BACKGROUND
STARTING THE PROJECT
This video was the submission to my 2017 AP Computer Science Principles Digital Portfolio portion of the exam. It demonstrates the original game I created for the class using code.org. At the time, I had very little digital art skills, so I had asked my sister to provide the art for the game. Because the main focus of this project revolved around my coding skills, the plot and lore I created was very minimal.
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Now that I have more experience with music, digital art, and storytelling, my plan was to use those skills to revive this fictional world I had envisioned in my head those three years ago.
A realm reborn.
MY CREATIVE PROCESS
Music
Video game music is arguably one of the most underrated parts of the fictional world. It sets the mood and creates a feeling of nostalgia for the player. Typically, you are able to tell what's going on in the video game based on the music playing in the background. The original capstone idea was to create my own theme, as I have experience with music arrangement but not composition. With little time and lack of functioning technology, the plan was no longer feasible.
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Instead I chose a lesser-known Main Theme from Granblue Fantasy that I thought would be a good fit for the world I created. To me, this is the quintessential main theme of a fantasy role-playing game. It in itself has the structure of a story:
The peaceful beginning harp opening, features the melody as a flute solo
Abrupt change to more upbeat, higher energy; introduces strings and percussion
Communication/interchangeable melodies between more regal-sounding brass and sweeter-sounding strings and woodwinds
Brass melody to continue regal sound and timbre
Occasional transition to more legato, sweeter phrases
The variation in mood and texture suggest and parallel the conflict in the story
High energy string melody
Constant build up towards the climax of the piece, melody and dynamic-wise
Big finish
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Although my original plan of creating my own piece had changed, I still intend to learn about the ways we pair music with a story. I created a survey that serves as a guessing game. Each participant will listen to each of the 12 tracks I provided and guess what the intent of the music is for solely based on the music. The more correct guesses I receive, the more my hypothesis is supported.
Original 2017 Sketch of Kyrne (at the time Cara) and Celeste
Original 2017 Sketch of Rowan
2020 Digital Art of Celeste drawn by me for Capstone
Original 2017 Sketch of Kyrne (at the time Cara) and Celeste
Digital Art
I had found the original concept art drawings for the game on an older computer I used in high school. These served as the inspiration to do this project. With my newly attained skills in digital art, I wanted to redraw the characters I created and bring them to life.
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The characters started out as random sketches I made to practice my design skills, since I tend to draw preexisting characters. For my AP Computer Science game in 2017, I had asked my sister to draw my characters in digital format.
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I take commissions, so I'm used to the amount of time digital art usually takes in order to get the quality I want. Due to the fact that I could only use my sister's laptop to draw (as mine needed repairs), I only got to draw the Granadium sisters. The crop and poses were inspired by what you usually see characters look like during dialogue in a JRPG (Japanese Role-Playing Game).
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(Click on the above gallery to see the full images!)
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Lore/Storytelling
One of the first things I had to decide when it comes to creating a fictional world is order. Do I draw whatever comes to mind first and then create a story based on that? Or do I think of the world, and then draw something based on what I have envisioned?
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The decision came relatively easy. The game I was making already existed to some degree, and I already created the characters. With these characters concrete, I could look at them and decide their experiences, their histories, their personalities, their hobbies, their skills, preferences, quirks, etc.
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There is nothing wrong with the other option. Some prefer it over what I did. Though, there tends to be a back-and-forth mechanism: sometimes developing the plot changes your idea of what you want your world to look like, and sometimes as you draw, you see something different going on with your world that you didn't originally plan.
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I drew heavy inspiration from the games I have played and grown to adore, with emphasis on Fire Emblem Echoes: Shadows of Valentia, Fire Emblem: Awakening, Fire Emblem: Three Houses, Bravely Default, Dragon Age: Inquisition, Final Fantasy XIII, and Final Fantasy XIV. Most of these games deal with a royal family, power-hungry Imperials and Empires, coming-of-age plots, and the influence of magic. These timeless archetypes never get old.