke32]

Eh, I'm not a fan of the idea of an oriental hero, myself. It bores me and it seems unnecessary. There's enough oriental fanboy/girlishness going on these days anyhow.

Fair enough, but each to their own, and all that. The hero character isn't oriental, by the way. As far as your implied accusation is concerned: I'm not a fanboy, I have many diverse interests of equal value. I actually loathe fanboyisms.

[Gronagor]

Ignore dungeons. He seems to be one of those guys who goes around trying to find someone to insult.

At Hero6 a number of people wanted the game to be asian in style. Another group wanted a viking theme, and some wanted a south-american look.

We've tried going with the asian setting, but it was extremely difficult because our only references were from images on the net. Even with reference books, you really can't picture the entire setting without good knowledge of their day-to-day life. Then we went and included a few asian characters, but eventually we discovered that even with those we made some serious errors, which could easily have insulted their cultures.

My point is, only asian fans would be able to create a QfG game with an asian setting without having it look like a cheap western cartoon.

[JustLuke32]

You make a good point, but I'd argue that QfG games have always featured disneyfied takes on cultural subjects and geographical settings.

The last thing that you should include in a QfG-inspired game is gritty realism. You shouldn't need to possess a working knowledge of day-today life, and there's a risk that caring too much about that stuff bogs down a project with unecessary or unimportant details. This is one reason why many amature projects stall and fail. The developers fail to pinpoint what is important and what is not. If a historical detail is not directly and specifically relevent to the characters, plot, or gameplay, it should be skipped over, or at least treated lightly. Creativity and imagination go a long way to painting over the cracks. I've lived and worked in China - does this mean that I could create a better oriental QfG setting than someone who has not? Nope. It's all down to creativity. Creativity beats experience when it comes to worldbuilding.

The key, then, is not to create an authentic oriental setting but to create something that is, firstly, evocative and magical, and, secondly, seems "oriental" to the average uninformed Joe.

[Anonymous Game Creator 2]

Case in point, you'd wouldn't know from playing QFG3 that Lori Cole has never set foot in East Africa before. The entire game was referenced from books and study about East Africa (We even saw some of the books she used for reference at her house).

Yet, QFG3 is very authentic. When AGD1 and I traveled to Tanzania, it really DID feel like stepping right into the world of QFG3. People would call out "Jambo" and "Hodi". It was evident that the Massai people of Tanzania and Kenya were the basis for the Simbani warriors, and the general scenery, customs, and culture was very accurate too. I think this goes to show that you don't necessarily need to visit the place that you want to write a story about. Of course, it helps to do so, but in the end it's the ability to weave research, facts, and fiction into an intriguing story that makes a good storyteller, irrespective of whether the person has been 'on location' or not.

Oh, and nice 3D artwork, BTW!

[Gronagor]

I've lived and worked in China - does this mean that I could create a better oriental QfG setting than someone who has not? Nope. It's all down to creativity. Creativity beats experience when it comes to worldbuilding.

Heh. Actually I would say you'd have a better chance. You'll be shocked to see how little people know about the asian world, other than seeing the insulting movies sometimes made in a Hollywood ex-warehouse-set.

Hehe! Really AGD2, I may be biased in this situation, but the amount of research needed when you compare africa vs an asian setting is like comparing a pebble with a mountain. Which did you climb? j/k
But really, there isn't much to read when it comes to africa. You only need to watch an interesting African-nature programme... once... and you'll have a pretty good idea.

And Lori also said they used their knowledge of Jamaica quite a bit during the making of the game. Which is obvious in the way the Simbani speak. The scenery was obviously from pictures they found.

too bad they went with the Meerbat, rather a meerkat. A meerkat would have been more interesting. (They should rather have given the rhino wings... most people have seen one of them. )

[JustLuke32]

A creative person should be able to watch Hero, Curse of the Golden Flower, and A Chinese Ghost Story and come up with something suitably evocative. A Mandarin/English tourist phrase book would be handy too. And maybe the Tao Te Ching to enchance the dialogue with a few carefully scattered quotations.

Also: I think that you're seriously short-changing African cultures. They are rich and diverse. As far as people knowing little about asian cultures goes, you'd be surprised how little asian cultures know about the west too. Generally speaking, people in most cultures are fairly culturally ignorant - and this is understandable.