Week Summary - BA2b Week 6

Collaborative Game Project

This week started with some discussion about how the next week or so was going to go; we set a goal to have the game in a finished state by next Monday, ready to present in the tutorial and playtest in order to get feedback to help remove any last bugs or make final tweaks.

We also further discussed having the game move more towards the comedy than it had been previously. When making assets and talking about gameplay elements the parts that our team enjoyed the most were when we included self-referential jokes and pop-culture references, and these elements are what seemed to elicit the most engagement from our playtesters too. We realised that the game's charm really lay in the fact that it wasn't completely serious, but it also wasn't really going far enough to be comedic, so we decided to push that element a little further. That said, everyone on the team has a different sense of humour, so a balance has to be found to keep it universally funny.

A playtest with a tutor alerted us to some bugs that needed fixing and some textures that needed updated. There were also a few things that needed to be clearer for players, so we agreed on some changes to make to the player prompts.

In terms of assets, this week mostly involved making the last few decorations for a couple of exhibits; things like making small sprites for the display cases in the dinosaur area and a centrepiece for the Ancient Egypt area. The pyramid for this area is made up of four parts (all using the same texture map) which allow each part to spin independently of the rest. The sides of the pyramid are layered on top of each other on the UV map to conserve texture space and allow me add sufficient detail on a 256x256 texture.

I also made a few more sprites for the dinosaur exhibit to help out with the decorating. I particulatly enjoyed making the chunks of amber; the gradient was interesting to make in pixels. 

I also made a couple more assets for the death screens. After this, the game was pretty much out of my hands, and it didn't take long for the other team members to make the last few changes. We managed to reach our goal of having the game finished by Monday, and I think everyone came together really well to make sure we had everything we needed.

Personal Work

Since it had been a while since I did any animation, I wanted to refresh my skills a little. I tried making a short animatic in Photoshop using a podcast clip in my spare time, starting out with very simplistic rough layouts and building them up. It was the first time I'd tried making an animatic or animating to dialogue, especially something of this length, so it was a learning experience for me and one I really enjoyed.

I tried to focus on the overall gesture of poses and on conveying expression and intent, as well as providing comedy and making it entertaining. The end result I feel came together really well, and it's something I'd love to try my hand at again in the future, maybe even making something a little more fluid with more in-between frames.

Week Summary - Over Easter + Week 5

Collaborative game project


There was some discussion in Monday's session about the direction we want to take the game. It was pointed out that we've reached a point where we have to decide whether the game is going to be a dark comedy or a more serious horror game. We took a few days to discuss and think about which direction we wanted to go, and most people seemed to be leaning towards the comedic side. Our goal was always to have fun with this project, and this seems to be the best way to achieve that.

We also had some discussion about what kind of mechanics we could add or tweak to make the overall gameplay more compelling. The first minigame will remain largely the same as a kind of introductory level. Past that, the space invaders minigame will be a little more challenging, and we've decided we'd like the dinosaur exhibit game to take up the whole room instead of just being a single interactive object. The player has to collect pieces of a skeleton from around the room while being chased by a dinosaur suit, and return them to the original. I thought this combined the horror and comedy aesthetics quite well, lending the panic of a chase scene and the silliness of being chased by a plastic suit.

Other than this, I've been making the last few assets we need for decoration. The first model was a dinosaur egg.

The above map resulted in a lot of texture distortion, which was fixed below. This has been a major focus in how I've chosen to unwrap these models, with seam location being less of an issue, though still important.

The second model was a T-Rex skull. I had a lot of fun modelling this one and I'm really pleased with how it turned out. During this process I discovered how important texture contrast is when producing flat-shaded models, as a lot of the form can become lost with no shadows to define it and provide contrast.

I think I've developed a good workflow for this process now, having produced so many models over the course of the project. Making multiple smaller models has forced me to streamline my workflow and think about how efficient I'm being with my time, as well as allowing me to make a lot of mistakes I now know not to make again.

Personal work

I did a few more environment tests over easter, trying to get a feel for the style and palette I want to go for. Below are a few rough studies; a sketch with mostly flat colours, a painted version and a rough lined version. Of the three, I think the painted version is the direction I want to go for (although it needs more refining) and I'm really enjoying the pastel colour palette here.

A second study looking at a different area, this one looking more at atmosphere. I considered a very fluid, slightly rough line style in the style of Witchy, but I think for me I prefer something a little more controlled.

Below are some character sheets for the two main characters. They're from very different backgrounds in terms of social standing and have very different personalities, and I wanted to get that across with their expressions and clothing.

Valeri (above) is from a well-respected family and thus has the resources to afford brightly dyed and more fitted clothing. Theo (below), by contrast, has next to nothing, and therefore has to stick to duller tones and loose-fitting clothes that he has to adjust to fit himself. I've also tried to keep their silhouettes recognisably different; Theo has a lot of weighted, draping shapes because of his clothes and his hair hangs lower, where Valeri's silhouette is more tightly and neatly cut.

In terms of style, I'm very much enjoying the one I've developed below. It's a combination of cleaned sketch with flat colour (first figure), plus flat shading set to multiply along with the sketch layer (second figure), and then very flat paint over the top, retaining some of the sketch for clarity but smoothing it out using the paint (third figure). It's partially inspired by the comic Countdown To Countdown, which features a very painterly style, but retains some lines where needed.

The key to this style is I think a strong focus on the shapes of the blocks of colour created by the shadows, midtones and highlights in the image. It still needs some refining, but I like the direction it's headed in and I think it'll look really great with some practise.