Presentation

My Powerpoint presentation
basically a summary of all the information I've put up along with some extra things like pictures of games that are influencing how I want the game to look like and play like

Preliminary Work Schedule

Here is a monthly/weekly/daily timetable of how i will roughly be allocating my time work wise.

My Story Concept

•Queen Medb and her daughter Finnabair  (two character that originate from Ard Macha/ Armagh in Ulster) inspire my story. One day Queen Medb goes missing and while her warriors prepare to go to war to get her back from who they think kidnapped her a rivaling clan, Her daughter wanders into a ring of hawthorn trees, falling into the fairy world. She discovers the fairies kidnapped the Queen as she is a great warrior and they hope that they can persuade her to fight for their cause when she awakens. After discovering that three other mythical beings are threatening the existence of the fairies, Finnabair agrees to try and straighten things out. What I hope to do here is have a simple battle between two types of bosses, a mythical bull and a dragon. These are both creatures that are well known to Irish mythology and Armagh specifically.  The end would have a choice for the player t make to leave her mother in the fairy world as the fairies still believe humans are a threat to their world as they are cutting down the Hawthorn Trees or to stay in Queen Medb’s place in the hopes that her mother will figure out a way to save her.

Other concepts

These are just some other sketches i have been doing I drew a dragon as in ireland dragons were referred to as serpents and to make a connection to St Patricks story I thought a dragon encounter could be interesting, I also wanted to have it weave among itself and decided to pick a simple celtic knot design to base this around. Afterlooking at certain designs I thought it would be interesting to use a celtic knot for its eyes as well to make it more mythical and fantasy, I love this look and i htink if i refined it more I will definitely use this concept for my game somewhere.

I also used celtic knot deigns for trees and flowers and I also would love to put this in a graybox and test what these would look like even as 2d planes that are coded to face the camera. 

I also did a fairy concept as it is part of a story concept i had and i wanted to see what it wuld look like using celtic knots as her wings like the wings in my moodboards i quite like it but i think it'd need alot more work. 

Concepts for Findabair

I have only done one so far but i was more influenced by jim fitzpatrick for this concept.

I want to redo this concept and make it alot more vibrant, I feel the colours are too dull for what i want to show.

Character Concepts for Queen Medb

Here are my several concepts for queen medb. I tried to show the infuence of both jim shore and jim fitzpatrick. I like the final image better as i htink it portrays more the style I want to go towards.

Celtic Designs and Knots Moodboard

I gathered images from the internet of celtic knots and patterns. I feel celtic nots is one of those things that you cant really make up yourself every pattern has some sort of meaning like the cladagh ring for romance. i want to use alot of celtic knots and designs in my project to add the influence but to also add a sense of surrealim in my game as I don't want it to be a super realistic depiction of myths. I want there to be this sense of storybook / fantasy.

Research - Jim Shore

Jim Shore is a famous wood crafter. He is most known for his disney figurines an has a very unique folk art style. I love his work because he adds some sort of pattern to whatever character he is modelling whether its a human or an animal which I think is amazing. I want to incorporate this technique into my concepts and models by using celtic knots and patterns as an overlay.

http://jimshore.com/

Mood Boards

Here are moodboards for the character concepts like what style I like and pictures i found of Queen Medb. the bottom two moodboards are all art by jim fitzpatrick

Research - Jim Fitzpatrick

Jim Fitzpatrick is a very famus celtic artist among irish.
His most memorable piece to me and one that is hanging in my home in ireland is his depiction of St Patrick driving the snakes out of ireland.

I wanted to look at his art because it is a very distinct and recognizable style and it somethig I feel would look amazing potentially cell shaded o a character or even just having 2D characters / sprites that are interactive.

http://www.jimfitzpatrick.com/celtic-irish-fantasy-art/

Research - Findabair

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Findabair

There is not alot of information on Findabair anywhere as it was her mother that was the star of the show. although one story talks about how when her first love was killed and after not being able to find any other suitor she agrees to marry cu chulainn. She is led to him by someone impersonating to be the king and after reaising this he puts a pillar through this man and through Findabairs tunic. There are two stone that actually exist that are cnnected to this story called the 'Fool's stone' the man who died and 'Findabair's stone'

I want to use as much mythical and legendary references in my short game as possible and I think maybe recreating these stones and having information appear when you are near them could be a nice thing.

Research : - Queen Medb

Queen Medb (Medv) fought in the 'Tain Bo Cuailnge' and fought with that had magical attributes. She has her own tree 'Bile Medb' and is often depicted with a squirrel and bird on her shoulder.

http://www.queenmaeve.org/tributes-to-the-queen.html
a poem by W.B. Yeats on Queen Medb

http://www.bardsongpress.com/Celtic_Culture/The_Intoxicating_Warrior_Queen.htm
this link goes into great detail the tales of the tain bo cuailnge

http://www.shee-eire.com/Magic%26Mythology/Kings&Queens/Celtic/Queens/Connaught/Medb/Page1.htm
The family tree of Queen Medb

From the research I have done both online and from books and knowledge growing up hearing about Queen Medb she was a fierce warrior and woman, she was often depicted with fiery red hair (I believe to further emphasise her temperment) and if I were to design my own concept of her I feel I wuld also choose fiery red hair, I would also want to show her beauty as it is also often said she was a sensual woman who had many lovers and husbands and I want to incorporate that into my story somehow