To start our game we firstly had to pick two random themes out of a box and put these together to create our game. Our group received Rock and World War 1, after receiving these we then began planning out rough ideas for our game. We decided to take the word Rock as the material rather than the music genre and then decided to use World War 1 as a base for our characters and storyline. We were also placed into specific roles within the group from the choice of Game Designer/Coder, Environment Artist, Character Artist, GUI Artist and Concept Artist. I was given the role of Concept Artist within the team as this is the field I want to specialise in for my future career within game design.
Stage Two - Researching Images
I then began researching into images from the internet to create some initial visual boards for myself and the rest of my team to reference off of throughout the game. I looked into character visual boards looking at World War 1 uniforms, weapons, time era, colour palettes etc and also looked into environments such as caves and rocks to fit the theme of Rock. Below are my initial boards to show the start of my journey. After researching we quickly decided as a team to set our game within an underwater cave and use the idea of the U-Boat story within World War 1 as our base story. We also decided on keeping our main character as a World War 1 solider and keeping the uniform as accurate as possible but making the colours brighter to match a Dungeon Defenders style. We also decided on including pillars, slopes, traps and crystals as light sources and to make the a puzzle style genre.
Character Visual Board
Cave Clutter Visual Board
Environment Visual Board
Trap Visual Board
Stage Three - Character Concepts
After looking at my visual boards, I decided to start with character concepts so our character artist could start creating a character model and then spend time animating and rigging. I decided to start by creating some initial character concepts based on my visual boards trying out various proportions such as bigger heads, smaller bodies, larger shoulders, bigger equipment, to try out various looks for our character. I also created a rough colour palette using Adobe Kuler to match the colours used within World War 1 uniforms to keep it as realistic as possible and also try out various other versions to fit our brighter Dungeon Defenders style. I then took forward my favourite concept out of my initial and created four rough variation on this character playing around with proportion. After presenting to the group they were not happy with this character design entirely so I continued to create a bunch of variations on this character until we reached a point where the entire team was happy with the concept.
Rough Character Concepts
Refined Character Concepts - Variations
Refined Character Concepts - Variations
After playing around with proportions, as a team we decided on the chosen character version (as shown below) as he fits our idea of having a young, World War 1 solder who is frail and not really prepared or experienced in battle and having uniform given to him that is much to big for him and oversized. We also decided a key concept within our game would be the use of a fear bar so I have created a concept around this by keeping him frail and young as I feel this shows fear more then having a strong and bulky solider like the original concept. I then took this concept forward and created a rough front and side view for the character artist to work off of as well as a posed, worked up concept to shows details and how the overall character would look.
Chosen Character Variation
Chosen Character Variation - Front/Side
Chosen Character Workup
After working with our character artist to change the face on the design and start working up into a finished model ready for our game, I then took the new cartoony, stylised face and created a sheet of character facial expressions. Even though with the planned camera angle in our game the player will not see the face of the character close enough to notice expressions, I have planned them out as you would within a game design studio and also add to our group art bible.
Character Facial Expressions
Character Scale
I firstly began by creating a rough palette of colours for our game based around my research using browns and orangey, yellow colours for dirt and walls and then blues and purples for crystals to show glowing. After consulting with the team we decided to keep most of the colour palette the same, however changed the cave colours to various greys and blacks to fit the theme of rocks rather than dirt and clay. I then created an updated colour palette based on this team decision.
Old Colour Palette
New Colour Palette
Once I was happy with the chosen colour palettes I then began creating some rough concepts for our environment for the game focusing on the arriving room where the U-Boat would pull up and also the tunnel room leading from the first room. I decided to try out a cartoony, simple but detailed line work style for the concepts with bright colours and basic highlighting and shading to match the Dungeon Defenders style we had decided on as a group.
Arriving Room Rough Concept
Tunnel Room Rough Concept
Bridge Room Rough Concept
After consulting with the group on these concepts and deciding to make the arriving room more open with a simple lever puzzle to teach the player the mechanics of the game and also making skipping the tunnels and going from one room to another, we then decided to make the second room wider with a simple pressure plate and rock puzzle. Before creating worked up concepts on these I decided to create rough maps (as shown below) of what I imagined the rooms to look like to show clearly to my team the layouts of puzzles, crystals, pillars, walls and player paths. My team were really pleased with these maps and helped our environment artist to start visualising the rooms as I had created them.
Room One
Room Two
Room Three
Room Four
Room Five
After showing the maps to my team we decided to play around with the 4th room concept and change it up so we didn't have as many similar puzzle ideas such as levers and pressure plates in every room. I then began creating an updated map for the fourth room using the idea of a checkered floor and having the player walk along a select path across the tiles as certain tiles would drop down.
Updated Room Four
Room Four Rough Sketch Concept
Once happy with these maps I then began creating some more worked up concepts for my environment artist to work off of to start modelling the first arriving room. I created the other side of the view that you would see of the room and placed this alongside my original concept for the first room of one angle, and also the map, which helped our environment artist visualise my concepts in a 3D space and layout of the room.
Worked up Concept of First Room
Final sheet for Environment Artist to model - First Room
Our environment artist then modelled this room based off my concept for our second milestone for our peer review. After player feedback on the layout of the room and how the puzzles worked within our designs, our team then went back to the drawing board to re-plan our levels to create a more interesting space for the player to walk around.
New First Room Concept
New Second Room Concept
Ambient Light Concept - New First Room
Ambient Light Concept - New Second Room
Ambient Light Concept - Arriving Room
After re-thinking as a team our level designs for our game I came up with some rough re-designed concepts to work with the new fixed camera idea within our game. I came up with a more curved and rounded room with a re-designed, more organic lever for the first room then a more dark and ambient with a giant skull for the second room. With the new design of these rooms they will work with the planned fixed camera and also give us some space to play around with multiple puzzles in the rooms rather than having multiple rooms with singular puzzles.
Stage Five - Crystal Concepts For Rooms/Pickable Items
After our environment artist had started creating the first room, I then moved onto to concepting some crystals to place within this environment. After referring back to my initial visual boards for inspiration I created a rough sheet of various styles of crystals to place within the environment (as shown below). Once the team were happy with the concepts and had decided on the two final crystals to take forward (the last two crystals) I then took these forward and created more detailed concept sheets of these, as well as additional concepts for miniature crystals to be dotted around the environment and torches for the player to hold. After consulting the team and they were happy with the designs our environment artist then began modelling these assets and placing them within our first level.
Rough Crystal Sketches
Rough Crystal Concepts
Short Crystal Concepts
Tall Crystal Concepts
Crystal Torch Concepts
Miniature Crystal Concepts - Purple
Miniature Crystal Concepts - Blue
Stage Six - Rock Concepts
Rough Rock Sketches
Rough Concepts - Grey
Rough concepts - Blue
Worked up concepts without glow
Worked up concepts with glow
Stage Seven - Trap Concepts
After referring back to my initial one sheet for trap ideas I then began creating my own trap concepts for our group game. I took inspiration from the board and created four different types of trap, one fire pit, a spike pit, a falling rock and a cage trap. With a variety of trap concepts, this allows us to have variety within the game so the player will never know what to expect in each level until the trap happens. By using triggers to activate the fire pit and spike pit puzzles this also helps these to blend into our current levels in the game by keeping the overall rocky, stony feel.
Falling and Fire Pit Traps
Cage and Spike Pit Traps
Stage Eight - Lever Concepts
After consulting with the team after a new set of levels were designed to fit around our given feedback, I started to create some lever concepts for the re-designed first room puzzle idea. I tried out a few various ideas such as organic rock walls with levers built in and pillars and also a new idea of collecting a small crystal and placing upon an alter and then in turn this lighting up the giant crystal which then powered the lever to open the door. After consulting with the group, we decided to go with this last concept as it would look the most visually interesting and also fit in with the crystal theme of the game.
Lever Concepts (Giant Crystal - Chosen Concept)
Stage Nine - Cut Scene
One of my tasks within our group as concept artist was to design the base line storyboard for our cut scene which plays at the start of the game. The final cut scene will be made from a 2D images and animated in Unity. I have planned out the storyboard to play out a set of scenes which creates the backstory for the player and understand why they are exploring the cave in the first place rather than just randomly placed and then from this run the chosen menu design and menu animation created by our character artist which then leads on nicely to the first level. By doing the cut scene this way not only links the menu to the start of the game but also adds depth to the overall levels and gives the impression the game is set within an underground cave system with lots of pockets of caverns to explore and also by adding in the backstory at the start helps the player visualize the time period and why the game is set within a cave and purpose behind the soldiers visit to the cave. After working on the storyboard and my group discussing and agreeing on this new design I then took each panel image and worked this up, adding colour and textures to bring them to life to create the final images for the cut scene. Overall I am fairly happy with the cut scene images, I would have liked to spend a little longer playing around with them but with a limited time scale I feel as though they get the story across to the player well.
Cinematic Cut Scene Story Board
Menu Animation Story Board
Cut Scene First Panel
Cut Scene Second Panel
Cut Scene Third Panel
Cut Scene Fourth Panel
Cut Scene Fifth Panel
Stage Ten - Box Art
Another one of my roles as concept artist within our group was to create the box art for our finished game. To start off the process and gather some inspiration for the style, colours, layout and required information on the box, I began by creating a visual board of existing box art out there to get some ideas of how our own box art could turn out.
Box Art Visual Board
After researching into current box arts I then began by sketching out some rough thumbnails for the group game. I tried out various poses with the character, scenes within the game, scenes within the cut scene and layout of the images within in the box art and after consulting with the group, we decided on the second design for the box art, with the character reaching forwards around a pillar. I will now take this forward and begin working this up into our final box art design.
Box Art Thumbnails
To create our final box art I used a variety of screenshots of grey box models and screenshots of the finished game to create the final composition of the box art. I then began by painting over the basic layout and adding details such as the straps and face to bring the character to life and complete the scene. I went with a fearful expression on the character for the final box art as it adds the most visual interest as well as fitting in with the scene and adds with the overall dark and scared atmosphere. I also played around with the colour lookup tool within Photoshop to change the atmosphere of the final piece to a dark and moody colour, which really helps to bring the piece to life. Overall I am really pleased with the box art as it is a visually interesting piece and really represents the whole ambient, moody light for the game and shows the idea of fear which is a core aspect within the game.
Box Art Final
Whilst creating concepts for my team and our given milestones for our group project I also helped on the documentation needed within the group including re-wording our game design document and re-designing our initial one sheet to read better and look more visually interesting with chosen concepts and also creating our art bible.
Improved One Sheet
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