Log #4: Patients

My initial thought for the patients was that their faces would be composed of different parts that would be randomly combined. For example, a patient would get wavy big hair, a monobrow, tired eyes, a big nose, a thin mouth and a round jawline. Together with a randomized skin color and hair color, these components would make each and every patient unique. After trying this concept with a few versions of each facial feature, I realized that the modular system still limits the patients and doesn't allow them to have their own personality.

Instead, I figured that with enough different faces you could still get the feeling that the patients were randomized, as it would take a lot of playtime to encounter the same face again. The faces are divided into gender and age groups, so that the face responds well with other randomized information about them.

Because animation isn't my strong side, I intend to have the patients be represented by portraits, and you send the patients to different diagnostics rooms by dragging their faces to the rooms. Bellow you can see a sample of eight faces, although I am working on getting the resolution to work better when combining sprites of different sizes.