DEV-LOG: THEM App Development Pt.1

Posted on 05. Oct, 2010 by admin in AV-Log, Featured

THEM by Glacier Games

Design, development and lessons learned.

Phillipe Girouard takes us through the graphic development of his soon to be released app ‘THEM’, from pencil and pad to digital originals.

Part 1 focuses on the design aspects of the game layout and character development.

THE DETAILS

Appvader quotable quote

A unique look at one Indie Developers process and the problems he faced.

Developer :

Glacier Games

The words

Today we’re proud to be showing Part 1 of an insiders look at the development of Glacier Studios first app: THEM

Glacier Studios is the story of a lot of indie developers; one man grafting away at studies/freelance work, while trying to pull together their vision of an awesome app idea.

The idea first began for Phillipe Girouard when he was still studying 3D Computer Graphics and Visual Effects. However with the course workload, the app remained stagnant for almost a year until after graduation.

“I took some time off to catch my breath and began serious development on THEM at the beginning of July.”

Still, with bills to pay and a belly to fill, Phillipe kept accepting freelance work. Within 3 months most of the development was sorted, although he realistically puts the time at 2 months if other work is taken away.

The graphics are all original designs and something that starts in a very traditional way.

“My process is simple. I start with a blank piece of paper and stare at! I just go through all the possibilities of what the design could be, in my head, and the one that jumps out at me, the one that really excites me, I flesh out on paper.”

The final results are often not what were originally designed.

“Almost everything in THEM didn’t initially look like what it will look like in the final game. It’s just the way it is. Iteration is important and testing out how everything on screen interacts and balances and works together is very important. Design should speak to the user and feel comfortable. The final design of THEM went through an innumerable amount of mock-ups and drawings.”

With such interesting designs we asked Phillipe to explain his main character in more depth:

“The main character within THEM, and the character the user plays as, is Albert. He’s an old, retired secret agent. Even in his older years Albert is able to move quickly and handle a weapon with deadly accuracy. The organization that he used to work for, THEM, wants him dead now.”

“The animation style that I chose for Albert is a very cartoony, bubbly style. I didn’t want him to play as too old or too young, so I had to strike a balance in-between feeling a little older, but not being annoying to play as for the user. Originally Albert would walk with a cane and would walk VERY slowly. Sadly it wasn’t fun to play at all so I scrapped that entirely. You start the game with a handgun and work your way up to machine guns. It’s more fun and varied than the original Albert design.”

Tomorrow we’ll be publishing Part 2, taking a look at coding, problems and how they were both solved.