Lua Zoe Ying
Game Designer | Level Designer
III Maiden : Legend of Hazel
Character Artist | Narrative Designer
Ill Maiden - Legend of Hazel | DigiPen Institute of Technology Singapore
Defeating enemies levels up Hazel, awarding her ability points. She can use these abilities to train certain parts of her body to change her appearance, and increase some stats.
When Hazel fights her way to her peak, she transforms into her ultimate form!
Hazel saves her beloved prince in the last fight at the Dark Overlord's lair.
Description
Rescue your beloved knight from the clutches of the Dark Overlord and prove that you are strong enough to be loved by him. III Maiden - Legend of Hazel is an action beat'em up game which allows players to customize Hazel to their own play style. Be it tougher, stronger or faster, grow Hazel to help her attract her MANLY knight.
Genre
2D Side-scrolling Brawler
Role Summary
Duration
Jan 2016 - Apr 2016
Team Size
5
Engine
Unity
Character Artist
I was tasked with creating the character's design, animations, and all the different forms that Hazel could have in the game.
Roles:
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Coming up with the concept of the character
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Creating the different frames for each animation
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Gathering feedback on the animation to know if the character's attacks feel good
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Creating all the spritesheets for the programmers to use in Unity.
Punching
As we are doing a side-scrolling brawler that focuses on humour and combat, it is of importance that the character is animated in a way that each punch and hit is clear and exaggerated.
Frames where Hazel's punch makes contact are longer than the rest to emphasize on the impact.
Player Customization
We want the players to have the freedom to customize Hazel however they want by powering up her Arms, Chest, and Legs to achieve distinct looks. As such, at certain stages whereby the ability points were added, Hazel's body will change accordingly.
Hazel's body and animation changes according to how the player adds his stats with his ability points.
Hazel's Ultimate Form
And of course, Hazel's ultimate form is drastically different, and completely breaks the stereotypical slender princess look in medieval fantasy games. This is to create a satisfaction for the player when he achieves this full combo, and also, add more humour to the game. Afterall, no one really expects a bufflord princess.
Hazel transforms completely when the player attains the full combo.
Narrative Designer
The narrative had to not only be short but also be a humourous take on how Hazel began her journey to begin with.
This is told shortly in the form of comic strips for the player at the start and end of the game.
To add on to the humour of the entire game, the 'Prince in shining armour' is used, as the prince rides in his horse to save the damsel in distress, and she falls in love with her. However, the twist comes in whereby the prince actually loves stout dames, which is different from many medieval stories whereby princes are fond of beautiful, slender princesses.
Also, as the team wishes to instill the sense of female empowerment in the player. As such, Hazel now sets on a journey to save her beloved, while growing stronger as she journeys.
The team and I agreed that the narrative should not only break stereotypes to help bring out our game pillar of instilling female empowerment and humour, but also to use it as a selling point for the game. Very rare do we see a buff princess saving the prince.