Autor: Elfi

Elfi

Between all of our tasks we of course also had to have a regular exchange of ideas. We employed modern technology like screen sharing, video conferences and of course the good old telephone. But by far the best were our actual meetings: discussion, testing and then a tasty business lunch. ;-)).

And now it’s finally time: The Highland Sheep Games are done! Suitable for players age six and up because they are without bloodshed and stress-free to play. You need a little dexterity, concentration and a taste for 2D comic-style graphics. If you like sheep and scottish landscapes, that’s a plus..

A reminder: If you’re interested in the whole story of Conner MacSheep in English please visit your bookshop or follow the links on the book-pages at this homepage. Thank you!

Good luck and have fun

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Elfi:

At our first meeting we began to develop game concepts. Soon it became clear that the Highland Sheep Games from the book would be best suited for us. Now everything depended on the possibilities for digital implementation and enjoyable gameplay.

We assigned the tasks: Vera, a trained game designer, assumed the organisation and project management, programming and game design. Me, an author and illustrator, was responsible for writing, art and sound and music. Both of us were full of ideas, energy and motivation and in hindsight I can attest to our persistence and incredible teamwork skills – always a challenge when personal and professional relationships overlap.

Four disciplines emerged during the design process: Jump for Height, Press o’War, Hillrace and Biting Patterns, a very sheep oriented event that eventually had to be reworked during development into Puzzeling Patterns. The foundations had been laid.

To be continued …

Elfi

I started working on the character design. My way was paved by countless more or less successful sketches of sheep. It is unbelievable how many sheep-themed franchises there are, e.g. Sheepworld, Shaun the Sheep etc.

Since we were planning our game to be 2D, a comic-like interpretation of actors and landscape seemed appropriate. I had little issues with imagining a start screen since my favourite place for Conner MacSheep was and still is a real castle ruin in the Scottish Highlands. So in no time flat I made:

Great! But these were all just pencil sketches. These can’t just be put into a video game like that. That was the beginning of my adventures in digital painting with a graphics tablet. Drawing on a black board and seeing the matching picture take shape on my monitor took some getting used to.

My hand-eye coordination improved after some scrawly and undimensioned attempts enough that I could start to appreciate the advantages of digital drawing. A ‘back’ button is truly a remarkable invention! I also enjoyed working with multiple layers: if, for example, I wasn’t sure if a detail would fit the image, I could simply put it on a new layer and move, transform and dye it as I pleased… Simply amazing!

Another big learning experience were animations. My part in making our animated sheep was still relatively simple. I just had to draw the animal in various poses whereby the principal parts had to stay in the same place or the animal would jitter or jump unintentionally.

Result:

To be continued…

Elfi

Far more difficult to me was a different drawing technique. Painting small elements like grass or flowers as a tilesheet that could be repeated infinitely without showing recognizable patterns.

Our program of choice was Pyxel Edit and it required several tutorials and practice-tiles. But a great technique to build large -several screens large- landscapes.

Later I also learned to animate tiles with it, especially water be it in a trough, creek, lake, waterfall as well as falling stones or crumbling platforms.

Result:

After long drawing sessions came the sounds or rather the search for sounds. Sheep bleat, Water rushes. But who could have thought that there are so many more sounds needed to convey atmosphere and movement. Vera wrote me a looong list with requirements for each game.

For the sheep sounds I visited the local hobby shepherd. With a small digital recorder that had to be equipped with a windbreaker after several failed attempts I recorded single and groups of sheep while bleating. Also while eating and slurping. Oftentimes I wandered around in the forest and along the creek. Last but not least a lot of household items had to be employed as musical instruments.

Digital recorder with windbreaker

As background music I composed one melody myself. The others are Scottish traditionals that I arranged with help of the Ludwig3 software. All new to me but I made it!

To be continued…