Project Alpha - Milestone 3

For our final milestone of the Project Alpha stage, I continued creating model sheets, that act as blue prints for our game designer to use for reference, as well as completing the games art bible and several speed paintings.

Above is the main character model sheet. As our game is focused purely on the environment, we wanted to create a very basic but at the same time intriguing character to fit into the lost world idea. The concept we decided on was a male spirit figure that is an entity sent to explore the world of Crimson Kingdom and uncover why everyone has disappeared from the villages.

This is one of the larger peasant house models I designed for the game. Although the citizens of the new world have regressed to living in an era like that of the medieval times, there is still a wide variety of technology available. An example of this is the solar panels utilized on top of the house's roof.

Here is another peasant house for the lower village in the game. I designed several elements such as doors and windows that could be reusable assets; aiding in helping the work flow for the modeler, as well as bringing a continuity to the structures overall.

In the game there are three separate town areas on the island. The village, working class and upper class areas. Here is one of the upper class buildings that was teleported in via a void portal. The building is based on that of an 18th century American New York apartment and I made sure to include several details that have shown the structure has shifted in place and contorted to its new foundations; such as several shattered windows and huge cracks in the walls. 

Another one of the upper class buildings, teleported in via a void portal, is a contemporary five-storey apartment. Unlike the other models and landmarks I had some help with photographs for reference, this building was a bit more tricky and required combining conceptual construction such as the front face of the building. I made sure to feature the fire escape separately, so the modeler could design that component without any other clutter in the way of the field of view. I enjoyed creating the finer details on this piece, from the fire escape stairs to the side gutter and rough brick work.

Furthermore, the upper class area features several European 16th century architecture buildings. To help the modeler out again with time management, I created another set of reusable asset pieces, this time with the buildings front. This way the modeler can then interchange the front faces and give a sense of diversity among the buildings when they are placed around the area.

In the intro for our game, we decided on having a short animation using game assets; to bring a small narrative into the walking simulator. Above is the storyboard I created after making one on a whiteboard with our group. I really enjoyed playing around with the compositions and angles of the frames. Overall, the intro unveils several elements all at the same time, such as the void portals and the spirit character. I made sure to use a light harmony of tones to bring aspects in the frames into focus, not just for the animator but to also point out key objects of interest.

Here is the original (whiteboard) storyboard we developed as a team in the Uni studio. We would discuss the best flow of events in each shot and then I would quickly sketch that composition down on to a frame. Overall, we aimed to have the intro segment at just under a minute.

Above is a detailed elements panel I created for our game designer to work with. Basically the panel is made up of frames to help piece together the animation that will happen over the course of a period of a few seconds. In the five frames I included the most important stages in the animation. Furthermore, the panel still works for either method we decide to use to make the sequence; from either code or by key framing the animated parts in Unity.

This is one of the later concept pieces I made in a couple of hours of an area in our game at the shoreline. I experimented with using a range of techniques from plain digital painting to photo-bashing. I really enjoyed working with a richer colour palette and deep hues to form the sunset; or perhaps sunrise. In the center distant island rocky face, the plane from the intro sequence can be seen crashed on top. The two large body objects in the foreground are the Gherkin Building (officially named 30 St Mary Axe) and the Chichen Itza pyramid (also known as El Castillo) that have been teleported in via a void.

This piece I really had fun working on. The statue of the Colossus of Rhodes, resembles many things in the weird world of the past, present and future we have made. The ancient seventh wonder of the world is one of the larger landmarks in the game and is almost central to the map; also making it a recognizable figure for orientation when moving around the map.

While making this piece, I looked up several techniques and tutorials online of how to generate camera effects in a digital piece of art, to add an extra layer of realism. Although I found a few great tutorials online, I actually was reading a magazine for digital artists which had a few great 'pro secrets' such as lens Chromatic Aberration, to give a greater sense of depth and camera noise. This amazing tool helped give the statue its overall curved form and fitted the model in front of the background scenery perfectly. Once I was happy with the painted image, that took about three hours, I added in one more final touch; by utilizing the Colour LUT feature in Photoshop and adding a soft sepia filter.

Here is another speed painting I made, this time looking out towards the sun on the horizon of the sea. While using only a colour palette from a photograph, I worked using just four Photoshop brushes and completed this piece in over an hour. While creating the ocean stretch, I had trouble showing the layers of colours and the depth of the waves became too over-complicated. To solve this, I just went over what I had done but this time, simplifying the waves and textures in the condensed space which really helped. I was very happy how this piece came out and it shows my time management within Photoshop and the utilization of several techniques to produce an outcome.

After completing the above speed painting, I created a concept of how the main menu on starting up the game could look like. I made sure to include the basic details such as the title and optional buttons, focusing on the 'less is more' approach. Here is four variants I made for the game designer who was quite happy with the bottom right version. On the later final concept I would refine the text however; as the font is a little small and difficult to read because of how thin it is.

I also designed a basic loading screen concept to help our game designer visualize. As the game is very heavy on graphics, a loading screen would be a great option to show the players while the game scene is initializing in the background. Furthermore, the loading screen acts as a nice professional transition into the game world, instead of a straight up laggy jump-cut in.

Here is the first page for our art bible. I made sure to keep things simple, as the main point is to visually sell the idea and not get bogged down with text.

This is the overview page directing the reader to the right page for the correct info.

Here is the art style page detailing the environment, scales and dimensions etc.

For the character art page, I included the model sheet I created to give a clear sense of proportion and overall construction/whether the character has any attire.

Similar to the character art page, I included several model sheets I made for key objects in the game; to express the detail gone into construction design and aesthetic considerations.

Here is the level of detail page outlining some models and realistic textures the game designer/modeler made. I have also noted our attention to selective detail optimization, to further help our game run better. By featuring selected objects such as ones close to the players field of vision in high detail and distant in-accessible ones, in low poly detail, all aid in the gameplay performance.

Within the game, we have a menu system that is within the world of Crimson Kingdom. The menu is on a phablet (tablet/phone) and can be opened and closed by using the keyboard shortcut 'p'. Another element within the menu phablet is several features such as a torch, a map of the island world and a scanner allowing the player to identity landmarks and give some information on them (as well as trivia)!

The camera perspective in the game is seen from a third person perspective and uses a screen warp zoom effect when the character is slowing down from running.

Our colour palette choice is a highly saturated vibrant one; in theme with the end of the world idea.

In the game, there will be a single day cycle from a clear morning to evening, adding in an atmospheric feel to the mysterious world.

One of the core mechanics we have added into the game, is the use of the spirit characters abilities. He is able to switch between dimensions from one reality to another to gain access to items that will help him progress on the journey. In the gloomy/foggy alternate reality, there is a timer as to limit the player from skipping ahead in exploring, and to create an interesting rush component.

While creating a large world for a game and all the assets that will be in it, it is key to keep a clean work space and folder structure. Above I have shown some organization previews and a piece of code made from scratch by our game designer.

One of the key pieces of inspiration for our game is the 2015 open world role-playing game, The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt.

Above is another major piece of inspiration for our game, the 2009 film Land of the Lost. Overall for this first alpha stage of the game, I have had a many challenges, as well as learned quite a fair bit from structural and historical design to time management. I hope to explore and look at developing, in the next 'beta' stage, strong cinematic visuals and scenic environment paintings to further aid in the games style and tonal language. Alongside this, I also aim to continue creating several models to support the modeler and to help with landscape paint-over practices.