In this game, the player plays as a little guinea pig wizard from a small village. Their goal is to reach the top of a distant tower that is rumored to have a powerful magical artifact at the top. The game sees the player controlling their little guinea pig protagonist from the 3rd person view, exploring the land from their village to the tower.
The game functions like an action RPG, where the player freely explores the world similar to an adventure game, but coming into contact with enemies causes them to enter a fight mode of sorts. The player can still freely move around in this fight mode, and cas spells and choose attacks while trying to avoid whatever their enemy is doing. Leaving a certain radius away from the enemy counts as fleeing the encounter. Players that defeat an enemy get experience and can level up to gain new spells and abilities to use in fights.
The characters in the world are mostly other guinea pigs with other creatures from the “small pets” section of a pet store. Most of them can be found in the home village, but some will be encountered along the road as well. The village contains several notable characters. There is a village elder who resides in their home. A wandering swordsman stands near the village exit who talks of trying to go to the tower himself. A local chef runs an open air kitchen who will eventually cook you meals to give you status boosts. A merchant runs a stall nearby who peddles their wares. The player might even find a hidden local recluse if they explore enough.
The beginning of the game sees the player start in the village. This village is located in a glen near the edge of a forest. The buildings look like the stuff you would put in a guinea pig or hamster cage, but made of natural materials and appear to be built by the residents themselves rather than bought from a pet store.
This game is intended for people who like cute, fun games. Definitely not for the crowd of gamers who enjoy difficult, hardcore games. Ideally, this is a game that everyone can theoretically enjoy. However, those that would enjoy it the most would be people who like games in fantasy settings and more cartoony, less realistic art styles.
The art style will be cartoony and simple, with cell shading. Something similar to Ori and the Blind Forest mixed with The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker. Most structures and any clothing will reflect the fantasy theme, trying to look as medieval as possible while still referencing objects in a modern small pet habitat. There will also be a lot of natural elements added in, to make it feel like a more primal and ancient environment. It will rely on simple shapes and patterns rather than realism, along with bright, vibrant colors. This is to keep the game light and fun.
Concept Sketches!
Here’s some of the character and building ideas I had!
References
Here’s some images I chose to help set the games mood and theme:
The chef concept I came up with and the open air kitchen were a little bit inspired by the chef from Monster Hunter 4. I always liked the idea of a tiny chef that cooks with a giant wok.
The following images I used for drawing reference, but they still are great for drawing inspiration from in order to play with how I can make the characters and objects in game look like the things from real life while still fitting them into the art style I want.
Hehe, I love the little guinea pigs. I think they’re such an interesting choice for a player character – I don’t think I’ve ever seen a game about a guinea pig before! Will the focus of this game be on the village, the road, or the tower? I think I need to see a map to get a better sense of the world this is taking place in.
The area I will be making will be the starting village. If this were a full fledged game, the player would get to see the other two locations but for the sake of scope I’m keeping it to the starting area.
I really like the idea of cell shading, that is something I’ve always wanted to learn how to do in 3D so I’m excited to see how yours will look! Your scope seems pretty big from a gameplay perspective, what mechanics are the most important for your game that you are planning to implement within the 7 weeks?
More the most part I am trying to focus on the ability to explore and interact with objects. The area I plan on making for the player to explore in this class is the starting village, so there won’t be any enemies for combat to initiate, and therefore no need for any sort of magic system yet. Though I might make it so you can press a key to make little particle effects appear!
I love all the cute character designs and concept behind the game, very good tone to make the player feel like the adventure is big when their perspective is so small in stature. The combat mechanics seem like a heavy feature to implement, if implemented, do you have any idea what the gameplay of these sections will be like? Any comparisons to any other RPG series/games so we could get a sense of the combat/gameplay loop?
Theoretically the combat would be something similar to Xenoblade Chronicles. I don’t think I’m going to include any real combat stuff into the game for this class, simply because that would make the scope way too big.
Guinea pig wizard… is a perfect concept. No comments needed.
Okay just kidding, but I love him so much.
Are you planning on making environments much larger than the character to show off scale, or is it set in a guinea-pig-sized world? You could have a mix of the two, with places off in the distance that are huge compared to the small world of your characters? Just an idea, I love the concept!!
Everything the player sees will be guinea pig sized in the beginning. Ideally if I were to add on more to this game I would make things gradually get bigger and less designed for small critters so it would fit that “leaving the ordinary world to go into the unfamiliar world” thing from the hero’s journey.
This really gives off Hamatoro with some Moss vibes. I really can not wait to see what the sets are going to look like.
Thank you!
This is a very cute and fun concept! I love the idea of the magic guinea pig protagonist. Will the creatures be anthropomorphized and use their hands for tools and such or stay more similar to the real creatures? It may be fun to have the chef character holding a spatula in their mouth and the characters acting more like their real life counterparts.
Thanks! So, the more quadrupedal characters will hold things in their mouths. The guinea pig with the sword will likely wield it like Sif, the wolf with the sword from dark souls. But, animals that do use their front legs to hold things and such will use their hands. For example, hamsters often eat and grab food with their hands.
I like your casting very much, it looks very innovative! We often see memorable images of mice or hamsters in games or film and television works. The guinea pig is definitely an imaginative idea. In addition, the idea of organically combining medieval architectural style and pet supplies in your scene is also very good. I can clearly understand this from your sketches. The effect will be very good.
But I have a question, as a guinea pig, will our posture in the game change: For example, when fighting, do we mostly keep standing on two feet or on all fours? if we decide to let the character stand most of the time Does it mean that the scale of the model should be adjusted accordingly to keep the character balanced while still cute. I think the character action design in Ratatouille might be helpful.
So for character movement and posture, I was thinking that the quadrupedal characters would use objects and weapons like Sif from Dark Souls does. The only characters that would use their forepaws like hands would be those who actually use them like that sometimes in real life, like hamsters.
The guinea pigs are so adorable! My roomate owns a few herself so I showed her this game concept. She gives your ginnies a big stamp of aproval. I’m personally curious to what kind of magic the wizard ginnie knows. Did he study a specific school of magic, was it inherited at birth, or was it obtained by some other means?
Wonderful to hear that my work is piggie owner approved! To answer your question, I imagine it was inherited at birth. The magic revolves around the simple elemental spells like fire, ice, etc. Also tell your roommates guinea pigs I said hi 🙂