Wednesday, February 24, 2010

Character Design - Minions

To begin, we have a Naive B cell in the G-zero phase (Picture 1).

Picture 1.

Next, we have a naive B-cell that has begun it's path down the thymus-dependent maturation route (picture 2). The green bits are antigen.

Picture 2.

Here, the naive B cell has been activated with signal 2 (picture 3). As the cell progress from the G1 to the S phase, I envision the endoplastic reticulum sorta increasing in sheaths. Note too that they can now be influenced by IL to change isotypes?

Picture 3. Aka centroblast...?

Picture 4.

Picture 5.

HUD images / sketches



Game play icons, health bar, and map. Icons from left to right: immunopedia button, inventory button, nanorg stats button, cell stats button.




Inventory window/display. On the left is a rough nanorg/humanoid body, with boxes to place items (i.e. goggles on the head, boots or flippers on feet, antibody or MHC complex items on the hands).
On the right is a palette that holds drugs (anti-bacterial, anti-fungal, anti-viral), vitamins, energy supplies, and other immune-boosting items (like sleep).
TG= triglycerides; ATP = adenosine triphosphate. There are also proliferation and differentiation cytokines (IL-2, IL-4, IL-5, TGF-beta, IFN-gamma).





Nanorg statistics window. The red-green cell orb on the upper right fills up with experience gained in gameplay; when it reaches 100% the nanorg levels up. Each level increase provides roughly 10 skill points, which can be funnelled into vitality, strength, luck or knowledge attributes.
HP = hit points; these increase with vitality and level. CP = cell points (affects how many and how well you control immune cells); these increase with knowledge and level.






Cell statistics window. These represent the cells the nanorg can control (the number will increase with game progress/levelling).
The tabs on the top let you view either 'myeloid' lineage (eosinophil, basophil, megakaryote, and monocyte) or 'lymphoid' (T, B, and natural killer/NK) cells.
Through the tabs on the left, you can access 'early' (mostly naive and centroblast) and 'late' (mostly memory and plasma) B cells. Geoff's cell stat sheets can be accessed by scrolling through b cells shown on a dock.






Immunopedia window. This will present background information on the science, fictional story, and play/logistic concepts of the game.

Character Design - Playable Character


Here are some brainstorm sketches for the characters. Starting with Picture 1, we have a basic example of a possible design for the male version of an anthropomorphic player character.

Picture 1. Nano organism male version.

Included are some quick motion studies (picture 2) and an idea I had that these nano-organisms have very malleable bodies, membranes, and cytoskeletons (picture 3), so they can take on this more "humanoid" form. To explain this a little more, the way that I envision these beings is that they are like amoebas. They don't have joints. Instead they use cytoplasmic projections and such to move. They swing their internal "bone" structures around like pendulums to morph themselves and propel themselves forward.

Picture 2. Leg motion study.

Picture 3. Morphing.

Amour stuff to come! Think silicone shells!

Tuesday, February 23, 2010

Game World design




























































































Picture 1: game map
Picture 2: design for medulla
Picture 3: design for secondary follicle in cortex
Picture 4: design for paracortex part
Picture 5: design for HEV in paracortex

Monday, February 15, 2010

UI sketch


This is a really quick/loose illustrator sketch (showing a window border, cell inventory boxes, and a map).

I'm trying to hash out:
  • icons of:
    • map

    • cell inventory

    • status/health bar

    • spellbook/game manual/immunology encyclopedia button (something more than a question mark, but not too complicated..?)

    • game score

    • -- insert some game element I'm missing here? --

  • the idea of having a border around the viewport/scene/window

  • screen dimensions

Saturday, February 13, 2010

Mélange






(courtesy of Jenna and wordle!)

Tuesday, February 9, 2010

Portland!






Wensi, Geoff and I are very excited to announce that we will be discussing biomedical games, our project, and research at the next AMI conference this summer.

Here is a happy and anthropomorphic B-cell!