Fish Wars
A market Targeted aesthetic
| ROLE | Art & Design |
| TEAM | Solo |
| TIMEFRAME | Q2 2011 |
| PLATFORM | Mobile |
| CONSTRAINTS | Develop a game pitch and art style that would appeal the the mobile market of the time. |
| SCOPE | Pitch Deck |
| OUTCOME | Secured several job offers from studios that saw the appeal of the art and my range as an artist including Big Fish and 5TH Cell. |
Context
In the late 2000s to early 2010s, before they hyper-monetization of F2P, mobile games were exploding into popularity. Gems like Angry Birds, Plants Vs. Zombies, Cut the Rope, Field Runners, and others were enjoying a defining moment: The world realized that “real” gaming could take place on mobile devices. Games that had physics, told compelling stories, evoked emotion, ran at 60fps made their marks on the gaming world.
These were brilliant, impactful, and novel products that would go on to become multi billion dollar franchises.
In 2011, being an Angry Birds and Plants Vs Zombies fan, I saw an opening in the market and began developing Fish Wars, a spiritual relative to those IPs.
Style Discovery
I set out to develop a look. Jotting down some goals I came up with the following criteria:
- It must be appealing, presenting a strong visual identity
- It should feel contemporary and modern
- It should be distinct and non-derivative
- Would be easy to build a visual language around
- It must be easy to implement with simple shapes
After a few rounds of sketches I landed on something that achieved those goals. I liked this for its dopey, but appealing character. They’d be easy to merchandize and expand upon.
I set out to create the full cast of characters, leaning into distinct, readable silhouettes, playing with their individual personalities.
- Clown – Melee unit, flickable, clueless
- Angel – Ranged,
- Skelly – Starfish food
- Puffer – Mines obviously
- Starfish – Consumes detritus
- Shark –
Gameplay
The gameplay of Fish Wars was a simple mix of tower defense of PvZ and flicking units at your enemies, not unlike Monster Smash or Billiards:
- Protect the reef from attacking sharks by flicking your little fishy minions at the sharks.
- As enemies and your fish die, you spend your currency (lovingly portrayed as poop 💩) to collect detritus.
- waves of enemy units would spawn and your composition and placement of your fish would determine how well you did
Branding
With the game look and basic gameplay in place I got to work on the branding. I want to evoke something playful and “fishy” without being too literal.
I love typographic logos because they can tell a story through letterform and presentation while remaining pretty fast to create.
With the aesthetic established I wanted to see how the whole presentation would read on mobile devices. Do the menu fonts read? Are the characters clear on the smallest supported platform screen? How does the icon as a large phone icon, on a iPad, searching through spotlight?
