Asset List
With pre-production completed, our next step was to create a comprehensive asset list cataloguing the visual elements we felt would be needed to create a cohesive, immersive, and enjoyable gaming experience. Initially, limited to props, characters, and ingredients, the document soon grew to include potions, and later served as a source of sound inspiration for our Sound Design team members. Heather created a shared Microsoft Word document, which we collaboratively populated during a group brainstorming session. Following standard gaming industry practices, creating a hierarchy of importance, each asset was classified as ‘essential’ to gameplay or the storytelling narrative, or ‘optional,’ those that would enrich the game’s visual appeal, or enhance player experience.
With effective asset management capable of smoothing production pipelines, and crucial if tight deadlines are to be met, this structured approach enabled assets to be assigned within the team, and progress tracked to identify any potential delays. While animations are also generally included in professional asset lists, as we had agreed that NPCs would only be animated if time permitted, they were not added at this stage.
By the end of the session, the team had a clear understanding of the work ahead. Recognising the importance of proper scaling for gameplay and maintaining visual cohesion between characters, props, and the surrounding environment, at this stage, in an approach I had seen widely used in other game development projects, I proposed we identify and create a dedicated scale prop.
Also, with the art style guide advising that more detailed texturing should be avoided in non-essential assets, I suggested we prioritise the creation of the final game environment layout and lighting conditions to allow us all to optimise our texturing to achieve style cohesion and ensure our props neither distracted player focus nor melded into the background. I also mentioned how, by doing this, we could more easily detect issues with UV mapping, such as visible seams, but whereas my team members felt this was premature at this early stage of the production process, I felt it would enable us to produce a more polished outcome.
Prop Development and Creation
Enhancing visual storytelling and creating a more engaging and immersive final game environment, inspired by the mood board references below, by the end of the project, I had created around 50 assets, many of which can be found on the ‘Props, Ingredients, Potions and VFX’ portfolio page of this blog.
In many cases, references were not only chosen for their visual appeal, but their links to magic and folklore, such as chicken’s feet; a voodoo and witchcraft symbol of protection and purification which shields the owner from negative energy and black magic, and the Amanita muscaria mushroom, purported to be the home of fairies and magical creatures.
Visual references for potion bottles were also chosen to relay their effect, including a lightning bolt to represent an energy potion, and a cloud and the letters ‘zzz’ (an onomatopoeic representation of snoring sounds) chosen for the sleep potion design.
Whether essential to gameplay, such as the lectern and grimoire; a key user interface (UI) providing player information on the ingredients required to brew each potion, or a gemstone; a small background prop, modelled directly from the classic, Single Round Brilliant (SRB) facet diagram, as can be seen below, each asset was created with the same level of care, and attention to detail.
Lectern and Grimoire: A key user interface (UI)
Gemstone: A small background asset
While I feel my final props reflect the art style guide’s big, simplified, and chunky design requirements, where, to appeal to our younger demographic, and create a cosy, appealing setting, sharp edges have been rounded, I admittedly initially struggled to hit this brief.
Although posted on the team Discord ‘Asset Development’ channel, where all of our assets were uploaded for group feedback, my tutor advised that some of my original props were ‘leaning towards realism,’ and that although I had been tasked to keep asset polygon count as low as possible to ensure the final game was performance-friendly, as the team were thinking too prescriptively about this, I should add additional bevelling to my models.
Happy to take direction that would improve my work, the suggested changes were implemented, with an example of a modified asset shown below:
Original and modified hat stand models
With stylised assets capable of crafting a visually distinctive environment full of personality and charm, utilising the process to texture the game’s cauldron asset, Heather, a fellow animation team member, had created an Adobe Substance Painter guide containing tips on how, by using filters, we could consistently achieve a cohesive texturing style.
However, although the methodology was clear, concise and easy to follow, and highly effective in adding ‘interesting highlights, gradients, and most importantly; detail’ to the cauldron – an essential asset and a focal point of gameplay, when employed, I found that, even when limiting material choice to stylised materials (such as here, stylised raw metal for the brass book corners), and keeping tiling, and ambient occlusion/baked lighting values to a minimum, the process highlighted vertices in assets where, as they would be used repeatedly to create a cluttered environment, polygon count had intentionally been kept on the lower side to not adversely affect game performance.
Having increased the geometry a where needed and retextured the model, although significantly improved, the vertices on the brass detailing were still visible.
Also, while undoubtedly creating a stylised and visually interesting outcomes, with the texturing section of the art style guide calling for ‘less detail on unimportant items to not draw attention away from the main focus of the game,’ feeling the texturing effect achieved may prove ‘noisy’ and distracting in simple, background props, asking for clarification, I drew this to the attention of the team. Feedback, too, from the Games Design tutor was that while they liked the lighting on the cauldron asset, they cautioned that integrating this and the 3D art into Ink for every asset could prove time-consuming.
With this in mind, keen to experiment, I created a stylised custom smart material in Substance Painter, using the tutorial below:
Source: YouTube, 2020
Incorporating similar properties to the Substance Painter Guide, such as ambient occlusion and baked lighting, but also a gradient (used to focus attention on important aspects), and edge highlights (a lighting effect that can help define shapes and add a cartoon-like flair), using this smart material allowed me to reproduce a stylised effect, but at the same time, keep background assets clean, and readable by having more control over how and where the texturing detail was applied.
In more detailed assets, specific islands could also be moved to distinct positions within the Blender UV Editor to achieve a desired effect.
When I later explained my concerns to our tutor and presented the assets I’d textured using the stylised smart material I’d created, such as the wall torch below, he was happy for me to move forward using this less detailed texturing process. Nonetheless, having seen the creative possibilities in using the ambient occlusion and baked lighting filters detailed in Heather’s guide, I will certainly use this process in future projects.
In the run-up to submission, when the first of our two game environments (the lobby and the shop area) became available, straying from the creative brief, and leaving me unsure if I should again amend my work to be more in keeping with that of my team members, environmental assets had been created in a ‘warped’ style. Therefore, to achieve this effect, using the ‘lattice modifier’ tutorial below, I created the ‘crooked’ props seen here to match this visual aesthetic.
Source: YouTube, 2024a
Finally, to prevent a potential court case, the wizard’s staff was redesigned.
UNREAL ENGINE VFX
In addition to prop creation, modelling, and animating the player character, I also created the following Unreal Engine visual effects to enhance the final game.
- A stylised flame effect, created within a single plane, which by reducing the polygon count, could be used throughout the game.
Unreal Engine Flame Effect Material Graph
2. A Niagara particle effect to both boost the visual impact and add challenge to the mini game
3. A magical crystal ball with a swirling energy flow
Crystal Ball Unreal Engine VFX Effect Material Graph
4. A plasma ball to elevate the visual aesthetic of the newly simplified staff design
Additionally, following the suggestion that a portal could be used to transport the player character from the lobby area to the main gameplay environment, I created two alternatives; the first a magical, pulsing material effect, and the other, a Niagara particle system featuring a rear-facing camera which would initially offer a glimpse of the lobby area from which the player had come.
However, despite these being well-received by the team as a whole, a design similar to the Minecraft Nether portal was used in the final prototype.
Details of the online tutorial used to create all the Visual effects above can be found in the reference section below.
References:
YouTube (2020a). How to Make Your First Stylized Texture in 5 Minutes using Substance Painter [BEGINNERS TUTORIAL] – Stylised Station. [online]. [Accessed: 21 March 2025]
Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FbYLqzW4Z_Y
YouTube (2020b). Unreal Engine Niagara Tutorial | Stylized Fire | Toon Fire – GCHOW | Ashif Ali. [online]. [Accessed: 14 April 2025].
Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nt24yixmnt8&t
YouTube (2022). UE4 Making Magical Orb Material l 5-Minute VFX Tutorial l Unreal Engine 4.26 (Tutorial) – Coreb Games. [online]. [Accessed 24 April 2025].
Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OEOIcWipo0M
YouTube (2024a). How to Use the Lattice Modifier in Blender (Tutorial) – Ryan King Art. [online]. [Accessed: 2 May 2025].
Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=70ylPbKXAF4
YouTube (2024b). Unreal5 Niagara VFX: Floating Ember/Dust Particles – Royal Skies. [online]. [Accessed: 1 April 2025].
Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1n1q4kQ9Ehg
YouTube (2024c). Plasma Material Tutorial | Unreal Engine 5 – Morrigan. [online]. [Accessed: 21 April 2025].
Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tEIDbS5xxWY
YouTube (2024d). UE5 Material Portal Effect – Tutorial – Alex Huang. [online]. [Accessed: 23 April 2025].
Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LEqBNIIQJgo
YouTube (2024e). Unreal Engine 5.4: Create Stunning Portal Effect VFX with Niagara Particles | Complete Tutorial – The Epic Singh. [online]. [Accessed: 25 April 2025]
Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YwAA2kxFlQA