This is the first post covering my role this term as an Environment Artist within a team.
The team i'm working with consists of . . .
- Game Designer/ Coder/ VFX: George Burchmore.
- Environment Artist: Ben Matthews (Me).
- Environment Artist: Reece Stansbury.
- Concept Artist: Razvan Prajanu.
- Concept Artist: Rastislav Smolen.
- Character Concept: Steve Welch.
- Character Artist: Jay Pickett.
Together we have formed a team called Ninja Kebab. your probably wondering why we called ourselves Ninja Kebab, it all comes down to our lack luster attempt to come up with a suitable name for our team. And somehow we fell upon Ninja Kebab. However We hope a lighthearted name will catch the attention of our audience.
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| Our team logo, created by Steve Welch. |
We decided to create a first person shooter this term. Specifically an old school style fps such as Doom in a style similar to Grindhouse. A slightly over the top fps that is fun and addictive to play.
We hope that being ambitious and choosing to create something challenging will help us to learn more about game development and level design.
What is Grindhouse? - http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Grindhouse
My role as an environment artist will be to aid the game designer/ concept artist in creating a fun and interesting level design. Once we have settled upon a good design I will build the level and texture it.
In the first couple of weeks whilst the concept artists were creating initial designs I didn't have any environment work to do. So I set about creating concepts in 3D in an effort to aid the design process.
In the first few days of the project I created a concept/ design in 3D for a bridge that connects a heli pad to a base. It was just an initial idea I had for the player starting point. I also animated the bridge. I did this to help teach myself the basics of animation in Maya and to aid myself in relaying My idea to the rest of the team.
I created the bridge along with its animation over a couple of days. Initial ideas and keywords we used for inspiration helped me to create a simple walkway system that is futuristic, yet believable.
The basic premise behind this design is simple. A platform (similar to a camera dolly) is fired out of a hole in the wall by compressed air. This platform is resting on a set of rails that stretch over to the landing pad. The platform holds 4 metal plates which are pulled up by levitating magnets as the platform travels along the rails towards the pad. The plates are then held in place by magnetism allowing people to walk between the pad and the connecting platform.
I am aware that this level layout is very large. And most likely way too ambitious, however it was useful; and stopped the team from hitting a roadblock early on. It also provided me with some useful world building experience. I had to create a base layout that made logical sense whilst keeping in mind the path the player would take.
We hope that being ambitious and choosing to create something challenging will help us to learn more about game development and level design.
What is Grindhouse? - http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Grindhouse
My role as an environment artist will be to aid the game designer/ concept artist in creating a fun and interesting level design. Once we have settled upon a good design I will build the level and texture it.
In the first couple of weeks whilst the concept artists were creating initial designs I didn't have any environment work to do. So I set about creating concepts in 3D in an effort to aid the design process.
In the first few days of the project I created a concept/ design in 3D for a bridge that connects a heli pad to a base. It was just an initial idea I had for the player starting point. I also animated the bridge. I did this to help teach myself the basics of animation in Maya and to aid myself in relaying My idea to the rest of the team.
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| Heli pad concept. |
The basic premise behind this design is simple. A platform (similar to a camera dolly) is fired out of a hole in the wall by compressed air. This platform is resting on a set of rails that stretch over to the landing pad. The platform holds 4 metal plates which are pulled up by levitating magnets as the platform travels along the rails towards the pad. The plates are then held in place by magnetism allowing people to walk between the pad and the connecting platform.
Here is a short video showing the animation I created. This animation helped to demonstrate to the team how we could use magnetism to solve problems in game, such as collecting objects, opening doors and extending bridges. Magnetism is also a believable concept, we already have strong electric magnets in the real world so its feasible that (in the future) humans could create magnets strong enough to hold walkways in place. It also gives us (as a team of designers) an excuse to create floating walkways, and doors. This helps to create a futuristic environment. Our aim is to create a level that conveys the time period to the player without us having to directly tell them. However this is a very early concept, and may not make it into the final game.
I carried on with this early concept work by creating an initial level layout in 3D. The game designer created a starting point but was struggling so I stepped in to help. I created this layout in a few hours.
My hope here was to get the ball rolling and allow the team to progress with concept work. I tried to keep game play in mind whilst creating this layout; what would be in each room? where would the player go? where will the cover points be? where will the enemy spawn? Ultimately these are all decisions that will be made by the game designer and not by me, however it is useful to keep in mind game play whilst designing an environment.
I am aware that this level layout is very large. And most likely way too ambitious, however it was useful; and stopped the team from hitting a roadblock early on. It also provided me with some useful world building experience. I had to create a base layout that made logical sense whilst keeping in mind the path the player would take.
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