Environment & level asset creation

As one of the lead artsits on the project I had a large role establishing the look of the game and the style, as this was a game focused on a mobile game I had a few things in mind when creating these assets, firstly the objects had to be bold and distinct as when looking at a such a small screen it can be difficult to see details so everything you need the player to see had to either be bright and bold or distinct from the rest of the objects. Secondly that the way the puzzles would work the assets needed to be able to be viewed the same way from all angles, looking at this games inspirations a large draw to the game is solving puzzles in a way the player didn't expect they could do but it still has to make sense, if one side of a walking platform has the top covered to show it's the top and then the screen gets rotated then it doesn't make sense that the covered section is now facing downwards. Lastly I wanted to make sure it was clear to the player what was friendly, interactible or an enemy, I made it so Green is for friendly, Blue for interactable and Red for an enemy or danger as it can be difficult when detail is absent in a game to distinguish this.

Level Assets

With the level assets I made sure that function came first over the look of the game, I wanted to make the game as fair as possible and one factor about keeping it fair is how clear the game is. We used the emissive tool a large amount as it catches the eye of the player while also giving a sci-fi look that you might find in games like Mass Effect or Star Wars.

Walking block

I worked on other versions of this cube which didn’t suit the game as they needed to be the same on every side, the model is a simple square with nothing added but previous versions had a bevelled which didn’t fit the mechanics of the game. Bijan Wu, who was putting the game together also wanted to make some emissive on the block as well to make it stand out more which the previous versions were lacking.

(Last edited: 12/04/20)

Walking block design

There was also this fully blue version which was an idea I proposed for the base walking cube but Bijan Wu used it as an alternative block to use for blocks that would move.

(Last edited: 12/04/20)

Dangerous block

At first these blocks were used to show areas that were either dangerous or to show importance of the level but in the game Bijan Wu used them to give variants to the levels, several colours were made such as Green, Cyan, Navy, Purple, Magenta, Red, Orange and Yellow.

(Last edited: 20/04/20)

Friendly block

These colour variants could be used more for the future to show points of interest on levels but since the current state of the game doesn’t need such a mechanic with only five levels, they are ok to be used to give a different look to each level.

(Last edited: 20/04/20)

Stair block

This block took a couple of tries to make as the dimensions of the block didn’t match the walking cube, I had made the stairs from the block so I thought it would stay the same but from how I made it I didn’t realise I had made it too short so I gave them this version instead.

(Last edited: 14/04/20)

Spinning Trigger

This was a device to move objects in the level, I knew I had to make the handles of the wheel bright for the player to know what they were grabbing and what it could do. This was the first addition of the spinning trigger as it didn’t need any improvements.

(Last edited: 02/02/20)

Spinning Trigger Variant

This was a variant of the spinning trigger as Bijan Wu wanted a version that would show that the platform wouldn’t turn as much, I believe this gave that impression to the player as it was more limited than the other spinner.

(Last edited: 21/04/20)

Piston

This asset didn’t get used in the end version of the game but it could still be used as an obstacle in a future variation of the game as it can block pathways as well as be used to move the player up or down and even be used as a ladder which I designed the ridges on the piston for as well as something that looks like something threatening for when it is an obstacle.

(Last edited: 17/02/20)

Rotating Platform

While this main asset wasn’t used in the cylinder objects around the main object were used to signify a moving platform that would light up as it was being used.

(Last edited: 07/04/20)

Cube Supports

From our main inspiration Monument Valley, we saw that on overhanging blocks in that game were supported with structural supports. I decided to make my own supports for the game which also fit the theme of our game

(Last edited: 21/04/20)

Environment Assets

This was my main task on the project to create objects in the background to make the game feel alive and moving, I made most of these with inspiration of the concept I made in the GDD but most of these have a goal in mind to have some kind of use in this world that's being created here.

Generator Tower

I made this from the concept art I made for the GDD, the generator would be close to the crystals to show where that power goes to, the original concept was to have an effect in the circular section of the device but that didn’t end up happening.

(Last edited: 14/01/20)

Power Crystal

This was one of the first objects created for the background of the game, since the group is using the emissive tool to give lighting to the objects, I thought I’d create something that looks like it would power those lights.

(Last edited: 17/02/20)

Overheated Power Crystal

Of course, when the group wanted different colour variants of these lights I did the same for the crystal colour to give a reason for that in the game.

(Last edited: 18/04/20)

Soft Panel

This was also in the concept art as these panels would be what absorbed access power the would come from the generator, these didn’t get used in the final game but I feel these would have been used in more situations when the emissive tool would get overused as this doesn’t have any on it.

(Last edited: 20/02/20)

Large Pipe

These pipes can be found all over backgrounds and the level just for structural supports and to help with the illusion of the levels. They can also be seen in my concept art and they are spread out all over the game much like the concept art suggests.

(Last edited: 20/02/20)

Bridge

These pathways were originally going to be used as the walking cubes but realising the mechanics these were turned into background assets.

(Last edited: 17/02/20)

Wall Textures

I created these textures for the structures in the game, these only got used for the last level of the game, but they could be used for multiple areas and background assets.

(Last edited: 21/04/20)

Gameplay

I made sure to keep updated on how the objects I made looked in game to make changes if nessesary which there were lots of. I was told of problems of the visual design matching with gameplay which the programers if the group would send to me to fix, for example I had madea mistake in creating the first stairs for the game as they weren't the same shape of the blocks, this was just from how I made them but I quickly fixed my mistake. In return I would always make sure to test out the game whenever they needed it to give my feedback so the game could be as good as it could be.

Spaceships

These spaceships were used to fly in the background of the levels as we didn’t want the background to be static, these ships were designed for animation even though many of them didn’t get far in producing animations. The small and medium spaceships were to fly past the background while the third spaceship was to be used for the background.

Small Spaceship

These small spaceship can hold around 4 people at maximum, they're mostly used by enforcement or emergancies as they are very fast and disrupt those working if not used professionally.

Long Spaceship

DRAFTJS_BLOCK_KEY:f05agThese hangers were ginormous, a rather large spaceship would be around the people and objects in.

Spaceship Hanger

These hangers were ginormous, a rather large spaceship would be around the

same size as one of this this hangers engines. These ships rarely moved around which is why their engines are detachable and were charging stations for other spaceships as it was fully designed to perserve engergy itself, when a large amount of spaceships needed to leave the facility, these hangers came in very handy.

(Last edited: 04/04/20)

Towers

These assets were modelled by James Illingworth, but he gave them to me to texture to give them a similar look to the spaceships I did. I made these to be different buildings for different purposes, the small tower was to be used as a transformer or electrical transmitter of some kind. The medium sized one was going to be accommodations and buildings you might find in large cities to hold lots of people. The largest was supposed to be some kind of warehouse that would require lots of electricity.

Transformer Tower

You'll most likely find these towers outside of large structures as they organise power from the generators to be spaced out through those structures as not to overwhelm the outlets of the building.

Glass Tower

These buildings can be found everywhere and are the most common for living in around the facility.

Large Tower

These large structures are used for buildings that require a lot of power, you'll usually find a lot of transformers near this building for the amount of spaces it has to power up, manufacturing and buildings which manage water, food, medical centers and other essentials use these structures for their needs.

(Last edited: 09/04/20)

Environments

These are simply scenes I've made to be backgrounds for the game, these scenes will have a set animation to them and are all using the assets that I've made above. I haven't been able to see these environment will full textures but I've moddeled them to be ready for it. I compiled all of the assets together to create this scene, the textures have already been made so there was no need to texture it all again, so I sent this to Bijan Wu who had the game to put these environments. The first one was used for the starting menu while the other was used for the level select screen.

Environment 1

A simple hospital with emergancy spaceships ready to go all around, transformers are scattered to produce as much power as this hospital needs and access through the pipes and walkways.

Environment 2

A large power station with the generator sitting at the top of the facility charging the device behind it to spread to the rest of the ship.

(Last edited: 09/04/20)

Animations

I created some animations for the spaceships in the game, I didn’t get many done due to time constraints, but I’ve rigged the smaller spaceship and created two animations for it, one where the spaceship is flying normally and another where the spaceship lands on the ground.

(Last edited: 08/04/20)

HUD designs

I created these buttons to replace the placeholder buttons that were in place for the in game menu, these are buttons that allow the player to go to either head back to the main menu or restart the level if the player got stuck in any way. I used a similar affect to the emissive tool used on the model textures that were made to keep that theme. The tick and cross didn’t end up getting used as we decided to use the circular designs as a confirmation button.

Open & Close Menu

These buttons were to acess the menu at the top of the screen, we didn't want the menu open all the time as it could get in the way of gameplay. Since the people texturing loved using the emissive tool I decided to stick with the theme with the HUD buttons to match it.

Restart level

This button allowed the player to restart the level, this design came around through an accident as when I duplicated the arrow to show on the other side it was too long and they clashed with eachother, I decided to smooth it out and a couple more lines to divide up the arrows and came up with this.

Menu Button

With most menu buttons a picture of a home is depicted as if to say going home, that didn't really fit the theme of this game as there isn't really a home to go back to in the game so I thought a portal design would fit better as if they were taking a portal back out of the area.

Tick and Cross

I didn't really think a tick and cross would fit this game for the players to confirm their actions but the group wanted them, I showed them these designs and compared them to just using the buttons assigned for what they were confirming but changing the colours to green and red. After some talk we all decided to not use the tick and cross.

(Last edited: 14/04/20)

Comparison

I made sure to check with the group to see which one’s people preferred, and they all chose the right design which I agreed with.

(Last edited: 14/04/20)

Artwork

I created a couple of pieces of artwork for the game while working on the GDD for the game which helped establish the look and feel of the game early in development, I like using photoshop and whenever I start I project I always create some piece like this to use as reference in future developement as well as the effects we would use in creating the assets..

Concept Art

The logo was created by James Illingworth which had several designs, I used my background to show how each of them would look and this design was what the group decided looked best. The other two I would later turn into assets and it gave an idea for backgrounds for the game.

(Last edited: 02/12/19)

Stylised Spaceship Drawing

This spaceship is used in some of the promotional material for the game, the original artwork was an outline of one of my modelled ships which Lucas Johnson was making. The ship looked a bit too dark and muted, so he assigned me to add shading and make it look nicer.

“originally assigned to Lucas Johnson”

(Last edited: 26/04/20)