OVERVIEW
When the player defeats each boss in the game, I wanted them to give the character a weapon as a reward. Each weapon would be different but, similar to how I separated the characters to different sides, they would be designs to match the Sun or Moon. This included incorporating moon symbols or spikes to represent sun rays alongside colours, which would be warm or cool toned. However, I made a last minute decision to design useable objects instead for the other planets apart from the Sun and Moon.
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RESEARCH
Genshin Impact
Following with the idea of giving the weapons alternative looks, Genshin Impact is notorious for their weapons design. Every weapon in the game has a new look depending on the level its at, max level being the final form with usually a glowing bloom effect to it. What I took from this was to maybe give my weapons alt designs depending on the players own level or how far they've progressed into the story.
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Devil May Cry
Because of the gothic style to the Devil May Cry games, I thought it could be good inspiration for my own designs. The spiked handle and guard was what inspired my protagonists signature weapon in the game. as well in the game, when you use the characters special abilities this often changes the style or colour of the weapon, which I ended up creating my own take on that in my development.
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Dynasty Warriors
I was already very familiar with the game before my research, I knew the games had an array of weapons based of real kinds with their own fantasy like style to it. One character I looked into specifically was Sun Shang Xiang. Majority of the games she's in she uses chakrams, which are bladed rings. Back when I still had the idea of creating weapons for each planet, I wanted to use charkrams for the inspiration for Uranus' signature weapon.
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Hades
When it came to the style for the weapons or items in my game, I followed a lot into the Hades style with the thick, bold lineart and the bright colours.
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IDEAS / DEVELOPMENT
The Sun
At first, I wanted to give each weapon an alternative style that matched the bosses look during the fight. The first example of this is the bow and arrow I drew up for the Suns weapon. The alternative look was to resemble an eclipse, but I later dropped the idea when I didn't see much purpose in it. Taking inspiration from what I was currently interested in at the time, which was Marvel, I designed the Suns new weapon from Captain America's shield. To give some variation when I thought about the combat and how the player would fight in combos, I designed her a longsword.
What I also began to try out was sketching how the weapons skills would look like in combat. First I decide on what type of weapon is correlated for each one is based off the meaning behind the planets. For instance, in astrology, the sun represents life force and vitality. This gave me the idea for the Suns weapon to give healing or defence for the player. What I created was when equipped with the Suns weapon, the player can use the shield to create a barrier around themselves and take a moment to heal.
Concept for charged attack
Going back to my inspiration off Genshin Impact's weapons, I decided my own spin could be that whatever weapon the final form of the characters are holding would be the gift given to the player as a reward, but until it's in the protagonists hands the design will be similar to Genshin Impact's unlevelled style without much colour or glow. Once the player equips it, the colour will appear and resemble the palette of whoever gave it. For example, the final form of the Sun has her holding a shield and a black longsword. While the shield remains unchanged once given to the player, the black longsword gets an orange glow down the centre.
The Moon
For the Moons weapon choice, I at first thought of a floating weapon. I had incorporated a lot of moon phases in my designs including the concept below. The idea is a small floating staff with rotating rings., surrounding it in a spiral is a different Moon phase for each "orb". These would be shot one by one in a combo with each attack slightly stronger until all orbs of the phase have been used. Then, the player could reload where the rings would spin and the orbs would return to do the combo again.
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Concept for combo attacks
As happy as I was with the design for the floating weapon, I did later change it when I accidentally designed the Moons final form with a scythe in mind. I wasn't sure why I changed it but I probably forgot during the time. However, I preferred the scythe design more than the moon phase weapon, I think it fit well into the design for the Moons last form and It reminded me of her headpiece.
Saturn
The next weapon I worked on was for Saturn. I already had in mind what I wanted to do, which was based off astronomical rings. These rings would originally be in one held form, with two other rings surrounding it before being able to split into two for combat. In its held form I sketched more moon phases around it. The inclusion of these moon phases was my way of adding some pattern to what planets were apart of the Moons kingdom.
Even though I created a final design, I chose to not include it in my final outcomes section. Because I changed a lot of the narrative later down the line that decided Uranus wouldn't exactly be included anymore in the cast, I could find a way in the future to create a way for the player to still obtain her weapon.
Even though I created a final design, I chose to not include it in my final outcomes section. Because I changed a lot of the narrative later down the line that decided Uranus wouldn't exactly be included anymore in the cast, I could find a way in the future to create a way for the player to still obtain her weapon.
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Concept for ranged attack
Planet Items
For the other planets, I had a difficult time balancing out if the weapon matched the design for them. I think knowing how little time I had left to design a different weapon for each planet made me rethink if it would be the best route. In my earlier ideas I thought about introducing something alike to the Hades reward system, where when the player gives a gift to a character, they are given an item called a Keepsake. Keepsakes are equipped to give specific buffs to help in combat or exploration. What I did next was sketch some small ideas of possible items to be given instead of weapons, using games such as Honkai Star Rail as inspiration.
Mercury
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The first item I tackled was Mercury's, as I wanted it to be something related to her headpiece. I went through different ideas for the stand, going between a pillar that matched in her design and a frame. Since I didn't think either of them gave enough of a mystical aesthetic that I was after, I started to mess around with the headpiece itself. I liked the idea of Mercury handing an old version of her headpiece to the player. As the headpiece was the centre of the item I also wanted it to look different to her current one, so I added an additional ring below of a crescent and thought about using one of her books as a backing for it to stand out more. When it came to the colour choices I was pleased with keeping it to match herself using purples and blues, but after a mistake colour dropping made the book dark with gold writing I thought it was much better.
Venus
Because of the story I had down for Venus being about two doomed lovers, I wanted their item to be something that matches both of them, but is still romantic. What I landed on was some heart shaped item at first, kind of like an ornament or a little weapon that couldn't be used. This then turned into a heart shaped pendant, that I later added cracks to and a broken chain to represent the couples demise.
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Jupiter
Jupiter was last minute and pretty simple. The planet is usually associated with a lightning bolt as a weapon, so i chose to use that into the item choice, using Jupiters colours for the bolt. The items I design for my game are not meant to show it's purpose for gameplay but act as more of a personal object to the planet as a thank you for helping them. I'm still on the fence about making them buffed items or to just keep them as special keepsakes with no purpose in combat and exploration.
While not exactly an item i the game, I thought it would be good to add in the design for the corruption I imagined. There are four stages to the growth of the corruption, each one slowly turning into a small black hole. If a character comes into contact with the first or second form, it only corrupts one or two parts of their body, the next stage with the white lines through turns their whole body into a silhouette, and lastly the full black hole is what changes their body to become stretched and adds more horror elements into the design.
FINAL OUTCOMES
REFLECTION
Weapon and item design was something new to learn over the weeks of this project. I can say I dove in too quickly with this section, wanting to get a head start and design a different and unique weapon for each planet. But I believe the changes to only having two weapon choices and instead creating signature items was a better choice, despite the little time I had left to work on them since I changed this very last minute. If I had more time, I think creating a more specifying concept for a move set for my weapons could have been an interesting addition or even go into further detail on the items uses and how they would appear when in the players inventory or equipped in game.