The phoenix is possibly one of the most widely known beings throughout many cultures mythology. It is seen in Arabian, Persian, Greek, Koman, Egyptian, Chinese, Indian and possibly more; this is the main reason as to why I chose a Phoenix for the key part in my game concept, its very widely known and easily recognisable creature.
Over the different mythologies the phoenix generally has the same idea behind it, a bird of rebirth. When a phoenix dies, it bursts into flames and from that is reborn from it's ashes.
Its cycle of rebirth does differ from culture to culture, for instance in asian myths the phoenix, known as Ho-Oh and/or Feng-Huang the first part of the name was the male and the second part to the name was the female. In a few myths the phoenix is even said to change into a human.
The life span of the phoenix always seems to be around 500-1000s of years old in all cultures.
The most well known idea seems to be from Egyptian and Greek culture; which is the culture is will be leaning more towards with my concept; when it comes the time for the phoenix to die it gathers a nest of twigs and ignites itself.
The new phoenix that is born from those ashes then embalms the ashes of its old self in an egg made of Myrrh and other spices, which it then deposits itself in the Egyptian city of Heliopolis.
As I am drawing from mythology for the basis of my concept, while still giving it a twist to make the game interesting; it was quite obvious that I was going to stick with mythology for my antagonists so to speak.
I wanted to stick with Egyptian and Greek for the enemies so I looked into any Gods or other entities that played relevance to the night.
For Egyptian I didnt really find any that striked my interest, the only two that beared relevance for me was: Kuk: Personification of primodial Darkness and Nephthys, the Godess of the night. As I want my game to be for a somewhat wide age range I dont think the names would be memorable enough, also these gods arent particularaly malignant so to speak; if anything they are far from it.
Greek however proved much more fruitful considering the sheer degree of Gods they have in their culture.
Asteria: The Godess of nocturnal oracles and falling stars
Hecate: Night, moon
Nyx: The Godess of Night
Erebus: The primordial darkness
The last two turned out to be the most promising, In the end I sided with Nyx as I think a female fits the concept of the night better; that and Nyx is inherantly above Erebus (who is her brother)
Choosing Nyx also opened up the names for potential boss enemies as she gave birth to many children that were embodiments of various 'negative' Gods of sorts.
For instance some of her children: Old age, Death and Sleep; sleep in particular will possibly play a pivoting part in my plot as the current situation that the character is stuck in is that everything has falling into a deep slumber.
Tuesday, 18 October 2011
Sunday, 16 October 2011
Colour version of Main character
Just an example of the general style I want, the characters colour will progressively change to a warmer flame as the player goes through the story.
Sunday, 9 October 2011
Choosing a platform
In terms of gameplay I drew my inspiration from the old Spyro games, Shadow of the colossus and the Golden Sun games.
With a degree of freedom of exploration, plot based things stopping progression to a certain area and so forth.
To really get the most out of the areas and also puzzle solving it will involve a degree of ingenuity or just good observation.
My choice was narrowed down very quickly to having my game on the home consoles as I felt that vastness of the world would be shown off very well on a small screen like portable consoles, also graphically home consoles I think would produce a better quality of the fire; considering that fire will be a heavy focus in my concept.
I did breifly consider the game possibly being the the 3DS, however I felt it may make the game a bit too gimmicky.
With a degree of freedom of exploration, plot based things stopping progression to a certain area and so forth.
To really get the most out of the areas and also puzzle solving it will involve a degree of ingenuity or just good observation.
My choice was narrowed down very quickly to having my game on the home consoles as I felt that vastness of the world would be shown off very well on a small screen like portable consoles, also graphically home consoles I think would produce a better quality of the fire; considering that fire will be a heavy focus in my concept.
I did breifly consider the game possibly being the the 3DS, however I felt it may make the game a bit too gimmicky.
In game sketch and health bar ideas
Top image: A rough sketch of what I want the general in game scenes to look like. The default camera behind the character; camera can be moved with the right analouge stick.
The character will only take up a small portion of the screen, I want the players to really get a good look at the environments and this should also make the world feel vast and daunting; making the character look insignificant compared to the the world he has to explore.
Lower images: Designs for possible health bars, I want some form of indcation as to the characters current condition on the main screen whenever hostile entities are nearby. I wont want the health bar to be there constantly as I feel as though it would just be unecessary rubbish filling the screen; confontation with enemies will be at a minimum.
Along with that are designs for items that can restore health.
The idea behind these are from Egyptian mythology of the phoenix, that the phoenix embalmed its old self in myrrh and other spices; depositing itself in the egyptian city of Heliopolis.
So I've made myrrh a restorative item for the character.
The character cannot actually die per say, the enemies can devour his flames; myrrh will reignite it.
Game concept Ideas.
The setting is Fantasy/ Mythology based, a world where the Phoenix is considered a god; creating everything in their world and also acting at their sun.
The Phoenix is made up of spirits that created the world, they are seperate beings as they are one.
However one of the spirits escapes from the Phoenix; both curious and jealous of the world they created. A native finds the spirit, both curious of each other the native takes the spirit back to their home land.
Not long after the spirit flees his home, in the distance the Phoenix is seen bursting into flames; Nyx: the night spreads across the land, everything the Phoenix created falling into slumber.
The spirits are thrown across the world, the protagonist finds one of his bretheren; motioning towards the Phoenixs nest. For it to be reborn the spirts must join together at the nest which the egg lies.
Still deveolping the plot, but this is the basic outline as to how the plot will go.
The Phoenix is made up of spirits that created the world, they are seperate beings as they are one.
However one of the spirits escapes from the Phoenix; both curious and jealous of the world they created. A native finds the spirit, both curious of each other the native takes the spirit back to their home land.
Not long after the spirit flees his home, in the distance the Phoenix is seen bursting into flames; Nyx: the night spreads across the land, everything the Phoenix created falling into slumber.
The spirits are thrown across the world, the protagonist finds one of his bretheren; motioning towards the Phoenixs nest. For it to be reborn the spirts must join together at the nest which the egg lies.
Still deveolping the plot, but this is the basic outline as to how the plot will go.
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