FK Creature Concepts

We use a few different animators in Fantasy Kingdoms.  One of the animators, I make front concepts for the creatures for him to generate the assets.  Here's some of the concepts:

This guy was inspired a bit by Rex in the BBC show Primevil.

FK - Map Background Images

Here's some larger versions of the map background corners for Fantasy Kingdoms.  They were made to feel a part of the map parchment and not be too distracting, so they don't have the vibrant colors of the in-game map assets. 

The in-game versions are much smaller and are programmed to float above a repeatable parchment texture, so that it can fit to any-sized monitor.  They basically sit behind the playfield and then move out to the corners when a player goes to fullscreen.

Top Left Corner

Bottom Right Corner

Bottom Left Corner

Fantasy Kingdoms - Vector Characters and Creatures

 

Above are the two base player characters and an NPC named Harmony (right) larger than in-game.  These were vector creations in Flash.  They are animated, and those animations were initially done by another artist, but I have made a few tweaks since then.  They have different hair, accessories that can be switched out.  I, also, have made a few seasonal items.  The colors of skin, hair, accessory, clothes are changed programically when a player makes a selection in-game.  These characters have back versions as well. Harmony (right) is the mentor for new player's in-game, and she has her own set of kingdoms that player's can visit. 

The cats are also vector and were created in Flash.  Our creatures are mainly outsourced, but the blue cat was the first creature for the programmers to test in-game.  The other cats' creation soon followed. I did animate these although animation isn't a strong skill for me, I can get by. :)

Fantasy Kingdoms - St. Patrick's Day

 

Lucky's Tavern, Clover Wagon, Fairy Luck Tree

I suppose Lucky's Tavern was a bit of a stereotype, but the idea popped into my head, and it was too fun to miss.  This was actually done as a giant pilsner in anticipation of the later Land of the Giants set (which is our current in-game collection as of this post.)  For our building sets, we generally include four buildings: a house, tavern, magic library and alchemist, so this one completes that set.

I'd been wanting to do a Gypsy-style wagon and found a reference of an old beat-up Irish wagon online.  I used the shape as inspiration for this wagon.

The trees have two states.  The second one is the "growth" state where there is some kind of "fruit" that has been added that can be harvested.  I didn't post them on previous posts, but those trees also have a base fruitless version.

Fantasy Kingdoms - Chinese New Year

Some of the assets I created for Chinese New Years above.  A celebratory banner, rabbit terracotta warrior, a lantern bonsai tree, and a Chinese Airship.  Select the images for the larger in-game sized version.


Since it was the Year of the Rabbit, I wanted to make a rabbit warrior based on the Terracotta army - historically made by artisans for the first emperor of China and found buried underground (in 1974 according to Wikipedia) - Yeah, I watched a documentary special a while back on the history of China. 

Bonsai is a bit more Japanese although there is a Chinese equivalent.  I found a gorgeous bonsai reference which made me so envious of the patience and talent to raise and care for such a tree, I entertained the thought for a moment.  (I have cats, so it seemed overall an exercise in futility.)  This was my ode to that tree.  I added a little rabbit graphic on the base.

For the Chinese Airship, I combined the inspiration of the parade dragon floats along with my desire to create a floating ship.  I actually designed similar wings for an old ship I'd drawn a long time ago.  All the little details were fun to play around with creating.

Fantasy Kingdoms - Winter Assets

Some assets I created for Fantasy Kingdoms for the Winter Collection.  This was my first building collection for the game, so I was excited to be able to create them.  They're pretty big, so select the image to see the in-game size.  For the statue, I wanted to make an Ice Queen type image.  I had fun creating the little decorations on her dress.  I made the base to match the winter ground pieces.

Fantasy Kingdoms - Valentines Assets

A few of the assets I worked on for the Valentine's Day Release for Fantasy Kingdoms.  I'd been wanting to do some floating island images, so this was the perfect opportunity.  Alicia and I worked closely to match the floating island look between the different assets we were creating.  The little creature dolls were fun to create.  These dolls are show larger than the in-game assets.

Some background on the gremlin:  We have a gremlin creature in-game.  His original head was based on the Art Gremlin sign that I created in the event that an asset was missing.   I worked with our outsource 3D artists to pin down the final look for the 3D creature.  For Valentine's Day, it seemed like a fun item to make some little male and female dolls of the gremlin - some creatures that were so ugly that they were cute.

Fantasy Kingdoms - Some Earlier Assets

Here's some early assets created for Fantasy Kingdoms. FK is an orthographic farming/decorating game on Facebook.  The left image is Harmony's Wishing Well, the center is the Dreamcatcher Tree, and the right is the Wizard's Tower