Draknier Story - Dev Diary #07 - Development Recap + Draknier Story Artworks + Story Concepts + Character Design & Details + Future Direction

It's been a very long time since I wrote anything Draknier related. I was considering separating a draknier update for the recap and the new things going forward, but I decided to condense them into a single post as to not spam you with email notification.

I can only apologize as you might get disappointed, but these are the things I managed to do with the time I had & to the extent that I can.

Draknier Story Development Recap
I've probably mention it before, but just a bit of context is that prior to when I stopped the monthly update, I was able to spend much more time into game development study, this was before the artbook Vol. 4. Initially, my plan for the artbook was simply to just be a sketchbook, although as you have seen, it has already evolved to something more than just a non colored sketchbook.

I was not content with the artbook content, so starting from Vol.4, I drew more often (which also reflects the frequency of twitter artworks/work-in-progress). This consumed more time, & work obligations I had before I started my patreon resurfaces & require me to work my part as those are yet to be finished.

So as time passes since the start of Vol.4, my time for game development(technical stuff such as programming) gradually gets more smaller. The best way I can make use of my time & that allowed me to multitask efficiently is to work on the lore, story, world building, character concept & design.

While I did make some progress and I may find them meaningful, but it may not up to the standard of your expectation as they can be considered miniscule.
3D Sculpting in Blender

While I did have a small experience sculpting with Zbrush from long time ago, sculpting on blender is entirely new to me (Never knew that blender had a tool like this).

One of the reason I've considered 3d sculpting is there are 2 workflows I had a hard time choosing, it's either sculpting a High Polygon -> Retopology  vs. start with the traditional low polygon.

I did consider sculpting, but at this point, I think this kind of workflow might not be for me or is still early for me. I wanted to start with low poly, and to understand the planes of the subject/object, so I'll go with the traditional low polygon rather than High polygon -> retopology.

Still, I would like to include 3D sculpting as a part of my studies, although less of a priority when it comes to creating 3D game assets.

When it comes to the technical side, it's really quite depressing for me. But as far as what I've been doing with it, I'm slowly learning syntax/unity api and the basics, although I might have to relearn some of it.

Fundamentals/Basics can be easily forgotten for me as I am not able to consistenly work on it, so making small tiny fragmented projects helps me reference and review it later on.

From the screenshot, I'm doing a simple transition from scene to scene while also having a preloading screen . I'd like to have something playful, just like with ps1 jrpg loading screens.

Although it might not be as relevant if we factor in the system requirements of the game I'm trying to make and level of technology as of today *laughs*.

With this screen shot, Behind the scenes, I'm playing & testing unity's prefab system. For example, doing a nested prefab, doing modification and trying to see how the relation to its parent or something affects it, or recreating prefabs. There's also the collision thing which is one of the biggest hurdle for me. It's a bad habit of mine to get really bothered when something doesn't work well (example, it bounces off a bit, or weird behavior depending on fps or something like that). I find that polishing is much harder than making the intended feature work, since without those refined polish, glitch/bugs will flow in(at least, in my experience).

When it comes to UI design, there as much variables to consider, if I should go with the route of handpainted Menu UI, coded, & implemented in the 3D scene or utilizing unity's built in UI system (I think the latter will be more efficient if I'm doing a minimalistic UI, but that's not what I was going for). I'm thinking of the former, but I'll have to study & do more experiments to see what's  best for the direction I want to take.

Not being able to work on the technical side of game development is honestly depressing as working on my own project is also one of my strong source of passion. At some point I did consider downscaling the game  and to something different and to find a way that I can produce result quicker. There were a number of conceive plans such as:

Draknier Story: Dragon's Cry Concept
I created a very short & simplified story with 3 main characters and an extremely short story, although setting up the premise wasn't a quick thing to do.

Draknier Story: Dragon's Cry - Premise
There's a band of mercenary & our main male protagonist is a part of it. They have a reputation amongst the nobility so they are often hired & trusted by a certain nobility when engaging in the skirmishes of war, dealing with bandits, and escort missions. Almost as if they are a private army of his.

One day, they were called in by this nobility, In this meeting room, 2 cloaked person were there and one of them was introduced as the crowned warrior princess, and the other lady as a flimsy aid/maid. In this meeting room of the nobility, here in its table, negotiations are about to unfold. For a large sum of gold, they are to accompany this princess towards her mission of claiming a draknier core from a scourge dragon (undead/corpse/cursed) in one of the most dangerous places of that world which is a swamp/great forest.

The mercenaries were hesitant, but with the faith & kindness of that old nobility had for them, they nervously, yet willingly accepted it.

Draknier Story: Dragon's Cry - A bit of lore about the world
Two kingdoms are against with each other and skirmishes are common among the kingdoms' borders. The Western Kingdom is where our protagonist and his group of mercenary are currently located.

The Western Kingdom is having it's own internal power struggle as the new crowning of a new king/queen gets closer, so in order for the crowned princess to solidify her position, she embarks on a mission anonymously to obtain something that would make it possible. While gone, she has a double that act as her replacement. Uniting the Western kingdom under her command & then resisting the Easten Kingdom is what she is tasked with by the King that is on his deathbed.

Concept art/sketch of the crowned princess. 

Concept art for the main protagonist is incomplete so I am unable to show it.

As for the vision of gameplay, it's very basic, down to your standard jrpg. Overworld, towns, standard turn based, but very dumb down in terms of gameplay length & content.

If I were to have a rough estimate when factoring the story & game concept I've worked on, there are about 2-3 towns along the way of a linear field/exploration, and playable characters/Party Members are 2-3. Bosses can probably be counted with one hand's fingers.

One main reason behind the concept of this is I'm feeling the overwhelming pressure of having to deliver something to my supporters, considering Draknier Story Development has been barren.

Moving on to the next one, I'll be covering about Draknier Story: Fragment


Draknier Story: Fragment Concept
A different Draknier Story called Draknier Story: Morrigan or Draknier Story:Fragment that borrows inspiration from the original Draknier Story, but is also a much shorter story  compared to the original Draknier Story.

Character designs were originally considered to be very simple, meaning, not much polygons, or minimizing it and relying on texture painting the 3D model for the outfit.

3D Reference Sheet of Nemhayn

By this time, I went from the traditional low poly as I've decided on it. I did work on Nemhayn's 3D model, although it is yet to be finished. 

Also, the proportion of the 3D models was taken into consideration, I went with your typical cuter proportion as there are plenty of advantages to it in terms of game design.

although I had to change it again considering that I will have to make assets that fit them(Assets such as doors, chairs, doodads, house, stairs, etc.), and these assets might no longer reusable should I ever change the proportion of the character models. These things are really hard to decide on  because they are pretty much a subjective thing, I like both styles of character proportion, and it makes choosing one over the other even more difficult as both have their own strong charms & game design benefits.

I went again to my desk and redraw, but much closer to my usual normal style of character proportions.

With the smaller and cute proportion 3D model, I was still considering to use a more normal proportion when doing their dialogue portraits/artworks, but with the much more normal 3d proportions, It's pretty much a 1:1 in terms of 2d & 3d art conversion.

Before we proceed, here are Martyl's & Opheris' concept design.

Draknier Story: Fragment - The Concepcion
Draknier Story: Fragment is a concept where it's also inspired from the concept of the original Draknier Story. Although this one in terms of scale is between the Draknier Story: Dragon's Cry & the original Draknier Story. 

Draknier Story: Fragment - Premise
With draknier Story Fragment, there's a young looking man called Martyl that lives alone in a forest, but a nearby village can also be seen just outside the forest. He is doing his daily routine of taking care of his very small garden when suddenly a loud noise can be heard & tremors can be felt underneath the ground, dirt smoke can be seen above the forest and birds flying away in panic can be seen.

Martyl then proceeds to check what happened there & upon arriving at the source of chaos, he saw a small crater at the bottom edge of the cliff along with a shallow flowing riverbed. As he takes a closer look, he saw a heavy wounded woman without consciousness, with an unusual clothes and a pair of horns that can be seen in the dark  that slowly recedes in.

Martyl decided to carry her to his home and treat her wounds & lay her on bed. A few days have past, it was morning and a ray of light can be seen entering the wooden house through the window, the woman can be seen as if her eyes were looking lifeless. As she hears the chirp of the birds  and the sound of the axe, she relaxingly closes her eyes again.

A bit later on, at Martyl's garden, he can be seen picking some vegetables that he grew & he puts them into a small basket. From the back of Martyl, The wooden house can be seen & the sound of the door creaking can be heard as the woman opens it.

The woman can be fully seen wrapped with bandages and holding a blanket to cover her practically naked body, Martyl spoke "Oh, you're awake. That's a good thing." while he continues to do his stuff without looking back.

The woman asked "Why?..", Martyl responded with "Why indeed....", The woman waits for Martyl to gather his thoughts, ...Martyl then finally spoke "No reason at all, or if you're not convinced by that, then perhaps I can say that it's just a whim of mine". The woman then made an expression, a mix of pain, worry, & a little bit of angriness, she calmly said "...You've probably seen what I am, while I am really grateful for your help, if such a scenario occurred, anyone should be aware that it can only bring trouble if you were to invol--", The woman suddenly stopped talking as if she was interrupted when she heard Martyl chuckled, Martyl then asked "..Trouble?" and he then burst into laughter that almost felt like a hysterical laugh, the woman looks flabbergasted. As Martyl finishes his laugh, he stands up from where he is and look back to the woman, he then spoke "Yes, trouble, I think that may actually be the reason", The woman looked at Martyl with confusion as a sweat flows down her cheek, Martyl spoke "It shows on your expression, that you think I'm unusual or an odd person", the woman feeling surprised by what Martyl said, she then said "Ah! I apologize to my savior for my rude behavior, even tho-", interrupted by Martyl, he then spoke "No, you're right, I actually have a one or two loose screws so I'll apologize in advance", followed by laughter as if it was his pride, the woman then makes the expression of sigh & relief, the woman suddenly realizes she forgot to introduce herself "Ah! Apologies as I have yet to introduce myself to my savior, my name is Nemhayn Zmeiyher, thank you again for saving me.", Martyl then smiled & responded "I'm Martyl, it's a pleasure to meet you, Nemhayn", Martyl then reaches his hand out for a handshake while smiling, Nemhayn then close her eyes and made a smile, then open her eyes again to shakes hands with Martyl and spoke " I'll definitely repay you for this gratitude of mine".

Draknier Story: Fragment - Main Character Concepts

Sorry everyone, I think my premise became a written story *laughs*, I got way into it.
Anyway, here is Nemhayn's new character concept design.

She has a calm demeanor, open-mindedness, and is a very skilled fighter. She will be your first companion/party member in the game. In terms of fighting capabilities, she would be on par or even stronger than her eldest sister if she wasn't missing this 'something'. A natural genius.

She has 2 sisters that will play big roles in the story, I was not planning to show it yet, but I might as well considering that Draknier Story: Fragment is still at its conceptual stage, and I just want to share more of what I worked on during these past months/last year.

She might be the youngest, You could say Cath/Cilla has the most highest physical prowess among the sisters(way above) & she's sort of a battle maniac. She has a short-temper, she can be pretty smart, not just as much as her other sisters. Cath/Cilla loses her smartness & becomes a muscle-head when she lose her fuse/temper, although this can also be her major asset as she becomes more unpredictable & uses her supernatural battle instinct.

Despite being blind, Grima is the strongest among the sisters, while Nemhayn comes in close(being the 2nd one). She might not be as physically strong as Cilla, but in terms of techniques & intelligence, she is vastly superior. She also excels in reading enemy movements, counterattacks, and pinpointing weaknesses/vital area.

Her real name being long has a reason. Can't say much for now *laughs*

That's as far as I can say about the other 2 sisters without spoiling the major plot points as their background & current state, Nemhayn's origin, and other related stuff are deeply tied to a plot. It will also take a while before you encounter them in the story.

Draknier Story: Fragment - Game Development Vision
This was the concept I was planning to pursue, and dropping  the original draknier for the mean time as while I was working on this, I have taken into consideration of what I can work with & also learn and grow as an artist at the same.

As what you've seen with the character design, from Nemhayn, then Cath/Cilla, and then Grima, their design is base on what I'll be studying. Nemhayn has a more simple design and I can just mirror the other half + having a shorter hair, Cath is a little more complex due to hair (rigging bones on hair for animation, & possible clipping issues), and lastly, Grima with uneven design (can't be mirrored), and having to deal with cloak or fabric animation.

So in terms of 3d modelling complexity
Lvl 1 - Nemhayn
Lvl 2 - Cathcilla
Lvl 3 - Grima

I was thinking, if learning the bare minimum is enough when it comes to 3d, and for me as an artist, I want to grow more, hence why I design these characters this way.

Moving forward, let's cover the original Draknier Story.

Draknier Story: Ascension
Also known as the original Draknier Story, the one that I did character art before. I've decided to label its subtitle with "Ascension", although I was actually considering to use the subtitle I originally came up with, being "Path of Ascension" and that may be to long *laughs*, I might still reconsider it again.

After pondering about Draknier Story: Fragment, I decided to get back on track with Ascension considering that preparing all these lore and stories won't really matter much
without implementing it in a game project, although working on these stories & lores are the few best things that I can do as far as multi-tasking & opportunities are concern.

There were a few changes made in the story & also expanded compared to my previous post from long time ago, although at its core, it still retains much of what it was.

I'd estimate that there would be about 6 playable characters in total, but I'm only able to provide the 4 of them.

First, let's go with Ayaciel, her design went with a lot of revision. There's also a reason why her ears are like that, it's not mutation, but a sign of one being born w/ having a large capacity/high aptitude of something.

Ayaciel is a kind, bold, & friendly young woman. Outside of training, she is often seen hanging at the stall of Mihr. She also likes hanging around friendly beasts(she turned them  friendly *laughs*), and occasionally spar or explore the forest with them. She also likes writing story books that may at times feel like a diary.
She utilizes her speed for quick attack and relies on her kicks.

The next one is Vietrix, which is a new character. She's always been together with Ayaciel(Childhood friend). Vietrix can be seen as calm & collected and the one who plans ahead. However, she can also be mischievous at times. She has a deep respect towards Mihr. She loves books and tomes as she craves for knowledge.

Wilhelmina/Wina, her looks here is that of when she's a party member. In the early part of the game, she will look different considering she is a high-ranking soldier of Dragnia Empire(She wears an armor/uniform).

While Wina has a serious demeanor and can be really cold, she can be soft-hearted, and she also has a fondness for adorable creatures & animals, however the creatures/animals may not feel the same.

She utilizes quick draw with a katana. This katana holds a special meaning to her as it's a passed down from a family.

And lastly, our main protagonist Mihr who is free-spirited and supports whatever Ayaciel decides to do. Aside from that, he tends to do other stuff such as cooking for the disciples of the same dojo, building his wooden stall, & plays an instrument. He is often asked for advise, whether it be for martial arts or just personal consultation.

Mihr is very kind to those he cherish(friends, family, etc.), but can be harsh or even cruel to those he sees as his enemies.

As you can see, Mihr, Ayaciel, & Vietrix share a similar color palette and design aesthetics as they all belong to the same place and dojo. While the dojo have many more disciples, these 3 are akin to a senior disciples/masters, but their skills are already beyond that. They occassionally help with training the disciples in the dojo, although the most active among them for doing this activity is Ayaciel.

Draknier Story: Ascension - Character Design for 3D
I went for something more, less of simple, but more detail w/out trying to go overboard.

Both with 2D and in 3D, I couldn't stop craving for growth so I want to learn more 3D, it doesn't have to be the top, but atleast not the bare minimum, just enough that it will allow me to do stuff that a bare minimum can such as cloth physics, polygon/jiggle physics, & more. I'm not really looking into advance stuff, just the intermediate stuff that will allow me to utilize it in my game development.

Game Development Direction
I'll be focusing on 3D, modelling I want to go beyond bare minimum, and to familiarize myself with the software to the point that I don't have to check hotkeys everytime, or get stuck trying to fix something.

Also, one of the games I started playing months ago (from last year) inspired me a lot for a more simplistic approach. These are Shin Megami Tensei IV & especially Fire Emblem Echoes. I felt like FE Echoes brought many answers to my Dilemma.

Fire Emblem Echoes on 3DS has a great balance of 2D art & 3D. Creating 3D assets especially NPCs can be very time consuming especially for unique ones(story characters).
Aside from the 3D pipeline (3D modeling, texturing, rigging,& animating), once I implement it in game, setting up the 3D animation for when the characters interact, and alongside it, dialogue portraits that reflects these interaction, and special effects emotions have to come together. With FE Echoes' approach, I have more flexibility to add characters, even disposable ones, small screentime character, or story-only characters as I don't have to worry about making every 3D models for them.

Talking about Fire Emblem Echoes, I really like the idea of being able to see the 2d artworks in a 3d environment (similar to shin megami tensei IV). The town navigation and world map are pretty much just interactive UI. 

Although, I do think that Shin Megami Tensei IV has a more detailed exploration.


My point is, I'm breaking down the game development in small steps & shifting in direction, that will allow me to continue doing my usual stuff (jrpg fanart artbook, etc.) & lso work on my personal game dev project.

Game Development Road Map Chart

As you can see in the chart, the original direction I was taking before is mostly on Level 3(with some on Level 2 such as pre-rendered cutscene). This time however, I plan to stick on level 1, with level 2 being optional or serve as alternate options. Level 3 is, but a luxury, meaning that it's something able to do if I have the time, resources, and if I already had the existing level 1 or level 2 that can be built upon.

What I love about the current direction is there is much flexibility which I will elaborate on someday after I made enough progress or post it in another update.

Just a note that things are still subject to change, depending on the situation (e.g. actual implementation of level 1 can be more difficult compared to level 2, so they can be interchangeable).

Priorities
For now, what I want to mainly prioritize is working on my 3D skills, and I think that it will also be an interesting way to show both my growth as an artist and progress/preparation for game development. I want to familiarize myself with 3D to the point that it becomes second nature just like when I paint digital illustrations with a software. After that, I'll slowly work around into integrating it in the game engine(unity) and familiarize myself much more with the tools available within unity and choose what I think might be best for my situation (Mecanim, game engine physic-base animation for clothes/import manual animation for clothes, etc.).

Second is, when it comes to programming/scripting, I want to focus on Game Menu UI for now as a case study, and considering the shift in direction, it will be much more beneficial. Once i really get familiar on scripting with unity, rather than trying to solve collision problems,  dealing with rigidbody vs. character controller, and similar stuff, I'll look more into implementing database(such as using JSON file). Just like with my goal on blender, this is the best way I can think of to familiarize myself much more with the engine while also aligning it with my main goal. However, blender/3d will much more of a priority.

Doubts
At some point, I did consider just removing my drakier story development being part of my patreon, although I'll still probably post progress for it & work slowly on it at the side, just not as a main focus for my patreon, but I just decided to leave it there. There are also times that such thoughts like I could just drop the gamedev as a medium for storytelling and change draknier story's medium to lightnovel or manga/webtoon just so I could deliver result, but no, it will be probably life's biggest regret. Although artbook has become a big priority, draknier story plays a big part to my patreon's identity and my life is it is here to stay. Playing jrpgs, talking & sharing my love of jrpgs through fanarts, & working on my jrpg-inspired project are the major source of my lifeblood.

It might also not be healthy, but I take advantage of the pressure I get to work as much as I can. It can be a strong motivator, although burnouts are hard to deal with.There are times that I just don't want to overthink things and just go with "Let's f**king go, full throttle, & don't overthink".

Closing Remarks
That's all for this update, sorry, it might not be much, but i still hope you find the things I made to be enjoyable. I'll continue to try my best! Ah, for this month's draknier dev diary update, there will not be one since I really need to catch up with artbook Vol.15 for this month & jrpg emojis as it's very late.

Thank you agian for you time, stay healthy & have a great pleasant day (๑´ㅂ`๑).