My concept involves a 3rd person action game where the player pilots a giant mech to protect a futuristic robot city from a mechanical monster that’s wreaking havoc. The player starts in the mech’s hangar, makes sure the mech is ready for deployment, then sends it up to the city via an elevator. Once the mech reaches the city, the player/pilots will fight the monster and neutralize it before it tries to blow up the entire city by destroying the power plant. To add on to the “piloted robot” feature, there will potentially be one or two pilot characters delivering dialogue pieces while shown piloting the mech from cockpits.
The game’s main feature is that the player & the enemy are colossal sized, so the environment assets are all miniature buildings, resembling an episode of Ultraman, Godzilla, Neon Genesis Evangelion, or any Saturday morning Monster-Of-The-Week cartoon/tokusatsu show. The game’s audience is people who are familiar with the specific genre of tokusatsu/cartoons. The game is mainly about hands-on combat without any complications in the way and experiencing the power fantasy of piloting a giant robot, smashing through obstacles and protecting the world.
The game’s art style would also lean on the cartoony aspect of things by exaggeration and usage of cel-shading, while the mech & the monster’s designs would use shows like SSSS.GRIDMAN and Neon Genesis Evangelion as references.
Sketch of the top-down views of the mecha’s hangar and the city itself.A more detailed concept sketch of the hangar and the city, featuring the mech and the monster.Concept sketch of the player’s mech and the pilot characters, as well as the pilot cams that will be used for dialogue pieces.Concept sketch of the monster and a few of its movements.A reference image featuring Evangelion Unit-01 against an Angel. This image shows the proportion between the characters and the environment around them.A model set of cyberpunk buildings, which are good style guides for the in-game environment.A model of Tekkaman Blade. This image is a useful reference for the mech’s design.A fight scene from SSSS.GRIDMAN. The rendering & coloring of the characters as well as their art style are useful references.A screenshot of the game Spark the Electric Jester 3, which is useful for figuring out the camera’s position, as well as the UI elements like HP bar and pilot cams. This image also provides reference for the composition of the in-game arena.Images of Gridman using his signature move Grid Beam. The player’s mecha could potentially have a beam attack/finisher to finish off the monster in style, with lasers and explosions to boot.Screenshot of the anime Space Patrol Luluco made by Studio Trigger. This is a reference for the pilot characters’ art style.Screenshot of the anime Kill La Kill, also done by Studio Trigger. The character perspective here could be used as a reference for the pilot cams.Another image of EVA-01 fighting an Angel. The poses of the characters here can be used as references to exaggerate the dynamics of the player mech and the monster.Illustration of the angel Sachiel from Neon Genesis Evangelion, which is used as a reference for the monster.
This looks like it’ll be a super cool combat game with really giant proportions for the characters! Fighting in a city while towering over the buildings sounds really fun and will definitely make a player feel strong and powerful. Are you planning on adding any sort of destructible buildings/environments as the fight goes on in the city?
Thank you! In the top-down sketch I’ve shown some rubble pieces, and I’d like to make those destructible if possible. The buildings could potentially all be destructible.
Big robot in small city is super neat, I’m very excited to see this all come together! Your sketches of the monster in action are very dynamic and cool as well. Will the player character ever need to leave the robot or will they be inside the whole time?
Thank you! Sadly they’ll just appear as 2D portraits in dialogue boxes or the UI, like how they used character sprites in Star Fox or Super Robot Wars.
As a big fan of giant robots and tokusatsu shows, I like your concept and art so much! I like the fact that you go for a slim design for the robots instead of more classic and thick ones. I can imagine a lot of that comes from the Evangelion series. For a successful action game, smooth animations are key. Do you have any plans for the character animations?
Thank you!!! I took Gridman, Evangelion and Ultraman as my main inspirations. I’ve consulted the SA regarding animation, and I currently plan to rig the mech itself, while the monster would be a static asset due to its proportions. For the 3D animation itself I’m willing to try it out for the first time if possible, and I’ll probably use SSSS.GRIDMAN’s fight scenes (which are done in cel-shaded 3D) as references.
This looks like it’ll be a super cool combat game with really giant proportions for the characters! Fighting in a city while towering over the buildings sounds really fun and will definitely make a player feel strong and powerful. Are you planning on adding any sort of destructible buildings/environments as the fight goes on in the city?
Thank you! In the top-down sketch I’ve shown some rubble pieces, and I’d like to make those destructible if possible. The buildings could potentially all be destructible.
Big robot in small city is super neat, I’m very excited to see this all come together! Your sketches of the monster in action are very dynamic and cool as well. Will the player character ever need to leave the robot or will they be inside the whole time?
Thank you! Sadly they’ll just appear as 2D portraits in dialogue boxes or the UI, like how they used character sprites in Star Fox or Super Robot Wars.
As a big fan of giant robots and tokusatsu shows, I like your concept and art so much! I like the fact that you go for a slim design for the robots instead of more classic and thick ones. I can imagine a lot of that comes from the Evangelion series. For a successful action game, smooth animations are key. Do you have any plans for the character animations?
Thank you!!! I took Gridman, Evangelion and Ultraman as my main inspirations. I’ve consulted the SA regarding animation, and I currently plan to rig the mech itself, while the monster would be a static asset due to its proportions. For the 3D animation itself I’m willing to try it out for the first time if possible, and I’ll probably use SSSS.GRIDMAN’s fight scenes (which are done in cel-shaded 3D) as references.