Project Turas: The Nameless Hero

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Introduction:

Project Turas was a game development project undertaken during my time at university, and was one of the final modules. For this particular brief we were tasked with completing a polished product of a short re-playable section of a game. We as a group were allowed to choose the theme and genre and had to follow game industry pipelines in order to complete the task. Throughout the project I took on the following roles; Lead character artist and animator, UI artist, Lighting Consultant , and video editor. This section will focus on the main characters design and the inspiration and research behind it.

The World:

For the world of Turas we decided to create a fantasy rogue-like platforming game in the style of Hollow Knight and Dead Cells. We knew from the get go that we wanted to steer clear from the more typical fantasy settings and elements such as medieval fantasy, and Norse Fantasy (which had spike that year due to the release of Valheim), instead we decided to base our world and gameplay in what we deemed to be an underutilised historical and folklore setting throughout not only video games but mainstream media as a whole.

We decided to base the foundations of our game in Celtic history and fantasy drawing from myths and legends, as well as historical artifacts such as swords, armour, beliefs, battles, houses, particularly those Celtic cultures centered in the UK and Ireland. We thought that having a game steeped in this culture would allow us to expose and generate interest in an oft overlooked period in history as well as give our project a unique look and feel that would help us stand out amidst the other games generated by our peers.

Characters- Research:

In regard to the main character of the game we wanted them to have a direct connection to both the world as well as the mythology, as such we wanted to pick key parts of mythology and history that we thought would make for interesting characters, worldbuilding and narrative building blocks.

One of the characters in the mythology that really stood out to us was The Morrigan; Goddess of death, destiny and battle. She was often said to appear as a raven, and thus the bird has close symbolic meaning and a prominent feature that appears in many tales in Celtic mythology. As such when concepting the main character we knew we wanted them to have ties to The Morrigan both in terms of look narrative feel.

We also researched into two prominent Celtic traditions for inspiration on both story as well as enemy variants and obstacles that the player would encounter.

Samhain:

The first of these traditions that were researched was the old Irish tradition of Samhain, the precursor and inspiration for what is now Halloween. Samhain takes place on the 31st of October and ends on November the 1st. It is a day when those that partake in its traditions welcome in the harvest, and a day where the barrier between this world and the spirit world breakdown and cross over.

Throughout the festival a communal bonfire is lit using a wheel spun to generate friction. The bonfire remains lit for the duration of the festivities which include, dressing up as spirits and otherworldly creatures, drinking, feasting, competitions, telling and acting out stories, and then lighting your own hearth with the flames of the communal bonfire.

The dressing up as spirits was said to disguise yourself as on of them, as such protecting you from the ill intent of some of the more frightening creatures said to be lurking around during the night;. Likewise taking the flames from the communal fire and lighting your own fire with it was said to bring protection and cleansing to the home.

The creatures said to be lurking around throughout the night took upon all manner of forms and ranged from; shapeshifters such as the Pukah, Soul snatchers such as the Slough, as well Dullahan who were Headless horsemen atop fiery eyed mounts.

These creatures would form the basis of our various enemy types and in some cases would act as boss fights for the player to defeat in order to progress through certain areas, or to inherit certain abilities to help them progress further into the game.

Láir Bhán & Mari Lwyd

The second of these traditions included those of the Láir Bhán and the Mari Lwyd. These are two similar traditions that originate from Wales (Mari Lwyd), and Ireland (Láir Bhán) that involve creating a ‘hobby horse’ of sorts using a horse skull mounted on a pole an then partially covered with a cloth.

This was then accompanied by a group of people dressed in costume who would travel with the horse door to door to local houses where they would request food and drink. If denied they would attempt to gain entry through song with the home owners denying entry through song as well this would continue until either side relented.

This tradition inspired the general look of the character as we thought that the imagery of the skull was striking and would work well to create a unique look.

The Nameless Hero:

The Nameless hero is the main character of Turas and is the players gateway to the vast mysterious world around them. The character themselves ae the sprit of a fallen warrior resurrected by The Morrigan to combat an ancient prophesised evil that threatens the balance and existence of the world. With this in mind I came up with the following:

  • The Character wears a ravens skull fashioned into a helmet, this is in order to tie back to the imagery of both the Mari Lwyd and The Morrigan.

  • The feathers also tie back to The Morrigan but are also there as as protection as along with the helmet in order to disguise the main character as one of the spirits themselves offering them some level of protection from their gaze.

  • The cloak and robe are inspired by loose fitting garments of the ancient Celtic people but simplified in their design and designed to look tattered and worn.

  • The sword is inspired by the shape and design of real Celtic swords.

  • The blue patterns on the side harkens back to historical references of warpaint and tattoos worn by some Celtic people at the time of the Romans

  • The colours are their to allow the character to stand out from the various backgrounds and remain visible at all times on the screen.

Animation:

I was also tasked with animating the main character and the enemy sprites, both their base movements and their attack animations.

For The Nameless Hero I took many photos of myself posing in various HEMA stances in order to gather reference for sword combat. I also looked at videos online of Various HEMA practitioners running through basic attack drills in order to get a sense of the movement, speed and fabric interaction.

I then also looked at various animated fight scenes particularly those from; Castlevania, Naruto, Fate Zero, Sword of the Stranger, and Samurai Champloo in order to understand how to sell impact, how fast attacks should land, and how they added motion blur through the use of squash and stretch mechanics.

I also looked at other animated titles for more material and movement reference such as: Kiki’s Delivery Service, Howls Moving Castle, Spirited Away, Treasure Planet and Atlantis in order to see how they handled movement, action, and material interaction. On top of this I researched into Hollow Knight to see how many frames they were using for certain actions and then adjusting my animations accordingly in order to both fit style and gameplay.