Ninja Starfish (Ranged Enemy) Design Process
The concept of starfish came from a series of research about "deep sea creatures."[1] After deciding starfish as our second ranged enemy, the idea of the combination of Ninja came from the shape of starfish which is similar to a Ninja's weapon. The requirements of Ninja Starfish enemy include:
- star shape
- eyes or mouths in the middle
- Ninja traits
- holding Ninja weapon(Shuriken)
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[3]
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After searching through "Ninja Jutsu", eight low fidelity prototype were created. Every enemy has its own special way of attack.
The Ninja traits included:
- Ninja wheel eyes.
- A Ninja bandana.
- A star-shaped weapon.
- Ninja hurricane.
- Ninja face mask.
- Ninja eye mask.
Our team decided to use "Sharingan", a Jutsu that can copy wheel eye, as the main trait of our character.[8]
The design also focused on creating east and west direction for the enemy. In this stage, we made an animation for the two candidates enemies walking so that we can better ensure which enemy is the one we wanted.
The colour inspiration of starfish enemy is from the picture below.
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In the last design stage before user testing, isometric design is also considered. Some shadows of the starfish is created and it gave the starfish a 3D-ish look.
The details of medium fidelity prototype is over here. In this user testing, we found 36 users who like to play games and most of them like the colour of the design. Therefore, we will not change the colour. Also, majority of them can see this character as a ninja starfish is also a success. The one thing we wanted to especially focus on is the isometric feel of this character. After conducting this user testing, we realise that we need to develop a more 3D look enemy so it could better suit with the whole game.
In order to deign a more isometric starfish, several further researches were executed. The pictures for ideation and imitation were provided below: (both real starfish and hand drawing starfish)
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After the researches stage, two new versions of the starfish were created.
We also put the original version and the two new versions into the game engine so that we can validate the isometric look of them.
Original version:
New versions:
[1] https://www.sciencefocus.com/nature/deep-sea-creatures/
[2] https://www.writeups.org/human-starfish-blackhawk-dc-comics/
[3] https://www.writeups.org/human-starfish-blackhawk-dc-comics/
[4] https://i0.hdslb.com/bfs/archive/02e3916e32009a28f1f44b66026409c21f08f26b.jpg@480w_270h_1c
[8] http://n.sinaimg.cn/sinacn08/245/w640h405/20180430/e0c8-fzvpatr3249341.jpg
[10] https://www.teepr.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/0-62.jpg
[11] https://www.teepr.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/1-312.jpg
