Some cursed Item Ideas (each with a quick sketch)

[fluctuating]

A friend brought up the potential of having a secret cursed item shop in the game and had a bunch of fun ideas.




I'm particularly fond of the Head-in-a-Jar idea, that was immediately my first thought when thinking of cursed items. It unfortunately doesn't really work that well visually for everyone (mostly thinking of Viscous) but I think it could be cool.
I'd be happy to flesh these out more, these are just the quick spur of the moment sketches as the ideas were coming to me.

 

[lordbeanthev]

Though these might not make it into the real game I really like the spirit of them. Little goofy effects that change how you approach a character seem like an interesting step for the game.

There is an unfortunate animator's hurdle to implementing an item like the jar. For example, Abrams' slide has his back grinding along the grounded surface and that just rubs me the wrong way for some reason.

Besides that point, the effect might be too minor? In a weird way, I feel like an item like this does offer some decent damage reduction but it needs some way to not just be a roundabout bullet resist item.
SO HEAR ME OUT Jar-in-a-Head can be retooled as the cursed upgrade Headless Frenzy as a thematic upgrade to the eponymous item. (and would be a good bouncing off point for additional bonus effects to go along with!)

I think if Viscous' head were to change color in response to having been lopped off it might be okay. [Who knows, the redesign might tackle this problem in its entirety anyway, if he keeps the baseball cap from his old redesign, for example]

I really like the goofyness of the big head mode, it kinda reminds me of something I'd see in a random older source game as a weird offshoot commmunity gamemode. (though cause of that, its probably an ill-fit for regular play, probably better off in Street Brawl or when more Arcade-like modes inevitably come out for this game's full-release and after) [Also something about FoV as another possible hurdle to implementing it, keeping the head from blocking yo damn screen]

I like the idea of more knockback resistance items, considering displacement is kind of a state that happens A LOT and not just reactive barrier...

Being marked on the map constantly brings an interesting idea into play but not really sure if it's a reasonable enough downside, higher skill players usually don't have a problem essentially deducing a person's location even if they aren't explicitly visible on the mini-map. (Though it's obviously really bad for any heavy gankers like Calico or MnK)

Baba Yaga is such a cool character from folklore and seeing her throughout popular media is always a treat, a perfect fit for the occultic secret shop of Deadlock. [Though the idea of the infamous Rat King being cast as the shopkeeper works really great as well and a nice nod/inside joke for the community...]

Anyways I decided to write a whole lot for no reason in particular but I hope you appreciate it.

 

[fluctuating]

Though these might not make it into the real game I really like the spirit of them. Little goofy effects that change how you approach a character seem like an interesting step for the game.

There is an unfortunate animator's hurdle to implementing an item like the jar. For example, Abrams' slide has his back grinding along the grounded surface and that just rubs me the wrong way for some reason.

Besides that point, the effect might be too minor? In a weird way, I feel like an item like this does offer some decent damage reduction but it needs some way to not just be a roundabout bullet resist item.
SO HEAR ME OUT Jar-in-a-Head can be retooled as the cursed upgrade Headless Frenzy as a thematic upgrade to the eponymous item. (and would be a good bouncing off point for additional bonus effects to go along with!)

I think if Viscous' head were to change color in response to having been lopped off it might be okay. [Who knows, the redesign might tackle this problem in its entirety anyway, if he keeps the baseball cap from his old redesign, for example]

I really like the goofyness of the big head mode, it kinda reminds me of something I'd see in a random older source game as a weird offshoot commmunity gamemode. (though cause of that, its probably an ill-fit for regular play, probably better off in Street Brawl or when more Arcade-like modes inevitably come out for this game's full-release and after) [Also something about FoV as another possible hurdle to implementing it, keeping the head from blocking yo damn screen]

I like the idea of more knockback resistance items, considering displacement is kind of a state that happens A LOT and not just reactive barrier...

Being marked on the map constantly brings an interesting idea into play but not really sure if it's a reasonable enough downside, higher skill players usually don't have a problem essentially deducing a person's location even if they aren't explicitly visible on the mini-map. (Though it's obviously really bad for any heavy gankers like Calico or MnK)

Baba Yaga is such a cool character from folklore and seeing her throughout popular media is always a treat, a perfect fit for the occultic secret shop of Deadlock. [Though the idea of the infamous Rat King being cast as the shopkeeper works really great as well and a nice nod/inside joke for the community...]

Anyways I decided to write a whole lot for no reason in particular but I hope you appreciate it.

I appreciate the feedback very much, I think those are all very valid takes and criticisms. I didn't really think about the sliding animation for Abrams, I now have a similarly colourful mental image that I have made manifest.

I think the completely headless idea is probably much easier to implement. I think having the head still be around somewhere was a way to not have it be a strict bonus unto itself, keeping with the theme of them being rather cursed. Typically the inception of all these ideas were bonuses where their downsides felt like a part of the bonus. (For the big head I was initially thinking that could give bonus melee damage and have your character headbutt for melee instead, which ironically I decided against for animation reasons, whilst not considering the slide animation for the Head-in-a-Jar)

For Baba Yaga, I am not a vorthos on Deadlock, I've not really kept up much besides the osmosis from friends, so I am unfortunately not in the camp as to understand the Rat King bit. Auntie Yaga was entirely meant as a Hellboy bit, I even used that comic's design. I think almost anything illustrated by Mike Mignola can rather seemlessly be copypasted into Deadlock without looking out of place.

I think overall with the point of tone, you bringing up them feeling more tonally inline with Street Brawl is pretty apt. I think this connects with the point about power level as well, being that to have it be in the core game mode, I felt it couldn't be as impactful as something like Mystical Piano. However, it probably needs to still be powerful enough to warrant a purchase outside of a joke pick. I may stew on that a little.

I appreciate the long response, it's nice to hear your points, I hope my response isn't too scatterbrained. I definitely feel encouraged to doodle out more ideas if I have any.

 

[lordbeanthev]

I think almost anything illustrated by Mike Mignola can rather seemlessly be copypasted into Deadlock without looking out of place.

Hard agree on that.

I appreciate the long response, it's nice to hear your points, I hope my response isn't too scatterbrained. I definitely feel encouraged to doodle out more ideas if I have any.

I think your response was pretty well-said. More doodles will always be appreciated friend.

The new drawing's great, imagining that in a real game situation is funnie c:

 

[fluctuating]

Designed a shop logo for Baba Yaga and got a little carried away afterwards


I liked the idea of Yaga with glasses and a moustache and pretending to be someone else. I really wanted to have the logo be like upside down and having some other name but I couldn't get it to look correct. It's almost another word upside down, but there is a bit too much ambiguity for it to work as well.

 

[lordbeanthev]

Not sure if this would help with the process but it kind of reminds me of an ambigram but in reverse. (kinda) And with those you typically have some strange details around or in the letters to transfix them into something else when flipped like that. [some random examples from google]

 

[Dervish]

I love these so much, absolutely wonderful art and some genuinely interesting item ideas here.

 

[umikmail]

View attachment 96480
Designed a shop logo for Baba Yaga and got a little carried away afterwards
View attachment 96481
View attachment 96482
I liked the idea of Yaga with glasses and a moustache and pretending to be someone else. I really wanted to have the logo be like upside down and having some other name but I couldn't get it to look correct. It's almost another word upside down, but there is a bit too much ambiguity for it to work as well.
View attachment 96483

Truly impressive graphic design work! I'm taking notes!