Overview

Coming into Sprint 3, it was decided to create and add 3 additional weapons into the game. The idea was that these weapons would act as upgrades to the three base weapons (Dagger, Sword and Axe), giving the player more choice in their playthrough and adding both more entertainging gameplay and replayability. With the 3 base weapons already set, the new weapons should expand from the first set and feel like a logical upgrade, both in keeping with the same type of weapon and feeling more powerful and distinct. Before sketching any designs out, preliminary research was done for each weapon.

First Design Iterations

Sword:

Base Design:

Several ideas were thrown around here, such as simply a larger sword, akin to a Greatsword or Broadsword, but these were dismissed, with the former feeling too different from the base weapon (base sword is medium ranged, medium damage whereas a Greatsword is long range, high damage) and the latter feeling too visually similar. From here, more visually distinct bladed weapons were explored, such as a Cutlass, Scimitar and a Katana. Ultimately, it was decided that the Katana felt the most apt upgrade for the base sword, as it maintained similar properties (medium range, etc.) while still feeling both visually distinct and powerful compared to the other options. At this stage, the next stage of research was conducted to contribute to designing the weapon itself.

Iterative Design Inspiration:

Muramasa Katana from Terraria

Cobalt Sword from Terraria

Katana from Katana Zero

Katana Scabbard from Pixel Worlds

While most of these designs are more detailed and creative, it was decided to keep it cleaner and more classic, with a small hint of colour in the hilt like in each of the examples.

Final Katana Design:

Axe:

Base Design:

The general idea with the axe was, simply put, make an even bigger and more impressive axe as the upgrade. This is mainly seen through popular weapons such as the Battle Axe and Great Axe. The base weapon is seen more as a single-handed weapon whereas the upgrade can be noticeably more powerful if it assumes the form of a two-handed axe.

Iterative Design Inspiration:

Daedric Battle Axe, Skyrim

Meteor Hamaxe, Terraria

From these designs, it was decided to go more with a bloody and worn-out Battle Axe, something that looks like it has seen a great deal of combat and is fearsome just by appearance. The axe head was given a bloody and toothy texture to show visible wear.

The original design was then refined, creating a more realistic shaft, complete with a pommel, visible battle damage and a leather binding. The axe head itself was touched up, reducing the bloodiness and cleaning it up a bit.

Final Bloody Axe Design:

Dagger:

Base Design:

The inital design of the dagger was more difficult as it was hard to keep the small and light weapon class while still making it an upgrade. One of the first ideas was to make the upgrade an elemental weapon. The main idea for this was a posion or corruption based weapon but as the game did not feature status effects, and they were not planned to be included, this idea was dismissed as it would have felt inconsistent without the ingame effect. The next idea was a Rapier, as this felt like an upgrade but also felt a bit too unusual for the game. Rapier's are a very technical weapon and it didn't feel believable to have the character be proficient in the weapon. The final that was settled on was to have the character dual-wield two daggers. This would immediately resonate with users as an upgrade as two daggers would automatically be better than one of the base daggers, theoritically having twice the damage. At this point more research was done to refine and decide on a design for the two daggers.

Iterative Design Inspiration:

Rusty Dagger, PixalArt (By TheGoldenNarfin)

Jagged Dagger, ArtStation (By Alexander Reutov)

Dual Daggers, Ashes of Creation

Parrying Dagger, Darks Souls 3

From these inspirations, it was decided that the final design would feature two daggers, with different colour schemes to differntiate them. One would be more rusted and old (like the first example) while the other would be cleaner. Both weapons would also have a defensive guard hilt similar to the parrying daggers.

Final Dual Dagger Design:

User Testing (Testing Document)

At this point, a round of user testing was done with the 3 weapon sprites before any animations were made or they were implemented ingame. This user test found significant issues with the inconsistency and integration of the weapon designs into the setting of the game. While this is discussed in more detail in the testing document, the basic idea was that the weapons feeled too 'fantasy' for the post-apocalyptic setting. As such, the weapons were redesigned and tested again to ensure proper integration with existing art assets, with more of a focus on modern weapons.

Second Weapon Designs

Sword:

Base Design:

Coming into the new designs, there were several ideas for medium range, medium damage weapons. While it would be plausible to still include the Katana and just provide a lore reason as to its inclusion, such as it being a collectors item or something to that effect, it was decided that this would still be too inconsistent. The main ideas proposed were more makeshift weapons, such as a Tire Iron, Crowbar, Golf Club, Baseball Bat, some kind of barbed weapon (i.e. a plank of wood covered in nails or wire) or a makeshift club. These were narrowed down to the Crowbar and Baseball Bat, as the others either felt like a different class of weapon (i.e. the Golf Club has a longer range) or not a particularly worthy upgrade from a wooden sword. Here, it was decided to go with the Baseball Bat, as that felt more iconic and fitting for the setting than the Crowbar.

Iterative Design Inspiration:

Shutterstock

thelukewest

7 Days to Die

The general idea for a baseball bat is pretty universal but the final design ended up being a cleaner and more simplistic design. Other ideas and details were explored briefly but were a topic that could be expanded further after user testing if necessary. There was an issue with rounding the bat properly due to the chosen pixel size (32x32) by a compromise was made.

Final Baseball Bat Design:

Dagger:

Base Design:

The original idea of dual-wielding two weapons was ditched, as it was deemed unrealistic. Instead, more straight-forward upgrades were considered for the dagger. This mainly consisted of bigger knives, such as a Kitchen Knife, a Cleaver, a Hunting/Tactical Knife and a Machete. Out of these, the Machete was quickly chosen as it felt like a logical upgrade to any small knife-type weapon, featuring similar range and attack speed while dealing more damage.

Iterative Design Inspiration:

envato-tuts

DeviantArt

7 Days to Die

A machete is pretty universal and realistic, so the the final design was rather simplistic. It was made more modern in appearance by giving it a dark handle and clean blade.

Final Machete Design:

Axe:

Base Design:

The general idea for an upgrade to the axe was a large, blunt and heavy weapon. While the axe can cut, the upgrade should be able to break bones to really reinforce the idea that it is actually an upgrade. To this end, a few ideas were explored, such as a large, makeshift club, like a piece of rebar with a block of concrete on the end of it or something similar. However, having the heavy weapon be makeshift seemed unrealistic given the fact that the player would be buying the weapon from the shopkeeper and buying something that makeshift felt out of place. Instead, the design went down the route of heavy hammers, specifically a sledgehammer, as it is already a common and staple weapon in other games and can truely convey brute force and strength.

Iterative Design Inspiration:

7 Days to Die

Fallout 4

Pixlr

The final idea more or less follows the standard, featuring a dark wooden handle and a heavy, metal head.

Final Sledgehammer Design:

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Second User Testing (Testing Document)

With the weapons redesigned, a final set of user testing was conducted to see how changing the weapons improved the experience. While the feedback was positive oveall, it was discovered that inorder to maintain consistency, the original Sword should be changed. Users found that the Sword either did not fit into the post-apocalyptic theme, didn't make sense with the Baseball Bat being the upgrade or the sprite itself felt out of place in quality. Users also had some issues with the quality of the Baseball Bat sprite and recommended that the quality, detail and colour be improved. As such, it was decided to improve the Baseball Bat, replace the Sword with the new Baseball Bat and then create a new, more logical upgrade for the Bat. This is also the stage at which the animations were finalised.

Final Weapon Designs and Animations

Baseball Bat:

Improvements:

The improvements for the Baseball Bat are mainly based off the other examples explored earlier. The main change is a recolouring of the Bat to be darker and more brown, as users found the existing model to be too yellow and 'golden'. Additionally, more detail was added in the form of a blood splatter on the weapon, which helps to convey that the bat has seen frequent use in the world. Unfortunately, some of the complaints were about how the bat didn't feel round, which is unable to be improved with the pixel size of 32x32 and increasing this would create a noticeable divide in pixel quality with the other assets.

Original Baseball Bat:

New Model:

Baseball Bat Upgrade:

Base Design:

For the upgrade, ideas were taken from the original research of the bat to create two ideas immediately, which could be quickly produced and iterated.

The first was a makeshift baseball bat covered in barbed wire or nails. This would be evident as an upgrade as it is specifically an improvement to the base weapon. However, this was discarded as the upgrade did not feel unique enough and, given the pixel size of 32x32, it was not possible to create a sufficiently detailed sprite to adequetly use in-game.

The second idea, which is what was ultimately chosen, was a Crowbar as the upgrade. Originally discarded in the previous research phase, it was brought back in as it felt like a more appropriate upgrade to a baseball bat.

Iterative Design Inspiration:

Half Life 2

Pixel Art Maker

Final Crowbar Design: