Oregon Redwood Forest Biome

It took a long time but I finally finished my biome. I actually pretty happy with it as of right now. I might tweak some things here and there down the road for portfolio but other than that I'm pretty satisfied.

Stylized Redwood Forest Biome!

 

This is a quick greybox of the redwood forest biome I'm working on. Grasses and other small plants are usually made with flat planes called cards. Those will come in at a later stage. Next I'm off to model out the details of my tree stumps and rocks in Zbrush! Ohhh yeeeah!

Finished Character Designs!

 Hey it's me again! Here are those finished character designs I've been working on. I made a few changes to some of the characters here and there and I'm pretty happy with most of those changes. I think the hardest part of this project was relearning how to paint in photoshop. I really want to do some more, but right now I think I'll take a nap.

Game Mechanic Designs

UDK Game Mechanics

 Disclamer: These are UDK assets. I just used kismet functions to design the game mechanics.

Telekinesis

Force Push

 Force Pull

 

Force Singularity

 

 

Concept statement: The force is with you!

Possible setting: Space station, in spaceship, or on a planet other than earth.

Time period: Future

Brief back story ideas: You play a test subject with enhanced telekinetic abilities trying to escape from his/her captors testing facilities by defeating enemies and solving puzzles.

Rough obstacle ideas: Bridge that needs to be pulled down so the player can cross. Objects that deal damage to enemies. Knocking down obstacles in the way. Lifting or pushing obstacles that are in the way.

Rough sketch of mechanic in action:

 Drop Block

Drop blocks to create paths of unreachable places.

Concept statement: Build, survive, and conquer.

Possible setting: Old Ruins

Time period: Present

Brief back story ideas: You play an adventuring archeologist lost in an ancient tomb of horrors. With a magic artifact you found deep in the crypt you can conjure objects out of thin air to help you solve puzzling obstacles in your way.

Rough obstacle ideas: Staking blocks to climb over obstacles. Summoning blocks to guard against enemy attacks. Drop blocks on objects to solve puzzles.

Rough sketch of mechanic in action:

 Fortress Bash

Concept statement: Bash and smash your foes stuff

Possible setting: Medieval time of chivalry

Time period: Past

Brief back story ideas: Lob heavy objects at your enemies fortress. Destroy all their stuff!

Rough obstacle ideas: Enemy players. Towers and wall in the way of your goal.

Rough sketch of mechanic in action:

Rough Character Designs

These are some rough character designs I'm working on for class. The first three on the top row where generated from taking three words (Animal, Machine, and an Adjective) that I combined together in sets of two. The forth drawing was drawn from a silhouette drawn by a fellow classmate of mine name Ty Harmon. The last drawing and the one directly under it evolved from some quick gestural doodles I drew. Now on the bottom row the first two originated from some silhouettes I drew, and the two drawings after originated from staring at random textures intensely for a few minutes.

I got a lot of really good feedback from my classmates and my instructor Jason Bennett (aka SpikyTiger). Here's some of that feedback:

- The details get a little noisy on the Tree/Stone Golem.

        - Create an area of focus and area of rest.

- Tree/Stone Golems head gets lost in the details. Make it clearer.

- The perspective on everything (but mostly the Dangerous Tractor) needs to be tightened up. It feels sort of wonky.Watch those ellipses!

- Random spikes on the rhino need more purpose. Maybe make them forward facing. 

        - Watch rhino's anatomy on arm. Try making it bulkier.

-  Look at armor reference for the more robotic characters. Try to avoid generic lines.

- Round out the forms on the bull shaman guy so he doesn't feel so flat.

- Continue to clean up the line work.

 

Well that's about it for now. Got to get back to work!

Modular Kit Update!

Decided to go back and polish my modular kit a bit. Took a nice picture. So now I'm going to put this thing away for now and move on to finishing my bar stools!

Making Stool!

Here's a quick 30 minute model of the stool I'm working on for my shady bar. The form of the stool was real easy to make. Total tris is at 1960. Pretty high so I might still need to optimize it a little bit. I think the textures are what's really going to sell this thing in the end.

Beginning my treck into the world of video game concept art!

 These are some silhouettes I've been conjuring up for my concept art class. Really dig this technique for generating cool shapes and ideas. Will definitely continue to use it.

 

These are some scribbles I drew in an attempt to spark some ideas similar to the silhouette idea. Got some pretty cool shapes and character ideas out of it.

Here I'm starting to refine some of the silhouettes and scribbles into coherent ideas. Still have a lot of work to do. I need to do this more often it's a lot of fun!

To create these guys I randomly took three words ( an animal, a machine, and a adjective) and combined them two at a time in a drawing. Turned out better than I thought.

Shady Bar Modular Kit

Current endeavor I've been working on. Not a very difficult project but It helped me shake the rust off a bit. Still need to make some bar stools but I'll save them for my next project.

Game Mechanic Ideas

Attract Video Research

Particle System Idea

So for class I'll be putting together a lightning bolt Particle System.

Here's some research I found a la youtube.

http://youtu.be/hORUSzOvUfM

http://youtu.be/Jm3rHONOr9o

http://youtu.be/ycg1w6HlQEo

Crate Design

Crate Sketch

For my crate design I'm going to build a fairly generic crate. My level is based in a near future world so I really don't think crates will advance in design to much. It'll look real pretty when its done though.

Explosive Barrel Design of GA 240

 This is a design for an explosive barrel I'm working on for my Game programing class. 

This is a non-Explosive model I've already built. This guy will produce a gas that temporarily blinds players in my racing map.

57 Chevy

He's a look at the car I've been modeling for class. Still a work in progress but I think it looks good enough at this point for me to post it here. 

Race Track Inspirational Concept Pic

I drew this image to give myself some inspiration to work off of for my race track. I think it captures the mood I want to convey in the final playable game.

Paper Rough of Map and Main Hazard Idea

This is the basic shape of my map. This is still subject to change due to the chance some of the ideas for the map prove to not work as intended.

The main hazard/stunt of the level will be a sloped decline into a flurry of turbines. The blades will move in the same direction as the players. 

Game Design 2: Racing Level Concept Idea

Concept Statement: React! Don't think.

Level Backstory:

In the not so distant future the world weather systems have grown more dangerous and powerful. Instead of letting mother nature temper mankind's spirit for progress. Humanity created elaborate underground structures to harness the power of natures now extreme winds and rains. This specific underground structure has recently been abandoned and a group of like minded individuals have repurposed it as a deadly racing track.

Theme: Large Sewer/Underground Water Treatment Plant.

Time of Day: Night (maybe while it's raining)

Terrain: Smooth concrete, very shallow water.

Color Scheme: Mostly blue and orange with some greys and reds.

Stunt Brainstorming

Here are a few ideas I've come up with for possible stunts in my racing level.

1: Firsts the basic canyon jump. Here I'd try and get a good balance between speed and distance to that only cars traveling at the highest speeds can make the jump.

2: The twister would provide the challenge of maintaining your speed so that your vehicle stays on the wall long enough to exit the Twister.

3: Mobile road blocks are always a fun way to hinder a players progress and keep a map dynamic. These are always fun to narrowly dodge.

4: The intersection can be a cool way to make players collide with other racers in head on collisions. (Although you need to make sure the players cant just turn down the wrong street.)

5: A narrow escape is always fun. This obstacle can be used to funnel players into a narrow corridor.

6: Based on the players speed they might be able to take one of multiple different paths. Good for making a map seem larger and gives the player some more choice.

7: The spiral down could be used as a way to test a players drifting abilities. Also provides a way to get down from a very high spot in the map.

8: The up and over stunt would most likely be fairly hard to land. Forcing the players to master a steep vertical incline.

Car Stunts and Racing Game Mechanics

So for my Game Design Class I've been tasked to find cool car stunts for a racing game my class will be working on. So I've searched high and low for clips of real life car stunts on Youtube and found this sweet trick.

Here's a link to the video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_0QZTKWjNDo
(Watch the first 22 seconds in.)

It's a pretty impressive stunt that would look pretty cool somewhere in my level.

Next I found a great example of game mechanics helping or hindering players. The game I found this example in is none other that ModNation Racers.

Here's a link to the video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OHOvMrLddr4

You'll notice that the track uses boost pads to both help and hinder player advancement. In most racing games that have a boost pad mechanic the pads usually are placed there to help the players catch up with fellow racers. In this example the map designers used these pads a little more cleverly. Some speed boost pads point directly into walls while others completely flip the racers around forcing them to stop immediately. The level also ambushes the players with hidden road blocks and barrel launcher cannons.