Ara's basic design. I saved several iterations, including one where I can change the color of each article of clothing to anything we want. High-resolution version to be shown in class, of course.

-Luke.

Level Design - Ship Map Concept

This is the basic map concept. Please note that the Observation Deck is above the Docking Bay and connected by an elevator. The Arborium is Connected to the observations deck through teleporters.

The Concept for the Surreal Room is still being constructed because the shape of the room will have a large impact on the gameplay.

If you want to look at the illustrator file you can find it on the public drive under Aboriginal Symbols/Spaceship_Map

-Ben

Environment concepts

hello folks,
I got some concepts that I've been working on, based on the surreal style we are looking for. I showed a link to Darius that have some good examples of space crafts that looked like fish. I figured that we could develop environments oriented to various species than just one.

First thing I worked on was developing a color scheme and several symbols based on some aboriginal references that I found. notice that I kept each object to a minimum of two colors in addition to white strokes to outline the detail. There are two types of styles that I studied: the contrasting strokes and the spotted illustrations, both which I attempted to adapt to an environment.




I worked on this concept to see how things would look. The strokes here could work as either grooves or actual lighting, just as long as it stands out in similar contrast.

A more developed and detailed concept using a simple color scheme along with environment lighting. notice the composite of solid plain objects and chaotic extruding organic-like objects.I went on to develop something similar to the "space fish" with the Giger surreal style. its not to far, but I think this could be rehashed to looked a little better.
Another ship concept that I tried to simplify, but be more accurate with the aboriginal design. notice that I used the lighting to construct most of the anatomy and at various places which is all encapsulated by the con

later,
-George

Game Design Document

“Aboriginal”

Game Design Document

Style:

A mystical weaving of surreal environments, solid storytelling, and absurdist humor. The art character art style is slightly exaggerated but still in the realm of reality, with enough emotive capacity to incite both comedy and a semi-serious story.

Genre:

Puzzle-driven action/adventure (example: ICO) with bizarre, quirky humor (example: Psychonauts, or Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy), a lush and surreal world and fearsome semi-mechanical adversaries.

Overview:

After delivering a small shipment of medical supplies to the HMAS Bunyip, Araluen, a headstrong merchant and explorer, finds that her hyperdrive has “escaped,” leaving her stranded on the mysterious space station, searching for this vital piece of technology.

“Ara” and her reluctant companion, Wan (the artificial personality of her ship, the MS Wanderlust) continue to adventure deeper into the bowels of the Bunyip, discovering an entirely new world that seems to defy all conventional standards of reality, and uncovering a sinister plot of manipulation and greed.

Characters:

• Araluen, or “Ara” for short: a fiercely independent tradeswoman and adventurer.
• Wan: a lazy artificial personality with a penchant for video games.
• Dr. Mandu: a wise and deeply spiritual guru who is attempting to combine technology with the power of creation itself.
• SR91: Dr. Mandu’s power-hungry underling; more machine than man, he has a dark past.
• Joey the Hyperdrive: the cuddly hyperdrive for the MS Wanderlust.
• Negajoey: SR91’s evil mechanical copy of Joey, and boss of the game prototype.

Goal:

The goal of the prototype will be reaching the hyperdrive. The player will begin exploring the ship and portions of Dr. Mandu’s “dreamworld,” solve two puzzles, and face Negajoey before their task is complete. Once the player returns the ship, SR91 refuses to let them leave.

Areas:

• Docking bay and hub.
• Communication and mail room, associated with the shipping and receiving orders from SR91.
• Hallways (possibly with otherworldly portals).
• Observation deck with one of Mandu’s video diaries.
• The beginning of Mandu’s tribal “dreamworld.”
• The small arboreal pavilion, where players will find Joey.

That's a great reference George, I actually remember playing a little bit of the G Darius game, and definetly remember the cool looking fish-ship on the cover.

So, were you wanting to take the direction of fusing aboriginal folklore drawings/paintings with a more mechanical type look for some of our conceptual drawings? If so I think it'd be a great idea. Like I said in class merging a very primal folklore with a super-futuristic theme isn't easy, but this sounds like a great direction to head into to tie the two together.

Let me know your thoughts!

-Jason S.

hey folks,

so before class ended I was trying to reference a game that had ships that look like fish. I not too sure this is the direction we want to take the game with, but it' sa great reference. The game was not "Gradius", but its "Darius" (what are the chances of mixing that up). check out the link and let me know what you think about it.


-George

Technology

Aww, horse. I almost forgot about this blog. ^___^;

Anyway, more on Technology, I came across some Holography. Before now, I didn't think it was possible, but well, It's been done. :3

Holography is the appearance that something is present, even when it has already been removed. It is done by recording light and then reconstructing it at a later time--much like recording sound and then pushing the Play button to hear it again later. Depending on which angle you look at it, the image changes, so it looks 3D.

Here's the copypasta if you wanna see it in more... sophisticated words. ^__^;;

"Though holography is often referred to as 3D photography, this is a misconception. A better analogy is sound recording where the sound field is encoded in such a way that it can later be reproduced. In holography, some of the light scattered from an object or a set of objects falls on the recording medium. A second light beam, known as the reference beam, also illuminates the recording medium, so that interference occurs between the two beams. The resulting light field is an apparently random pattern of varying intensity which is the hologram. It can be shown that if the hologram is illuminated by the original reference beam, a light field is diffracted by the reference beam which is identical to the light field which was scattered by the object or objects. Thus, someone looking into the hologram 'sees' the objects even though it may no longer be present. There are a variety of recording materials which can be used, including photographic film."

If you wanna see a couple of examples of this being used in real life:
Clicky 1
Clicky 2