GD: Eternity's Horizon Breakdown!

So, as promised, here's the breakdown of my FPS level! It turned out a bit different to what I expected-- I put in some things, took a few things out, streamlined, and most of all tried to make it slightly harder to fall off the map.

Of course, I didn't really have time to create my own assets from it, so it was pretty useful that my suggested aesthetic matched that of the default UE4 pieces!

As you can see from the top-down, there's some pretty obvious changes! First of all, there's a significant gulf that the players have to cross if they wish to engage the enemy in one-on-one close-up combat.

To cross this gulf, you have to use vectors to make death-defying leaps!

Another way to engage with the opponent is to scale those giant sniping towards using up vectors.

Each sniping tower has a counter-tower, so you have to always be on the lookout! Spawn points, however, are protected by a screen that allows players to shoot out, but not in. Also notice how each side of the map is colour-coded to each team! I was told that the red made players feel like they're dying, so I may have to tone it down a bit...

All in all, I think people had fun on my map! It was right at the end of the crit, so instead of really going on people stuck around and played it a few more times. As it has multiple potential paths, one really has to have a plan or strategy on which way to go! Using the up vectors to get to the sniping point gives you a great vantage, but you're also very exposed on your way up. Running around on the ground gives you versatility, but also puts you at risk of snipers. This is a map that really keeps you moving around, and I think the vectors really helped bring that idea home!

DA: DFG Assignment: Final Render!

And here it is! The final rendering work from my Drawing for Game Design Class first project. I'm actually pretty happy with how it all came out; I feel a lot more confident in my ability to place shadows and highlights now!

GD: Toys Idea

So our next assignment for Game Design (I'll post a breakdown of my FPS level soon!) is to make a toy; that is, something to play with and eventually make a game mechanic out of! Here are a few of my ideas:

• Bowling (taking one physics object and trying to knock others over with it)
• a giant cannon (to take down enemy pirate ships?)
• hang gliding (navigating empty air space with use of direction vectors)
• ultimate frisbee
• ultimate EXPLODING frisbee

• Carnival games
• duck hunt
• horse races (click as fast as you can to fire at the target to make the horse go faster)
• ring toss
• candy floss (sticks to everything, easy to navigate strange hallways

• Collectors combo boost (the more rapidly you collect items, the faster or stronger you become-- timing in between the collections of these things will reduce your boost)
• Rubber balls. Thousands and thousands of rubber balls.
• A roller coaster
• Jetskis (a vehicle for navigating an aquatic area-- avoid hitting sharks, and go over jumps for points!)
• Booster packs for different guns/spell types
• Dig dug-- try to dig as deep as you can without disturbing loose rocks or underground monsters!
• Ostritches
• Snow globes-- what you do to an item affects what happens to the player on the other side of the map. so, if you shake it, the entire ground shakes for the other player.
• Katamari Damancy-- the more items you collect, the larger you get, the more items you can pick up! Just get the minimum within the time limit!
• Gravity gun, a la Half Life 2
• Different kinds of temperature puzzles in different rooms: turn on the cold in a room to freeze platforms in place, turn on the heat to melt giant blocks in your way
• Boat races: build a boat, sail it down the river, see who wins!
• Cloning machines! Have many little orbs following you around and you can solve problems with them

GD: FPS Multiplayer Map Concept: Eternity's Horizon!

Now that I've done all this FPS multiplayer research, it's time to come up with a map of my own!

The idea is, it's set on a futuristic monochromatic sci-fi rooftop. The player starts off in a bunker, the spawn point, on either end of the map and navigates the up and down motions of the buildings to find the perfect sniping spot. The player is fenced in by the height of the building-- falling off results in death. The level is set during evening, so spotlights can help guide the player around the level. There are elevators, which help in ascending quickly to the all-important high ground, but they can leave the player exposed compared to the relatively protected ramps. There are also other moving aspects leading to secret areas of the map where the player can pick up more ammo and health.

DA: DFG Assignments: Design Lab 1!

So among all the other courses I'm taking this semester, the newest one is Drawing for Game Designers! This is the first real drawing/designing course that's part of the core GAD curriculum-- the other drawing classes were for the Media group as a whole. Now it's time for some real GAD Designing! Whoohoo!
The first assignment we had was the first part of our Design Lab, which is an introduction to character design. Working from doodles, silhouettes, and textures, we sought to come up with exciting, colourful character designs that would engage the viewer. Here's my work for this assignment:

 I experimented a bit with the silhouettes: some are made with Alchemy, some traditionally with a Sharpie, and others still with the selection tool in Photoshop.

 The Force Fit assignment was where we had to fit two of three words together three different times in three separate designs. As you can see, I got Rugged, Clydesdale, and Ice Cream Truck.
 Here's some designs from my silhouettes and doodles:

and the final roughs, seven of which I'll go on to fully render!

GD: Loadout: Fissure Analysis

So up next for our Game Design class, we have to make a multiplayer first-person shooter! I chose the delightfully gorey, cartoony Loadout to research. Loadout is Edge of Reality's incredibly violent, no-holds-barred shoot-em-up FPS. You design your own gun from their ever-growing weapons kit, buy accessories to really kit yourself out, and go and make delightful cartoon violence.

What's your tolerance to guts?

Their Fissure map, which is the map I'll be looking at, has two variants: Day and Night. I'm not sure why they did this, but I guess it adds some variety as they really only have four maps in total. Fissure is set in an abandoned space mining quarry, still littered with ore extraction paraphernalia and little messages to the player and previous employees.
Loadout offers five kinds of gamestyle, which can be played on any map:

Five ways to kill your friends!

Blitz: capture control points!
Death snatch: deathmatch, with deaths measured by how many dropped items are collected after death!
Domination: capture more control points than Blitz!
Extraction: gather items and kill the other teams collectors!
Jackhammer: capture the flag, but the flag's a weapon!

Fissure is a very simple multiplayer map: essentially symmetrical, with even placement of health and ammo packs on both sides. There are two large landmarks in the shape of giant drill centers, where most players spawn around and most capture the flag and control points are placed.

The players are fenced in by large rock formations on all sides, and there are great canyons in the middle of the map where you can fall in and deny your enemies a kill. These are bridged by large metal structures.

 

The guard walls are great, because they protect the player as they traverse arguably the most dangerous area in the map: this is where the players are the most exposed, but it's the most important place to cross to get into enemy territory. This is one of the bottleneck areas of tension especially in Jackhammer games.
Otherwise, there are plenty of different paths for the player to take, especially if they're particularly nimble: one of the best ways to traverse this territory is by constantly jumping, which can lead you to some nice vantage points.

Littered around are also nice little health and ammo packs, placed specifically in anticipated areas of contention.

 

Here's an essential breakdown of the Fissure map:

Assume all dark blue indicates tunnels.

3D: Hand Painting WIPS

Over the summer I thought I'd flex my hand painting muscles a bit more and try a few separate scenarios. First off is my modular bag kit, in which I tried to make a tiered series of bags that looked like they could feasibly be upgrades, all using one texture sheet.

 

The contrast could use some work, as could the general silhouette design and rendering of the fabrics. Still, I had a lot of fun, and I'd like to try this technique with some other props!

Second up was a building challenge. This was a bit more involved, as I researched a lot of World of Warcraft buildings to get a feel of their style. I also tried to use a bit of Fanny Vergne's workflow, because I really admire her stuff! This one's definitely still a work in progress, as I intend to build the rest of the world around it, when I have time...

 ... aaand putting it in Viewport 2.0 really helped.