Chance and the Time Wizards' Curse.

Giving my game a name has made it feel a lot more real, I've been referring to it as 'Rando' or 'Legend of Rando' but that name quickly lost its meaning. While coding I've been fleshing out details of the story behind the scenes, using Notion to keep track of my thoughts. My Main character has always been a plucky young adventurer, but it wasn't until I was watching one of many Brazilian soap operas on my trip abroad that the concept of the character was really born. The character I saw there had a striking silhouette with large afro hair and slim figure, something which stood out to me as being distinguishable.

I do want to wear my Zelda influence on my sleeve a bit with this game, so up until then it'd always been a male protagonist with a cocky attitude, going about his business trying to be an adventurer and getting himself trapped frozen in time. The Wizard concept for the antagonist was already born from that description and hasn't really changed; the protagonist, however, has gone from that stereotypical Link-like adventurer to a strong black female wanna-be adventurer who is way too eager to help those in need, to a fault in the case of her meeting with the Wizard.

With her look I still didn't want to stray too far from the Link mould; she still has an androgynous look; she has her strong silhouette with the prawn-like lop-sided afro hair. I drew a concept piece which really ignited some enjoyment from me. I gave her gold-trimmed glasses to break up the darker colours of the face and hair and went for a Wind Waker toon look mixed with A Link to the Past's more traditional anime style. Her clothes are muted adventurer garb except for a bright red shawl, which enhances her silhouette and splashes her with some striking colour. The Shawl could have some significance to her character but honestly at this point in time I just liked the effect it had on removing the symmetry.

The name of Chance didn't take too long to come up with, I wanted something to reflect the randomized nature of the items in the game, and that lends itself well to that. I also didn't want to go with something common or formal, it's a fun name which reflects the content of the game nicely and adds a lot of character to my protagonist.

So, what of these Wizards? Yes, Wizards - plural. Initially it was just one, a male antagonist with eight daughters. the concept was that the eight daughters would be bosses in dungeons and beating them would weaken the main boss somehow. That narrative thread leads me down to fleshing out some of the daughters' features. I wanted each one to represent some aspect, or effect of time: Aging, Stopping time, Growth, Progression, Past, Future, etc. and that gave me the thought that these daughters were more than subordinates to the main antagonist, they could be the source of his powers, they could have developed part of the main curse and by beating them the player removes a part of the curse and the main antagonist's power. At this point there's no longer a single Wizard, but all the daughters were Wizards themselves. So the name of 'Time Wizards' Curse' was created.

On reflection I really like the name, it celebrates the main character in a way which could be serialised and tells the reader something about the game. It has a very 'Shantae' feel to it and grows from the Zelda subtitle trope.

The logo is just something I mocked up, but I do really like it, it's strong and playful at the same time, the Chrono Trigger-like clock face on the opening C both emulates Zelda's shield motif and reflects the game content. the subtitle strays away from the formality of the main text and gives a playful twist. It will change over time, but right now I'm happy with it.

I have also decided on an art style for the game, it won't look much like the key art, instead I'm sticking with A Link to the Past's 16-bit aesthetic. I've been looking at the gorgeous pixel art of Moonlighter with a mind to emulate that for my game, but I don't know much about pixel art, so I'll do my best for the prototype.