Tuesday, December 8, 2015

Sharkane: the SteveINSANE package.

Not too long ago I commissioned my good buddy SteveINSANE for a few drawings of my man Sharkane. Today the package containing it and all the extra goodies I got came in, so now I can scan and upload them.




Thanks you again, Steve! These are truly incredible. ^_^

Wednesday, October 7, 2015

Aozora's Adventure - Logo Styles

Not canon to the series, mind you, but just a few things I whipped up for fun over the past few years.

Friday, September 18, 2015

How to describe the gameplay of Aozora's Adventure 64

So after a few ideas flew through my head recently I decided to give everyone a brief description of the general gameplay of Aozora's Adventure 64, it's sequel, 64 2, and spinoffs 64 Darkness and 64 Darkness 2.

The games play as a mish-mash of platformers, beat 'em ups, hack and slashers, RPG's, and FPSes. Player characters have 3D Mario-styled movements, a hack-and-slash combat system ala games like Devil May Cry, weapon swapping systems ala Donkey Kong 64 (but much faster/instant, with two slots for weapons ala the Halo series), and a GUI styled after the one found in the Kingdom Hearts games. It's RPG mechanics come from getting points, ala Super Paper Mario, to level up player's Health, Attack, Defense, Weapon Attack, and Weapon Defense.

You have a movement joystick, a joystick for changing camera angles, a D-Pad used for activating either the Quick Menu in singlepalyer or taunts/ping in multiplayer, a jump button, two attack buttons (one for light/main and another for heavy/alt) a crouch button, a dodge button, and a lock-on button.

During the game's single player story modes, Aozora/Dedrick can find a large variety of what's known as "Gear", which include swords, guns, hammers, gloves, boomerangs, and starting in 64 2, miscellaneous tools that can be equipped to give extra abilities. On consoles, pressing "Weapon Switch L" and "Weapon Switch R" will cycle between melee attacks, the first weapon and the second weapon.

*Swords: Any bladed weapon falls under this category. These are secondary Melee options that allow players to attack differently than with basic melee, such as with greater range, higher agility/speed, or attack power, along with additional perks and effects.
*Guns: Used to weaken foes from a distance by firing bullets and other projectiles. Includes automatic firing weapons, shotguns, sniper rifles, and rocket launchers. Guns that are more effective at close range tend to deal greater damage.
*Hammers: Large objects on a stick used to pound opponents with. They tend to have the strongest attack power of any of the weapons, but can be somewhat slow, including weighing down a user and their maneuverability should they have it currently equipped.
*Gloves/Boots: Unlike other weapons, these are always shown on the wearer's hands at all times and are active when standard melee is selected. These enhance the user's melee attacks in some way, such as adding effects or providing them with elemental damage, among other boosts.
*Miscellaneous Tools: Anything that isn't used for directly attacking, either to boost something on the user, assist allies, or disrupt opponents. Sometimes, these tools will be in effect when the weapon in the other slot or standard melee is being used.

Gear can provide attack, defense, or speed boosts when equipped (even if not currently in the user's hands), alongside various types of elemental damage. In Multiplayer, the players instead use "mass-produced" versions that are player-balanced and sometimes give out nerfs/stat reductions when used if wielding the weapon has some kind of positive stat enhancement.

In Multiplayer, players create a custom avatar from scratch, which can use one of the following body styles, available in both genders.

*Child
*Teenager
*Young Adult
*Slim Adult
*Muscular Adult
*XL (Heavy) Adult

Avatars can be customized in many, many ways, with simple and advanced customization. In Advanced, players pick front hair style, top hair style, back hair style, eyes (including eye shape, color (of both the iris and the sclera, as well as adding eye shadow), nose, mouth, ears, headwear, head accessory, neck, shirt (with three layers to allow for open coats and the like), wrist-wear, hands, belts, pants-top, pants-bottom (also with multiple players), socks (if wanted), and footwear. All of these parts can be individually colored, some even with multiple colors/patterns. Tattoos on the skin and decals/patches on clothes are also possible.

Each type of avatar has different base stats, with varying power, defense, and agility. Switching genders does not change the base stats, so therefore a female Young Adult will have the same base stats as a male Young Adult. Stats can be customized by adjusting each one individually- when rising one stat, the others will drop steadily. Depending on how you change your stats and what weapons/equipments you pick, your character is given one of seven different labels.

*Balanced - A style that can play well on any role.
*Offensive - A style geared for directly attacking forces.
*Defensive - A style that is geared for guarding defending key locations on a map, but can also deal damage if necessary
*Speedy - A style based on high speed, usually enforcing hit-and-run strategy, but is quite frail.
*Tank - The opposite of Speedy. They're big, can take and deal hits, but move slow.
*Support - A style that provides direct aid to allies and/or disrupt enemy forces, while having small offensive presence.
*Tricky - A variation of Balanced, a character that battles through unorthodox strategies or a perfect blend of two different playstyles without going into Balanced.

You can save up to 30 different character designs and bring 1 into each battle, with 5 weapon loadouts for each character with the ability to swipe weapons from downed enemies and the map itself and use them until death, though some gametypes/maps will start you off with no weapons or a basic weapon set, requiring you to seek out equipment on the map.

The following game modes are what I'm considering for the 64 series, with game modes colored blue being free-for-all with no set teams.

==Deathmatch Arenas==

Deathmatch
>Team Deathmatch
Last Man Standing
>Team LMS
Zombies
Juggernaut
>Team Juggernaut
Possession
>Team Possession
King of the Hill
>Team KotH
Territories
Tag
>Sticky Bombers
Boss Battles
>Light vs. Dark

(if arenas are symmetrical, CTF game modes can be played as well)

==CtF Arenas==
Capture the Flag
>One Flag CTF
>Stockpile Flags
Attack the Base
Team KotH
Territories
Assault
>One Bomb Assault
Double Payload
Two-Team Payload

==Defender Arenas==
Payload
Battery Attack
Flag Defender
Team Sneaking

==Circuit Arenas==
Race
Demolition Derby

==Other Arenas==
Balloon Race
Water Balancers

==Sports Centers==
Bowling
Billiards
Hockey
Golf
Shuffleboard


(Currently in progress)

Thursday, August 27, 2015

Aozora the Fighters: Character Roster

Text only cause I'm lazy.

  1. Aozora
  2. Satoru
  3. Keisha
  4. Zik
  5. Satoru
  6. Gaiden Support character
  7. Genroy
  8. Fakhriya
  9. Matthias
  10. Shinobu
  11. Taiyang
  12. Orochi
  13. Kento
  14. Keanu
  15. Masayoshi
  16. Chinatsu
  17. Girou
  18. Saniko
  19. Kazuhiko
  20. Bachi
  21. Sharkane
  22. Grip
  23. Gnear
  24. Mignonette
  25. Talisha
  26. Nirave
  27. Rodrigo
  28. Ptolema
  29. Gratien
  30. Lachlan (Latin Pirate)
  31. Kaberno (Big Mecha Fist Boy)
  32. Claud (Sand Bottle Teen)
  33. Stanislav (Russian Mecha Boy )
  34. Eugene
  35. Jullian
  36. Randolph (Joust Man)
  37. Wernher (Warfare Man)
  38. Florencia (Festival Woman)
  39. Yukon (Flashfreeze Man)
  40. Motokazu (Tempest Man)
  41. Edurizo (Avalanche Man)
  42. Chouko (Carnival Woman)
  43. Hiromori (Jolt Man)
  44. (Shrine Woman)
  45. Butch (Outlaw Man)
  46. Kalmanu (Congo Man)
  47. Michitaro (Pursuit Man)
  48. Ottomar (Clockwork Man)
  49. (Retro Man)
  50. Malia (Maple Woman)
  51. Tremaine (Titan Man)
  52. Konomi (Meteor Woman)
  53. Niji (Spectrum Man)
  54. Fayato
  55. Erebos
  56. Kelthilda
  57. Robo-Aozora
  58. Vasuman (Eruption Man)
  59. Aberthol (Glacier Man)
  60. Uchizora
  61. Joker
  62. Orpheus

Character with placeholder or not final name
Easy Unlockable - Finish one round of Arcade or wait 4 days, then battle after a match
Medium Unlockable - Meet Condition, then battle after a match
Hard Unlockable - Pre-Final Bosses - Playable in Console Only, Meet Condition, then battle
Final Bosses - Playable in Console Only as Nerfed versions in Multiplayer, Meet Condition, no battle required

Notes:
*#6 is the second character in this collection of sketches.
*#30-33 are described here.
*#35-38 are the Roast Elites with #58 being the leader, described here.
*#39-41 are the Frost Elites with #59 being the leader
*#42-49 are the Rock-Aozora III bosses, with weapons described here. #50-53 are the "four extras"
*Several characters also have Wiki pages named after their filler "Man/Woman" names, including a description of their appearances.

Sunday, August 16, 2015

Rock-Aozora 3: Final Roster + Wepaons list

Alright, I've been plotting this for a while, so here's the final roster (of filler names, that is) for Rock-Aozora 3:

Main 8 bosses:

Carnival Woman - Carnival Scythe
Jolt Man - Jolt Anchor
Shrine Woman - Vortex Blade
Outlaw Man - Outlaw Pistol
Congo Man - Melon Storm
Pursuit Man - Shadow Pursuit
Clockwork Man - Seeker Beam
Retro Man - Pixel Shield

The four extras (they do not give players weapons):

Maple Woman
Titan Man
Meteor Woman
Spectrum Man

If any of you have character name ideas, please let me know (so I can get these guys onto the Wiki)

Here are the weapon icons for the obtainable weapons in-game, with their functions listed below. Support items not listed.
Carnival Scythe: Think a giant (double the size of) Shadow Blade from Mega Man 3, except there's a bigger limit (3 instead of 1) as to how many you can throw at a time. Plus, one will continue traveling behind you if you don't catch it.
Jolt Anchor: Doubles as an utility item, shoot and you'll fire two syringe-shaped darts attached to your buster via metal wires that will latch onto an enemy (even bosses) and drain their health, recovering your own. You can still move (albeit at a reduced speed) and can keep the anchors on one enemy for as long as you want until you're forced to retract them after you suck in up to 12 units of health. You can also 
Vortex Blade: Fired similiar to Carnival Scythe, but instead of returning to the user, it stops in place, extends eight blades (four main blades and four smaller blades), and starts spinning and firing mini- blades all around the screen in alternating + and x patterns for approx. three seconds. When it's done, it charges forwards from the direction it was fired in while continuing to spin, doing massive damage to anything that dares get in it's way. You can only fire one at a time, and after firing you can continue to use the Aozora Buster until the Vortex Blade dashes off.
Outlaw Pistol: Psycho Missile from Megamari on crack, it now has a limit of three on-screen at a time, and the explosion from the Outlaw Pistol's bullets continue to travel forwards after striking something, the explosions retaining the same speed as the bullets, something like Trinitro Blast from Mega Man Unlimited.
Melon Storm: Nothing like Tropical Hazard from Street Fighter X Mega Man; with Melon Storm you cause an earthquake that causes the entire top of the screen to spawn explosive melons that rain down at differing speeds. The melons pass through solid ground and only explode when they hit an enemy.
Shadow Pursuit: With this weapon equipped, you gain the ability to "slide" (in a dashing pose, ala Bass or Break Dash from Mega Man V) faster and further distances from anywhere, even in mid-air (though you're limited to two dashes in mid-air). You can boost yourself in any direction, in addition to invulnerability from almost anything except for instant-death traps while you dash. 
Seeker Beam: A beam that twists and turns to hit absolutely anything on-screen. It's a bit weak because of this, about the same strength as Alice's default weapon from Megamari (though a hair bit stronger since it's not a default weapon), but it has a lot of energy and is capable of doing lots of hits on a single enemy in rapid succession, even giving bosses only half the time of Mercy Invincibility if they get hit by it.
Pixel Shield: A shield composed of pixels rotating around you, press Fire to turn on the shield, press it again to turn it off. You reflect projectiles back at attackers, deal continuous damage to anything you lean against with the shield on, and you're even protected from stage hazards while the shield is on. It eats through energy a bit slower than Skull Barrier form Mega Man 4, but it's still somewhat quick.

Wednesday, March 25, 2015

Two more high-def sketches


Top: The assumed main villain of the Darkness side-story.
Bottom: The main female lead form the Oriental side-story.

Monday, February 16, 2015

Series Chronology.

From earliest to latest, this is the order in which the Aozora's Adventure games would take place.

  1. Aozora's Adventure
  2. Aozora's Adventure 64
  3. Aozora's Adventure RPG
  4. Rock-Aozora
  5. Aozora's Adventure II/Rock-Aozora 2
  6. Aozora's Adventure Gaiden
  7. Aozora's Adventure 3D World
  8. Aozora's Adventure III
  9. Rock-Aozora 3
  10. Aozora's Adventure 64 2
The colors on the titles are to show the three current main story arcs the games take place in.

Wednesday, February 4, 2015

Updates plus more concepts

Well, I know this blog doesn't get a lot of hits, but for those few that do, well good for you, because I got some minor announcements.

The artwork of Sharkane that I was working on since last week has been scrapped simply because I could not get the pose to work under any circumstances. My current solution is to make a pose that's a bit less dramatic (at the cost of getting swarmed by people saying "generic standing poses are crap") if I do choose to try drawing Sharkane again, or move onto another character.

Currently, finishing the Aozora's Adventure II cast is top priority, which is the group Sharkane is apart of. The group includes...

*Masayoshi (Done)
*Chinatsu (Done)
*Girou
*Saniko (Done)
*Fayato (Done)
*Kazuhikio (Done)
*Bachi
*Sharkane
*Grip
*Gnear
*Mignonette

I was also suggested by my good IRL friend Dominick to return to sketching concepts, which means a chance to finally give the Gaiden, Adventure III, and Rock III characters a real concept, especially Rodrigo who I only bothered drawing the head of since I didn't have a design for his lower body. However from all the stress I got trying to do the Sharkane pic I mentioned, I think I'll rest out a few days before I dive back into art.


Anyways a few concepts. These characters would most be prevalent in the series' spinoffs (which would include a kart-racing game and a tournament fighter) and wouldn't have any major appearance in the main series.

♂*The first character is the oldest of the four designs (around roughly Aozora's age) and is a mashup of two Disney characters: Jake from Jake and the Never Land Pirates and Francesco Bernoulli from Cars 2, alongside El Chavo from El Chavo del Ocho. He takes on the general template and color scheme of Jake, the personality of Francesco, and the nationality of El Chavo, making him a somewhat competitive Spanish pirate and easily the tamest of Aozora's main rivals (Masayoshi, Girou, Rodrigo, and him), since he is the only one not to be a full villain.

Thankfully, this character would not be what you'd call a racial stereotype. Despite originating from Mexico and having a Spanish accent, he's not portrayed in any form of negative light.

♂*The second design is based mostly on Takaharu Fukuroda from Kill la Kill. In this case, we have a Japanese schoolboy in his freshman year that competes in his school's boxing club (He plays fair, though). He has almost super strength and in combat against opponents outside the ring, he brings in massive metallic gloves that he wears, which have thrusters on the back ends for faster blows and doubly serve as miniature cannons that fire glove-shaped beams of energy.

♂*The third design is one huge shout-out to Gaara from what else but Naruto. He's a year older than design number 2 above (making him a high-school student in sophomore year) and resembles a somewhat young emo punk-rock Latin-American. Strapped to his back is a large, oversized plastic drinking bottle filled with sand and with many pieces of tape (of various kinds) and stickers on the surface (meant to mimic Gaara's own sand gourd, complete with a sticker that says "MUM", a parody of the "MWM" markings on the gourd). Using magic, this character can uncap the lid from his bottle (which is attached to the bottle of sand and freely manipulate it however he wants. Though he isn't able to control it to the extent of Gaara; for instance he cannot control chunks of sand larger than what his bottle can hold or else he tires out almost instantly. Personality-wise he's a bit of a grump and not exactly the social type.

♂*Design #4 is probably the most unique of the four characters. Here, we have a young, fearless and wild Russian boy with  bright cyan hair, who pilots a mini-mecha with the main body resembling a blue colorization of Dark Man 1 from Mega Man 5. with a pilot's seat in the body's "head" (which is fully exposed, therefore you can see the driver). Much like Design #1 above, he is not portrayed as a stereotype of his nationality. The only thing that would hint at him being Russian would be his ascent and the Russian text present on his mecha.