Dead End Job
Ant Workshop Ltd Developer
Headup Publisher
2019-12-13 Release
Game News Posts:
14
🎹🖱️Keyboard + Mouse
🎮 Full Controller Support
🎮 Full Controller Support
Mostly Positive
(58 reviews)
Public Linux Depots:
- Dead End Job Linux Content [1.98 G]
Makin' A Dead End Job 03: "The Art Style of Ghost Busting"
No pixel art
Has to be eye catching
[/olist]
Not that I have anything against some well done pixel art, and there are some gorgeous games out there that do it amazingly, but at the time I felt like the other games wed be compared to were Enter the Gungeon, Binding of Isaac, and Nuclear Throne. Since theyre all pixel art, I wanted Dead End Job to stand out from them.
He got to work finding references of brightly coloured cartoons and artwork, and bunging them together in to mood boards. You can see a progression in ideas from the flat colours in the first board, through much punchier contrast in the second, and on to the cartoon style we eventually found. From this he did some quick initial character sketches as a colour test - what I still find amazing about this picture is that Hector was pretty much nailed from day 1, though originally Joe thought of the big guy as being more of the mentor with you playing as the skinny kid in the bottom left. As soon as I saw him I knew he had to be the lead, hes just so full of enthusiasm and character.
The final step for the main visuals was to make a mockup screenshot, so that we had something to aim towards as we put art in to the prototype, as we needed to get a feel for how the characters would sit in a typical level, how big theyd be, and how easy they would be to visually tell apart from the backgrounds.
This updates already a lot of words and I havent even talked about the title sequence yet! Once we knew we were going for the 90s cartoon look, I was dead set on having an animated intro sequence to the game, with a theme tune. For me, the bit above everything else that sticks in my head about cartoons like Animaniacs, Spongebob, Taz-Mania, and my all-time favourite Freakazoid, was the 30 second sequence and song that rapidly introduces you to all of the characters and the set up of the show. You could watch any episode and these action-packed tunes get you quickly up to speed. For an action game I think its a brilliant idea as well - Ive played a lot of games that have fast paced arcadey gameplay, but that spend a long time at the start introducing the characters and telling you what youre doing. I wanted Dead End Job to basically take 30 seconds to say heres everyone, youre rescuing Beryl, but also now forget about all of that, its not really important.
I guess the last thing to talk about art-wise is the variety of art styles in the game. The cartoon references wed picked used occasional cut aways to close ups with really gross amount of detail, or to live action segments and still, or just something weird to give it an extra surreal moment. To us, this meant we really had free reign to mix it up a bit depending on the context. So for example we wanted the cutscenes to use a style that emulate cel animation a little bit better than the in-game graphics do (with no lighting, and characters drawn bolder against softer background colours). There are also a couple of points in these scenes were we use cutaways to real world stuff - the sequence where you first see Hectors handbook in particular still makes me laugh now.
] Right, I think thats plenty for this week? Since Ive talked so much about Hector and Beryl, I think next week it would be a good idea to give you a proper introduction to the rag-tag staff of Ghoul-B-Gone, and some of the ghosts youll be fighting. See you next week (and I hope you get your boiler fixed by then)! https://store.steampowered.com/app/827610
[ 2019-11-15 14:51:54 CET ] [ Original post ]
Hey there, its Tony again! How has your week been? Oh no, your boilers broken? Thats always a pain, especially going in to Winter.
Anyway, in this update I wanted to write a bit about the thing that probably first drew your attention to Dead End Job - the lovely art. As I mentioned in an earlier article, I realised that my art skills wouldnt be anywhere near good enough to do the game justice (if you want to know the extent of my art ability - the main characters in our first game were a pair of circles).
I would like to say that I searched high and low to find someone who could bring the vision to life, but its not true - at this point I didnt really have a vision of what I thought the game should look like, and I also knew Joe from hanging out with mutual friends at a developer conference, and enjoyed his squishy deforming animation style, so I quickly got him on board.
Now, not being an artist, I dont want to get in the way of the talent that much, so there were only two bits in the art direction I gave Joe:
[olist]
He got to work finding references of brightly coloured cartoons and artwork, and bunging them together in to mood boards. You can see a progression in ideas from the flat colours in the first board, through much punchier contrast in the second, and on to the cartoon style we eventually found. From this he did some quick initial character sketches as a colour test - what I still find amazing about this picture is that Hector was pretty much nailed from day 1, though originally Joe thought of the big guy as being more of the mentor with you playing as the skinny kid in the bottom left. As soon as I saw him I knew he had to be the lead, hes just so full of enthusiasm and character.
The final step for the main visuals was to make a mockup screenshot, so that we had something to aim towards as we put art in to the prototype, as we needed to get a feel for how the characters would sit in a typical level, how big theyd be, and how easy they would be to visually tell apart from the backgrounds.
This updates already a lot of words and I havent even talked about the title sequence yet! Once we knew we were going for the 90s cartoon look, I was dead set on having an animated intro sequence to the game, with a theme tune. For me, the bit above everything else that sticks in my head about cartoons like Animaniacs, Spongebob, Taz-Mania, and my all-time favourite Freakazoid, was the 30 second sequence and song that rapidly introduces you to all of the characters and the set up of the show. You could watch any episode and these action-packed tunes get you quickly up to speed. For an action game I think its a brilliant idea as well - Ive played a lot of games that have fast paced arcadey gameplay, but that spend a long time at the start introducing the characters and telling you what youre doing. I wanted Dead End Job to basically take 30 seconds to say heres everyone, youre rescuing Beryl, but also now forget about all of that, its not really important.
I guess the last thing to talk about art-wise is the variety of art styles in the game. The cartoon references wed picked used occasional cut aways to close ups with really gross amount of detail, or to live action segments and still, or just something weird to give it an extra surreal moment. To us, this meant we really had free reign to mix it up a bit depending on the context. So for example we wanted the cutscenes to use a style that emulate cel animation a little bit better than the in-game graphics do (with no lighting, and characters drawn bolder against softer background colours). There are also a couple of points in these scenes were we use cutaways to real world stuff - the sequence where you first see Hectors handbook in particular still makes me laugh now.
] Right, I think thats plenty for this week? Since Ive talked so much about Hector and Beryl, I think next week it would be a good idea to give you a proper introduction to the rag-tag staff of Ghoul-B-Gone, and some of the ghosts youll be fighting. See you next week (and I hope you get your boiler fixed by then)! https://store.steampowered.com/app/827610
[ 2019-11-15 14:51:54 CET ] [ Original post ]
Dead End Job sends you into a madcap, Ren & Stimpy-esque world to bust up ghosts. It’s a procedurally generated, couch co-op, twin-stick shooter that straps a vacuum pack to your back, and puts a plasma blaster in your hand. For you, it’s just another day in the office.
Please note that Dead End Job supports mouse & keyboard controls for single player, but couch co-op requires at least one player to use a controller.
Have you got what it takes to be the best at putting pests to rest?
Please note that Dead End Job supports mouse & keyboard controls for single player, but couch co-op requires at least one player to use a controller.
Familiar Haunts
You take on the role of Hector Plasm, a worker at Ghoul-B-Gone – ‘the Number One experts in paranormal pest control’ – as you’re tasked with heading to haunted offices, restaurants, and other everyday buildings before freeing them of unwanted guests. One minute you're sucking up specters, the next you're sucking up to your bosses, chasing that promotion.Have you got what it takes to be the best at putting pests to rest?
Don’t Suck… Well, Actually Do
Exercise that fighting spirit, since every specter you snag and every resident you rescue is added to your client’s bill at the end of the job. Haunted by the ghost of your mentor, quite literally, you must learn the ropes and to save her soul before she’s forced to spend eternity as a spook (voted “Least Preferred Fate” in Ghost Hunter Monthly).Kindred Spirits
Play alone or bust ghosts with a buddy in drop in / drop out co-op that works seamlessly within the main adventure. Plus you can play to an audience with Twitch and Mixer interactivity that allows viewers to help or hinder your assault on the afterlife.Ghost Writer
Do you love 90's cartoons? Yeah, so do we, and we grew up on their stretchy squishy gross-out laughs. Our love for them spills over into the game like so much ectoplasm. See every nose hair in wacky, vibrant art that brings everyday items to life as screwball spooks to suck up. To top it off, the entire adventure is backed by music from the award-winning Will Morton (Grand Theft Auto series).MINIMAL SETUP
- OS: Ubuntu 16.04 LTS
- Processor: 2.0 GHz Dual Core ProcessorMemory: 8 GB RAM
- Memory: 8 GB RAM
- Graphics: GeForce 8800 or equivalent
- Storage: 2 GB available space
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