Japanese boats and the Sea
For this blog the goal is to describe the process coming up with a design for the boat, and then drawing said design. I will also provide some reasoning and reflection regarding the design
So what does a Japanese boat look like? Since the Japanese theme were one of the things that I personally liked the most about the concept, I felt like it was important to make the design as similar to the boats used in Japan during the time period we decided on. Due to this, I spent quite a lot of time researching Japanese and other east-Asian boats.
At first we were considering a slightly earlier time period, somewhere around the 18th century. So I was researching older fishing boats and Junk boats. However, most of the Japanese fishing boats from around this time were river boats or boats intended to be used in bays. As such they were ill fit to go far from the coast into the deeper parts of the ocean. This acts in conflict with the rest of the concept since the Omiboozu is found in the sea, not in rivers or lakes. Going by this knowledge, the only way to make the game take place in this time period would be to let the boat be a Red Seal ship or a Junk ship. But to do that we would have to adjust our narrative because then we would no longer be a fisherman and it might also weaken our aesthetic of mystery.
Because of that then we decided that it would be easier to make a game set towards the end of the 19th century instead. This decision would make everything apear to be a bit more industrialized. This would also make it easier to implement assets like the harpoon gun and the searchlight as these would be harder to design for earlier time periods. This change to the time period when the game takes place would later not only be represented visually, but also with the sounds the boat makes. Bellow you can see how the concept turned out.
The boat is made of mostly metal instead of wood and the crates and barrels are placed out to give the viewer a sens of scale and tell the approximate size of the boat. The stair leading down a bit to enter the cabin also helps to to describe its size. The fishing nets were added to signify that the boat is a fishing boat. Finally the lanterns were added to strengthen the location of the game, late 19th century Japan.
GD2:Game Development Alex Saleteg 
I would have liked to hear your challenges regarding the top-down perspective. Any techniques you used? Feels to me like it’s a whole 15p course in itself.
(っ˘ڡ˘ς)
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Since my group decided on “pure” top-down instead of isometric I focused mostly on getting a shape that is easy to understand and then I tried to add the details a little bit at a time. I also tried to look at a lot of references and asking myself “how would that picture look from above?”
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Nice boat!
I like that you and you group seem to be dedicated to keep the game and it´s assets anchored in reality, and you focus a lot on not wanting to have anachronism and such in the game. You explain your aesthetic goal of the boat clearly and you execute that aesthetic well in regards to the boat. You explain the aspects of the boat and show them well, such as the more industrialised version and the lamps for localisation.
As for feedback:
You could show your process of making the boat, by showing sketches and concepts etc. and explain how that process went.
I´d like to see a picture of the boat implemented in the game, I know that the game at this stage might not have been able to have assets implemented to it or have it making sense and actually looking like the game – But having some kind of background or an environment would make easier to see what you were thinking when designing the boat to fit in the world and aesthetic of the game as a whole, if it correlates with the colour schemes etc.
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