Textures

I also did the textures of the walls, conveyor belt, Uddu and door as shown bellow

Uddu//

Uddo is the main character of our game. Due to time restrictions his texturing fell to me. I gave him a scaly texture, with earthy colors to make him stand out from the rest of the game.

Walls//

For the walls I made them using mudbox, painting cracks on them, an layering different shades and textures. For the bottom world i created a darker more rustic texture. Utilizing Photoshop i also made them so they could be repeated without any disturbances in the pattern

Conveyor belt//

The conveyor belt i also utilized Photoshop to make them so they could be repeated without any disturbances in the pattern.

Door//

So the Door would match the texture of the walls and the elevator i Textured the door, I kept with the same scheme and make the detail around the edges of the frame stand out.

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Other Assets

As well as producing the guards i made a serious of other assets for the game which are stated bellow. For each asset i sketched an idea first to get a rough idea of what direction i was heading then proceed to model and animate if needed the structure in maya, then texture in mudbox.

Chain//

I designed the chain to hold up the lights in the game. The lights are one of the crucial elements in the game, as they appear often and are used frequently in order to solve puzzles. I thought making the rope that held the lights up a chain would suit the feel we were going for in the game, and help add to the atmosphere. Sound effects where also added when the lights were engaged which enhanced the chain's appearance. We also did textures for both worlds, making the bottom world texture darker and more mysterious. Suggesting that it is set in an decayed future time zone.

Light //

The lights were also simple, as they had to be recognizable to the players. the original design didn't have a spit in the side. I added the split as to see more detail and to get a more 3D form, as the angle which the player views the light limits this. For the bottom world the texture is again more dark and rustic and less shine.

Elevator //

For the elevator kept it simple, open and close animation, and didn't make the model too complicated so players could recognize it right away, as it symbols the end of a level. The texture was just simple block colors done in maya. 

Elevator Pipes//

The elevator also needed a pipe that it would travel up in the Video Richard was going to make, also to add depth in the game itself. 

Springs//

The springs are used during the game to help slove puzzles, using weight distrubution. They neeed a two spring animatuions to help inforce to the player what was happening, helping them figure out that weight was a contributing facter to the solving process. For the puzzles in the game we use a lot of springs. And we made a design decision that all interactive objects should be colored red, making this trait more obvious during game play

Platform//

Platforms, that help carry the player across sections were also needed, these were designed to look like the end of diggers/ lifting machines you would find in a factory. For the texture we just used the same as the spring, to help make the connection to the player that these are interactive objects

Guards

The main asset that I did for the game was the guard. I began by doing some rough concept sketches as to what we want the guards to look like. Because of our chosen style of dark and ominous, I decided to head in a similar direction to that of similar franchises "the men in black" and "paul" where the guys hunting the aliens are smartly dress in a black tie suit.

When designing their structure i made them top heavy, with smaller legs, implying they are not the brightest of people. Then as a groups decision we decided to give the guards tazers as their weapon, as one of the deciding factors was that guards could not die. Thus the tazer would simple knock the alien "Uddu" back into the other world.

Once I had decided on the guards appearance I began modeling him in maya and mudbox, creating a simple low poly structure at first, then slowly adding more detail. however i did keep the modeling detail to a minimum to help prevent to much detail. Which could result in lagging when he was put into the game. Therefore i paint most of the detail on to him, to help provide a more authentic look. bellow are some screen shots of some of this process. After the modeling I rigged the guard using IK joints, with a smooth bind in order to animate him. There are also two different types of guards within the game, standing guards, which don't move and walking guards.

After the rigging i began to animate the many animations we wanted in the game, these include the bellow menchioned. Before I created each animation I did a quick sketch to breifly plan how i wanted the guard to appear, and his movements.

Idle:

For the Idle animation I wanted something simple and repetitive, that could just be played in a loop while the guard was simply standing so we wouldn't have a lifeless guard when Uddu wasn't in the guards view

IdleOne

I wanted to create at least Two seperate Idles to play when the Guard has been stationary for a longer period of time as i feel thins would add to the game play. the first Of these the guard lifts his hand and touches his ear piece. Which helps enforce that there are more than one.

IdleTwo

For Idle teo i went down a simpler route an made him scratch his ars, which helps protray a more dim witted persona, which is what we were going after.

Jump

I went simple for the jump animation, since he is modeled to be slightly heaver I made him jump with both legs a once, to give the appearance that more power is needed to get off the ground.

Tazer

Tazer, is when he tazers Uddu causing him to bounce back into the other worlds, when the player gets too close. this animation was simple. The guard just lifts his arm, holds for a few seconds, then puts his arm down again.

Squish

Squish animation occurs when the player drops crates or pipes on to the guard, causing them to squish under the pressure, resulting in their death/

Explode

Explode animation plays when the player phases into a guard, which is an exciting way of killing, I wanted this animation to be more cartoony, thus giving more satisfaction to the player when they kill them.

Walk

For the Walk animation I wanted the guard to have a sort of swagger, and move with a lot of shoulder swing, to give a greater appearance of a heaver built guy.

Project 3: Upside down, downside up

Upside down downside up (U.D,D.U) is the title of the game I am going to design in a group consisting of 2 other designers; Richard Hpa and Francis Guerin and three coders; Stephen Bennett,  Dawn Richardson and Ryan Sumner.

The original concept that we are basing out game  on was about a monkey trapped in a laboratory attempting to escape, however the chemicals  had altered his brain causing him to see two worlds, which are shown through a split screen. The player then would have to navigate his way through a series of puzzles, utilizing both worlds as, what ever happened to the monkey in one world would happen to him in the other.

To begin with we focused on deciding the direction we wanted our game to go, deciding to stick with the  reflected bottom screen puzzle aspect. However we decided to change the story line as we felt it didn't quite fit with our targeted audience. This lead to a series of brain storming finally resulting on an alien escaping from the government. 

Then we set up roles, I being set to start doing mock up for our main character, The drawings shown bellow, however due to circumstances, I missed 2-3 weeks, and was changed to designing assets instead, due to the demand and priorities.

ALIEN CONCEPT IMAGES //

We also decided as a group to come up with the style we would like to portray in our game, ending up deciding on dark and ominous, as we feel this will the best suited for our target audience, and will portray the game in an interesting light.  

Other factors we decided was the fact we would like some sort of narration to play during the game, similar to portal, where the player will be battered for not completing the puzzles fast enough, and so on.