Tuesday, September 30, 2014

Modular Kit: Final Stretch

Our Modular Kit is due on Thursday! I have a lot of work to do in the next two days. But I wanted to post some VERY informal shots of where my level is at. I've learned a lot of cool things about UE4 during this whole project, like ways to manipulate point light shape, and custom depth for materials, (Which I'm using on my holo-gogo dancers). I'm starting to become really happy with my space, I think the dancers, though they're not completely finished add a lot to the scene. I'm not an animator, so I used a mixamo mesh and animation sets, but I did create my own hologram material for them, using custom depth to mask out the inside of the model while keeping some transparency.



The DJ booth is probably the space that needs the most work in my scene. I still need to model, uv, and texture some speakers and turntables, I'm also debating adding a DJ. Maybe he'll be holographic or a robot, if I have time of course.






Saturday, September 27, 2014

DFA Rough Prop Designs

Our current project in DFA is designing a prop with two points of articulation and a clear power source based upon two existing intellectual properties. I chose an RC camera for my prop, based on the game Wildstar and the Disney movie Atlantis: The Lost Empire.



Here's some reference I used for RC cameras:


And here's the reference I used from my intellectual properties:





Thursday, September 25, 2014

Toy Ideas

This week for game design we've been asked to concept 10 unique game concepts based off of a "toy". Think what the portal gun was to portal. 


Zombie Dog Hotel/Dog Whistle

My first idea is probably a little too complicated but I still think it would be a fun concept. The game type would likely work best as a sides-crolling platformer. It would be a spoof on the movie "Hotel for dogs". Except the dogs in the hotel have contracted something like the T-Virus, and when animal services come the kids rally their zombie dogs with a dog whistle and fight back. So, my toy in this case would be a dog whistle. 

The dog whistle would spawn one of three different types of dogs. The player would need to choose the appropriate dog to overcome a certain obstacle. For instance, one dog could just act as a static block to jump to higher ground. Another could charge forward eliminating enemies/obstacles.

Monster Lab/Matching Puzzle

Various monster parts including head, torso, right arm, left arm, right leg, left leg scroll  (progressively faster) over the screen with a matching template on the side, Players must match up the parts to the monsters. Each level would require a certain amount of monsters be completed within the time limit to move on. Progressively harder obstacles could be: Speed, mismatching parts loses points or time.

Puzzle Maze

-Players must navigate a maze and activate the correct sequence of triggers either in the floor or walls that open the correct pathways. A fitting motif would be an ancient tomb. Or maybe a top secret sci-fi research facility that the player is sneaking into. Would likely work well as an isometric map.


UI/Board game Risk style game

Basic strategy game using UI fixed perspective and a map style layout. Similar to playing an online board game or something like Plague Inc


Flying Game

Fly through rings and collect multiple valued pick ups (Similar to the gummy ship mini-game in kingdom hearts) Could reuse UFO assets and make alien themed.

Teleportation Puzzle

 Player is confronted with a room of teleporters, which leads to yet another room of teleporters. The challenge is finding the right sequence as they must choose the correct path in order to reach their destination.

Water/Physics based mechanics

Areas that would otherwise be unreachable are reachable when the water in a room rises, allowing players to swim to their destination.


QuickSand

Physics element. Player would have to run fast over the physics volume or sink and be killed by a kill trigger at the bottom of the pit.

Spider Game

The world has been taken over by giant spiders. Certain webs can bounce players or trap them.

Rotating Platforms

Platforms that would correspond to 3 buttons that the player must press to line up in the correct order to form a bridge.

Monday, September 22, 2014

Modular Kit Greybox

Here's some quick shots of the greybox for the modular kit assignment that I'm currently working on with Mike Marra. The goal of this assignment is to create various constructs using one modular kit. Team work is allowed and Mike and I decided to work together. Mike created the bar kit, ceiling kit, rounded lighting cylinders, pipes, and windows, while I created the modular booth pieces, pillars, high top tables, high top chairs, and stair kit.

As I mentioned in the proposal post, the theme is retro futuristic. Mike is creating a diner while I'm creating a night club within the same universe. 

Main bar area, the back wall will be emissive.


The area with the round light fixtures will eventually have holographic go-go dancers.

Here's the "VIP" area. I'm not the best modeler, but I'm pretty happy with the way my booths  turned out. They're simplistic but probably the best thing I've ever modeled in maya.







Sunday, September 21, 2014

Drawing For Game Art Finals!

Today our final greyscale renders for Drawing for Game Art class are due. I learned a lot during this process. I feel like I really strengthened my design, line art, and lighting abilities. One of my biggest issues in painting has always been lighting. I just haven't had the easiest time wrapping my head around it, but after this project I feel like I'm finally starting to get a liiitttlle bit more of an understanding. These aren't anywhere near perfect but I'm fairly happy with the way they turned out, and happier that I learned so much from the process. 

After the rough design phase, which I posted a few weeks ago we narrowed our designs based from the textures, silhouettes, and doodles, down to 9 and did clean lineart. After that, we cut two more pieces for a total of 7 and applied light direction and rendering.

Here's my final rendering:


And here's my cleaned up line work, I did obviously tweak certain things between this stage and the rendering stage. Completely redesigned the tiger, flipped the drunk barrel guy, and fixed some anatomy issues on the astronaut

Friday, September 12, 2014

Multiplayer Level Proposal: The Crash

For our current game design project we're required to create a multiplayer shooter that accomodates 16 players total using either 8 vs 8 Team Deathmatch, and 16 Player Fee for all Deathmatch gameplay. As we only have a short amount of time to produce this greybox we're encouraged to remix assets we've made for previous projects. I decided to recycle assets that I used in this past Biome project and assets I used for my racing level last semester. 

The Crash 


In an "abandoned" military facility in an undisclosed location tucked away into the side of a mountain an extraterrestrial being has been captured. As scientists examine the being in the dead of night facility surveillance picks up word of an unidentified flying object and shoots it down nearby in the forest. Now, the military operatives guarding the base must hunt down armed and angry aliens trying to rescue their friend. 

If I were producing this as an actual fully formed game one team would spawn as aliens and the other as the military guards. So, in 8 v 8 team death match, one team would spawn inside of the military base in the mountain and the other in a storage shack in the woods on the opposite end of the map. To fit the story, in player free for all I'd say that the aliens can Mystique-style shape shift so everyone sort of becomes fair game. 


And here's some inspirational reference:










Tuesday, September 9, 2014

Modular Kit Proposals

In 3D class our next project is to create a versatile modular kit. To decide what our kit we needed to pitch 3 ideas to our professor. I pitched two of my ideas with Mike Marra, as we decided we wanted to work on a team project. My final pitch was a solo idea.

Our first idea, and the idea that our professor chose was our Retro/Futuristic Diner/Nightclub theme. We decided to create two different locations within the same universe combining both of our modular kits together. I would create the nightclub and Mike would work on the diner. For the nightclub, think mass effect's bar and for the diner, Dex's from star wars would be most fitting.

Here's some images (Obviously not created by us) to illustrate our visual target. 

Nightclub:




 Diner:










Monday, September 8, 2014

Level Analysis: Multiplayer FPS: Team Fortress 2


Team fortress 2 is a first person multiplayer faction based game released by Valve and powered by the source engine. The story pits two rival corporations, Reliable Excavation & Demolition or RED Team and Builders League United AKA Blu Team against each other in various different game modes and environments. A major part of Team Fortress 2's unique battle system and mechanics are the nine very distinct classes you can choose from. Classes include: Sniper, Medic, Spy, Heavy, Soldier, Engineer, Pyro, Demo Man, and Scout. Game mode choices include payload, capture the briefcase, control points, king of the hill, territorial control, arena, and modded game styles like Medieval and MvM play.

Badlands


Fitting with the story of rival corporations fighting for supremacy and intelligence most of the game's maps center around an industrial theme. The map I chose is a Control Point map with a desert, mill, warehouse shipping center vibe. The year is somewhere between the late 60s and early 70s. The lighting suggests the time is late afternoon/early evening. 


Major areas of the level include Red and Blue's identical bases. The spire control points for each, and the central neutral train point. The unplayable areas are blocked off either by canyons or wire and wooden fences.




The mechanics particular to this map are the capture points. In this particular control point map the teams play both offense and defense simultaneously. There are 5 total, each team starts with two of their own capture points on their sides of the map, with a central neutral point. Before the opposing team can begin capturing the points on the other's side of the map they must capture the central point. After the central point is captures the spire point must be captured, and then the final point inside of the red or blue base. 

Mechanics not particular to this map but inherent in the game include the various 9 classes and all of their weapon variations. plus health and ammo pick ups. 

Badlands is very well balanced in particular in that it plays to all of the classes strengths in some ways, while still keeping things equally challenging for all players. The large amount of high points and vertical designs like the spire, and the ledges/window spaces of the bases offer strategic advantages for engineers, snipers, and soldiers. The more narrow closed off pathways offer places for demo men to set traps and spies to lurk. 



Capture points are placed in a way that's fair for each team and difficulty in capturing each point progresses at a nice curve. The more open areas in front of the bases are challenging across the board for all players, leaving everyone exposed and at a defensive disadvantage. The fact that these "Wide open" areas occur in front of each player's base escalates the challenge for the final two capture points, as the team on the offensive is at a strategic disadvantage. The final capture point inside the base is the last and most difficult, as the defensive team spawns so near by and the offensive as far away as possible. Additionally, the placement of the health and ammo pick ups is a big plus to the level's balance. There are tons of pick ups in the player bases, which is appropriate as they are sort of "safe havens". The pick ups in the rest of the map are less abundant but feel well balanced. There are just enough to make the player take damage seriously, but not enough to make recovery impossible. 

And here's the layout I made based on the level: