PROJECT DESIGN BACKGROUND

The Alien Diversity Project involves selecting the most appealing (to human eyes) aliens from among the hundreds that I drew while developing the alien-related games published by Yuyosoft Innovations Inc. Specifically, the games are Strange Invaders, Get Aligned and Alien Insurgency, all of which may be downloaded for free on the iOS App Store and, for Android, the Google Play Store.

The project addresses diversity, inclusion, tolerance and xenophobia, but it is important to note that Rufus Lin's approach is not to push his own views on these matters on to anybody else. Without attempting to preach or overly anthropomorphize the aliens, Rufus Lin hopes that people who find the aliens cute or appealing will realize on their own that their reaction is a tolerant one, and occurs despite the unexpected lack of resemblance to typical aliens in the popular culture.

One non-trivial challenge in this project is which aliens to incorporate into any given merchandise or creative opus, and if color variations are applicable, which of these to select. What is clear to me, as a designer, is that Blobby, in at least the pink variation, is the consistent thread throughout all the merchandise and works. In fact, the first phase of the project features only Blobby, and expansion of the project will involve more color variations and more accessorization of Blobby, rather than moving to a second alien. However, eventually, I would like to take that further step, since after all, the project is about Alien Diversity, rather than just being the Blobby Project.

A word about the design of the aliens. They are two-dimensional, rather than three, because the development team at Yuyosoft Innovations Inc. feels that despite the fact that so many modern mobile games are visually similar, and use the same engines, such as Unity, etc., there is in fact much that can still be done in the 2D domain, without necessarily resorting to a retro look and feel. As such all Yuyosoft mobile games use two-dimensional graphics.

Even two-dimensional graphics can be detailed and realistic, of course, but for the games I worked on, I chose to make the aliens have a cartoonish feel to them, rather than a scary, grotesque or repulsive one. Those were basically the only two options available to me...lol. Even so, I did try to make some ugly ones loved only by their mothers, just to satisfy some of the hardcore players of our games. For the merchandise and creative works, however, I felt that the cute and appealing ones were perhaps more appropriate.

Another consideration is the simplicity (or low complexity) of the aliens selected, particularly for merchandise. The rationale here is not only that simplicity makes a more impactful statement and resonates at a deeper level (think heart rather than head). It is also for practical reasons, as an enamel pin, for example, is typically viewed from a bit of a distance, and I want the alien form to be taken in at a glance, without having to peer at it and wonder what it is.