Final Major Project: Termtime Planning stages

During the side scroller project we really began to think about our Final Major Project.

 

Some people are already starting to finalise their briefs and even hand in their proposals and during this time I had more or less decided on what I wanted to do as a personal project, but was still uncertain about the scale.

 

Whilst working with the concept artists on the style guide we got to talking about our project. The other three concept artists were considering doing almost entirely concept based projects built around a similar model to the Skillful Huntsmen book. Two intended to work together but Lucy was going to work alone and like me was a little unsure about scale.

 

After a bit of chatting and discovering that she was drawing some of her inspiration from Sky Blue - a Korean mixed media film - that I had also watched we decided to team up for a project that shared some of the film's ideas.

 

Initially then the project got put on the back burner because of the side scroller project but we chatted regularly and put together a pinterest board for our ideas with the intention of discussing them further in the Christmas holidays.

Side Scroller: Post Mortem

The Side Scroller project was the first project we'd attempted that had the year working all together as a team. It would last until the fourth of December and our task was to create a four level side scroller that would take inspiration from Trine 2’s fantastical scale and colours. The Four levels would be themed; Hot, Happy, Cold and Scary in that order.

I was working on the Cold level as the level's concept artist. I also worked with the other concept artists to produce a style guide and narrative as well as overall assets like collectibles and checkpoints however due to the collaborative nature of the project at no point did I feel isolated or restricted to my area.

As this was our first project working as a single team there were a few hiccups with communication initially but as a team I thought we worked very well. We quickly got into the habit of not only sharing the work but also having regular meetings and such in order to coordinate what we were working on. I also thought that once our style guide was created we worked efficiently to it, there was no real point when things had to be changed because they didn't fit.



We faced problems with scale, an obvious issue with a project of this kind some of our initial ideas proved to be a little ambitious and for the first week of concepting we worked hard to strike a balance between our time frame and our ambitions for the project which we solved through a combination of smart down scaling and using more repeating assets. Later in the project the area brought up to benchmark level would be reduced.

One of the reasons for this reduction was another problem; the game play elements. This was the first time anyone had had to design game play alongside the visual aspects of the game. I personally have never done anything like this and it meant that getting that initial whitebox off the ground was a slower process than we would have liked. This delayed us in the beginning and ultimately meant that to solve the time issues we had with finishing we had to reduce the amount of the level that would be bench marked.


A problem I faced at times was not knowing where to go. Working on concepts first and foremost there wasn't the next stage to move onto but I quickly solved it by looking to others. Also making a lot of lists.


Problems and issues were largely overcome as a team. When we reached blocks or unexpected problems it was the time to hold meetings and pass around work. Daily scrum meetings meant that we started the day knowing what we wanted to achieve by the end but also with an opportunity to say what our problems had been and ask for suggestions and solutions.

If I were to approach a similar project then I'd place the style guide on a higher priority. Now that we've gone through the process once it's easier to see how one can be produced and say we should have been faster but it was a difficult task that in the future we could complete more quickly. I'd also  prefer to diversify the team; having people on the team who could fill in for skills that we as artists might not have (Programming, designing game play and story and the like) would really speed up the process and make us feel a lot more sure about what we're producing. Also, the scrum meetings which were a huge help needed to be implemented from the very beginning. We started to regularly use the process after a couple of weeks, but working in that way from the start could only improve efficiency.



As for what we produced, I'm personally very pleased with it. This is the first time that we've attempted something of this scale and this is the first time I've had this role in a project and despite not being able to finish the entire level what we have bench marked is something that I can honestly say I'm proud of having a hand in. Obviously it's not perfect, with extra time I'd like to be able to go back over and tighten up material values, rework the composition and finish the lower parts of the level especially, things like the stone of the statue need work and some areas feel too empty. If I were to approach this project all over again there would be slight changes to my workflow as certain things like style guide and level block outs would take higher priority (This project was a good exercise for getting over my tendency to focus in on one idea or a small element and instead focus on the bigger picture) so we could speed through with the later stages easier.

In conclusion I believe this was a successful project. We largely achieved what we set out to do and I definitely feel like I've learned and progressed, gaining skills that I could only gain by working on a project this size with a group this size. Our ideal finished piece was not met, but the reasons why were clear and in the future these problems can be addressed before they even arise. Any mistakes made in our project were not only corrected and adapted for, but we learned from them for the future.

Side Scroller: A slight change of plans

At the start of the fourth week of the project we looked at our current game as a whole. Up to this point we'd been whiteboxing and then moving on to creating an alpha version of the game with first pass assets and basic textures in order to test the flow and gameplay of the level. 

 We'd reached the alpha stage and were in the process of working out where to go from there; some gameplay elements weren't working and some areas were too sparse. After the tutor feedback which was mostly that the level wasn't full enough and some parts weren't terribly interesting to play the tutors realised that the scale we'd been given was actually a little too big. Perhaps because of the very small amount of art direction we'd recieved at the start of the game been delayed in the early concepting stages as we got caught up in trying to work out the overall style and look of the game. 

Not having a level blockout also meant that we'd had to design the gameplay ourselves; something that we'd never had to do before and therefore took quite a long time going back and forth between design and engine in order to get a level that was traversable and contained gameplay elements.
At this point it was decided that rather than making the full level each level would pick about a third of their level for them to build up to benchmark level whilst the rest would be kept at alpha stage. We decided, since our level has quite a few items that are repeated around the level, that we would bring the top half of the level up to the final standard. A couple of assets would be moved as they'd already made them and wanted to showcase them (The prayer wheels were originally going to be in the lower cave but were moved into the upper part so they'd be part of the benchmarked scene.

The original level

The reduced level; these parts would be benchmarked and the 'blockout' parts would stay at alpha level

This change allowed us to work on a denser looking level that wouldn't feel so empty however a huge challenge at this stage was still making the game entertaining. Our tutors encouraged us to make the gameplay entertaining which had been a consistent challenge since we have no level designers on our teams. Though it was interesting to create such a different style of game the time frame and the scale meant there were times when it was easy to feel out of my depth when it came to designing game play and only having two engine artists creating the four levels limited us a little.

If this project was to be done again, then it'd be nice to collaborate with other areas of the university; other departments concentrate on programming and designing levels and a joint project with people who have a more diverse set of skills could really produce an amazing final product.

Side Scroller: Assets and Engine

Once the level's overall design had been decided and we had a basic layout for items in the level it was time to start producing assets. Many things like rocks and foliage could be built using the style matrix talked about in my style guide entry, as variations on a theme they could be used so long as they stayed consistent in terms of textures and form language ( A lot of thought was put into the way that snow interacted with the assets as a diagonal running perpendicular to the line of the rock)

the shape language of the level; intersecting diagonals were prevalent and this basis was used when modelling much of the scenery.

Other assets required more attention however. Hero assets like the statue and the prayer wheels as well as smaller more complex items like the lanterns and the bell had to be concepted. I also helped create the checkpoints (an asset I would later model for the game) 

The first concept of the checkpoint and my model in engine

Some assets were concepted whilst the style guide was being created, and some differences can be seen before and after the art nouveau influences were added but largely speaking the concepting followed the usual process I stick to; silhouettes and sketches before moving on to more detailed variations and final designs.

It was interesting to concept whilst others were modelling the assets, usually when I'm working on a project by myself the concepting stage is mostly over once the modelling starts however working as the concept artist meant there was always an interesting back and forth between me and the environment artists. I found myself working more flexibly and moving between items as they were needed to be modeled as well as being in constant contact with the other concept artist about consistency across the levels.

It was an enjoyable way to work and I found myself more motivated to work because of the constant input from others. Seeing my concepts immediately taken and modeled, then sent back to me to tweak again was a new and interesting way of working where I got to see results much faster than normal and found myself more invested in the work I was doing.

Statue silhouettes

statue variations

the statue's final design

Visual  notes for statue materials

A big thing I learnt was how to make my drawings as clear as possible; whilst making an item by myself I could take liberties with orthographic views and designs as I didn't have to explain to myself what I'd been intending when I drew a line or made a mark in a particular place. Concepting for other artists to model from was a very different matter however; if a drawing is unclear they could interpret it in a completely different way than I had meant when I drew it so working in a clear way became essential to progress and I quickly got into the habit of making notes or visual notes (like side sketches or example photos) in the corners of the concept art. I got used to working fast and efficiently in a way that others could understand without explanation.

Bell designs

Prayer wheels; the bottom right image would be the one used in the game.

Side Scroller: Idea Generation and Concept Creation

Initially the Cold Level Team all started out on idea generation, images and inspiration were gathered into a 600+ image mood board before we isolated several ideas and honed in on a few. At first we wanted to steer away from the more usual depictions of cold especially with Disney’s Frozen as prevalent as it was. 

A mood board and colour scheme was produced for each idea

We looked into the potential of an ice palace with a Middle Eastern architecture theme rather than a European one. We looked at everything from the cold recesses of space – ultimately abandoned because of the lack of potential to make as an interesting side scroller in the time we have – to cold foods like ice-cream. At the time the style guide started to be made we'd settled on a snowbound castle in a style reminiscent of Persian architecture.

initial sketches were very linear and flat in terms of gameplay

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In the end it was the theme of pilgrimage from the other levels that influenced our final choices; what had been an abandoned palace became a mountaintop shrine and quickly became a statue carved into a mountain as it was easier to link it with the happy and scary levels.

Over the course of development some areas were exaggerated and some lost; the statue grew to cover nearly half the level and the surrounding structure was abandoned in favor of the mountain behind. Areas like the caver and the mountain to the statue's right were elaborated upon after discussion about utilizing space. The mountain was modified to contain a cave and the lower cave was to stretch back into the mountain to create a sense of depth that the level had been slightly lacking in. Adding a deeper section of the mountain made it feel less flat.

the quick sketch of gameplay and platforming elements

Platforming elements and gameplay were also added in at this stage. The bell was added, who's chime when hit by the player would make the statue hands begin to move. Things like special collectables (shown above as stars) as well as killbox placement were pencilled in at this time and we had a lot of fun moving around items to get the best out of the space. I'm particularly fond of the cogs that send you back to the save point when you get trapped between or underneath them.

Colour variations 

Once we'd worked out the basic layout the environment artists moved onto whiteboxing while I worked on more finished concepts of the level and it's elements. It was particularly challenging to stop the level becoming monochromatic; the colour scheme was mainly black, white and blue in order to maintain the feeling of cold. Adding purple hues not only added depth to the colours but it also linked the level with the levels before and after. 

It was during this stage that we decided on the cave layout; though when the amount of the level being finished to benchmark changed, the assets were moved to the top of the mountain in order to showcase the asset.

First Final concept

The first rush of idea generating at the start of concepting is always my favorite. I've always enjoyed doing the initial sketches.