Day 2: Character and Visuals

Hello, and welcome to my 2nd Development Log (devlog) on this exciting game development opportunity!

As I have mentioned in my previous devlog, I wanted to emphasize on the personable and relatable aspects of my real-life story and put it into a game format. However, I realized after much iteration and self-analysis, I felt that putting in myself as an "insert character" would alienate people who are playing this game. As a result, I decided to create an atypical Asian male character as a good approximation to the stand-in character I intended to use to drive the narrative in the game.

Version 1 of the main character was originally a bespectacled character with a backpack, to emphasize that he has a lot to carry along.
However, the combination of color schemes and art style didn't really work out in this project.
The art style was originally carried over from a previous game jam entry, Cultural Assembly, which uses a cartoony art style with thick black outlines and contrasting colors to give it vibrance.
But because Oh My Umbrella needed to convey that sense of melancholy and a night-time, moody and calming atmosphere, a cartoony approach would not work. Hence, I decided to switch to a more flat, graphic-design-esque and minimalist design with pastel colors to convey the mood and themes better.

Above: Newer character design. Notice that despite the somewhat similar color scheme, the usage of simple primitive shapes not only helped to save time during the asset creation process, it also conveyed the visual language of the game better. This style would also be translated into making more detailed backdrops, such as the ones seen in the Bus Station/Malls.

I hope you enjoyed my discussion of the game development and technical process, giving you insight into my creation and decision-making process.

Thank you for reading!