Games Production - Spring Submission (M1/5)

For our Year 2 Spring Submission we were asked to get into a group (maximum of 8) and produce a 'vertical slice' of a game of our own design. Initially I was unsure of who to work with as several students in our group had already teamed up. Eventually the remaining class members combined, including me (in total six of us) to form a group. 

After several meetings and group discussions, we all had come to an agreement with creating a basic isometric Role Playing Game (RPG) set in an alternative medieval world. Here are some reference/mood boards of the medium topology style we all had in mind.

We all discussed our own strengths and weaknesses for our roles in the group and after some thought, I wished to try out as the environment artist (one I am less familiar with) rather than a concept artist; of which I am a bit too comfortable in.

It was then agreed that I would be the environment artist and so I set out creating simple elements such as the colour palette image above. The reason I made these were to show the mood and contrasts of what our game could display, in its stylised setting, later on.

One of my tasks was to create the map layout and the player's 'activity' path. Above are six concepts I did of variations of the 'vertical slice' map. The main focus was having a start and an end point (possibly a boss) to reach which we included in the style of castle ruins roughly in the centre of the map.

This is the final map design after some consideration of the player's story path. I also created a key/legend as a guide for certain objects and characters. In addition, I made some previews of certain locations such as the village and bridge spots.

Before I completed the final map layout, I made a simple grey box section of a corner of the map in Maya.

Here are some trees that I made very quickly but had an interesting style to them. As the setting is a rural one, I will have to put some more thought into several variations as well as shrubs which will then be scattered around the vertical slice.

I will also have to construct the collision meshes around areas of the map the player cannot get to, as well as the route; as demonstrated above in my environment test.

For our first milestone presentation, I had to make basic grey box assets of our game as seen above. This is the start of the game at a makeshift camp; with the player's size highlighted.

This is the next major location, the village, with the quests aim cart highlighted in the distance.

Another key spot is a bridge passing over a river. Several NPC (Non-Player Characters) characters and enemies will be around this zone, so it was essential to get a wide atmosphere here.

The last challenge you come to in the vertical slice is a boss in the castle ruins atop a mountain range. The path leading to the bridge, is still a work in progress as the elevation is rather tricky to work out and keep flat to enable the player to walk up.

I was really pleased with how accurate I could get the Maya grey box map to that of the sketch I did. However, I am open for suggestions as I know things and their placement could change as the world is developed along with the story.

Photoshop Session - Dynamic Form using Values Exercise

In our second session for the 2D pathway, we had an exercise of values. Below is my step by step of the four values I built up from the silhouette of the mech droid; of which we were given an A4 paper copy to work from. 

We had all the time of the session (which was two hours) to create the piece, which I was really happy with the end result and how accurate my visual judgement was to the supplied paper copy.

Here is the final image with a white background so it is easier to pick out the four values of tone. I enjoyed working with a hard brush and also using the eraser to pick out highlights and body form more efficiently.

Games Art: 2D Pathway - Environment (M1/4)

For this unit, I choose the 2D pathway, as that is the area I wish to specialise in. We were given the task to create an Art Concept Pack of either an Environment, Character or Vehicle for a game of our own design. I then started generating ideas on what I could make, mainly interested in an environment design.

Above is my reference/mood board of something I had an idea of, after reading an article about the ship breaking industry a few years ago. The consumption and demand for goods in the future would be so great with an increasing population, I thought it would be an interesting idea to have these giant container ships flying with the power of something like anti-gravity which, with no drag, would get to places quicker.

For my one sheet I had to create a short back story and basic info to why the container ships are now floating rather than sailing etc.

I made this sketch back in 2014 when I first had the idea but never went any further with it.

Photoshop Session - Interior & Character Concepts

As an icebreaker session, to see what are strengths and weaknesses were in digital painting, we were asked to create an interior and a character concept of our choice. For the two speed painting pieces, we were given around fifty or so minutes to complete them in our session time.

Here is my interior perspective I made look like a futuristic space station. I kept to basic grayscale colours for both pieces so that I could concentrate on the structure rather than how colourful I could make them. I also made sure to leave in the white guidelines I formed, so viewers can see the perspective dimensions.

Above is my pirate character I made in around fifty minutes. I though the original white canvas was too bright on the eye, so I added some background context in. I really enjoyed working at a faster pace to make these and will aim to keep improving on my time organisation skills for speed paintings in the future. 

Our lecturer also asked us to perhaps list our favourite artists and create an influence map. Above are a selection of digital artist's creations mainly from the community site DeviantArt; that are quite a big influence to me. In addition, I included the names of each artist at the bottom of the board image, if anyone wished to see more of their spectacular work.