DE4403: Games Design (MA) Updates on Character Designs.

The logo for Chesspionage has now been designed, with the core themes of Chess's visuals in mind, a black and white checkerboard, with the white King piece in the middle, signifying its importance.

Each of the Chess Set characters in my project Chesspionage's deigns have been finalized. Any of the seperately chosen heads that I had as a draft were used in creating the other side of the chess board, all in order to give each side some more differences and identity from each other.

The Ivory side was designed to be more heroic and friendlier than the Ebony side, who is designed to be more mysterious and malevolent, despite bearing a lot of similarities.

Many of my design processes and inspirations were already described in previous blog posts, however there are many things I have not described yet.

The flag atop of the Rook's head is inspired by a regular castle turret with a flag waving in the background.

Both the King and Queen are designed to be wearing regalia worn by various royal families.

The Bishop's Ebony counterpart was designed with russian priests and bishops in mind, who sport long hair and large beards.

 

The remaining sketches of characters who were not finalized are meant to represent newer pieces that would work for a  game of chess.

The Archer piece is designed after many different depictions of the fabled Robin Hood, complete with the feathered hat, bow, small goatee and moustache, and tall collar.


The Thief is designed after Zorro, whilst also wearing leather armour to help protect against minor injuries whilst sneaking around tight areas. He is also seen with a sack full of riches, to help further convey that he is a thief.


The Jester is designed after a combination of traditional jester clothing, seen in a royal court, whilst also being a mix of Mardi Gras outfit, identified with the Fleur DeLis on the front. The two small sceptres also have the same shape as a jester hat, used as a prop for their act.



The Dragon piece is designed after western dragons in mythology, helped by the arms positioned like a rampant dragon, seen in heraldry. The sides of the head show skin-like frills much like Western dragons were depicted to have, most likely meant to be imposing. It was also important to give this dragon a somewhat comical and innocent appearance ot fit in with the design family of the rest of the chess pieces.

 

DE4401 Games Design (MA) 12/10/2022 Research Into Design for Chesspionage

 Today, I have been putting each of the Chess Piece concept arts into their own seperate PNG documents, depicting their Ivory and Ebony sides of the chessboard, each side having minute differences to set themselves apart, save from the colours.

The Rook is designed with knight's armour in mind, made to take great amounts of damage on the battlefield. In movement, his base would slide rapidly in each cardinal direction, at breakneck speed during a capture. The shield and hammer make for a strong offensive combination.
To understand better how to properly draw plate armour, I looked to hekmets and torsos from italian suits of armour as reference, which proved effective to show me how they are drawn, whilst also adding a unique twist to the apperrance provided by m, where I have included the castle-resembling shoulder plates onto the Rook, and a plume on the Knight.

The Queen is designed with the idea that both the chess piece and the actual monarch have total dominion of their kingdom. Each Queen is dressed accordingly, in the right regalia, brandishing the royal family's sceptre and orb, as they can move in any direction for as long as they can.

The pawns are designed with strength in numbers in mind. On their own, they can be captured easily and can only move forward. Together they are useful in order to make defensive walls against the opponent's pieces.

The Knight is designed to be an actual horse and jockey, inseperable from his steed. He would have a cocky personality on account of being able to hop over pieces, and being the only piece that can do so.

The King has to make a lot of calcualted and careful decisions as a ruling Monarch, which is the personality I decided to give a ches spiece that can move in any direction, but only one space.

The Bishop moves diagonally, and may be considered an unconventional manouverer, given how the other pieces move. Which is why the Bishop in Chesspionage would 

Shown on each of the pieces is a small diagram of how they move across the board, much like the actual game of Chess. These rules still apply in Chesspionage.

Many of the design philosophies for this project are similar to how objects in Disney films are usually given life with vague, or fitting, human features to make them more approachable, which can be seen in movies such as Alice In Wonderand and Beauty And The Beast.