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[dbb]

The idea for this thread arose from the discussion

Visual Game Design Tools: http://forums.tigsource.com/index.php?topic=7555.0.

The majority view seems to be that you can't beat good old pencil and paper in the early stages of game design. I know that I am always fascinated by nosing through other people's sketchbooks, not so much to admire finished pieces of artwork, but to get some sort of insight into other people's creative processes. Sometimes it's like looking inside someone's brain.

With that in mind, please show us your sketchbooks! In order to stop this thread just turning into a massive art-dump, let's keep it confined to game-related sketches, notes and doodles, and let's not post more than a few images at a time.

Remember, this isn't about showing off beautifully-rendered artwork, but sharing the visual aspects of the early design process.

And, um... I guess I'd better go first
.
Suburban top-down tactical shooter:


Gothic Platformer doodles:


Character thumbnails for said Gothic Platformer:

There's loads more where that came from, but I'd rather see what other people have got  .

[Montoli]

I'll bite.  No worries about it being beautifully rendered artwork though.   I'm jealous of your drawing ability!  Possibly because I am not much of an artist, my design notebook is mostly words, but I did manage to find a few sketches where I wanted to capture some visual idea.

So here are a few of the more picture-centric pages from my design journal for Boss Rush.  A lot of things here never made it into the game, but people who have been following the dev log may recognize at least a couple of elements, in various forms. !

(Sorry, I don't have a scanner, so you get crappy phone photos!)

[pgil]

awesome thread. I've only got one scan from my sketchbook that I know of, and my scanner isn't working right now, so this will have to do:


Here's a couple of things I've drawn with my tablet though:



Edit: yeah, none of these sketches have anything to do with game design.

[dbb]

Edit: yeah, none of these sketches have anything to do with game design.

Actually, the figure with the pink and green looks very Cactus-y to me. I think it's the colour scheme. And I'll be watching you for a game about radio-controlled goose-dog hybrids.

@ Montoli - those are for the game where you play the boss? I was reading the devlog earlier. It's interesting comparing your sketches to your later screenshots. Here's an idea I had (again from sketchbook) for the shmup I was working on:

(currently on "indefinite hold" since I decided to rewrite all the code without saving a backup first  )

[Core Xii]

I might photograph my old sketchbooks, I was planning on browsing through them anyway.

[Montoli]

@ Montoli - those are for the game where you play the boss? I was reading the devlog earlier. It's interesting comparing your sketches to your later screenshots. Here's an idea I had (again from sketchbook) for the shmup I was working on:

Yup, those are for Boss Rush.  The first and third sketches on the first image eventually became the green and purple bosses, respectively, in the dev log screenshots.

I like your difficulty list, especially that it starts at hard, and ends at japanese hard.

[Dom2D]

I'll scan my sketchbook tonight, I have a whole lot to show 

Love the Bosses that would rule page!

[Dom2D]

This is from a game project called Food Noob, which I have hidden somewhere. I'll get to that game at some point, when I'm comfortable with scripting and/or using Flixel.

But for now, some sketches:





This is for Anything Beats Everything, where I don't even understand myself:


And this is probably from very late at night trying to figure out how to do a rhythm game:


Going through my sketchbook I found something that just gave me an idea for an awesome thread...

[dbb]

And this is probably from very late at night trying to figure out how to do a rhythm game:

Hey, is that an idea for a for some sort of shoot-em-up where the enemies change state in time with the rhythm of the music, and you have to shoot them in time with the beat? That is a very cool idea.

[Dom2D]

Hey, is that an idea for a for some sort of shoot-em-up where the enemies change state in time with the rhythm of the music, and you have to shoot them in time with the beat? That is a very cool idea.

Yes! I have a game treatment for it if you're interested. It's got some flaws I haven't fixed yet though.

[dbb]

Hey, is that an idea for a for some sort of shoot-em-up where the enemies change state in time with the rhythm of the music, and you have to shoot them in time with the beat? That is a very cool idea.

Yes! I have a game treatment for it if you're interested. It's got some flaws I haven't fixed yet though.

Yeah, I'm totally interested.

Don't worry, I'm not interested as in "designing a rhythm game myself and looking for ideas to nick", but just because I'm really really nosy. Has anything like this been done before? Was Rez like this? I know nothing about rhythm games, largely because I suck at them (my own take on the genre, Beatnik Jazz Party: http://www.dbbcreative.co.uk/bjp.html dispensed with any kind of scoring mechanic and instead tried to emulate a kind of free-form jam session, but because utterly pointless as a result).

I like shoot-em-ups, though, particularly when I'm playing well and go into this weird trance-like state like I'm some kind of arcade-game Zen master or something, and I'm thinking a rhythm-based shootemup would help achieve this state even better.

[Dom2D]

I'll post it right here, coz I like sharing! I'll try to find the sketches I had made for it to make this post fit with the thread...

Also, I misread you at first. The idea was to make a Contra or Guardian Heroes-like platform shoot-em-up. A full-on Rhythm Shmup would be awesome. I'll try your game tonight at home.



Psycho Beat Runner (or something)
Rhythm platformer shooter

Main Concept
I haven’t selected a setting for this game yet. Maybe I would go with a totally abstract theme, like a character going on the flow of the music. Or  go into different people’s minds à la Psychonauts.

Genre Specification
A platformer game with guns, but the player must follow the rhythm of the music to defeat enemies (The hero fires instantaneous shots, not slow bullets).

Gameplay Highlights
-Enemies display their weaknesses on precise beats. The player can only damage and destroy enemies by blasting them at that moment. The right moment to hit could be displayed à la Elite beat agents.
-As enemies get tougher, they require sequences of beats to be destroyed. A player must hit them in a precise sequence without failing once, or must start over. Some harder monsters could only be defeated when the music plays a particular drum roll or guitar riff, like a boss exposing its red spot only once in a while.
-Bosses would fight with a special tune and have different attacks and sequence weaknesses depending on how the beat goes.
-Enemies would fire bullets and beams to the beat of the music, making the player move around as he shoots.
-A score multiplier rises up at every successful kill, while a miss lowers it back to x1. The Guitar Hero and Rock Band score mechanics and power-ups could work well in this game.

Tech highlights
-Perfect synchronization between the gameplay and the music. The game must know what beat is playing, so that enemies can follow their pattern to the perfection.
-Maybe the music would actually be created by the monsters on screen. For example, two cymbals monsters come in (sequence of 3 hits to kill), one guitar riff monster (rare weaknesses, easy to kill), one quick beat (5 hits to kill!), as their sounds are added to the background track, the players shoots (with some definite sound) and participates in the music!
-Lots of things happening at once on the same screen
-Particles would work awesomely with the crowded, intense action.

Art and Audio Highlights
Music and sound design must be in perfect harmony with the programmation.
-Visual feedbacks to the beat and monster weaknesses
-Lots of special effects to accentuate score multipliers.
-Level design should be relatively linear and easy, with more focus on the monsters and their patterns.
-Crazy boss designs

Notes
A lot of good ideas could come out of Rhythm Heaven mostly, but also Dance Dance Revolution and Rock Band.

[Dom2D]

[NiallM]

Great thread!  Here's a mockup of the game I'm currently working on (an RPG/roguelike-ish take on the Strange Adventures formula):


And the building blocks of This is the Way (these are also the game's actual graphics, prior to some colouring):

[Hempuli‽]

I enjoy drawing maps.

[Dom2D]

I enjoy drawing maps.

I enjoy looking at them. I wish I could explore the colored one

[Hempuli‽]

I enjoy drawing maps.

I enjoy looking at them. I wish I could explore the colored one

does this look familiar?

[Dom2D]

Wow looks amazing.
Is this going to be a game anytime soon?

[Hempuli‽]

Wow looks amazing.
Is this going to be a game anytime soon?

That's the map based on that draft; it has a devlog but it wont be ready soon, probably never.
http://forums.tigsource.com/index.php?topic=7656.0

[dbb]

Hempuli, I love that one on the bottom left. Really intruiging. I just wish it was higher-resolution. Reminded me of this:



From Arne's (Niklas Jansson's) redesign of Exile: http://www.itchstudios.com/psg/exile/exile-ish.htm

I hope he doesn't mind me hotlinking. Anyway, you've probably seen this before (I always imagine all you Swedish Indie Developers know each other personally and hang out together in saunas playing Mario Kart).