This is a static mesh of one of the creatures in the game engine. For this project I'm using the UDK which is an incredibly powerful system created by the folks over at Epic Games, Inc. Being the awesome people that they are, they've released this engine for free and anyone can download it.

The engine itself is catered towards first person shooters, but there's some scripts I've found that I'll be playing with to create more of a side scroller.

Hope you enjoy the first renders from the actual engine. This should help everyone better visualize what the final product will look like.

Game Time

Here I've got two of the models built up in 'game' geometry with coloring, textures, and high resolution details baked onto the surfaces. I decided to get the pirate captain out of the way since he had the most complicated model. I utilized two texture maps for him in order to better distribute texture details.



The Shriever was a very fun character to model. The simplicity in it's design was a welcome change after texturing the captain. However, the textures in the final build of the shriever will be much more complex as the creature itself will be able to light up and dim itself.

Concept to 3D

There are the high Resolution Models of both the protagonist and the antagonist. These will be later used to ad details to the 'game' geometry, which has a much lower amount of polygons.

Looking at a few of the early concept sketches I did, you can see how the design has changed. Initially I was going to give the characters rather cartoony characteristics. However I later took a liking to the more realistic feeling from the top drawing.

Monstas!

These are two monsters that the player will encounter during the course of the level. I designed them with a good deal of function in mind. "The Locker" is not meant to be heavy on combat. In fact, the player will probably feel like they're at the bottom of the food chain more often than not. I also wanted to add a bit of puzzle elements to each creature.

For example; The creature at the top is found in darkened areas and will most likely be the players only source of light, however they will also be trying to eat the player. It will be up to them to figure out how to deal with such menaces in light of everything else.

Level Layouts and Block In

This wasthe initial concept of the light world and dark world for the game. As you can see there's a big contrast between both realities. I also thought it would be interesting if in the dark world some of the structures were altered.

After playing with the design a bit I came up with these layouts for the light and dark worlds. This is merely a layout of the physical space in which the player will be able to occupy. Thus far there is not much gameplay designed in here yet, but each area has been built up with elements of gameplay in mind. As you can see form the left to right path, there will be many platforming elements.

Here I have a rough build of the level's geometry. I've placed a character in the corner for scaling purposes.

Character Concepts

For my initial Idea of the characters I like to do a ton of quick thumbnail sketches such as these. In this panel I've laid out several thumbnails of the protagonist (left) and the antagonist (right). Sense I wanted the protagonist of the game to be a little more frail I did most of his designs with a much more slender build. He's meant to be strong, but he's not that strong. His overall design is also very simple. Since he's become a drunk, after losing his wife, he doesn't carry much around with him. Perhaps a bottle of booze and a few hand tools used in sailing.

The Antagonist on the other hand is a fearsome pirate captain with a burly build to him. I wanted him to look much more powerful and so I gave him extra heft and much weightier clothing. He's a very materialistic individual therefore his overall design is much more complex than the antagonist's. I pulled some inspiration from samurai garbs as well to try and give him more visual appeal.

Production Schedule

This is a pretty old production schedule. At this point most of this has been altered and changed. I will be posting a new and improved version once I am able to slow down and collect my thoughts again.


"The Locker"
2010-2011 Production Schedule

Week 1: Establish Game Mechanics

Week 2: Finalize Character Concepts

Week 3: Begin High Poly Modeling and Finalize Level Design

Week 4: Continue High Poly Modeling and Begin Blocking in Level

Week 5: Finish High Poly Models and Begin Converting to Low Poly

Week 6: Continue Low Poly Modeling and Begin Assets for Level

Week 7: Continue Low Poly Models and Creating Level Assets

Week 8: Finish Low Poly Models and Continue Level Assets

Week 9: Begin Texturing Models and Finish up Level Assets

Week 10: Continue Texturing and Finalize Level

Week 11: Rig Characters for Animation and Begin Collecting Audio

Week 12: Begin Character Animation Cycles and Continue Collecting and Applying Audio

Week 13: Continue Character Animation Cycles and Audio Collection

Week 14: Continue Character Animation Cycles and Polish Characters and Level

Week 15: Polish Animation Cycles and Textures and Get Ready to Import to Unreal Engine
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