Gameplay video with sound: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1BZmijaxrd6UwGu4j09z0pFV6fFdX3slk/view
Game Files: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1M5gsOD76JHVe-OjJ0EWqCRBGaMagBpmp
Portfolio Links:
Nightshift at B-mart – Environmental Designs.
Nightshift at B-Mart – Character Designs.
Nightshift at B-Mart – UI designs.
Nightshift at B-Mart – Style Bible
Self Reflection:
I really enjoyed this module, I think the collaboration between games and animations students was really fun and as I am aiming to work in game design, I found it really insightful to work with games students in understanding what is and is not possible, what would effect game play performance etc. – it was a huge learning curve and one that I ultimately really enjoyed.
As we were making a VR game, games students advised that we should go super low poly, and keep materials to a minimum, to optimise game play. We used the strategy that was adopted for games like fire watch and Roki, and used a texture sheet to flat colour texture our models. Learning this new way of texturing was really interesting. In addition, we were able to generate assets really quickly – everything is textured to a block colour which meant that we were not required to create very accurate UV’s. In saying this, I would have loved the opportunity to work on my texturing skills and have seen more normal maps etc. in game.
I took on the role of art direction and character modelling. I really enjoyed art direction, I enjoyed putting together the style guide for our group which I believe we stuck to really well – I’m also really pleased with my character model, I believe it stuck really well to the character designs the group and I agreed upon. I got the chance to work a lot more on my abilities in environment design and painting, which is something I had been trying to get more experience of.
I also had the opportunity to work on some UI assets, which I downloaded a new pixel art program in order to produce and I had great fun working out how to make pixel art UI elements for the game as we were hoping for our UI to have an arcade feel.
Finally, even though it was not a role of mine, I worked on animation and animating and it was great to get a little experience of animating for a video game – something that differs a lot from what I’ve experienced before.
However, there are definitely things that I would have liked to improve upon: I would have loved a little more collaboration with the games students particularly in UI development. I understood HOW I could make the UI elements, however I found that I was pulling teeth in order to get confirmation of WHAT I needed to make. I also feel that the game design students were a little too conservative when they were communicating what was and wasn’t possible in game in terms of performance; I feel we could have gotten away with a lot more in our textures. I also wish that our level looked the way that concepts and art depicted and communicated, I don’t feel that our level designers worked with the vast amounts of reference they were provided, or the huge pool of assets they had access to.
furthermore, we were unfortunately unable to get the chance to have individual logos put into the game for our store product props in the end.
finally, I was really disappointed with myself that I couldn’t get my 2D eye textures working for the final game. My group and I decided that prop modelling, GUI and animation would take priority over the animated eye texture. I intend on trying to get this to work during my free time in summer, but I’m pretty bummed that I didn’t have more time to put into this as it’s something that I felt would add a lot to the character.
Over all, I am really happy with what I produced; I feel that my assets and character models add a lot to my portfolio, were in-keeping with the style guide, and are a diversion away from my normal asset style. I feel that I branched a lot in to different areas, working on character modelling and prop modelling, art direction and concept art, and animation and UI design; even going the extra step and producing some fun concepts for box art and steam banners.
Unfortunately our game was not finished for submission, and there were minimal video uploads of gameplay. I don’t believe that the level was fully fleshed out, despite my feedback to level designers that the area needed to be cluttered and packed after our test gameplay with industry professionals. I couldn’t see much more progress from then until now. Our start-room was also not made. I’m really saddened that this didn’t happen, as prop modellers were all really prompt in providing assets. I can see in videos that a lot of these assets were not implemented, despite us having a huge pool of assets to work with.
Blog Posts:
Animation for the Creative Industries – Concepting and ideation.
Animation for the Creative Industries – Creating the style bible, refining our idea.
Animation for the Creative Industries – Creating some hard surface props.
Animation for the Creative Industries – Test Textures for Hero Props.
Animation for the Creative Industries – Tall character model retopologised with shoes.
Animation for the Creative Industries – Research into 2D eye textures
Animation for the Creative Industries – Character Texture and some additional concept art.
Animation for the Creative Industries – Additional Prop Modelling and NPC Texture Progress
Animation for the Creative Industries – Revision of textures.
Animation for the Creative Industries – Animation, Step to Desk.
Animation for the Creative Industries – Cash 3D Model and Animations in UE5.
Animation for the Creative Industries – Clock Punch and Punch Card, Overhead Lighting.
Animation for the Creative Industries – Additional Props, updating team of music.
Animation for the Creative Industries – P.O.S concepts for box art and banners.
