For this project we tried to organise a group with a fairly balanced skill set across 2D, 3D and development areas. We divided tasks with two people taking the majority of 2D, two people for 3D, and one for development, but with the intention of people being able to move around to help in whichever area needed, reasoning that a more flexible workflow in the style that is used by indie companies would be best for us. We felt that this made the best use of each individual's skillset as well as making it easier to complete needed tasks.
We started with a group discussion about what kind of game we wanted to make given the theme. There were suggestions for an endless runner and a couple of other genres, but in the end we settled on a kind of escape-the-room game set in a museum. The exit door would have four locks which must be opened by retrieving four objects from each of the four exhibits by completing a minigame in each. We reasoned this approach would let us complete one branch first to a polished state before adding further branches, and so would be easily manageable. We decided to go for a mix of 2D and 3D styles for the project, using a low-poly 3D environment and physical props and 2D pixel billboard sprites in the style of 'Doom' or 'Diaries of a Spaceport Janitor.' This setup allowed everyone in the team to use their relevant skills and makes assets relatively quick to make, meaning we can focus on adding more polish to the game.
I'm focusing on 3D assets for this project, covering the modelling, UV mapping and texturing, and lending a hand with 2D assets where needed. I would have liked to do more by way of 2D design work, but for this project we don't really have the time for concept art, and it was better for our team to have another 3D artist than a third 2D artist. Below are the assets I've been working on this week.
Hand model for the first minigame.
Below is the main door which the player has to open. Rather than spend time concepting for it, I instead did rough blockouts drawing on museum and church architecture, which have the potential to be replaced or improved on later during the refinement stage. This is the general approach for all the assets we're producing for this stage, in order to get a base product together as quickly as possible.
Progress shots:
Other assets:
(Texture sheet example)
Our approach for the game's 3D assets is keeping them as low-poly, low-resolution as possible to keep them in line with the game's aesthetic. I've been doing my best to keep each asset chunky-looking and as simple as possible, using textures to add detail where needed. I've used a slight bevel on some assets just to take the edge off their sharp corners, but for the most part each asset is as pared-down as it can be in terms of polygons. The texture size we're using for the assets is generally a 256x256 sheet, but some are bigger or smaller depending on the size of the object to maintain texture density across the game. These are a little bigger than the texture sizes used for our reference games, but when we viewed them in the game on a HD screen with our post-processing volume (made by our Unreal lead, it makes the game appear as if it was a much lower resolution), they struck a good balance between style and legibility.
Here are some of the 2D assets I produced to help finish up the decoration of our first room. The most important thing for me when making these is that they were in line with the other assets made by our 2D lead, so I used her sheet as a reference when making these as well as looking at real-life posters for inspiration.
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