FMP Presentation Day Video

This is the video I will be presenting tomorrow if the standalone game level doesn't play, which I suspect it won't due to not playing out of a folder for some reason but works fine on desktop *shrugs*, but at least I have covered myself in that situation. It is the level of progress I am at with creating this game which if I had to put a number on it would be at about 30-40%. I have a lot to go but I am having so much fun creating it that its doesn't really feel like work at all. Anyway I have a lot to show this presentation so it should be fun, hopefully ill get some useful feedback (which I always do anyway) :P

FMP Unity Development 2

I knew that I would have to explore all of the aspects that come in a usual exploration/adventure game, and with those things, the skybox being one that I have not looked at yet, I looked at possible other options that might suit my needs better. I played with different default skyboxes in my game environment but they are primarily used for showing sky and far away objects above horizon level. I decided that a simple plane placed at the right distance and at the right angle would work perfectly well for my own project, since the camera is in a locked position and can not move out side of the boundaries or see more than one plane in the entire scene.

This is the background image I quickly drew up to use, it works perfectly well for what it is used for… finish later

FMP Bridge Design Moodboard

This is the mood board I did before actually creating the bridge asset in Maya, I was quite Tolkien inspired again as I had recently watched The Hobbit and wanted to add some sort of stonework into the design of the bridge, based on the amazing stonework in the Hobbit films. I also referenced other stone bridges which helped me when painting the floor texture of my own bridge. One thing I found though was that the colours of each of the bridges did not conform to one colour scheme, but instead had an individual approach based on what the rest of the environments colour scheme had in store. This made me think that I should try to keep my colour scheme relevant and use the blues and whites that I imagine in my head as well as what I have found referenced mountain colour schemes of mountains to look like.

FMP More Landscapes

These are the last few landscapes I painted before I decided upon the bridge level, as shown at the very bottom left I drew a snowy bridge with statues on it and though 'thats it' I knew when it was finished that this was the kind of environment I wanted to create. I then went on to create a mood board before fully committing to modelling and texturing the bridge asset as I wanted as much reference as possible to work from, if I've learned anything it is that reference works. The reft of the landscape will make for nice pictures in the finished art book and I think work well in showing what different colours and different environments could have happened if I had wanted them to. The layout and idea behind these images came from a FZD design school video I was told about on YouTube in which Feng Zhu describes his creative process and what makes a good game space environment. I used the things I learned from watching the videos when drawing these environments and think that they worked well, some more than others, but overall am happy that I learned something and have something to show for it.

FMP Character Development 2

My friend who has been helping me write throughout this project Peter Marflitt has recently written me some character descriptions based on what I had given him as guidelines of what I wanted. I gave him a rough outline of the character I wanted based on some of these sketches I have done which were based on even rougher ideas of what I wanted earlier in the project. I told him I wanted a description of a strong male character who is not from the area the story is based which means he needed to stand out and look out of place in a poorish land of farmers and small towns. The text which follows is a short story of a selection of stories I have chosen as the one I want to move forward with.

Raging fire lit the whole valley, he could see the shadows dancing through the forest below with gleeful abandon. His breath came hard and fast, ragged, like an animal's. He broke into a run. Pushing harder he reached full tilt, his muscled arms pumping furiously. He couldn't hear the blood rushing in his ears; he felt neither the pain in his feet or the stabbing in his lungs as he forced himself onward. He ducked between boughs and leapt over roots.

He skidded to a halt at the bank of the river and cast about for the bridge - it was a shattered mess. The nearest ford was ten miles upstream; without a second thought, he wrenched at his leather breastplate and tossed it aside, following it with his thick leather spaulders. 

With his mighty chest bared, he dove into the ice cold of the river and tore wildly at the water, pushing himself onward. At the opposite bank, he scrabbled in the mud to find purchase and threw himself onto shore.

He lay panting in the mud and looked up - he could see now the whole village was alight, his own home already consumed by the inferno. Everything went black.

Based on what is written here I told him I liked the way it sounded and gave him some more rough outlines of the story of the journey which brings the main character to the bridge environment, so that he could write a very colourful storybook like narrative to back the art book and game level I am creating. The bottom left character (still in progress) is based on the feedback (above) I got and what I imagine the character could look like. With most of the assets and environment created and finished I will have full focus on making this character come to life and really try to sell the story the way I hope I can give credit to the writing element of it.

FMP Unity Development 1

Over the past few days I have been really getting on with the tedious tasks of importing every single asset with every texture being made into a bump and specular map as well as creating prefabs for every assets and working on how the RTS camera could be made without a easy script to place on the camera in Unity. I have though made a lot of progress and worked through most of these problems and come out with something I might even feel a little proud of for this early FMP presentation. The thing I am most pleased about overcoming is the camera problem, I was told the only way to get it working the way I wanted it to was with scripting, and with days before the big presentation I don't think I have time to learn scripting, I came up with a clever solution involving empty objects in Unity which follow the 3rd person controller while deleting the camera script from the controller and having a 2d smooth follow script follow the empty object and angling it at the character, simply I made a makeshift RTS which will work as intended until the real deal comes along. 

Other than importing, placing assets and fixing cameras I have not done all I have wanted with Unitys game engine. I will have more time to further develop the engine after the presentation and really get things working the way I want them. All I can see being big obstacles in the near future are the menus and sound effects I will have to work through before I can call this a complete game level.

FMP Asset Progress

This is a small insight into the progress I have made during the FMP module, specifically the asset modelling I have needed to do to have a fully working and believable gamespace. I believe I have mentioned before, the list of assets I have to create but now I feel like I have made real headway in the last week. I have gone from having one or two assets complete to around 20 finished modelled and textured assets as well as having them all bump mapped and specular mapped. Keeping everything in order has been a slight problem in this module because of the amount of assets, references, notes, folders, deadlines, timetables and so on, I do think though that my time management and file management is up to scratch and have not let it slow me down. Below are a few textures I have created and them being used on the geometry. The painterly feel really comes through in the wooden textures and do enjoy this part of the process probably the most, if I have time after completing my gamespace I would like to touch up a few of the texture and maybe add a few more details.

One useful tool I have been told about recently is the lattice tool, it is a quick easy way to deform an object and make it look more cartoony or have an interesting shape to it. This tool helps me create more fitting assets for my gamespace and really complements the style I have chosen to do this module around.

FMP RTS (Real Time Strategy) Gameplay

For a while after I decided that I wanted to make a 3D game I didn't know exactly what camera angle I was going to use, looking at some of the below games in a magazine article I thought that a 3rd person fixed axis 3D game camera would be easy and the way to go. Looking at the Dungeon Hunter 4 and other images I decided upon this type of camera, Unity is a very flexible tool and should be able to accommodate the kind of physics and gameplay I am striving to achieve. 

Other accomplished games which I currently play which use this RTS camera are (to name a few) Rome Total War II, Diablo III and League of Legends. It is proving to be a very fun and popular type of camera angle in games and gives them a unique feel, it also means that assets and texturing will be slightly easier as things can be made to a lower resolution taking into mind the distance the players view will be from the objects at all times. This definitely looks like it will be the route to take for me.

FMP Character Moodboard

I realised that I have not blogged much of the characters development or source for ideas yet so here is the initial character mood board I used for a few of the character designs. I knew that I wanted my character to be the 'Hero' body build which is more muscular than an average man, and I knew that I wanted him to not fit in well with his environment, so I had to choose a design that stood out from what a man might typically be found wearing in a mountainous environment. I created a few characters which fit the description of 'stranger to the land' some of which will be blogged about shortly and which have bright colours and loose clothing which would not typically be found in a colder environment. The mood board was a good practice as it helped me define the muscular build of the characters and work from there.

FMP Character Development 1

This is a filler blogpost to show some of the artwork for the characters that I have done, I have been creating all of my character sketches and various designs on one large photoshop file and to post that all at once would not do justice to the amount of time spent in that one file, instead I have split the work up into lots of different JPGs which I think show some of the process I have been using to get to the finished result of the character designs. The extent of the work done in the process of getting to a finished character design will be more clearly shown in the art book as it will include everything I have done in the entire project.

FMP Design Style Refined

In a tutorial I had at University today, one of the few things I was asked which I felt I may lack in slightly was how I had progressed and decided on the art style of the game I am designing and what has influenced me. I decided that a new post might clear things up. I have indeed referenced games which I have found aesthetically pleasing already but I don't think that I have indicated it was the direction I wanted my game to go in so here are some examples.

I decided on the type of game quite a while ago, being that I wanted it to be 3D and decided that super realistic might be too much work and not enough reward. I also decided that I wanted my 2D drawing skills to come into play as much as possible which left one choice, I would go for a handpainted slightly cartoony design which would be good practice for me as well as have a very nice painterly style to it which has not been too commonly done recently.

These are a few examples of how I have been modelling and texturing the game assets in Maya, I am quite happy with the results and just need to get the rest of them created! Also a list of what needs to be created and what I already have created.

FMP Artbook Template

Here I am looking at other art books as reference for my own art book when it is completed. I like the layout and colours of the Thor: The Dark World art book and the fact that everything in it is contextually fitting, all of the words and the aesthetic design of the book is norse based and fits well wight the norse based films storytelling. I feel that I should do the same with my own art book, get the aesthetic design to fit my project that is, I may try what they have done here and keep a balanced colour scheme in fitting with the colours used frequently in my project. I have also thought about the page size of my own art book and found that square pages will work well for the type of book I am aiming for. Below are a few more images from the book that I liked and may incorporate in my own book in my own way.

FMP World Map

This is the map I created to elaborate on the lore the world has that my FMP project is based in, the world portrayed in this map belongs to me in a sense that it has been in my imagination since as long as I can remember, the project I am working on is just a tiny segment of that world that I am trying to bring to life and fully intend to carry on world building for this universe in the future. I had a lot of fun making this map and found that the little details and personal hand painting of all of the scenery was the most fun part. I referenced Tolkiens Lord of the Rings map when making mine as I wanted to get as close to that authentic old textured map feel as I could. Overall I think it turned out well and have printed some copies off to wether and beat up to look like the real thing, I may use these weathered versions in the final outcome of the game in one of the intros or something, we shall see.

Below is a rough sketch of the map before I refined it in photoshop.