State of the Environment 6

Here is a quick update of the art and how it's coming along. My life has been unwrapping as of late, here are our unwrapped modular assets, and some interior objects for each puzzle area.

Let's Build an Environment: Modular Assets

Hello again,

Today I'll be talking about taking the messy geometry I first made to layout the level, and refining that into something much more efficient and reminiscent of an old forgotten World War 2 gun battery. My goal main goal now, is to take this level and turn it into separate pieces so the level can be modular.

I first go over the level I have now, and I eliminate some unnecessary rooms and hallways. While I'm doing this, I'm also identifying what each room is used for, and what the story might be behind it as I go. I'm trying to find a good point in between practicality and the organic feeling you get from the original layout.

Rough parsed level layout with room identifications.

Once the excessive bits have been parsed down, I start to break down the area into smaller bits. I want to be as conservative as I can be in this step, but not break from my parsed down layout. I decide on a grid scale for the simpler assets to abide by first, in this case a 1x1 square on my grid would be 4x4 meters, and all hallways height's would be 3 meters. I then made the simple hallway objects from scratch, having them match the dimensions of the layout as closely as I could. From there I took each of the unique pieces and adjusted them so they could connect with the modular hallways.

First pass modular geometry.

As soon as the layout was complete I exported each object and created the bunker layout in Unity. For there I did a camera pass, which made the level navigate able by the player. With the level laid out I could now go in and model out the geometry of each piece without having to layout the level any further. Below are pictures of the final modeled pieces and the final level layout.

Second pass modular geometry.

Level layout with modular geometry.

Let's Build an Environment: Layout

Hey all,

I wanted to do do a series of blog posts focusing on the construction of the interior of our level and my process in creating it. Since I work as Designer/Environment Artists I'll be focusing on both, but this first post will be design heavy, and the rest will probably be much more art heavy. That out of the way, let's dive in.

Here are the things I know when I start designing this level: This level will act as the demo for our game, it will be based on gun battery Mishler, located at Fort Steven's State Park in Oregon, and the player's goal is to open a set of blast doors on the ceiling to reveal the weakness of the monster they'll be fighting later in the game. Because it's our demo, I want to make sure that we showcase all of our mechanics, with an emphasis on co-operation. With that in mind I start by creating two puzzle rooms that require both of our characters to work together.

Original Puzzle rooms

Now I have two areas (made up of a couple of rooms), that I need to link together with the rest of the battery. I move into 3D since that's where I'm most comfortable and quick. Here I can go crazy, slowly discovering what the space will be as I go. I know I want a main hub, which will double as the location the player's reveal the monster's weakness, so I create that first. When creating the hallways I know I want the area to feel a bit like a labyrinth, with a lot of strange turns and corners, to make the player feel even lost when spooky things happen. I also make sure that I have multiple elevations and a dug out cave for flavor.

First pass battery interior geometry.

I'm now left with a big messy piece of geometry that I need to turn into a old gun battery.

State of the Environment 5

Here are some quick screenshots from Unity to show you our environment so far Our second color pass is looking successful as we altered all of our original textures and used a cooler and bluer pallet to create our new textures. We still have interior assets and lighting, soon to come.

Color for the color god.

We've been spending a lot of time thinking about color and shadow recently. Getting the right color to make the environments feel like the northwest is key, so we're using a lot of cold greens and blues. Here are some color comps of our environment.

Dani Model

State of the Environment 2

Added some plants to the scene, assets to be treated for proper alpha blending and appearance.

State of the Environment 1

Going to be posting the updates on the state of the first shot of our environment over the next couple weeks. Here is the concept piece and a screenshot of the current 3D and Textures.

Gun Battery: First Shot  - Concept

3DS Max Screenshot

Secondgiving!

Since I moved away from Wisconsin to go to college out here in Washington, a couple other displaced friends of mine and I started the grand holiday tradition that we now refer to as "Secondgiving." Secondgiving is celebrated sometime the weekend before or after Thanksgiving, depending on schedules of those involved, and we make all the standard Thanksgiving favorites for those who can't go home for Thanksgiving (and those who can) really, all the members of our Washington family-by-choice. This year the whole team was in attendance, along with a bunch of other friends.

 Danny either discovered that his camera had a panorama function, or just decided it was a god time to play with it, as he took a bunch of pictures for us!

Building a Battery

Environment work has started. The first area we're creating is based off of one of the many abandoned military gun batteries that scatter the pacific coast. We've got a full proxy of the level built and navigable and now we're putting forth the hard work of turning those boring grey boxes into something beautiful.

We started by doing a few paint overs of our grey boxed level.

And from there we've begun creating assets.

More art to come so keep your eyes posted.

Biweekly Games Proudly Presents

Hello all,

We’re Biweekly Games, a burgeoning independent studio, and we’re happy to announce the first game in our series:

Shove Aside is an co-operative episodic adventure series following brother-sister duo Gabe and Dani Kassa as they adventure throughout the pacific northwest, facing off against all variety of supernatural creatures. Think a mixture of the show Supernatural and the game Eternal Darkness: Sanity’s Requiem. Shove aside offers great characters who will grow and change based on your choices; choices that have a lasting, meaningful effect on not only the characters but all of the world; co-operative gameplay including puzzles, conversations, and exploration; a pacific northwest setting, and elements of horror directly relating to the evils you’ll be facing. The evil's you'll be facing each episode are based on a different emotion, the first installment is Grief.

Characters

Players will take control of Gabe (Gabriel Kassa) and Dani (Danielle Kassa) a brother and sister from Arizona. After a litany of mistakes over the past few years, the two have been recently reunited. Together they’ve taken on a strange responsibility, putting their faith in each other to overcome the trials that lie ahead.

Dani is the muscle. She’s playful, headstrong, forward, and instinctive. Always the outgoing life of the party, shes acquaintance to many, friend to few. She keeps her guard up, never wanting anyone to close. She’s always looking to solve problems blunt and quick, often great short term, but with big consequences in the long run. Working as mechanic since she dropped out of college she’s been yearning to get out and see more. Shes excited to tackle the world with her dork of a brother, one of the few shes close to.

Gabe is the brains. He’s snarky, charismatic, thoughtful, and philanthropic. A studious orator Gabe has a way with people, but a problem with authority. Gabe will often get in trouble bending the law, and stepping on the fortunate. Often to prove a point, or help out the vulnerable. Gabe tends to think patiently things through, but can easily lose his focus in the face of injustice. On the run for white collar crime, Gabe found his way home looking for direction. He’s eager to put a smile on his sisters face, as they face the trials ahead.

Gameplay

At it’s core Shove Aside is a narrative adventure game, with the gameplay focusing on investigation. You’ll have to solve the mysteries behind the supernatural entities you’re trying to defeat. You’ll accomplish this through exploration, dialogue with townsfolk, and the the occasional puzzle.

We want your experiences with NPCs to be rich and open, encompassing more aspects of a conversation than just the dialogue itself. You will be able to approach the dialogue in different ways.  If a hobo asks you for money you can be aggressive or caring. If a cop asks for your information you can be open or guarded. Whatever choice you make will set the groundwork for the conversation. You can also make actions during conversation. Pacing could make someone feel nervous, or sitting down next to someone could make them comfortable. Along with all this Gabe and Dani will have some different options in conversation, reflecting their unique personalities and experiences. All this will give the player a wide range of tools to run a conversation however they please.

Choices

While you are investigating the world still moves forward, changing and reacting depending on the choices you make. As you explore a church the tide may come in a cove you we’re interested in investigating. Breaking an entering may have the police waiting for you on your return. Threatening a pastor may result in a run in with his crazed followers down the road.

Your choices are determined by your actions, big and small, and not just a cut and dry dialogue choice. Choices also affect more than just the flow of the plot, they can affect the relationship between Gabe and Dani, bringing them closer or driving them apart.

We don’t want these choices to be an obvious fork in the game, you won’t be shown a dialogue box and have to choose between left or right. Rather you are shown left and right, each hallway silently implying what lies beyond. Some may be as subtle as this, while others are more obvious, the outcome relying on what action you take, if any at all.

Setting

The Pacific Northwest has a rich history, legends, and locations untapped by most television and video games today. Many of us have grown up here, while others have moved here, but at the end of the day we all have a strange love for the drab beauty of this place, and we want to display  that love to everyone!

We will be using real world locations, but taking some creative agency where it better suits our needs. This first episode will take place at Cape Disappointment near Illwaco, WA. We urge you to take a trip yourself to check out some of the rich naval and native american history.   

Horror

Gabe and Dani will be facing off against the unknown, the frightening, the supernatural. We want the powers of these creatures to be beyond the physical, you won’t be able to just shoot at them to win. Because of this we want our horror to be creeping, and tonal.

We feel horror isn’t about bombast, or making a player jump, it’s about setting a tone and building tension. We’ve taken a lot of inspiration from games like Eternal Darkness and slow building horror movies like Alien and The Thing. There will be no visual indicator that scary things are about to happen (like a horror meter, or screen effects), but places and situations. Dark corners, being alone.

We of course can’t tell you everything now, but we hope this is enough to catch your interest as we move forward. We’re updating every week and always happy to answer your questions. So keep an eye out however you like as more news comes your way.

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/BiweeklyGames

Twitter: https://twitter.com/BiweeklyGames

Email: biweeklygames@gmail.com

Creating the Style Pt.1

Hey all, and thanks for checking in on our weekly blogs. I’m Ryan Sand, a man with too many titles, but in this case we can call me our art director. I’m in charge of handling the development and cohesion of our art style as we move forward with the project, so that’s what I’ll be talking about today.

Since we've started working on Kassa, we've always wanted the game to have a dirty graphic style that would match the games setting and themes as well as stand out amongst most other games you’d find on the shelves today. Messy outlines with varied line weight, a dull color palette with spots of saturation, a good range of value, and a painterly messiness to our textures.

With that in mind we began to research a multitude of styles that fit our vision and how others have translated those styles into 3D. We latched onto many of the elements from artist Ashley Wood, and the animated short Backwater Gospel. We've been especially impressed with how well the messiness of Backwater was transferred into 3D, and can’t thank them enough for their making of video.

Ashley Wood, Backwater Gospel, The Walking Dead, and a bit of Borderlands for good measure.

From here we've taken element’s from our research and gave them to our concept artist, Danny Huynh who has worked to combine them into a style of our own. Here are some of this pieces showing the evolution of our style through character concepts.

Danny started with broad simple concepts to nail down the look of the characters. Once he had their look down he started to brought the stylistic elements we researched to the the characters.

As concept work develops we’re creating test assets to bring the style into 3D. Nearly all of our line work is going to be done in texture, similar to Backwater gospel. On this model we're taking advantage of extra strip geometry to give the asset outlines. Right now this is a box only with a diffuse texture, and from here we can quickly experiment to develop our unity shaders.

A simple crate for experimentation. 

The foundations been set and there is plenty more to come as our style develops further.