Zool: Taking It to the N Dimension - The Game Maker's Companion: Game Development - page 48

We originally set out to make a platform game that took influences from early 16-bit
Japanese games, with a character that could become a mascot for the Amiga (which we
saw as a vacant position). The Studio boss, Ian Stewart, gave us a simple brief: he
wanted an alien character, and he wanted him to do things that no other character
could. This was a pretty wide open theme, so after a bit of brainstorming I came up with
the 'Ninja of the N th Dimension' line: the theory being if we knew where he came from,
we could start to visualize him. His name came last of all. I think he was originally
called ZOON, but I changed it to ZOOL (and never thought about Zuul in Ghostbusters
until it was mentioned later).
Visually, the first goal was to make him easy to read in the confined sprite
constraints imposed by the Amiga: 48 x 48 pixels and just 16 different colors. The second
goal, which fell out of the first, was that he'd be easy to animate. When you look at Zool,
he's made of two basic geometric spheroids, with a few sticks. I wanted him to have a
stripped down look, similar to that seen in Bomberman, with just a little more
highlighting to help define his shape.
First came the eyes. As Zool was such a minimal character with few adornments, his
mouth (if he had one) hidden behind his mask, I wanted his eyes to be as large and
expressive as possible. Cats are agile and inscrutable, so he got a pair of feline eyes (three,
the first time I drew him, but we decided the traditional two were better). His eyes were
also his brightest feature. I wanted them to 'pop' at all times, so the player could see the
determined look in his eye, or the look of panic when he was precariously balanced. As
his eyes were so large and prominent in proportion to the rest of him, they pretty much
became his stand-out feature by default, and I even designed the logo based around
them.
Zool would be a combination of black (ninjas wear black, right?) and green (default
alien color—though I tried a couple of alternatives), with a highlight color to help sell
his movement. Black stripes around both his head and body helped with rotation
animations, and the red at his wrists and ankles helped with tracking limbs. The limbs
were made green to prevent him turning into a black mass when he did some fancy
rotation. I think the end result fitted well into the fast-paced game we were attempting
to create. The final character was dynamic, versatile and a tad enigmatic—everything
you want from a Ninja from the N th dimension.
Figure 3-1. A screenshot from the Mega Drive version of Zool to show what we're aiming for