After discussing with some of the other department leads we have decided that it would be a good idea to only create a few enemies for this project.

We have decided this since we are only creating two levels, so we don’t really need a wide range of enemies, but also (and mainly) due to the fact that we feel as creating too many enemies will take up too much time, especially for the artists, as there will be a number of other assets that will also need to be created, so therefore creating more enemies means more modelling and animation.

Since there will be two sections of the game where enemies would appear (one being on land, and the other being while sailing between islands), we hope to create at least one enemy for each section.
 

The concept I had decided upon was for enemies within our game is to take existing sea creatures and then make mechanical versions of them (so the minion enemies link with the antagonist who is a mechanical shark, since they’re all sea creatures, but also as they’re mechanical).

For this section of research I looked into some of the different types of sea creatures that exist, and then with some of the creatures that I thought were effective, developed concepts for them. The website used to look into and learn about different sea creatures was Owlcation (2017)

Research into different possible sea creatures to be made into the game's enemies

​

Main Antagonist:

•Shark (Main antagonist) – Great White, Megalodon, Goblin Shark
 

On Land Minion Enemies (appear on islands):

•Crab/lobster – Velvet Crab, Horseshoe Crab, Fiddler Crab

•Isopods

•Octopus

•Olive Sea Snake

•Walrus

•Turtle

 

Ocean Enemies (appear while sailing):

•Enemy pirates (specifically enemy ship/s)

•Flying fish

•Jelly Fish

•Giant Squid / Kraken

•Puffer Fish (Could act similarly to a sea mine)

•Requiem Shark (group)

Some of these concepts were further developed, such as the crab, pufferfish, isopod and the flying fish.

The crab would be one of the more apparent enemies throughout the game, who would roam the island(s) in small groups. These enemies could attack the protagonist with the use of their claws/pincers.
Additionally, our group discussed that we wouldn't have mini-bosses, but instead could make use of a variation of crab that is different. This variation taking inspiration from fiddler crabs which have one larger claw/pincer than the other.

One of the next sea creature concepts that were developed was the pufferfish. I thought that this could be a good addition for enemies found while sailing, as pufferfish aren't normally found on land (unless they're beached). One of the favored concepts that I developed for this creature is that it would be similar to a sea mine, in that when the player's ship collides with it, it would stick to the hull of the ship and explode (or just expand and explode).

The next sea creature that I developed a concept for was a turtle. I wasn't too sure how this would work in terms of combat, but the creature in the game would be mechanical, it's could make use of unique mechanics which revolve around its shell (e.g. retreating into its shell after being hit by an attack). This enemy would have been an enemy located on land.

One of the next concepts that I developed was the isopod enemy. I had a number of concepts for this create in terms of its in-game uses as an enemy.
Each of these concepts made use of a thing that actual isopods do, being curling up into a ball.
The first of which was that the isopod could be similar to a cannonball, where it's fired by other ships (in its curled up ball form) as a cannonball, which could damage the ship, and then if it lands on the ship it could uncurl and attack the player.
This concept was soon dismissed though, as the section in between levels where you control the ship was soon decided to be a section where the only event occurring is the controlling of the ship (travelling to the next/other islands) and encountering/fighting off pirate ships, but while only controlling the ship.
However, the next concept still make use of the isopods main feature of curling up into a ball, but changed from being fired from a cannon, to curling up into a ball and launching itself at the player to attack.

one of the final concepts that was developed was the flying fish. The concept I had for this was similar to the original isopod concept, being that it could be an enemy fired by other ships, with a role being similar to that of a torpedo.

Decided Concepts
Currently we have decided the mechanical crab(s) would be a good idea to have as the island enemy. Then we have also decided that mechanical pufferfish could be a good plan to have (with the concept that if the players ship his them they explode like sea mines). However, during the section of the game where the player is controlling their ship, our level designers have the concept that enemy pirate ships will attack the players ship, which will therefore mean that an enemy that appears during the game will also be pirates/a pirate ship (meaning if we create one land enemy and one sea enemy, it will likely be the mechanical crab, and a enemy pirate ship).

​

As the mechanical crab was one of the main concepts that I wanted the game to make use of, I decided to make a brief moodboard to show to my artists  for when they carrying out/create the concept art for this enemy. Although I don't believe they really used these examples all too much, I still believe that they were useful in showing the idea for my concept..