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[Cyborcat]

First of all, I'm new. Hi!

Anyway, I'm mostly an artist and a fan of an NES game called Abadox, which I'd like to remake as a PS2-era survival horror game. I'm a big Silent Hill fan and I love the idea of a game where you're inside the body of a giant monster where it's pitch black aside from what your flashlight illuminates (plus maybe there's some bio-luminescence as well), and none of it is pretty.

This was an idea I originally had about 14 years ago, so some of what I'll be posting is old. But recently, I've revived the idea and I've decided to be more serious about it. I used to work for a small video game developing company so I know how to model and animate. Granted, I don't know programming or game design, so I may need help with that eventually (also not sure how to deal with the copyright issue, but I'll cross that bridge when I come to it), but for now I'm just playing with the general look of the monsters and such.

I would love some feedback. First I'll get some older drawings out of the way. Everything after this will be new.

[Cyborcat]

Here's a new one. I redesigned Parasitis and changed everything but the color scheme. For some reason, I kept imagining a giant sea slug, so I went with that. (I just didn't think a meatball with teeth was all that scary). The opening FMV would show the main character being swallowed by this thing.

I have another one I might be finishing next week, so I may be posting that then.

Would really appreciate some feedback, even if it's just utter confusion =P

[Dune]

Hi, Cyborcat, welcome to TIGSource! I think you have a pretty interesting idea for a project, I never knew Abadox existed but I'm a huge Metroid fan and it's giving me a similar vibe. Anyway, I think your redesigns are pretty cool and show some tight drawing skills, the musculoskeletal dog is your strongest piece and I think you did a good job of adapting it from the modest pixel art. I like the sea slug a lot, too--a lot more than the original sprite--but it also means you're taking some big creative liberties with the project as a remake. I'm not sure how popular Abadox is/was or how picky fans would be about changes, but it's just something to keep in mind for your project's eventual audience, and for how much integrity you want to have to the original game. I think maybe if you gave the slug teeth it would help reconcile with the original design a little more. (It really is a cool design though, a space slug is a lot more interesting than a space... meatball.) Also, I think you should totally share some more screenshots of the 3D models you made, maybe a T-pose or turnaround of the character models. That way we can better appreciate and evaluate how you translated your concept redesigns into 3D. Good luck with your project, I hope this helps!

[Cyborcat]

Hi, Dune. Thanks for the welcome and the kind words and advice. Sorry for the late response--I didn't see it right away, then I ended up with a full time job and I don't have time for anything anymore =P

Yeah, I did take a lot of creative license with Parasitis (the slug). In my defense, you only see it during a brief opening sequence and you spend the whole actual game inside of it, so I think I can get away with changing it. I'm trying to do that a lot less with other enemies--I'm trying to only make changes where I need to for it to make a little more sense, but I'm trying to keep the integrity of the original as much as I can.

I have done some more drawings since those first posts:

Some Level 1 Enemies:


Level 1 Boss, Deathface:

I figured Deathface should look a little less human-like, and I added a long tongue as a weapon. The original fired projectiles which I have a hard time accepting for some reason.

I'm currently working on re-coloring Bau (the dog). I think he looks good, but it was the first one I did and I ended up making the colors muted and "natural-looking", but since a lot of the ones I've done since have been more colorful, I feel that Bau should match.

[Cyborcat]

I decided to re-color Bau. I'm still happy with his general design, but looking back after having designed and colored a bunch of other monsters, the "realistic" muted colors I used on him no longer fit the aesthetic I'm going for, so I just re-scanned the original drawing and re-colored it:

[Cyborcat]

Hi, again! I took a bit of a hiatus, but here's more concept art.


An attempt at a level that's basically the inside of a mouth. I basically drew the inside of a cave based on a photo, then colored it based on photos of the inside of a mouth. I think the end result is too plain to be a level, but it was a fun experiment.


The monster's nerve center. Again, I used a photo of the inside of a cave as reference, but based the details on the level of the original game. Fairly happy with how it turned out, but it took FOREVER!


The “Shark Guardian”--I'm really happy with how this one turned out.

As always, I'd appreciate any feedback!