Week #030: Gemstone Dwarfs

Promotional concept artwork of Hugo and Trixie, the gemstone dwarf poster children.
Images represent a game currently in development.

Brave and burly, the Gemstone Dwarfs hail from cities of crystal grown on the water's surface. Using their mysterious ability to crystallize liquid matter through touch, they intricately craft their cities, expansive underwater mines, and can even walk on water!

Height roster in the game's discarded pre-alpha hand-drawn graphics style.
Images represent a game currently in development.

My philosophy while designing the dwarfs - as it is with anything these days - was breaking the mold. I feel that it's important for any media today to grab the viewer's attention with original ideas, and while games can also do this through unique mechanics, I feel that it's still important to explore these options from an artistic standpoint. I frequently feel that I wouldn't be doing my job if I wasn't.

Variations on dwarf appearance including hairstyles.
Images represent a game currently in development.

With the dwarfs, I sought to do this through both visual and character design. Most will still recognize them as the beloved stout warriors at a glance - like several of you did even from the early teasers. But when you dig deeper than that, you'll find that they're different from the usual mountain-dwellers.

Modeling sheet for the gemstone dwarfs.
Images represent a game currently in development.

I hope everyone enjoys this preview of the Gemstone Dwarfs coming soon to HTD! I'm currently looking into other methods of further exploring their background and just who they are as a race, so I hope you look forward to that, too.

Week #029: So Hum A Merry Tune

Development on ______ has been going slowly but steadily. It's a tricky thing, breathing life into a whole new race. Creating the human race for HTD was one thing, since there's really only one way to do humans in a game like this. But with other playable races, such as ______, I really wanted to find a way to make them new and exciting, while maintaining what everybody loves about the ______. This can be a difficult balance to strike, and I'm personally pleased with the results so far.

I'm really looking forward to working with some of the other race ideas that Evan, Josh and myself have had further down the line, too.

With progress breaching a third of the way complete on my end, I wanted to mark the occasion with an additional teaser. I won't keep this up too much longer; since I'm no longer creating the assets themselves, I really could have revealed the ______ a week ago. But where's the fun in that?

One thing I want to stress, as I mentioned, is that these progress trackers are only following my own progress, on the conceptual and character design levels. They don't speak for the development of the actual character models or in-game assets.

If you think that I've surely been up to more than this, though, you'd be correct. Sam has also brought me on board to build a cleaner interface for Pokémon Tower Defense 2! He plans to talk about the new interface this week himself, and I got clearance to offer up a preview to go along with it.

Images represent a game currently in development.

For those of you excited for PTD2, well, you should be! It isn't my place to reveal the details, but from what I've seen and heard, it should blow the first game away.

Oh, also, ______.

Week #028: Off to Work We Go