Game Blog Weeks 8-10

Posted by Matt Arnold on Apr 18, 2011 in Facerocker Games | 18 comments

It has been quite a while since my last game blog. This will also be a short one, which is a shame cause I do have cool stuff to show. However, it has been pretty busy here on my end. 3-hour-a-night-sleep busy. This time for good reasons, not because we were stuck on an engine problem.

Taxes, and Being a Producer

Like the rest of America, I had to do taxes. By “do taxes” I of course mean schedule time with my far more intelligent father and have him “show” me how to do taxes while I sit complaining about the time it is taking “me” to do taxes.

Far more time consuming than taxes though, has been simply managing this project now. The past 2 months have been Morgan and I. Now, I have 9 people sharing my drop box. I have 5 artists who are helping out in a variety of ways. I have a few excel sheets made to keep track of the assets needed, and then doing weekly assignments. I then compile those assignments, the models provided, send them to the texturer, etc.

I am also getting help from people here like Jimmy and Sam in the music and UI department. They are busy of course, so it’s just a matter of me getting as much info to them, and making their jobs as easy as possible.

All this stuff eats away hours a day. Which is hurting a bit because I still have to finish up the last few levels. While it means less sleep, it also means I get to see real assets for my game. I actually get to see assets for my game. Art assets. The game is actually beginning to look like a game. Very slowly right now. We have a bunch of the easy prefabs in. Things that don’t require much direction, like air vents, boxes, benches etc.

My concept artist has had a busy past few weeks, but we are now getting environment concepts in, and we just got our first environment modeled, and is currently being textured.

Art and Level Pipeline

So we are finally getting some levels to completion. They go through quite a process, and change a great deal from initial inception. This is mostly because they suck at first: just a vague idea. I go through each environment a few times. I then do a “final” pass before sending it to Josh for concept. After his concept, I go back once more to the 3D world built in Unity, and tweak a few things, play through it a few times to make sure it is fun, and works. I then send them to the modelers. Our first environment modeled, serving essentially as a test was a sewer. It is a tutorial sort of level.That is actually be textured now, and hopefully it turns out well. The main thing is the level is about 30k polygons, and still running at 60fps. We are locking this game at 30fps, and are hoping to be able to have around 50-60k polys, with enemies on screen, particles, etc. It is looking like that is very possible.

Anyways, here is the intro area of the game. Baul City (name pending) is the main town of the game. It is where your hero lives. You can see its creation from crappy notebook sketches, to various 3D iterations, to our now sweet concept art. This environment is currently being modeled. Take a look at the screens below.

For some of the levels, I lay them out more specifically in photoshop. It proved not that useful later on.

I use that map to block it out in 3D in unity. I start playing around in it, and get a sense of scale.

As I get more game elements in, I start adding gameplay to the maps. Note the cliff area on the side. Secret passages, bombable rocks, more jumps, etc.

When I am happy with the level, Josh begins concept art, and often we add even more changes. Note the beach turning into a boardwalk. Good thing as water kills. Guard rails make it less likely for beginner players to die in the city.

The changes made to this sewer stage are actually probably more interesting, but I will get into that when I talk specifically about dungeons. Long story short, the level was too long, and I made it short. In the images below you will see the Unity Build I have, the lame instructions I make to the modeler (this is supplemented by a .txt file with a lot more notes, and a phone call) and then you can see the model.

Here is the Sewer laid out. The water will not be green. It will be a nice clean sewer - with bad guys.

As you can tell, my feedback is incredibly detailed, specific, and useful...

Then we get our actual model. Ground is given shape, and decorative pipes are added to make it feel more like a lovely sewer.

Here is our art test where we just have real time lights, ambient occlusion, placeholder textures and what not to test the FPS. As you can see, it is near 60.

For the fun of it, here are some of our first finalized assets. I don’t know to express how exciting it is to see a fully textured bench or crate when you have been working in Unity and Code for 2 months, but it is exciting. We were getting many of the models we absolutely knew we needed done first, as well as stuff that didn’t need much concept art. But I want to get across a little bit the look we are going for.

Josh came up with this awesome design, and David modeled and textured it. A hollowed out tree to hold some tired balls.

Wouldn't be a game without cannons you can shoot yourself out of.

The one concern is trying to get all the artists to move towards a cohesive style. That is a topic for another time.

I will try to keep this weekly. There should be more stuff to show, and more to talk about now. Any questions or thoughts, comment below.

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