A Little Project

[Deathcom3s]

As some of you know, I've been working on a little pet project of mine for the past little while. Yes, it's a game. No, it's not even close to done.

However, I think that it would be a good idea to start a thread in here, so I can show you guys some of the stuff I've been working on, and get some feedback on the world I'm going to be building. Right now, it's very much a work in progress.

I'm going for a more stylized, low-poly, flat-shaded sort of look and feel. I think it will be a very interesting study in shape and color, more than anything else.

So, here are a few WIPs of what I have so far. I'll be adding more as I make some more progress. Naturally, comments, thoughts, feedback, criticism, and whatever else you can throw at me is all appreciated.

Latest Update:

latest

Images

 

[PurgeandFire]

omg, that looks awesome! I love the smoke coming out of the flame (don't you want to just eat it?).

I really love this style--it took some getting used to (i.e. Wind Waker), but you've already done really cool stuff with it. What engine or dev tools are you using to develop? Or is this your own engine/ray tracer?

P.S. can you put the last img in a spoiler? my screen is too tiny so it stretches the page :x

 

[Roland]

I love the low-Polygons composed in your 3D artworks, At least some minor details for the texture will make it more realistic

 

[Deathcom3s]

omg, that looks awesome! I love the smoke coming out of the flame (don't you want to just eat it?).

I really love this style--it took some getting used to (i.e. Wind Waker), but you've already done really cool stuff with it. What engine or dev tools are you using to develop? Or is this your own engine/ray tracer?

P.S. can you put the last img in a spoiler? my screen is too tiny so it stretches the page :x

I put the images in a hidden tag for you. The monitors I use for development are both 2560x1440, so I sometimes forget that I need to make images smaller.

Yeah, Wind Waker is definitely one of my sources of inspiration for this project. There's just something about the style that I really like. I think it provides a bit more of a challenge as I have to work harder to convey mood and atmosphere using color, contrast and shape, without being able to rely on really detailed textures to do a lot of the heavy lifting.

I will be baking out some AO maps, but that's about it. The water uses a normal map to give it a more triangular appearance, but otherwise it's actually a very low-poly plane of maybe 50 tris or so with a perlin noise displacement algorithm applied to it to give it the waves and whatnot.

I'm currently using Unity. It's working very well for my needs at the moment, and I'm already familiar with C#. That allows me to iterate pretty quickly on a lot of the programming, so things have been moving along at a pretty fast pace. Custom movement and a third-person camera have already been implemented (though currently the character is just a tall box), but it's been pretty quick so far.

After I finish getting a good portion of the models and textures done, I'll be moving onto getting a framework put together that will allow me to flesh out the RPG-lite elements of the game, such as the different weapons, armor, items, enemies, etc. It will essentially be a custom version of the WE data editor, built just for my needs.

I love the low-Polygons composed in your 3D artworks, At least some minor details for the texture will make it more realistic

Yeah, the idea right now is to make the textures have a sort of "painted" look to them, sort of like a lot of pastel paintings. For now, I'm just blocking in with basic colors and messing around with the color palette. I'll flesh it out more as I go along.

Thanks for the compliments guys!

 

[Roland]

Keep up the good work man, I hope you develop a functional game soon ^^

 

[Celaquil]

While it all looks pretty dandy and cushy, I don't think it stands out too much.
Some smaller details to make the nature come alive would be great, as of right
now nothing looks much set apart from anything else. I'm aware this are probably
early WIPs, but I'm saying these things regardless.

One example would be the cave image, those trees there doesn't look much like
trees any more than they look like stalactites. Basically, more colour, more vibrancy,
and a little more small details would go a long way to make this cosy looking terrain
even more outstanding

Naturally, comments, thoughts, feedback, criticism, and whatever else you can throw at me is all appreciated.

Have a couple of dates.

 

[Deathcom3s]

Keep up the good work man, I hope you develop a functional game soon ^^

Thank you!

While it all looks pretty dandy and cushy, I don't think it stands out too much.
Some smaller details to make the nature come alive would be great, as of right
now nothing looks much set apart from anything else. I'm aware this are probably
early WIPs, but I'm saying these things regardless.

One example would be the cave image, those trees there doesn't look much like
trees any more than they look like stalactites. Basically, more colour, more vibrancy,
and a little more small details would go a long way to make this cosy looking terrain
even more outstanding

Thanks for the feedback. I agree, it's definitely lacking in details at the moment. For now I'm just working on blocking out the larger details first, such as the rocks, arches, columns, etc. It's a bit more time-consuming when I have to look at a scene and think "Oh, I need to add this here, or that there" and then have to go and make the actual model, rather than pull from a massive resource base like we enjoy with the UTM.

These are definitely early WIPs, and far from the actual finished product that I have envisioned, but I wanted to start a thread here to track my progress and development practices, in case anyone was wondering what it's like to actually build a game's environment.

Have a couple of dates.

Do you mean food or women? Because I'm already married mate.

 

[Deathcom3s]

Bit of an update here. In the last few weeks I've created a number of rock variations, as well as some trees and other misc foliage. I've added the following screenshots to the first post.

Naturally, comments and criticism are appreciated.

update

 

[Celaquil]

Cool, can't wait to see you puzzling this together

Looking great so far, keep it up ^^

 

[Deathcom3s]

Starting to piece a few things together to test composition. This is a shot of me testing out some volumetric fog.

I'm just messing around still, but things are slowly coming together. Nailing the fog is a huge step as far as getting the feel down, as you all know.

 

[Roland]

Keep up the great work man! I also love the grass part.

 

[Heinvers]

Starting to piece a few things together to test composition. This is a shot of me testing out some volumetric fog.

I'm just messing around still, but things are slowly coming together. Nailing the fog is a huge step as far as getting the feel down, as you all know.

Great vibe. It almost has the look of a sandstorm.

 

[Deathcom3s]

Keep up the great work man! I also love the grass part.

Thank you!

Great vibe. It almost has the look of a sandstorm.

Yeah, that's definitely going to be one of the stronger weather elements that I'll be including.

Just some more testing and tweaking here. Adding Ambient Occlusion really adds some much-needed depth to the trees and rocks. Also experimenting with some height fog, as well as some basic sun shafts (intentionally overdone to get a feel for how strong they can be), HDR tonemapping and slight color correction.

Slowly but surely getting to what I have envisioned.

 

[fladdermasken]

Good style there, Deathcom3s. Looks like you're actually getting along well with Unity.

as well as some basic sun shafts (intentionally overdone to get a feel for how strong they can be)

Guess you already know it, but the shafts aren't aligned with the sun. :^)

 

[Deathcom3s]

Good style there, Deathcom3s. Looks like you're actually getting along well with Unity.


Guess you already know it, but the shafts aren't aligned with the sun. :^)

Thank you! Yeah, I've worked with Unity in the past and I've done a lot of work on games with other teams, going back about 6 years ago now, so I figured it's about time I dig in on my own project.

And as for the shafts, yeah, they're not aligned at all. It's going to take a bit of programming to get them to work properly. As it sits now, the sun shafts script has a field for point of origin, which is currently set as the directional light (which makes sense, right?). Well, because the skybox/sun I use is procedural and the directional light simply rotates around its axis, that results in the sun going around like normal, with sun shafts coming from nowhere. I'll probably just throw in an invisible object that follows the sun, and then use that as the point of origin. It doesn't have to be exact, just enough to give the right illusion.

 

[Deathcom3s]

Just a few updates here, with a new scene that has been fleshed out a bit more. How does the atmosphere feel in this one? Does it feel like a narrow canyon to you guys?

 

[Naze]

Lovely scene! The fact that you didn't put much detail on the textures really makes the lightning play a very important role. I like what I'm seeing so far, it is a very pleasant and immersive atmosphere

Oh yes, it does make me feel like I'm in a narrow canyon, but only in the first pic, not in the second.

 

[~Void~]

I love the style. I don't think the leaves on the trees fit the overall aesthetic because their texture is too fine - it's just the leaves, though, the trunks are great.

Also, try making the trees bigger so that their canopy is actually at the top of the in-game field of view. Right now, in the canyon, you have an allee defined by the walls of stone. The trees are just getting in the way, blocking out the focal point of the corridor. http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-SM2lBK29ltw/TrPPF8MvRiI/AAAAAAAAFrA/FeNZPOBbdjs/s1600/allee-en-automne.jpg

Can't wait to see more

 

[Deathcom3s]

Thank you for both of your comments!

Yeah, the leaves have been a constant source of frustration. Trees can be difficult enough as is, but it can be a lot harder when trying to match a certain style or aesthetic. I'll probably continue to revise and change them throughout the project.

 

[cgm]

It reminds me custom comic-like rendering in UE4 except for lightning. Perhaps you may do shadows less blurry?

Besides, I think it'd fit the style better if you use trees and bushes with fewer details. Like trees used in LEGO Universe:

Just a suggestion.

 

[Deathcom3s]

It reminds me custom comic-like rendering in UE4 except for lightning. Perhaps you may do shadows less blurry?

Thanks! Though I'm not quite sure what you mean by blurry shadows? Could you point out where the shadows are blurry?

 

[cgm]

Could you point out where the shadows are blurry?

Second thumbnail at #16 contains those on an arch.

Though I'm not quite sure what you mean by blurry shadows?

For example:

 

[Deathcom3s]

Second thumbnail at #16 contains those on an arch.



For example:

Ah, those aren't blurry shadows, they're called soft shadows. If you go out and look around, you'll see that the sunlight doesn't always cause hard, crisp edges. There's almost always a level of softness to the shadows. Soft shadows in video games try to emulate that look.

 

[cgm]

Ah, those aren't blurry shadows, they're called soft shadows. If you go out and look around, you'll see that the sunlight doesn't always cause hard, crisp edges. There's almost always a level of softness to the shadows. Soft shadows in video games try to emulate that look.

I'm trying to suggest you to don't let an engine to use realistic shadowing. It sometimes doesn't look suitable for the style you've picked up in my opinion.

 

[Deathcom3s]

I'm trying to suggest you to don't let an engine to use realistic shadowing. It sometimes doesn't look suitable for the style you've picked up in my opinion.

Ohhhhh, you're suggesting a different shading style? That makes much more sense; why didn't you just say that from the start?

Yeah, I'm planning on developing a different lighting shader, but that's a bit further down my current list of tasks, and it's bound to be a lot if work.

 

[cgm]

Ohhhhh, you're suggesting a different shading style? That makes much more sense; why didn't you just say that from the start?

Yeah, I'm planning on developing a different lighting shader, but that's a bit further down my current list of tasks, and it's bound to be a lot if work.

I thought I did:

It reminds me custom comic-like rendering in UE4 except for lightning.

Anyway, keep up good work!