Based on the given theme 'Borders,' my group and I, together, came up with the idea of having a playable character that interacts with his own world and with another world that is based in contrasting realism. I think our idea was well executed and brought together what each one of us is strong at. For me, this was drawing in realism. 

We gathered our resources and took inspiration from games such as MySims Agents and Cupheads. From this, we decided on a 2D game, following a cartoon detective aptly named Dukie. With Grace creating our Unity and GitHub Repository, I took on the developments them and Eoin had created and developed my own. We originally had a Shutterstock image that acted as a placeholder as I brainstormed how best to design the layout. 

I followed the theme Eoin created with Dukie's cartoon design and followed suit in gathering my references. I drew assets in a 1950's style, such as vintage radios and typewriters. I wanted a sense of foggy ambience and tense atmosphere, with the added ashtrays and spilled cups of coffee; I thought this elevated the sleuth-styled type of game we aimed for. 

Once this was done, I discussed with Grace on what style wanted for the portraits of our four suspects. We debated between a sketchy, hand-drawn and 'Wanted' poster-like vibe or a realistic, black and white and photographed style. The latter was what we went with. This ended up better suiting me as I could best display my skill here, though they did take longer. As well as this, it was fun to have a differentiating look to Eoin's, who's cartoony style is incredibly impressive. 

As for developing the general look of each suspect, the four of them had to look somewhat similar though having an interesting feature. For the first suspect (Image one), I went with a moustache and a bandage around the head. I liked crafting what their personalities might be like. I wanted this suspect to feel imposing and had him be the only suspect looking at the viewer. For Suspect Two (Image two), I enjoyed drawing him the most. It was essential that Suspect Two had four fingers. However, when I first had a concept of what he might look like, it was jarring to just have his hand there with nothing in it. I ended up drawing him holding a cigarette and was quite happy with this. 

Onto Suspect Three, his distinguishing feature was an eyepatch on his right eye. Due to this, I decided to have him looking to his right to give the impression that he is trying to see what his covered eye can't. He is attempting to cover his weaknesses and so, looks nervous and uneasy. Lastly, Suspect Four's distinguishing feature is his disastrous haircut. I wanted him to look younger and more innocent than the other suspects, so I didn't add too much contrast in his face which can give the appearance of wrinkles or weathered skin. I added holes in his clothes and upturned eyebrows to give the character more intrigue. With each suspect I put thought and lots of consideration into why they look the way they do, instead of looking at a reference and copying from that, which would've been far easier. 

With the designs of the four suspects that I made, Eoin then created four animated versions of them which perfectly displayed our deferring styles and further added to the Borders theme. With my work and the work of my teammates, I think our game turned out really well.