I have teamed up with Linda, Klaus, MJ, Kadijah, and Andrea for this project, and I will be mainly working on the environment for our game, though I’ve made it clear that I am open to helping with the other aspects as well.
initially our team came up with a lot of concepts, and we were able to merge them to come up with a game idea. I liked the idea of having it be set in Italy as there is some very interesting architecture which can be interpreted in various ways for the requirements of our game.
when we met with our game design team, we decided on a mechanic where the player could teleport from one environment to the other, one being a alternate underworld version of the world above, as our game is about traversing the human world as a ghost and the underworld as a skeleton who slowly rebuilds their mortal body to return to the living world. so, we will create an environment that is normal in the human world and recreate it but have it be twisted, horrific and dilapidated for the underworld.
In addition, I made this diagram to try and convey the idea as simply and quickly as possible. the aim of the game is to collect the orbs by solving puzzles so the player characters mortal body is restored.
at the moment, we are considering both 2d and 3d assets for the background. We think that games such as hollow night and Ori have good styles and colour pallets for the underworld, and the overworld can reference the real images I have gathered of Italian architecture.
this is a sketch i did during a group meeting to show how we could combine 2d and 3d to create an environment for our game.
some isometric concept art I did to reference how the style could change but layout be mirrored between levels:
using the asset list we made in one of our meetings, i made some very rough sketches that the team would be able to build and iterate upon. in the next meeting i think it would be good for each member of the environment team to do a final concept for a couple of assets so we can move on to the modelling and sculpting stages asap
Asset list:
personal Gantt chart:
The pitch deck
in the pitch for our game i will be introducing who we are, what each of us are working on, and the plan for what we need to do and what we have achieved already. i think a Gannt chart will be a good visual for displaying this. I will also talk about the environment concept we have at a later point in the pitch.
level 2 plan
using the design teams layout, i drew over it and planned the hero assets to be in the level:
layout template i made:
underworld plan (orbs and checkpoints positions and overall design of look of the level. main assets are the lava waterfall and the tree.
working with the team in google slides to get the presentation for the pitch pack done:
i decided not to include a Gantt chart as i could explain the plan in three points. a Gantt chart congaing all the details for each role will be good to get done when everyone is there to figure it out. for now and for the simplicity and speed of the pitch, i will do more of a general overview.
joining a discord group vc helped us to finish the slides on time as we were able to communicate what we wanted for each slide and being in the call helped as motivation. i worked on my slide, finished the silhouette for level 2 in the environment slide, and drew an avatar for the last slide during the call
the presentation went well, feedback was to talk to the design team about the planned level, as that can be frustration for players. Also to think about the way the player will move. Overall though it was quite positive!
now over the next week I will be working on the hero assets for level 2, which is a structure with a lava pool/ waterfall and a tree. I think it will be a fun challenge to model the lava and model an interesting and memorable tree. For the underworld I think it could be decorated with hanging cages and some npcs could be in them. Additionally, there could be little creatures in the tree watching the player. For the lava, I thought it would be interesting if it was flowing out of the windows of a structure. Additionally, it would work to have it not be animated, as lava moves very slowly. The addition of shifting lighting could create the illusion. However, the waterfall in the overworld will need to be animated, which can be done with 2d vfx
i created this Gantt chart for the environment team:
starting to create the assets in Maya
Learning Unity Workflow
this is mainly useful for 2D assets.
basic shapes and 2d assets
tiling and sprite editor
was useful to look at how the tiles were made and laid out in this demo game
3 tasks:
Three tasks:
-Create a personal production plan to go alongside Gantt chart
-Split the 2D background artworks between the team
-Make a basic blockout of the hero and modular assets that are in level 2
Easter break:
Tree
tried adding sticks with the MASH nodes
although it took longer, manual placement looked much better. i think the mash nodes would look good for background trees but as this is a hero asset it is worth the extra time
modelling the cage that will hang from the tree, will use lattice deformer to vary the shapes
UV unwrapping the tree, making the twigs as separate objects which i duplicated around made this a lot faster
lava structure
modelled the window the lava will be pouring out of. didn’t bevel the edges considering the scale it will be viewed at. will make sure to export a separate version so the team can use it modularly
going to sculpt the lava and rocks in zbrush and Zremesh them as it will be easier to make the organic shapes that way. there will also need to be a pool of lava
started trying to use zremesher but it ruined the shape. decimation master was much better and the topology will be fine as the rocks wont be animated. the way it topologised it also made it look more jagged which was useful for the underworld
plan for lava is to have the mesh static and 2d animations and lighting over the top of it
when discussing the 2d aspect of the backgrounds we decided to do one drawing for each that would loop. this was decided to make it more manageable within the timeframe. also, i will be doing the 2d background art for level 2 to go with the assets i have made.
sketch for the 2d background of level 2 (black platforms are for visualising the game)
asked the group for some feedback on the 2d part of the background of level 2, showed some colour ideas and variations, they preferred the blue and orange colour so i will move ahead with this one
Texturing assets
have agreed that i will make the lava and waterfall as static objects and we will be able to put 2d vfx over the top of them to make them appear to be moving
using transparency for the leaves to keep poly-count low
i could add the leaves once i had the transparent material decided. i then uploaded these assets to our shared OneDrive folder
texture feedback from the group:
feedback on the textures of my model was to make it more stylized to fit the art style more and make it cohesive with other assets by making it cell shaded. i did this in substance painter with the procedural generators
checking the textures work in maya:
I have now exported these files as FBX and uploaded them to the shared OneDrive along with their texture files.
i decided to do a version of the tree with green leaves and another version with red leaves to let us have some variation if we use the asset multiple times
i also decided to export and upload the rocks and cages separately as modular pieces in case they will be reused in other levels or in level 2
Researching industry roles
looking at our whole asset list, I noticed we have been neglecting the overworld part of the environments. It seems the best way forward at this stage will be to use one 2d background that will loop for both the first 2 levels, and I will also model some 3d modular assets that can be reused accross both levels. Lastly the coloured blocks will be best interpried as 2d bricks, taking khadijas approach with the level 3 underworld. It might be best, however to export the 2d bricks as modular 2d spritesheet, which the design team can individually assign colours to so that the coloured blocks mechanic still works. This seems like the smoothest approach.
I have checked with Linda that the vfx waterfall is done, so I will just make a rock formation for the animation to be placed on. Also have checked with Khadija and we agree that the block idea is the best approach at this stage, and I will be making the 2d background for the overworld.
this is my first draft of the overworld 2d background which I have asked for feedback on from the group
this is the underworld 2d background i have done. Since the sketch, I went with the colour scheme the group liked most and also took their feedback of making the shadows darker to mirror the hades style more closely.
using the tiles for level 1 that mj had already made i rearranged them to also fit level 2 and then I added a gradient map to them and started fitting them to the overworld levels, I will also add grass to them, this way the tiles are consistent accross level 1 and 2, level 3 is different as it is an interior. Working together like this really saved a lot of time
feedback from the group was to add grass and some flowers
finished and uploaded the new platforms to onedrive
feedback from the design team was to add the colours to the blocks. i decided to give them a saturated and more saturated version so they can choose which one has the best clarity while also looking cohesive
WIP screenshots:
photoshopped version of level 2 underworld:
I rendered the assets I made in as PNGs in substance painter so I could quickly put this together.
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