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.
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.
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