So i’m hoping that once i get set up with Wine i’ll be able to run this 2D Fighter Maker engine on my iMac (if not i’m seriously considering using Parallels or Bootcamp now), i’ve been wanting to create my own beat-em-up starring a bunch of my mates and me knocking seven shades of shit out of each other with unstoppable techniques for years and goddammit i ain’t waiting any longer!

With that in mind i’ve started on some simple ideas before i get into the concept art properly and set myself a game design bible, right now it’s simply at the fun stage where any and every idea is good and nothing is tied down!

This pretty much covers what i think is needed minimum for a single character basic move set… oh damn that’s a lot of work!!

Here’s some ideas for the character called Test Monkey, i don’t want to start on any of the real characters on my first go as it is pretty much guaranteed to be terrible, so here is my throwaway guy, i’ll be able to get a style down with him and get to grips with the game mechanics hopefully by the time he’s done.

Some early ideas for other characters, i plan on doing eight total (nine including Test Monkey), and some sort of boss character maybe, i need to figure out the story first before i do that though.

I’ll keep posting updates on the game as and when anything interesting happens or when i bang out any cool art related to it, stay tuned!!

Glynn’s character Angry-san is created, although i can’t really claim credit for the character because for as long as i’ve known Glynn he has been Angry-san, i guess i’m just simply stealing his likeness.

The plan is Angry-san is going to be the most aggressive in game, he is the Akuma of Roshambo, an idea i’m really looking forward to developing!

This has to be one of the characters i’ve had the most fun with so far, it’s going to be a right laugh getting the footage of Frenzy acting like Frenzy. I’m basically trawling the depths of my geek knowledge here and bastardizing my favourite childhood cartoon show, for this everything from Frenzy’s stage to his support character and moves i’m trying to keep faithful to the 1980′s tv show.

Good to know my natural ability to be a dumbass is as strong as ever, spilling coffee all over my concept art, bad times, could be worse though, if i lost all this i’d be gutted, so long as i maintain my development blog on Roshambo i’ll have a handy digital copy of all my ideas (so long as the database doesn’t corrupt again, fucks sake, every time i post now i’m going to backup everything, i ain’t loosing shit anymore!).

Fleshed out Test Monkey a little more, spent some time working on possible moves for him, his stage, win / loose animations, etc, i’m really starting to like this guy.

I spent some time on Sayaka’s character in Roshambo, she’s getting the Tokusatsu treatment and becoming a Japanese superhero whose identity remains secret (maybe) until the end of the game.
I figure some of my Japanese mates are going to be difficult to pin down for the rotoscoping technique i want to use for the in-game animation, Sayaka especially so as she’s mad busy these days, this i think will be a good workaround, but to be honest by the time i get round to working on her character i’ll have enough money saved for my next trip to Japan so i’ll bully her into doing the animation then! haha, good times!

Early ideas for the Roshambo logo, i’ve got some thoughts brewing now, i want a nice graphic for this

For whatever reason i can’t seem to bash out ideas at home, not easily at any rate, too many distractions, so i usually find myself making a little expedition out to Opposite to get my drink on and my think on

Not had much time for my beloved Roshambo beat-em-up recently, my job’s been keeping me busy and for some reason everyone thinks i can go without sleep and build them a website like it’s fucking nothing, oh well, i plan on booking a holiday soon and getting on top of my work then, that’ll be great

Spent a bit more time sketching out some thoughts on the logo, not sure if this is the right direction any more but at least i’m thinking…

Joey-HULK! gets a little more developed, i can’t decide whether i want her to be all hench or not, perhaps just a little hench as it’ll be funnier…

This is the first time i’ve been able to post anything on Roshambo in ages! It sucks, i’ve been so busy that when i finally came back to my sketches i couldn’t remember half of the stuff i was going to draw for intro animations, backstories and character ideas! This is what i get for keeping it all in my head and not making detailed notes, grrrr, 僕はばかだよ！！＞.＜

Anyway, here’s some stuff i have managed to complete.

Introducing my underhanded boxer, Haigh “The Bounty” Hunter.

Every game needs it’s villan: Anna – Evil Overlord Supreme!!

Just a random sketch trying to figure out the character…

My sketches are getting pretty battered so i thought it was time i gave them a better cover to keep them safe, plus it let me work on the logo some more.

I know this next week is going to be tough with work, besides what i do at work i’ve also got to build a site (should of been built already truth be told), window graphics to create and graphic editing, i’m not gonna have much free time again, bah, i need more days in the week, or to actually have days off on my days off instead of being given work from work to do at home!

Realised that the loose bits of paper i was using for the Roshambo concept art were starting to get a little ragged from living in my bag, so i spent some time sticking them into a nice little sketchbook, now they should be a little more robust and hopefully can take a lot more punishment travelling around with me

Fleshed out some of Anna Overlord’s backstory and junk, there’s some deep character development i’m working on here, it’s rich!

Frenzys character gets a little better thought out. The first sketch looked too much like Frenzy from the original G1 Transformers, I want this character to look like he’s not a fully fledged member of the Decepticons yet, like he has to go through some hazing beforehand by entering the Roshambo tournament, so right now he only has a hand-me-down robotic upperbody and the rest of him is still human.

I want to do a nice big splash image to promote the game and just simply to draw something Roshambo related that isn’t scribbles, here’s some of the thinking i do before approaching a big piece, group shots are always difficult to do but it’ll be so satisfiying to have a more finished piece to display.

I’m putting Frenzy on the back burner for now as i try to figure out if a few of the ideas i want for him are possible or not, but luckily while messing around doing some photo manipulation of my one of my friends who is helping me to study Japanese, i accidentally ended up with the concept for an all new (awesome) character, あきらマター (AkiraNator), a terrifying cyborg Japanese language instructor sent back in time from the future, hell-bent on making sure Bboy Krillin has done his homework.

Listen, and understand! That AkiraNator is out there! It can’t be bargained with. It can’t be reasoned with. It doesn’t feel pity, or remorse, or fear. And it absolutely will not stop, ever, until you have done your homework.

The trouble with designing a character based on yourself to be placed within a fighting game roster i think, is that it can easily descend into a massive ego massage. I wanted to avoid creating some noble, self sacrificing hero or dark, roguish, anti-hero. As much as i’d like to consider myself that sort of person in real life, the truth is that neither of those archtypes is a reflection on who i am.

It’s been easy so far to create a character based on a friend as i can focus on any single trait or even a joke i like and run with it, this is the apporach i’ve used for everyone so far in the game and it’s worked pretty well for me up to now. With that in mind i started thinking of some of the jokes or observations people have made about me recently that i liked (calling me a wanker, while true, doesn’t give a lot of room for character design, at least not for a character you’d make the mistake of selecting twice).

Now back at my old job, Joey used to refer to me as Grandad because i’m older than her, it got me thinking that i could be the oldest character in the game, not physically, but as i already have a character who has travelled back in time in the shape of AkiraNator a psychotic Japanese Language teaching cyborg from a post-apocalyptic future, i could take this in the opposite direction and have a steampunk inspired Victorian-era time traveller as a basis for my character!

Ladies and Gentlemen, i present to you Mr. B.B.Krillin. In my head i see him as a member of a secret time travelling league or society that operates out of Victorian London, defending Englands timeline from people whose intentions work towards destroying it, in a sense it’s kind of like Alan Moore and Kevin O’Neill’s “The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen” as i want the group to be comprimised of mostly fictional 1800 and 1900 era literary characters, for a while this bothered me somewhat, but then i realised that this is nothing more than backstory that the player will probably never even be aware of, i am simply trying to establish the characters roots so i have a strong postion to work from in coming up with his personality and style. As it is not the central theme to the game i don’t feel like i am plagiarising their work, you wont even see these people other than in the background of B.B. Krillins stage within the game.

With regards to the people who serve in this society, some names that are currently swimming around inside my head are Sherlock Holmes, Dr. Watson, The Time Traveller (natually, lol), Captain Ahab, The invisible Man, Dracula, Frankensteins Monster and E.W. Barton-Wright, a person who actually existed in real life in 1900′s London.

The reason i want E.W.Barton-Wright is he was one of the first Europeans known to have studied the Japanese martial arts, and certainly one of the first to teach them in the west. Using his knowledge he invented a martial art called Bartitsu, which was a mixture of several different martial arts including Jujitsu, Judo, Boxing and Savate to try and address the problems of self defence in a modern day urban setting. With this he anticipated Bruce Lee’s Jeet Kune Do approach by over seventy years. This offers me a chance to create a unique character with a unconventional fighting style which really excites me

Since coming up with all this, the character has rapidly become my favourite in Roshambo, the backstory has been the most fun to brainstorm over which is why i’m probably enjoying it so much, brainstorming is always a blast, it’s nothing but ideas and creativity!

Say Tuned!