The angels and demons game was work I completed for the class “Interactive Media Production”, a class where you work as a team to complete a game concept from ideation, production and publishing. All members of the team submitted ideas and we all voted on the idea we liked the best. I was excited about the concept of angels and demons in the game idea since I’ve always been interested in non-Christianity conforming ideas on what angels look like. I started with initial sketches of the angels by twisting traditional imagery like the wings and halos to give a more horror vibe, as well as evangelical imagery of multiple eyes on the wings. I was also interested in the idea of the angels closest to God being unable to look upon God, so using coverings over their eyes or masks. While the angels came really easily for me, I had a harder time with ideas for the demons. I played around with the more traditional goat/faun with horns imagery and then decided to look at the opposite of angels (ie. air) by making the demons look more like sea creatures with a heavy influence from Lovecraft lore. 

 

In our game design document, it was explained how many angels there would likely be and what their skills would be to assist the playable character in the game. These angels were Save (to save progress), Bullet (upgrade ammo), Healing (heal health), Reload (upgrade weapons) and Vitality (make attacks stronger). From the skill description I came up with body types that would not only differentiate the angels from each other but also show what their skill was. Save has a very non-threatening almost soft body shape with open arms while Bullet has a very regal posture of someone in charge and lots of spikes for deadliness. Healing is a little more tired looking and frail with a halo which reminded me of an old fashioned nurse cap. Each angel would have their own colour scheme which, to me, linked with their skill. Blue is calming while dark grey is threatening but not to the point of “evil”. The angel’s halos are made of bone, showing that it’s more a part of them than an accessory and giving more of that horror vibe. The main idea with the bone halos was to show a link between the angels and the demons, where a demon being a fallen angel would have their halo broken in the fall creating the horns. Ultimately there was a group decision against the bone halos in the end. I tried a few options for the face but it was decided that having no face was a better look since the faces somehow made the angels either look too comedic or too grotesque. Having no face gives the angels a lack of identity or individualism which works for them. 

 

The faun-style demons are more traditional looking but with a more skull-like face to add the horror element. The team immediately wanted a more traditional red colour scheme but for development I also looked at blue for a concept of Underworld or a sorrowful feeling and a forest green for either a link to the faun imagery or a more slimy grotesque feeling. The group was split in decisions between red and blue so both were added into the environment thumbnails. I created a walk cycle for the faun demon which made use of the anatomy of goats walking to add authenticity. I originally wanted the faun demon to use their claws as an attack but I couldn’t get it to look dynamic enough for pixels so I gave them a weapon instead. When hit, the demon would flash fully red a few times and then fall to their knees before disappearing from the player’s path. 

 

The gameplay was simplified during production from four demons and a boss level demon with five angels to two demons and three angels. The second demon was the Lovecraftian inspired demon who would be stationary but shoot at the player. This meant I could have fun with the tentacles without worrying about the walk cycle animation. The colour palette is inspired by deep sea water colours and the Lovecraftian story of the “King in Yellow”. Having a faceless demon was too similar to the angels, so instead I was inspired by the Pale Man from “Pan’s Labyrinth” and made the demon have large skull-like teeth and no eyes.