REDEEMER

Synopsis

We all know the myth of the evil gorgon, Medusa. All tales tell of the same story- she was an evil vain human that had scorned the gods, and as punishment her beautiful hair was turned into snakes and she was cursed to turn every human she laid eyes on to stone, forcing the monster into isolation.

What if I told you that wasn’t true?

Here’s the real story:

Medusa was a beautiful sculptor that hated men because all they wanted to do was conquer her and take advantage of her. Her beauty was so otherwordly, even Poseidon took notice and sought to take advantage. Seeing this, Athena bestowed upon her the gift of self-defense- to petrify those that cast hateful eyes towards her, and in turn turn her beloved sculptures to life.

But the men in the village have come for her.

FIND HER. AVENGE HER.

Click This Link to Play: https://percysimms.itch.io/redeemer

Background

The inception of the idea of this project came along a few years ago, during my senior year of high school. Throughout the years, I have held Medusa and Her Creation as original characters in my heart for years, always intending on creating an in- depth project dedicated to them. The first iteration of this project started as a comic book. Medusa was intended to be in love with her sculpture that had come to life as a blessing for her dedication to her craft. The tale was intended to be a love story, and in many ways it still is.

You may be asking several questions right now, like ‘Percy, why didn’t you make the comic?” or “Percy, why did you decide against making it set in the present day?” or “Percy, wow, the concept design is cute!” And to that, I first say, thank you for your kind words, I’m touched, but also I thought that the modern world idea would fit best in a comic- an avenue purely dedicated to world-building and story telling. I also came to the realization that I was a bit too impatient to sit down and draw out an entire comic book. The idea also sat with me to be made potentially into an animation to be put on Youtube, but if I was too lazy to make a comic, I was definitely too lazy to create a whole animated series.

So, I decided enough was enough and chose to use this idea that had been brewing in my brain for years and unleash it on my thesis game.

Iterations

The first hurdle for me was environment design. As an illustrator that prioritizes drawing primarily human figures, it was a personal challenge that I was taking up with myself to personally draw and animate the environment of my game, and so the consideration of the environment assets went through several iterations.

Before I decided on pixel art, I thought to do a painterly style.

In this same vein, I created the walk cycle for the main character in a painterly style, as well.

The painterly style was short-lived, though and I quickly pivoted to a pixel-art style, as it was less time-consuming and it was easier to create flowing assets. This was the best decision I’ve made, and in doing so, have produced background assets I was very proud of.

The other assets are cute too, so play the game=to see them!