PIGEON CHEF
ROLE
Designer and programmer
DESCRIPTION
Pigeon Chef is my first 2D pixel game I made at the university. In the creation, I used Aseprite, a pixel-art tool, and GameMaker Studio. Pigeon Chef was made based on my experience of living in the Netherlands.
YEAR
2022
GENRE
Quest
PLATFORM
PC
WHAT IS PIGEON CHEF?
The Main Idea
The main character is Pigeon, a culinary student, who decided to study in the Netherlands. The bird lives in student accomodation and makes new acquaintances: Bulldog, pigeon’s roommate, and Dolphin, a neighbour. Throughout the game the character learns about foreign cultures cooking their national meal. A clear example is Bulldog who is the national symbol of England. Therefore, in the first level Pigeon needs to help the roommate to cook English tea but, firstly, find required ingredients.
Why Are Characters Animals?
All characters in the game are animals and they represent countries where they are national animals. The main character is Pigeon as this bird can be found all around the world. This idea was implemented in Pigeon Chef to avoid any harmful stereotypes but still show that this person is from a certain country.
Dutch Words
One of the game features is dutch words, since Pigeon lives in the Netherlands. Based on the experience of incoming students, generally, they are confused during their first grocery shop visit. The main reason is unawareness of products' names in Dutch. Thus, basic dutch words are in the game.
ME IN THE GAME
Art
In the game creation, basically, I was responsible for the visual aspect. I was interested in this part because drawing is my strength. It was my first time using Aseprite. It was the reason why I strived to try myself in pixel art. I am proud of the results I achieved in two months. I was working on game locations and game items (milk, cup, teapot, etc.)
Pigeon
Kitchen
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I had started with game locations. Before proceeding to work, I gathered references for a mood board and drew sketches with my ideas. I found photos on Pinterest and used Adobe Illustrator to make the moodboard. Then, I made a lot of concept art versions and asked for feedback about it from my teammates and target audience. First artworks were simple and raw. However, I knew I was headed in the right direction. Also, reviews contributed to the improvement of art concepts. I added details and put cosiness in locations. As a result, according to the users I was able to convey the right atmosphere.
The most exciting part of my artwork was the animations. I worked on the whole animations in the game: milk opening, adding sugar to the tea or kettle boiling. I spent a lot of time making them realistic. It was a fascinating experience. I adore that feeling when you finish 30 sprites for an item animation, and it looks gorgeous. At the moment, I want to develop myself in 2D games because it’s a good start for art designers in the game industry. All artworks in this portfolio were used in the game. It's final result.
Counter
with Tea
Sink and
Kettle
Milk animation
Tea Cup
Sprites
Sugar
Animation
Sugar and Kettle
Sprites
Making Tea
Animation
Programming
Besides the visual aspect, I wrote the code in the GameMaker Studio. In the beginning, Game Maker Studio was complicated for me. I did not have skills and knowledge in game maker code, so I had a lot of bugs in the project game. I spent hours finding a solution in tutorials and forums as I could not leave the matter unresolved. As a result, a lot of bugs and errors were deleted. So, one month later, I had already had enough skills to develop the 2D game and help my teammates with their problems in code. As for me, programming was the most complicated part of game development, but I overcame it.
All animations and programming part during this video was created by myself (Ekaterina Serkova)!!!
Leader
I was a leader for a group of four throughout Pigeon Chef development. My teammates were responsible and did their part of the job well. Thus, I trusted them and didn’t need to assign their responsibilities. Also, I believe that it was the result of a discussion where I listened to the wishes of each participant: what they wanted to do in the game development as I aimed to interest everyone in creating the game. All of us named our strengths and weaknesses. For instance, my strength is drawing. Thus, I was responsible for a big part of the visual aspect.