Hurray for Sprites and Game Maker!

So I picked up a new game editor this weekend, and have been playing around with designing sprites. Game Maker is a pretty neat little editor, it's pretty user friendly and by that I mean artist friendly, my knowledge of programming is fairly rudimentary but even I could stumble through it  without much difficulty. Before long I had a moving character and something that could be considered a game mechanic. I have strong interest in game design but my interest is mainly from an artistic perspective so when designing a game mechanic I'm always thinking "How cool would this look?"



Lilly is a ghost who has forgotten why she died, you must help Lilly traverse purgatory in search of the keys that unlock the gates leading out of purgatory and help her remember and find closure as to how she died. Along the way you will be hunted by the reaper of lost souls, seeking to send you to your final destination.

 The stone is a kind of symbolism, it's a physical representation of Lilly's guilt and the way I want her to move is as though she is constantly struggling to carry it with her. I know it's kind of a deep way for giving a reason, of why a ghost is carrying around a big rock, but why else would a ghost be lugging around a rock?

                                 

Game Maker is best used with sprites, so as I was learning it I was swapping between it and photoshop, painting up little sprite images as I needed them. I had the vision of the main character being a ghost that it is weighed down by a heavy stone tied to her, and the gameplay mechanic is built around the idea of lugging a heavy stone around a level while trying to outrun something. Essentially a platformer where your struggling to just barely escape. Sounds like a recipe for success and to be able to actually let my game designer friends play around with the mechanic rather than just drawing it out and trying to explain it is a definite plus.

As an artist with an interest in Game Design I'm looking for better ways to communicate my ideas, Thats really why I've choose to be a game artist, because a picture tells what thousand words can't, and it's just easier to communicate with a drawing then with a written description. Art's pretty awsome in how it communicates, but I think its important as a game artist to learn how a little bit about game design too and learn how to make functioning game mechanics even if it's only a basic knowledge, I think that makes it easier for the designer and the artist to work together and create a gaming experience that has a meaningful impact with the players