Project Inspirations

 Project Inspirations

When deciding on my chosen subject and theme, I decided to play some games that I find to be the closest to what I want to do. There are a lot of games that would fit within my two themes however there were four in particular that inspired me the most. These games are; Elder Scrolls Online and ArcheAge (legacy/Unchained) for the medieval/fantasy setting and Stray and Tower of Fantasy for the futuristic.

Elder Scrolls Online

Although I've only recently gotten into playing Elder Scrolls Online (ESO), I do find it as a good inspiration for the theme that I wish to look at. ESO is a fantasy MMORPG with a medieval setting. 

Released - April 2014

Developed by - ZeniMax Online Studios

Published by - Bethesda Softworks

Elder Scrolls Online 9 primary races

The game is set in the world of Tamriel and it allows the players to choose between 10 races (Breton, Nord, Khajiit, Redguard, Argonian, Bosmer, Orsimer, Dunmer, Altmer and Imperial). All of these races, except Imperial, are placed within one of three factions. Although you can pick any of the six classes in the game, each race has certain classes that they are better at. For example the Breton's are best for the necromancer, sorcerer or templar classes.

Each race has obvious differences that distinguish each one, even for the three elf races. For example, the Angonians have a lizard-like appearance, contrasted to the Breton's being more human. 

When it comes to ESO's character customisation, it is relatively poor when comparing it to other MMOs of it's time. It gives very little in regards to parts of the character that you can actually customise. 

ArcheAge (Legacy and unchained)

ArcheAge is a MMORPG that I had been playing for many years until just recently. Therefore I have a fair amount of knowledge on it. Like ESO, it is based in a fantasy world called Erenor. 

Released - Legacy 2014 (EU, Russia and US), Unchained 2019

ArcheAge's 6 playable races

Developed by - XL Games

Published by - Trion Worlds (2014 - 2018), Gamigo (2018-2021), Kakao Games (2021 - present)

Like ESO, ArcheAge has 6 playable races - Haranyan, Firren, Warborn (eastern continent) and Nuian, Elf, Dwarf (western continent). The concept of the two continents is similar to that of factions, both are at war with one another. There is a third continent in the north which is fought after.

When looking at the individual races, you can easily tell them apart from the others. Elves are tall and slim, Warborn are big and muscular, Dwarves have a small stature, etc.

When it comes to character creation when you first join the game, it is substantially better than ESO's. There is a use of sliders as well as having the option to use presets. However the customisation only applies to the character's heads and facial features. There are no changes to the bodies. Each main feature of the face can be changed and with the use of sliders, players can create very unique characters. For certain hair styles (the more recently added), eyes and make-up colours, there is the use of colour wheels which also increases the uniqueness of each character.

With NPCs within the game, they follow the same designs that a player's character would have. The exceptions to this are elderly, children and non-playable races. With elderly, they will be hunched over with a walking stick. Children will have a smaller stature but still follow the basic designs of things like hair. With other, un-playable races like the Astra have an angelic appearance and wings.

Stray

The "Guardian" and "Stray"

Stray is the anomaly within my inspirations as it is the only one that isn't an MMORPG. Instead it is a singleplayer adventure game which is focused on the character of a stray cat in a dystopian world. 

Released - 2022

Developed by - BlueTwelve Studio

Published by - Annapurna Interactive

 Alongside "Stray", the world is also populated with robots. These are the characters that I will be looking at for my project. The robot that gave me the most inspiration was the "Guardian". When comparing him to the other robots of the game, his appearance is very different. Unlike the others, he wears a robe whereas the others tend to wear more modern clothing. He is also holding a bamboo pole as he is the one that stops people from using the elevator to Mid-Town, despite it being broken anyway. The overall character designs in Stray is actually really interesting. As expected, every character in the game are completely unique to one another. This isn't just with clothing. This is also due to various heads, body shapes and postures. 

Tower of Fantasy

Tower of Fantasy (ToF) is the newest game in my inspirations and is also the newest game that I have tried. Despite this, it has a lot of similarities to my chosen theme. This being because it, like Stray, is set in a dystopian world called Aida. 

A few of ToF's Simulacrum characters

Released - 2022

Developed by - Hotta Studio

Published by - Perfect World (China) Level Infinite (west)

ToF is another MMORPG and has similar art style to Genshin Impact. It also follows the same game mechanics of rolling for "Simulacrum characters". So far there are 18 characters to collect however the game was only released recently to the west and they are already adding in more characters.

ToF does have a character creation for the player's main appearance. I found that this was done incredibly well, even to the point that I enjoyed it more than I did for ArcheAge's. Unlike ArcheAge, ToF allows players to change their characters whole appearance instead of just their heads. This is done with numerous sliders and colour wheels, even allowing hair to have multiple hair colours.

When designing your main appearance, you get to pick the outfit that you will wear throughout the game. However, the developers have stopped certain hairstyles from being used on certain outfits. They have done this in order to stop hair from clipping through the clothes and to stop making the character's animations look weird whilst playing through the game. Even though it limits the customisation a little, it is actually an interesting concept that helps the game look more attractive.

Once you begin collecting Simulacrum, you can choose one to be your fighter. This character will then become your appearance when exploring the world. Your main appearance will then only be shown in cutscenes.

The NPCs of the game, excluding the main NPCs that take major parts in the main story line, have quite generic appearances. A lot of them are copy/pasted throughout the world but with different names.

These are the four inspirations for me. Each one will be a large help for me when I research my different themes and how to implement them into my designs.