Back to Combat Items Contents Page

Overview

The following page will outline the design guidelines and decisions behind the creation of the wrench tool. Note that although user testing was done, the collaboration with the NPC team had an overarching factor in the decisions used to create this weapon. As a special note, this weapon will NOT have any status as it will only be utilised by NPCs.

Final Decision

Design Inspirations

The design inspiration was originally taken from common items found within a plumber's tool kit. There were two initial designs that stemmed from this including a spanner and a wrench.

Inspiration 1 - Spanner

The design component that stood out from this inspiration was the sharp corners that outlined the internal screw edges. This provided the image with a more realistic view of the tool as it would seem to individuals looking at this image to fit perfectly around a hexagonal screw.

Inspiration 2 - Wrench

The inspiration taken from this image mainly came from the utility shown through the hole at the bottom of this wrench. Commonly these holes are found within tools to assist in unscrewing larger/smaller hexagonal screws than would usually fit on the top of the wrench. Through incorporating this section, it made the weapon seem more realistic. Furthermore, inspiration has also been taken from the lighting effects of this image. As can be seen certain parts of the wrench seemed to have a lighter blue/ grey effect to display the 3D effects.

Phase 1: Sketching

From the above inspirations, two preliminary sketches were created.

Sketch 1	Sketch 2

Phase 2: Weapon Pixel Drawing

From the above sketches, the following pixel art drawings were created.

Drawing 1	Drawing 2

Phase 3: User testing

Upon completion of the original sketches, we decided to attain an idea on how people felt about the design of the wrench. Since the second drawing was seemed more of a 'subset' of the first drawing without the metal bit sticking out, we decided to user test the first drawing. The user testing results can be viewed within here

User Feedback

The results of the user testing overwhelmingly supported the decision of taking away the metal part sticking out of the first drawing with some individuals commenting that it resembled more like a 'fish hook.' Hence, to steer away from such views, we decided it would be best to take away this part of the weapon. Furthermore, in collaboration with the NPC team under [Task] NPC Plumber Friend - #138, we thought it best to discuss which item seemed to suit the NPC more and they eventually came with the conclusion that sided more towards the second drawing. It should be noted, however, that they wanted to incorporate the idea of having the sharp angle tool top seen within the first image. In subsequent comments, they also wished for one side of the wrench tip to be:

1. Closer to the other tip and
2. for one side to be longer than the other side.

These changes were reflected during iteration 2 and iteration 3/ final design.

Colour Scheme

The colour scheme of this weapon followed the pallet of the daggers found here with some modifications. Seeing as though these tools were for NPC, if they were to be included within the game, would be considered as level 1 items. As such, the wrench only followed a subset of colours within the linked colour pallet (e.g. without the gold/yellow). This colour pallet can be seen below.

Phase 4: Design Iterations

The following was the design iteration process of the wrench after consultation with the NPC team and user testing.

Iteration Name	Design Image	Updated Comments
Original Design		N/A
Iteration 1		Removed metal part sticking out and made design look more like second drawing.
Iteration 2		Adhered to NPC team's comment about making edge closer to each other and angling tool top more.
Final Design		Created sharp edge/ long tip to one side of design.

Back to Combat Items Contents Page

Author

• Caleb Ang
• GitHub: PurrplePandaa
• Discord: Annyeong Haseyo#8083
• Slack: Caleb Ang