These were some of the initial concepts I drew to get a sense of where I was going to go. I knew I wanted the aliens she is going to be fighting to be big; and so she needed a way to get up to them. My concern in terms of game mechanics were how she will do damage and any subsequent meaningful damage. I drew her topheavy, with mechanical arms that could make her fly with boosters. By giving her restricted movement in the form of a super duper stylish pencil skirt n' some heels it would make her a slow runner and in hopes that the player would realise it'd be faster to fly. However I got tired of this idea and I didn't like the inclusion of mech parts.
So I'm now looking closer at some inspiration. From the likes of Street Fighter, Bayonetta, the videos of 水曜日のカンパネラ, Katharine Hepburn, Dana Scully, and when BB played Bonnie in that one music video !
I want the head of the alien to be its biggest weakpoint, and also the hardest to reach. I tried to make some obstruction of getting to its very unfortunately always open mouth. Considering the game would be set in a New York style sky-scraper filled city, I'm trying to get the alien partially mirror the buildings. Vertical !
I got rid of the mech arms and spliced together some rollerblades with ice-skates so this way there isn't a reliance on anything rocket-based ! She'll have to skate up the alien cutting it in the process. For weapons, as this time around it is unavoidable, I decided to give her two high firing Glock 19's, although I also want to give her a tommy gun too. (thinking about those trigger buttons on a controller)
I pushed the vertical shape of the alien further, and thought it'd be interestingly hilarious if the alien had this accordion style body that unfolds (thus making the alien get higher) as it loses health. The concern being each time it does this it's not a clean process, has a little bit of a fit, and destroys the surrounding area its in.
This is where I'm at design wise right now ! (Though I still need to test different colours) She is still loosely top-heavy but it's not as obvious. She's got a harness set up to hold the guns on her shoulder-blades and lower back.
I'm hoping to be able to make this character in 3D as well as the alien. The alien in terms of rigging will be so hilarious because I'll have to make it un-posed. Gotta unfold the accordion !
As I want to start with a high poly in Zbrush i thought i'd better take advantage of all the embellished detail work I can do as aside from the guns and harness clips most of this project will be organic.
I'd love for any feedback of any sort please ! : ^)