Practical Skills for Computer Games design - Developing my Concept

Since my last post, I have taken part in a peer review session and have been further developing my asset generation ideas, moving from my design boards to a sketching stage, and have prepared for potentially moving onto the modelling phase soon, this is still subject to change as I will ask for even more peer feedback on my chosen design which I will hopefully be pushing forward with.

For my peer feedback session I was tasked with devising three questions to ask my peers, with informative answers to come back for me to build on both my asset ideas, and my level ideas as a whole.

The questions I chose to ask were as follows;

• My 'Pillar' idea is to create a tall specimen containment chamber to be featured within the sci-fi portion of a Western/Sci-fi environment. How well do you think these two themes will co-exist?
• My pillar is planned to hold two specimens placed vertically one on top of the other, what do you think of this design? how could it be changed or improved?
• Due to the chamber being present in the sci-fi portion of my environment, the materials used are planned to be mainly metals and glass, which type of finish do you think would best benefit the metals?

The answers I received were very helpful and have allowed me to build on my design, with answers elaborating on the materials to be used within my chamber, the texturing and also the design of the unit as a whole, with the suggestion that I could possible lay my containment chamber horizontally as opposed to standing it on end as was my original plan.

From these responses I was able to develop a few pencil sketches, displaying possible designs for my containment chamber.

I considered the Horizontal layout suggestion but had not yet toyed with ideas visually, as such my first design ideas were all to be vertically positioned. I started by designing a couple of more simply themed containment chamber ideas, one with a classic laboratory feel (top right) and the other I feel with more of a sleep pod design to it.
The former designed with a simple door to be tightened with a wheel type lock and the latter with a two sided opening door.

From here I went on to sketch the design below, with a little more extravagance in its design.

I intended on making it more futuristic in its design, and to fit with this I made the shape somewhat different and added pipes and lights to the body, with a jointed door panel at the front.
The image I have in mind is for the lights to be a mixture of Red, Orange/Yellow and Green/Blue, this could be either to show the temperature of the chamber in terms of stasis or cryogenics, or to show the vitals of the specimen within the chamber itself, for example green light emitted would show better vital signs of the specimen in and red would show the descending of vital signs into critical status. 

From this point I decided to roll with this Idea to develop it somewhat and carry it through some of the development process, which meant drawing up some orthographic images including a front view, a side view and a top view of the containment chamber idea, these further orthographic sketches representing a top and side view can be seen below.

After drawing up my orthographic projections I chose to outline them in PhotoShop using various tools to produce digitalised versions of my orthographic images, I left the pipes off the orthographics as I feel they may cause some confusion not only now but with peer review processes also, and will add them back into the model at a later point, during the high poly stage most likely.

After creation I set the images onto square canvases as to prepare them for use within Maya.

Before I begin the modelling process I will be recapping the basic tool set maya includes which I will be using to my advantage throughout the modelling process.

Practical Skills for Computer Games design - Conceptual ideas

I have been tasked with creating a piece of original game art in form of a modelled and textured 3D mesh.

The given foundation provided to be built from is the 2011 Splash Damage art test. This is a conceptual idea which is used professionally as a method of hiring employees by studios worldwide, both large and small.

Whilst the concept art is a constraint of sorts, it acts as a benchmark for my work within this project, as I have been given creative freedom to make an environmental object to be transported into Unreal 4 later in the year.

Personally I want to use the concept as a ground to build on, as the object has been described as a pillar this opens many doors for concept and design.

Given a few minutes to generate ideas, I brainstormed the pillar idea and produced a list of possible objects which could take the form of a pillar, trying to think as little as possible and produce a list of objects which could be modelled into in-game assets.

Following the time given to brainstorm ideas which could be fitted into a pillar, I was given an instigator word to create additional ideas, putting a twist on or giving an extra feature to each idea I have come up with.

The word I was given was 'Snake', this allowed me to expand the idea behind each object I had brainstormed and decide which I preferred from my list.

From the items I brainstormed, the objects marked with an asterisk I felt most confident in as items I could make fit with my overall theme for the level planned in another unit. and as such I began mind mapping possible thematic elements which would be used in various genres of game, though the intention is still to remain in a western/sci-fi type environment.

Following the basic brainstorming and mind mapping procedure, I produced a digital version of my mind map and expanded on not only the theme, but the functionality of the pillar itself, whilst considering other themes. I was aware I would need to consider some sort of western design aspect, in accordance to fit this work in with my other projects as the moment. 

Whilst I have almost certainly decided on an asset I wish to make for this project, the addition of mind mapping extra genres helps with other aspects of design, such as the minor details and surfacing options which I may otherwise miss when only including a couple of genres.

As such this mind map will be worked on, improved and produced digitally for a neater final product.

The plan I have in my head is to develop an extra-terrestrial containment chamber to be placed in a western/sci-fi surrounding, coinciding with my character development progress in another project.

The mesh I aim to create must also fit into a Capture the Flag (CTF) game mode map inside Unreal Engine 4, though I am visualising the asset designed as part of one of the team bases.

To continue the conceptual process I created design boards via Pinterest for both the environmental design the level will take on and the asset itself.

These design boards can be viewed below.

View full Design Board here: https://www.pinterest.com/plissken1989/unit-9-level-design-board-1/

View full Design Board here: https://www.pinterest.com/plissken1989/unit-9-level-design-board-2/

These design board provide me with reference and inspiration to be used when modelling my own objects for use in Unreal Engine, particularly in accordance with any surface details I may include in the final version of my containment chamber.

Next I will be producing thumbnail sketch designs of my containment chamber with ideas for shapes, sizes and surface details, taking into account both of my produced design boards, gaining inspiration from the images used within.

I will update this blog in accordance with each step in my creation process, with any developments, any problems I may yet run into and the respective solutions for each.