Jonah is SO yesterday...
Taking a break from Jonah to work on my videogame project. I got stuck on Page 2 you see and only just figured out what I want to do to make it work.
Still, Edward Usher (the working title of the videogame) is coming along quite well. As you can see in the video below we've managed to get the basics of the first level working. That is to say, you can run around, jump, and climb up conveniently placed nooses.
The little orange fella you see is just a stand in, we're still working on the animation frames for our titular character.
Still, Edward Usher (the working title of the videogame) is coming along quite well. As you can see in the video below we've managed to get the basics of the first level working. That is to say, you can run around, jump, and climb up conveniently placed nooses.
The little orange fella you see is just a stand in, we're still working on the animation frames for our titular character.
How games are made.
Awright perhaps the title is a bit misleading. It should read "how this game is being made", since the actual process for developing a videogame these days is monumentally complex and not quite as straight to the point as the process I'm outlining below:
STEP 1: Planning.
The story and gameplay (how the game er... plays) are hashed out at this stage. Everyone gets a foot in and it's a fun time filled with boundless optimism and wacky outside the box ideas.
STEP 2: Design.
The game designer gets to work, plotting out the overall flow of the entire game into a signle all encompassing flow chart. I can't show it to you here since it'd pretty much show you what you need to do to beat the game. Suffice to say it's pretty complex.
STEP 3: Design Part Deux.
Here the game designer starts designing each individual level one at a time. They look a bit like very simple blueprints. I've included an image below that should give you an idea...
Once the game designer is done he sends this image over to me for me to make it pretty...
The game's art is produced with HD 1080p resolution in mind, so some of the maps are relatively high resolution, the one above for instance is actually over 4,000 pixels wide. It's a "hub map" which leads to other levels, levels that will eventually be between 10 and 20 times as large.
STEP 4: Well we haven't technically started step 4 just yet, but it involves music and animation. We're currently looking for an animator, but we've got some music (you can have a listen here).
STEP 5: Make lotsa munny. Well not really, but it'd be great no?
STEP 1: Planning.
The story and gameplay (how the game er... plays) are hashed out at this stage. Everyone gets a foot in and it's a fun time filled with boundless optimism and wacky outside the box ideas.
STEP 2: Design.
The game designer gets to work, plotting out the overall flow of the entire game into a signle all encompassing flow chart. I can't show it to you here since it'd pretty much show you what you need to do to beat the game. Suffice to say it's pretty complex.
STEP 3: Design Part Deux.
Here the game designer starts designing each individual level one at a time. They look a bit like very simple blueprints. I've included an image below that should give you an idea...
Once the game designer is done he sends this image over to me for me to make it pretty...The game's art is produced with HD 1080p resolution in mind, so some of the maps are relatively high resolution, the one above for instance is actually over 4,000 pixels wide. It's a "hub map" which leads to other levels, levels that will eventually be between 10 and 20 times as large.
STEP 4: Well we haven't technically started step 4 just yet, but it involves music and animation. We're currently looking for an animator, but we've got some music (you can have a listen here).
STEP 5: Make lotsa munny. Well not really, but it'd be great no?
Level 2 Artwork
Okay, so remember that Usher game I'm working on? Well here's an update. This is level 2, it follows the prologue level I linked to earlier and it's something of a "Hub" level rather than an actual gameplay level. It serves as a sort of landing point when you first start the game, and leads to a bunch of other levels. I'm still working on it, primarily detail work and some shadows left, but for the most part it's intact. I'm considering adding some hunting trophies :)
Prologue level art is done!
And that's a wrap for the prologue level! Gameplay-wise it's very simple, it's just an introductory level aimed at getting the player used to movement and jumping. Still, it was an absolute blast to work on, learned lots of stuff to apply to the next level, which takes place inside that half submerged house on the end.Shof, I swear I tried some yellow in moon, but then the background got too bright, which made focusing on the main character hard. Actually the hardest part of this whole thing was making the background look interesting but ensuring it doesn't distract you while you play.
I've included a few detail images:
TTFN!
Hey Shobo, what you been up to?
Apart from... work... stuff. This, which is about 60-70% done at the moment. It's the background/foreground for the prologue level in the videogame, you might remember the concept piece I did for it here. This piece was a lot more time consuming due to the resolution and scale it's shown here are 1/3rd actual res.
Oh yeah, ignore the guy dressed in Spider-Man underoos, he's just there for scale reference. I should warn before you click through it's a fairly large image, and even then I've had to compress it heavily to make it almost-web safe.
Detail:
EDIT: Here's the latest update. Fewer trees, closer to completion.
Oh yeah, ignore the guy dressed in Spider-Man underoos, he's just there for scale reference. I should warn before you click through it's a fairly large image, and even then I've had to compress it heavily to make it almost-web safe.
Detail:EDIT: Here's the latest update. Fewer trees, closer to completion.
Edward 2.0
After getting a lot of feedback from Shof, he decided to have a go at taking what I was working on and running with it, the result is what you see above (though I colored it). Frankly I loved it, so I've asked Shof to go ahead and design all the human characters in the game, including Edward, Roderick Usher, Madeline Usher, Jeeves the butler, Wilhelm Usher, and The Creepy Old Man.
Finding Edward
Working on the design of the main character in that game, Edward Usher. He's modeled on Egon Spengler, and his wardrobe is a not so subtle homage to what Vincent Price wore in the 1960 Roger Corman movie adaptation of The Fall of the House of Usher. Still working on getting his hair right though, especially that... floof in the front.
Been busy like a bee.
New art style for the game. It's easier for me to get more backgrounds done faster. Also think the color work is much better. The actual characters and interactive objects will be considerably brighter and I think they'll look kinda like cut paper.
