Manchester Unreal Engine Meetup - June 30th

Today, I attended the Manchester Unreal Engine Meetup at Futureworks. This 3-hour event was hosted and organised by Pete Bottomley and several of the White Paper Games crew, and it consisted of a number of talks by industry professionals on topics such as games marketing, production, design processes and workflow, all with a focus on indie companies and Unreal Engine 4. This is the first event of its kind that I have attended, and I am really glad that I did - it has provided me with some very valuable insights into the inner workings of indie games development, while also allowing me to mingle with other like minded individuals from a variety of disciplines, from students to veteran indie devs. This event was primarily aimed at current indie developers. I am an MA Games Design student rather than a developer, so I do not find myself directly within the event's target audience, but it was still without doubt a very valuable experience, and I feel like I have had a glimpse of what the future may hold.

The first speaker of the evening was Jess Hider, who is the European Community Manager for Epic Games, creators of Unreal Engine 4. Jess gave a very in-depth talk about marketing for indie developers, which was packed with information and gave me a lot to think about. In the talk, Jess broke down the process of marketing an indie game into three stages: identifying "what you want to say" (the message of your marketing), how to say it (how to market and get the word out), and how to get others to say it for you (generating buzz and word-of-mouth marketing for your project).

Jess spoke about the importance of maintaining a positive tone to your marketing and how to subtly and gracefully instil interest in your project into your audience, via the use of various different social media platforms. She also presented a load of statistics and graphs about the past and current trends in such things as video game demographics and social media stats, and advised us to use these stats to make sure that we are hitting our target audiences effectively, both with games themselves and with the marketing of those games. Jess presented a lot of very interesting points on how to use different online social media platforms to their fullest potential when marketing games. She spoke about the different strengths and weaknesses of different platforms and how developers should consider them when marketing. 

Overall, Jess' talk on indie game marketing was an incredibly insightful and useful talk from someone who obviously is very knowledgeable on the subject. While I am not exactly an indie dev just yet, and I may never end up being one, I have no doubt that this advice will come in handy in the future. I will surely be able to apply these skills to the way in which I market myself to potential employers, my portfolio and any future games that I may work on.

The second talk was from Ben Hill, who is the creative director at ADVECT Productions, and who has worked as a producer, designer and writer on a variety of indie games including White Paper Game's own Ether One. Ben talked about production for indies in UE4, and how good production management can help get an indie game to release.

Ben started by defining what production and production management actually are - which was useful for me because it is something I had not researched or really heard about prior to this talk. Production management is the practice of co-ordinating all areas of a games development and production cycle, with a view to making sure that everything runs smoothly, all the milestones are reached and the game is released on time and with minimal disruption or issues. Though I had not really put much consideration into the importance of this before, it does all make sense - when it comes down to it, a game is a product, and the creation of it is a project, so it makes sense to allocate people and resources to ensuring that it is done right and runs smoothly!

As a production manager, Ben is required to take a very meticulous, grounded and thorough approach the to the production cycle, and I think that this rang true with his presentation style. He spoke in a very confidently and thoroughly about indie production in a way that seemed to display that he has those skills and works in this way. Ben talked about how to break down the work that is required and identifying deliverables, which were then further broken down into deliverables and key tasks. Once the deliverables and tasks are identified, and tasks allocated, then an indie company can begin to set milestones and schedules. By doing this, an indie company can streamline the production process from the very beginning, maximising efficiency and minimising the risk of running into issues down the line.

Ben also talked about the importance of pre-production - which is the period of researching, pitching and developing skills and so on before the production of a game actually begins. Other topics that Ben covered included the importance of budgeting, allocating contingency time and money, task management and delegation, communication, keeping the indie team happy and up-to-date and the different methodology softwares that companies can use during production. Ben's talk was absolutely packed with useful information. Again, while I am still just a student and not part of an indie company, the points made in this talk are easily transferable to my own practice. This talk got me thinking about how larger companies operate and work towards shipping on time. It also made me think about how I can apply these production management techniques and theories to my own projects, both in Uni and personal pursuits.

The final talk was from Nathan Winfield, who is one member of the small indie start-up, Freesphere. Freesphere are working on a first-person horror game called Tether, and Nathan's talk was all about the development and design process of this game, and the company's experiences in indie development thus far. This talk was shorter and somewhat less in-depth than the other two talks, but it was still interesting because Nathan talked about his personal experiences on the hands-on frontline of indie development. Nathan is a UCLan games graduate, and his situation and place as a relatively new developer within the industry was quite easily relatable - it felt like a position that I could see myself in in the future.

Nathan's talk spanned topics such as the goals that they set out to achieve with their game, the limitations and issues that they faced in indie development, their design choices, how they communicate as a team and how they have sought out feedback from various sources. While Jess and Ben's talks addressed marketing and production respectively, Nathan's was more development focused. It was very much about the practical fundamentals of indie development. This helped to contextualise the indie development process itself.

The Unreal Engine Meetup provided some valuable insights into indie development from a varied trio of industry professionals. The wide variety of topics that the speakers covered have helped me to gain a more well-rounded view of indie development. Though I am not an indie developer myself as of yet, I feel like this event has given me a sneak-peak into what may in store for me in the future. I will aim to put the lessons that the speakers gave about marketing, production and development into practice with my own work - whether it is using Jess' marketing tips to gain exposure online, Ben's production advice to help me to complete projects and ship games effectively, or Nathan's first-hand experiences in indie development to inform my own approach. As well as gaining knowledge, this event also allowed me to "show my face" in the Unreal Engine and indie development community for the first time - and as any games student knows, networking and meeting other developers can be very valuable! I hope to attend more events like this in the future.

Design Research 3 Academic Poster / Learning Agreement

Today, I submitted the final version of my academic poster. This document makes up 25% of the mark for the final Design Practice 3 module and contains a 1500 word explanation of the focus of my project, the motivation behind my research and practice and my intended outcomes. This is important because it allows me to contextualise my studies and present a clear idea of what it is that I am doing, which is beneficial both for myself and for anyone who reads it. We had to print the poster in A1, and it will be put on show for people to see later in the year.

Here's a picture of the A1 physical copy of my poster:

And the digital PDF version:

Sci-fi Garage Update - June 14th

Time for another Sci-fi garage environment update! Since my last post, I've used Substance Painter to create PBR materials for the majority of the modular assets. Everything but the top ceiling, stairs and metal supports are now textured. The textures are all tiling to minimise seams where the modular pieces meet. I've also changed the stairs model so that it has proper rounded handrails instead of the original blocky handrail.

At the moment it doesn't look particularly "sci-fi". I'm going with the idea that the scene is set in the quite-near future (mid 21st century), in a garage/workshop building that could exist in modern times, and the sci-fi elements will come from the props and lighting and the vehicle that will act as the focal point of the scene. This will allow me to present contrasting visual styles of the aged garage that is in disrepair, but populated by post-modern props for an interesting overall aesthetic.

Spontaneous Sunday - Sonic The Hedgehog

Welcome to another Spontaneous Sunday. We start with a potentially shocking revelation: I have never played Sonic The Hedgehog. It is sinful, I know, but I finally plan to right that wrong this week, as I picked up the Sega Megadrive Ultimate Collection (released on PS3 and Xbox 360 in 2009). This is a compilation of 48 classic Sega games, including Sonic The Hedgehog (Originally released 1991, Sonic Team, Sega Megadrive).

"Sonic the Hedgehog is a platform video game developed by Sonic Team and published by Sega for the Sega Genesis console. The game was first released in 1991. The game features an anthropomorphic hedgehog named Sonic in a quest to defeat Dr. Eggman, a scientist who has imprisoned animals in robots and stolen the magical Chaos Emeralds. Sonic the Hedgehog's gameplay involves collecting rings as a form of health and a simple control scheme, with jumping and attacking controlled by a single button."

- wikipedia on Sonic The Hedgehog

What do I expect from the game?

Though I have never played a Sonic game before, its iconic status means that I am, of course, very familiar with the franchise. I have seen and heard a lot about the games and the character of Sonic, and I have a good idea of what to expect. I expect that the game will be fairly simple in terms of its gameplay and objectives, with solid and fun core platforming mechanics. It was originally a 16-bit game, so I expect the graphics to be simple, but colourful, with 2D sprites and a retro feel.

I expect the levels to be short but interesting and entertaining, with the simple platform objective type of "get from point A to point B by traversing obstacles and enemies" making up the bulk of the gameplay. As a newcomer to the franchise, with no strong opinions one way or the other about the game or the character, I am interested to see if any of Sonic's nostalgic charm is lost on me, or whether my play session will see me taking to the games and the character as much as Sonic fans have.

First Impressions - What do I think of the game in its first few minutes?

Sonic The Hedgehog has a very minimal introduction, consisting of just a title screen that lasts for a few seconds before the first level, Green Hill Zone, begins. I was a bit surprised at the lack of main menu and how the game simply began. There was also no mention of the game's back story. I suppose that the game was created with the assumption that the player will have read the manual before playing. As is often the case when I play old games for Spontaneous Sunday, this made me think of how the prevalence of detailed game manuals has rapidly declined over the past few years.

First view of the game world.

The music and appearance of Green Hill Zone Act 1 were instantly familiar to me, which surely says something about the iconic and ubiquitous nature of the game and the Sonic franchise in general. It is a light-hearted and welcoming-looking level that introduces the player to the core gameplay and mechanics in an accessible setting. This made me realise a trend in platform games: they usually begin in "homely", less threatening areas with lots of greenery. Some other examples of this that I can think of include Crash Bandicoot 2's "Turtle Woods" and Rayman's "Pink Plant Woods". As the games progress, the environments become more foreboding and threatening. Having a pleasant introductory level allows the player to get to grips with the controls without being distracted, while having more threatening environments later in the game also allows the developers to increase the perceived difficulty of the game as it progresses. 

The game's controls are very simple, which was the developer's intention - I have read that the developers set out to have the attack and jump controls assigned to the same button to minimise control complexity. The simple controls allows for a more streamlined experience which in turn gives way to the fast moving gameplay that is central to the game. In terms of gameplay and level design, the first level features a well-balanced number of enemies, collectables and obstacles which makes for an interesting but not overly-challenging introduction.

I was very impressed by the visuals of the first level. I'm not very familiar with 16-bit games as they were before my time, so I found Sonic's graphics interesting and visually appealing. It is a very colourful game, with attractive visuals and backgrounds.

What do I like about the game?

It is clear to see why Sonic The Hedgehog went down so well with consumers when it was released in 1991. Sonic was created as a high-profile title that was intended to be an answer to the Mario character and franchise. This meant that a lot of time, effort and thought went into creating a game and character that would be well received, and I think that this shows when playing the game.

Sonic The Hedgehog's greatest strengths are its charm and character, its colourful 16-bit graphics and the design and unique pace of its gameplay. As it was conceived and created partly to compete with Mario, its safe to assume that a big part of the design and development was spent on the designing Sonic as a mascot and the game's overall aesthetic. Sonic himself is clearly a meticulously designed character. He has a unique and charming look, and his design and abilities are consistent and make sense. The enemies are also charming. The fact that they are robots and killing them releases friendly animals means that there is a minimal sense of violence to the game, which is important to creating universal appeal. Other elements that add to the game's charm include the music and the environments, which are lively and memorable.

The game has some really nice graphics and visuals. The levels are colourful, but not distractingly so. Each zone has its own unique identity, featuring its own colour scheme, aesthetic, dangers and enemies. Colour and semiotics are used to help communicate what different elements and features of the level are, such as the green of the walkable surfaces in Green Hill Zone, the red bounce-pads and the yellow jump-pads. This allows the game to communicate things to the player without the use of text. In fact, Sonic The Hedgehog is a game of very few words, only really using text for a few UI elements including stats and score. The environments are more lively and animated than I had expected - they contain moving clouds, water and plants. Sonic's animations are also more detailed and complex than I expected. Sonic will balance on one leg when standing near a ledge, and the player can look up and down, complete with animations from Sonic. The visuals were definitely more advanced than I thought they would be - but I've barely ever played any games from the pre-PS1 era, so I suppose I wasn't sure what to expect in terms of animations.

An example of a puzzle in the game.

The gameplay is another very strong feature. Sonic The Hedgehog plays like no other 2D platformer I have yet played, because the focus is largely on speed. All the essential platformer tropes are present, including such things as platform jumping, defeating enemies, collecting items and avoiding obstacles, but Sonic's speed definitely adds something to how the game is played and the levels navigated. There is also a lot more to the gameplay that simply defeating enemies and platform jumping. There are areas where obstacles are timed in a certain way that means you must time your movements very carefully, or where you need to solve puzzles involving things such as push blocks and pressure plates. There are also special stages that involve bouncing around and collecting rings in some rather bizarre areas, and boss battles at the end of each zone. It is a fast-paced experience that provides consistently varied challenges, even if they can be a little difficult and frustrating at times.  The score system also provides incentive to improve one's performance and replay levels. Sonic is a good example of how good gameplay doesn't get old.

Screenshot from one of the special stages.

The first boss battle, in the Green Hill Zone.

What do I not like?

Sonic The Hedgehog is not without it's downsides. I believe that the game should give the player more information on what it is that Sonic is actually trying to achieve, and why they are doing the things that they are doing in the game. Though the back story and characters were no doubt explained on the box and in the game manual, I don't think a player would be able to grasp the game's story simply by playing the game. Being given such a lack of information in a modern game would probably result in the game being negatively received by the modern gamer, who usually doesn't take the time to learn the game's back story anywhere but inside the game itself. I think that the addition of a few lines of text at the start of the game, explaining the story and introducing the characters, would make for a more complete and well-rounded game.

Special stage completion screen.

I also found issues with the game's difficulty and the parameters and consequences of failure. The game becomes quite punishing quite early on, and its difficulty only increases as it continues. I found losing all of one's rings to be too heavy-handed a punishment for taking damage, and getting "game over" after considerable progress became a little frustrating. Though with that said, I did get the impression that it is very much a "trial and error" sort of game, requiring more practice and perseverance than I was able to give it in the short time that I spent playing it. I'm sure that if I had unlimited time and was playing the game purely for pleasure rather than to review it, I would find more enjoyment in the challenge and the often demanding gameplay. I can certainly see why young gamers in 1991 would have enjoyed this challenge and responded to the need to persevere and get just a little bit further each time.

Final Thoughts

I can now finally say that I have played a Sonic game, and that I found it to be a charming and challenging game, with visually appealing and varied environments and characters. Sonic was of course designed to be an interesting, memorable and marketable character - and the way the franchise has exploded since Sonic first hit the scene in 1991 proves that his designers achieved this goal. The game itself is enjoyable, if a little too punishing at times, and provides a healthy and varied challenge.

I was slightly surprised to see the lack of story and explanation within the game itself, compared to modern games which rely on the game itself to deliver the back story, but I suppose that this is just a sign of how games have developed over the last 25+ years. I found myself slightly frustrated with Sonic at times, nevertheless I can understand why it became such a popular and addictive game, and I am already feeling the urge to return to the game and improve upon my performance and get a little bit further - surely this is a good sign that I enjoyed the challenge really! Overall, this has been another insightful Spontaneous Sunday and has allowed me to fill a big gap in my game IP knowledge.

Sci-fi Garage Update - June 8th - Modular Assets

This week, I've been working on my latest environment art project - a sci-fi garage/mechanic's workshop. Having created the blockout of the scene last week, I went back into Maya to create the modular pieces required to start building the final version. The modular pieces include:

• Wall pieces of two different heights, with and without doors.
• A small slanted ceiling piece.
• A small flat ceiling piece.
• A solid roof piece.
• A roof piece with a skylight.
• Metal beam/supports.
• A large garage door.
• Metal staircase and walkway.

Here's some pictures of how the scene is looking with the modular models and some lighting work done. The textures on the assets are placeholders, I will probably begin creating the proper textures in Substance Painter soon!

Spontaneous Sunday - Crysis 2

Welcome to another Spontaneous Sunday! I took a break last Sunday because it was a bank holiday, but now I'm back and I have played Crysis 2 (2011, Crytek, Xbox 360).

"Crysis 2 is a first-person shooter video game developed by Crytek, published by Electronic Arts and released in March 2011. Officially announced on June 1, 2009, the game is the second main installment of the Crysis series, and is the sequel to the 2007 video game Crysis. The story was written by Richard Morgan, while Peter Watts was consulted and wrote a novel adaptation of the game. It was the first game to showcase the CryEngine 3 game engine and the first game using the engine to be released on consoles."

- Wikipedia on Crysis 2.

What do I expect from the game?

This is my first time playing a game from the Crysis series, and I'm not very familiar with the franchise. I know that it is a first person shooter set in a dystopian world with sci-fi/futuristic themes. The "sci-fi FPS" genre is one that I have quite a bit of experience with. Games of this genre were especially prevalent on the previous console generation and around the time that Crysis 2 was released, so I expect Crysis 2 to have a number of similarities with other games of the genre, such as military themes, alien enemies, a linear story and level design that revolves around traversing urban environments, cover shooting and set-pieces.

I expect that the combat will be one of the game's strongest features. I also expect it to feature some high quality environments. I often find that many games of this genre have a lack of depth to their stories, so I am hoping that Crysis 2's story has more to offer. Crysis 2 was the flagship title for the CryEngine on consoles, and it was positively received by critics, so I expect good things.

First Impressions - What do I think of the game in its first few minutes?

The game's front end is very typical of a last-gen sci-fi FPS game, with block capital text and UI elements that are intended to look like a computer system. The main menu offers a number of options including campaign, multiplayer, extras and settings. I explored the front end a little bit, and found that the extras menu consists mostly of different statistics relation to gameplay, collectables and so on. This struck me as a good sign, because offering all these statistics suggests that the developers put effort into adding replay value. Also, the inclusion of collectable suggests that the environments and levels will be well-detailed, and the playable area well-utilised.

I started a new campaign on "Soldier" difficulty (the 2nd-easiest of the 4 available difficulty settings).  The game begins with a rather interesting introductory cinematic which consists of a montage of news reports covering an outbreak of an "alien virus" caused by an accident at a CryNet facility, and subsequent civil unrest. The cinematic uses a combination of live-action and in-engine clips. This is no doubt intended to set the scene and introduce the story behind the dystopian setting of the game. It's a rather dramatic sequence that grabbed my attention.

A shot from the pre-game cinematic.

Cut to the year 2023, and a military submarine in the Hudson River, New York. On the submarine, the player gains control of the game's protagonist, "Alcatraz", a Force Recon Marine. The Marine unit is arriving in New York to take on a mission, but is damaged and water begins pouring in. The first bit of gameplay involves the player escaping from the rapidly-flooding submarine, and learning how to move around, crouch and interact in the process. Upon escaping the submarine, the player gets their first view of the apocalyptic New York City from the river, and is then attacked by an alien craft before being saved by a nano-suit wearing soldier (who turns out to be a major character from the first Crysis game). Intro credits then play over a cinematic of a nano-suit soldier fighting enemies in the city. It's a gripping introductory sequence that has helped Crysis 2 to stand out right from the off.

The next level takes place in a factory on a New York harbour. This dimly-lit and run-down industrial  environment is full of cages of bodies - victims of the virus - biohazard containers and dead scientists in biohazard suits that suggest it was used as a makeshift hospital during the initial virus crisis. It's a really well-crafted environment that uses such things as lighting, environmental storytelling and particle effects to create atmosphere. It is revealed that the nano-suited soldier from the previous scene sacrificed their life and gave the nano suit to the player-character. I then embarked on a mission to find Doctor Nathan Gould, a former CryNet scientist who has important information on how to combat the alien threat.

What do I like about the game?

As the game continued on, I traversed evacuation zones, city streets, alleyways and subway stations, fighting enemies all the way. I also unlocked the ability to customise my weapons with attachments and upgrade my nano suit, and even got to drive a tank.

Crysis 2 is undeniably a very high quality FPS game. It's biggest strengths include its environments, level design, and unique and imaginative mechanics. As I expected, the story does seem to have more depth and credibility than a lot of other sci-fi shooters - though a lot of it didn't make complete sense to me, as I haven't played the first Crysis game. Crysis 2 makes a lot of effort to set itself apart from its contemporaries, with great success.

The game's environments and level design are probably the feature that resonated most with me. The game art and graphics are of a very high standard for when the game released in 2011, and would probably still hold up pretty well in a game now. The environments are densely populated with interesting props, architecture and vehicles, all of which have high quality 3D models. The levels also feature particle effects and high quality realistic lighting effects. Given the scale and detail of the environments, I was surprised to see that the game ran totally smoothly throughout. The "New York in chaos" setting makes for some very interesting and grand spaces to explore.

The environments also feature plenty of things to interact with and collect. The player is able to pick up and throw many different objects and activate things in the environment, which adds to the immersion in that it allows you to interact with your surroundings - though there doesn't seem to be much of a practical reason to do so. There is also cases of environmental storytelling, one such case being an area being an obvious makeshift dwelling in a subterranean service corridor, complete with a bed and personal effects. The collectable items throughout the levels include dog tags, New York souvenirs and laptops containing emails, all of which add more depth to the both the environments and the lore of the game world.

The level design is also a strong feature in Crysis 2. The level design facilitates various different play styles, from stealthily bypassing dangers to reach your objective, to going in all-guns-blazing. There are numerous different routes that the player can take and lots of verticality to the level layouts which means that traversing the levels is an interesting and challenging task, and the player is able to approach it how they see fit, using the mechanics that they choose.

This brings me to the next good feature - the game's mechanics. Crysis 2 offers a lot of very interesting and useful mechanics, most of which consist of abilities of the nano suit that the player characters wears. The player is able to use a tactical visor and nano visor to get a more informed view of their environment and plan out their approach. In these views, the player can tag enemies and points-of-interest such as ammo, and the player is also presented with suggested tactical approaches. These views add depth to the way that the game is played.

The player can customise weapons and view their stats.

The player can toggle the nano suit's cloak and armour abilities - these directly enable players to make more effective stealth and combat manoeuvres respectively. The player can also customise their weapons and add different special abilities to their nano suit, which again helps give the player tactical choice as to how they want to play the game. This provides a welcome level of choice and depth to the gameplay, and makes it feel more like you, the player, are leading the action, rather than simply being strung along through the game.

Other positive features include the game's voice acting and writing, the wide variety of stats that one can view, and the overall aesthetic of the game's UI and menus.

The player can choose a different nano suit upgrade to occupy 4 different slots

What do I not like?

I have failed to find many things that are objectively wrong with Crysis 2 from a design point of view. The fact remains that it is a very well-made and well-designed game! However, there's a few minor things that were not fully in fitting with my own personal taste or preference. Sci-fi FPS games are, after all, not very high up on my "favourite genre" list.

Firstly, I found that the pacing of the story and progression was a bit slow and drawn out. The game begins with you trying to track down a Doctor Nathan Gould, who is somewhere in New York city, so that he can help you to combat the alien threat. He is communicating with you the whole time, and regularly heckling you for not being quick enough in finding him. After 3 hours of play, and quite a few levels completed, my character had still not tracked Gould down. Of course, I was completing interesting objectives and exploring the city as I went, but finding Gould still felt like a very drawn out process, and I felt myself losing interesting slightly in the action that was unfolding in the story.

Dr Gould: Evasive Scientist.

Secondly, while it is good that there is so many different and compelling mechanics, this inevitably meant that there was quite a lot of different button configurations, controls and menus associated with these mechanics, and the experience felt a little but "cluttered". That said, I think that a cluttered system of mechanics is better than not having the mechanics at all. Also, while the aesthetic of the UI was nice, I couldn't help but feel like the UI was distracting, for reasons that I can't quite put my finger on.

Using the visor mechanic is useful - but the UI is a bit distracting.

Final Thoughts

Overall, I would say that Crysis 2 is objectively amongst the best games that I have played for Spontaneous Sunday, and one of the best sci-fi FPS games that I have played full-stop. I really think that the environment art and graphics are ahead of their time, and the developers clearly put a lot of time and effort into creating levels and mechanics that made for an engaging and varied gameplay experience that gives the player a lot of choice. FPS games often seem to restrict themselves to a certain play style, but this is certainly not the case with Crysis 2 - this game stands out for a number of reasons. While sci-fi FPS is not generally my genre of choice personally, I really enjoyed playing Crysis 2 today.

Getting Started on my Next Project - Sci-fi Garage

Semester 3 is now well under way, and I've spent the past few weeks doing some sideline projects and portfolio pieces such as entering Allegorthmic's Meet MAT competition and modelling a Walther P38 pistol.

Now its time that I started working on my next projects for my final submission in October. I've spent some time thinking about what I could do for this semester. I initially planned to make an arena-style FPS game in a sci-fi setting, in which the player has to defeat waves of flying drone enemies. I spent a couple of weeks doing idea generation and concepting for this game idea. Last Friday, I started working on the project and trying to create the AI to make the enemies fly. This turned out to be very difficult, and after 8 hours of trying to figure it out, I had made no progress. This left me very disillusioned with the idea.

After having a long think about this project idea, I decided to abandon the project and go back to the drawing board. This was a big decision, and meant that the last couple of weeks had lead me to a dead end, but I realised that the work that would need to go into the project would not be relevant to what I actually want to do when I graduate, and would distract me from my real goal. I eventually decided to return to what I am good at and what I enjoy - 3D environment art.

Over the past week, I've planned out what I'm going to do for my final module submission. I am going to create two 3D environments, with a realistic art style and a focus on atmosphere. The first will be a sci-fi mechanic's garage with a futuristic armoured personnel carrier as the central focal point. The scene will contain lots of detail items such as barrels, tool chests, tools, posters on the walls and mechanic items. The scene will be set in the near future (mid 21st century). I decided to go with this idea because it will allow me to gain more experience with sci-fi scenes and vehicle modelling, which will add to my portfolio. The second scene is going to be an arms dealers office in a Villa, probably set in the 70's in South America. Think a wood panel room with an ornate desk, screen doors leading to a balcony, and a gun and a metal briefcase full of money on the desk. I will be creating these two scenes simultaneously over the next few months.

Anyway, today I have created the initial level blockout for the sci-fi garage scene, using placeholder assets. This simple blockout has allowed me to get an idea of the scale and layout of the environment, which will allow me to move forward with the scene in the coming weeks. I've also been able to begin looking at what colour palette and lighting arrangements I could use. Here's some screenshots of my sketches and the blockout: