Gameplay and Interactivity: Prototype Loop 1

This week we had to playtest each others games in their current states and provide feedback. It was fascinating watching different classmates tackle the same game in totally different ways! Granted, there was no lighting to guide the way and no scripted elements in yet. Still, the feedback gained was invaluable and highlighted a number of bugs.

Killer Bug One

No matter what, everyone wanted to head straight into the airlocks. Due to a combination of size and mesh issues, the player would get trapped inside the mesh and be forced to restart the game. Obviously this is a huge gameplay issue as the airlocks are key to the narrative of the game and its never fun to find a game killing bug. It may be worth resizing these or rethinking how they are implemented in the game.

Bug Two

I realized far too late that Unity really dislikes planes and very thin polyshapes. Many of my objects lost their faces when playing the game and this created transparent walls and surfaces the player could just walk through. Another game breaking bug in some instances, as the player could get trapped or lost. And generally, aesthetically it was rubbish. This was easily fixed by duplicating the shape and turning it inside out. Still, the feedback gathered consisted a lot with mentioning this. It created a very 'Unfinished' look.

Positives

There were positives to come out of this prototype loop, that indicate I'm moving in the right direction. The art direction was mentioned in a positive light - there were quite a few comments stating that the level was immersive and created a certain feel. Others said that it seemed like an interesting environment to walk around in and explore. It's just a huge shame that many of the key elements caused game breaking bugs.

Reflections

All in all I'd call it a successful day. I had a few important bugs discovered and got some reassuring feedback in terms of art direction. The structure of the map needs changing for sure - A lot of players got tempted into areas that I wouldn't necessarily of liked them to head in to. Its also worth considering expanding the play area on to Mars' surface. This would give another unique visual experience to the player. A lot to think about and a lot to do.



3D Art: Mushroom

Another tutorial, another set of tools that I'd been dying to try out.

When you first get your hands on Maya, modelling inorganic shapes is easy. Shape, Bevel and hey presto! Something that looks like a television. However, trying to make something that is asymmetrical..another story. Add in texture stretching and you can be in for a long day.

This utilised the curve and sculpting tools - both INVALUABLE when it came down to my Arena. Terrain and mountains suddenly became possible. This tutorial also introduced us in more depth to UV tiling and stitching. Whilst daunting when your complex model appears to be in a million parts, it really does help when preparing a model with unique properties for texturing.

I learnt my lesson from the Barrel in week one and decided to not go too crazy with the shapes that made up the Mushroom. That helped a great deal with even distribution of the texture.

Whether or not I end up using these is a different story - I feel they could fit in to my arena, but I'm not sure if they'll serve the narrative. Either way, I'm pretty stoked with how they came out!

Visual Design: Lava

This weeks task was a fun one. Lava is frequently used in sci fi and fantasy imagery and therefore a staple of video games.

Initially we were given a sculpture and were asked to paint lava details into it:

This was a quick and fun exercise but what really excited me was the assignment for home - To design our own Lava based creature. Concept art is something I've had little flutters with here and there professionally. Coming back to university was as much about honing these skills for 3 years as it was learning new ones.

I started off with some quick line drawings to find shapes and details that I liked, without spending too much time noodling around. Adding a bit of watercolour always helps brings out values and palettes that may transfer over to the final piece.

After choosing aspects that I liked from my favourite designs, I began work on my silhouette. Anyone reading through this blog will notice that this Feng Zhu technique is a huge favourite of mine and one that I regularly use now. 

After finding a shape that I liked, it as time to add in values and colour. Overall I'm happy with the final piece. It feels like I'm starting to understand form and weight a bit more whist becoming a lot more comfortable working details and textures into my pieces. When I started this course 7 weeks ago I came from a comic background and found it  really difficult to not overly render line work in the beginning stages.

Now I'm far less precious and this creates more rounded and 'realistic' looking pieces. I'd love to couple this with more time efficiency and still need to work on my lighting to create a real presence in my characters.

Anyhow, here is the finished piece:

Visual Design: Pixel Art

Pixel Art has seen something of a boom in the past few years. Its used mostly as a marketing tool, harkening back to the days of the 16 bit games console. Its an excellent tool, as it stimulates nostalgia in the audience.

There are some incredibly complex examples of pixel art around these days and even some games like Hotline Miami elevate pixelated game assets into the modern age.

For this exercise we had to create a vintage robot in this style and add it to a pre-created image.

Though a fun departure from my normal work, I find it far too mechanical a style to enjoy working in frequently.

Visual Design: Gun Concepts

This week we were tasked with designing a convincing futuristic scifi weapon.

When I think of scifi, my mind head's straight to classics such as Alien and Blade Runner and modern masterpieces such as District 9. In terms of games I nearly always think of Halo. The guns were all recognisable in terms of silhouette and function.

Before coming up with my concepts I created a set of quick pen line drawings to figure out some shapes and silhouettes.

From that point onwards I conceived of a narrative: Where did these weapons come from? Who owns them and what are they used for? I decided that these would be the tools of a galactic bounty hunter, who crafts weapons based on the fauna and animals she encounters on new planets. She had recently visited earth and was blown away by the diversity of deadly creatures we house.


Initially I toyed with creating comedic/deadly guns that actually fired a miniturised version of the animal they were based on.That seemed a tad far-fetched.


Of these 4 concepts the one that really spoke to me was the Piranha looking gun. Its acid tipped shrapnel projectiles really emulated the famously ferocious appetite of the carnivorous fish. It also had a naturally organic feel to it. It felt both alien yet familiar - A key part of this exercise. Familiarity and grounding makes a concept, no matter how out there, seem real. This was the one I was going to press ahead with.


I decided to go with Feng Zhu's method of painting a silhouette. A design doesn't work unless it is unique in shadow and I loved toying with this technique last time. It lends itself well to painting creepy organics.

Upon reflection, I would love to have added some more obviously mechanical components to the gun. To give it a bit more weight and root it deep in the future it comes from. I'd also have spent some time designing some of the more comedic guns I envisioned. There would have been some elements I could probably have expanded upon in my final piece.

 I'm particularly proud of the textures I managed to achieve in the end however.

Visual Design: Elf and Dwarf

This assignment was designed to help us understand body proportions and the rule of 'heads' when building a figure.

We were tasked with creating an Elf and Dwarf in order to best demonstrate this. I went with two very different techniques when designing my characters. The elf was full painted and rendered whilst the Dwarf was designed and coloured in a far more comic book look. The elf is an ethereal being whilst the dwarf is renowned for being stubborn and a thief. The disparate looks suit their characters quite well I think.

Gameplay and Interactivity The First Milestone: A Wrinkle In Time

No sooner do I start the course before the first major milestone comes along!

The concept for my first person walking simulator comes from a story I've been wanting to tell for a while. That of an older man, who with seemingly no hope left, makes a life changing choice - To take a one way trip to another planet with a bunch of ex and wannabe celebrities, as part of the first reality TV show on Mars. And then, how things classically go wrong after burying the lead for the first couple of hours of gameplay.

Now how this lends itself to gameplay is a question that took a bit of thought. A remote environment on a foreign planet would normally go straight for the horror genre. Utilise known tropes to scare the player and give them a gun. Off the other cast members one by one until our protagonist is the last character standing.

Now that's not to say that this wouldn't eventually happen, but I really want to craft an experience for the player. One with deep relationships and examinations of what makes us human. Multiple paths depending on your chosen interactions with cast members on the TV show. Present the player with puzzles compounded by the finite amount of oxygen when on missions. Then when all is said and done, flip genres and present the player with the true horrors of Mars and Humanity. Eventually you'd get a gun.

This is all obviously rather ambitious for someone who only used Unity for the first time last week. Fortunately, we only need to make 3 minutes of gameplay!

The segment I intend to focus on and polish by years end is the prologue to the game. With simple scripted events to get the player to explore the environment and view my modelling work. By the end of the 3 minutes, the player would realise that this is in fact the last act of the narrative and questions will be posed.

Attached to this post are my storyboards for the 3 minutes of gameplay, the draft map of the environment ( which I already intend to change drastically ), and the project one sheet.

3D Art: Column

This week we were tasked with modelling a hi poly Roman Column utilising photo reference in Maya for the first time.

This was perfect as my Battle Arena had columns throughout...hinting at a world that may have been. I had already created columns but they were very basic and not as smooth as this tutorial intended.

The curve tool was something I had been looking to use for a while - It is very useful when trying to make more organic grooves in shapes. It finally feels like I am starting to get to grips with Maya a little more. This model is very high density so I may have to lower the poly count later down the line but I'm very proud of this simple little fella.

It also help that these feature heavily throughout my project! One prop down....

3D Art: Battle Arena and Mood Boards

The Battle Arena has been coming along nicely. Maya was a very daunting programme initially, and although it still holds many secrets from me, I'm feeling a lot more comfortable with it.

This term we have to create a full textured and realised Battle Arena. With a rough idea in mind, I put together a moodboard. Artistically I love the whimsical. The concept art work of Pixar and Dreamworks artists really speaks to me. Gaming seems to be in a rut in terms of unique looks and art direction. Dark and gritty rules the day and more ' animated ' looks tend to lend themselves to games aimed at a younger audience.

There's a lot of concept art from How To Train Your Dragon and Team Fortress 2 in here. TF2 in particular deals with violence combined with a more animated aesthetic. There are images from No Man Sky - the footage from this game has a wonderful, vibrant colour palette. And of course, some old school renaissance paintings and Roman Architecture - For the battlearena to have legitimacy, its origins have to be grounded in history and real world objects.

After beginning the modelling process, I was able to create a far more specific moodboard referencing the actual map I'd made. I still want to maintain an exotic, otherworldly colour palette but am leaning towards some more assets that fit in with the back story I have created. Speaking of which....

This battlearena is located on a planet light years from our own. After countless wars, the superpowers on earth decided that it would be beneficial to relocate our battles to planets void of intelligent life forms. These proxy wars would set the standard of warfare for hundreds of years to come.

This arena is very much built in a traditional manner to remind combatants of the history of Gladiatorial combat. Stone pillars combined with new metal polymers and ancient alien artifacts, creating a unique aesthetic.

Texturing this is daunting, but who doesn't love a challenge.

Visual Design: Crustacean Concept Art

The aim of this assignment was to utilise the silhouette technique employed expertly by Feng Zhu and apply it to some Crustacean inspiration.

Crustaceans really lend themselves to cool concepts. Armoured hides, claws, multiple arms, what's not to love? The difficulty was in keeping all the silhouettes from looking similar to one another when they all took their inspiration from similar looking creatures.

I focused specifically on huge crabs and deep sea Bathynomus Giganteus - It looks like a giant woodlouse and the stuff of nightmares. The Fiddler Crab is famous for one claw growing far larger than the other as it uses it during mating calls to the females of the species. This creates a really cool visual dynamic. In my designs I decided to take it to the next level and have a creature that has totally ditched growing one limb, in favour of one powerful appendage.

When trying to integrate the Bathynomus Giganteus, I had to take Feng Zhu's points into consideration. The best designs, that resonate with clients normally have features you associate with real world beings. I took elements of its appearance for the face of my concept and then gave it a gladiatorial feel.

This was a fascinating way to work and I really enjoyed the freedom and ad hoc nature of the work that comes out of rendering from a silhouette. I can see issues arising when a brief comes through from a client and they are looking for something very specific in the designs. This is more suited to an established artist who has 100% trust to come up with whatever they feel will look best.

In another attempt, I would definitely take a few more passes and try and further push the extraterrestrial aspect of the crustaceans. In my work I have really tried to humanise their form - It may be beneficial in future to push it in the totally opposite direction.

Life Drawings

One of my favourite elements of the course. It is easy with 3d and digital art to get caught up in the nitty gritty and lose your familiarity of the fundamentals. I've actually preferred the less conventional tasks like drawing with the opposite hand or in continuous lines. Here's a few!