Some of the levels in my game had outdated artwork or no digital drawing at all, as they may have been new ideas or level concepts. I acted upon this and quickly got to work in February to draw these important designs.
The castle within Death's Homeland was the hardest level to make, but there were 3 specific sections that I wanted to include in a specific order. The first was the drawbridge doorway, as tradition it would let the player inside the castle upon a touch of a button/lever/pressure plate. The sections in-between these 3 main parts could change at any time but each had to test the player after the level prior being the tutorial had taught the player was parts are important to look out for. The middle section is the archway pit room; this room is based upon a real life castle and I tried to mimic the photo and put my own designs in as possible. The player would have to jump across the planks and dodge the spikes over a bottomless black pit. The third area is a tower with some steps in front of it and a landing area behind it. The player would need to look in the dark spot to find a button/pressure plate to make their way out and escape the castle.
The second drawing I made was for the Zebibyte Library as upon further inspection, I found out I could not link this level to another at its end point. I then realised that the level was not even shaped like the letter "Z" which was what it was meant to be. I mixed and re-arranged the old drawing into this fancy new version which still is not the letter Z but a backwards one. I cut out unnecessary sections and put in new drawings and objects which filled in the gaps. Obviously now the level currently in-game does not look exactly like this as I made it one corridor instead of three. But the bookcases, the gondola and the secret puzzle pathway still remain.
death homeland new drawing
more inspiration for deaths homeland
When drawing my ideas for the Death's homeland, I took inspiration from a newspaper clipping of a Victorian town hall in Rochdale. I saw the big triangular windows and the tall steeple on the towers and fell in awe at what my level could look like.
new 1.2.3.6 level drawings
new 4 and 5 level drawings
Some of the newer drawn designs of the levels had not had the full top and bottom length shown in my game idea pitch. The tutorial level, still unchanged from the first diagram of it (which was also the first level that came to mind when creating this idea in the first place) but the Castle level had its new layout drawn out. The Mesa level had some new minecart tracks and buffers as well as a watchtower and bushes up top.
The lab level actually had a filled in top section with an x-ray room, some overhead lights and a lift to take the player down into the basement of the lab. The lab was inspired by layout designs shown in films such as "The Fly" and the Universal monster movies. There are cages hanging from the ceiling and a conveyor belt of items being made. Finally on the bottom left page is the first proper layout of the boss fight. This is meant to be set in he heavens and clouds decorate the platforms the player stands on. A bomb is placed so the characters can stand upon it and blow up Eternity. A landing area then rises upwards with finish flags and a banner.
Eternity idea for infinite item
Eternity V.1
When making the characters back in November, Eternity was one of the main focus points of the story but no drawing of him existed at this time. Around February I decided to finally draw him as he was a vital character and only some sketches were hand drawn as I had a hard time coming up with a clear picture of what ETERNITY could look like in a humanoid body. There were 2 drawings I had made months ago which had no game tied to them and had not been used for a project in my last 3 years. The first was this crab horned alien I had drawn for another digital character series but I struggled to get the face right other than putting more armour upon them.
I tried making a character out of my horned logo at the time but other than recycling designs of other god-like entities I created I was lost in thought. One new character was created however out of this process; "Infinity" perhaps this character could appear in a sequel game. He had a spiky crown and a fur shoulder coat. Eventually I stuck with a design for Eternity but even in my rendering process, I was asked by a peer to put a moebius twist upon the design to truly show off the "Eternal" aspect of my character. This was made into an emblem on his head.
planning out what level needed which amount of certain mechanics
eternity and infinity drawings
Eternity V.2
Eternity mood board
Death character model V5
Time player model v5
Here are some images of the in-game versions of the characters as well as the art stylized versions done by Apollo/Phoebe below.
sick rough sketch of detailed characters: Death, Time, Eternity
Apollo art v2