Conclusion

This is likely to be my final entry for this blog so I decided to look back over the course of the project, summarise what I've done and how I achieved it, as well as explain things in more depth.

To start with I worked on my own with no assistance on any part.  it was incredibly tough, especially as I started late and only had a couple of days a week to work on it.  this meant I had to work very quickly, as 3D modelling and texturing can be very time consuming.

The design and concept evolved over the course of the project, from a game about chasing Dracula around Whitby, to a game where the player collects Jet artefacts whilst exploring Whitby Abbey, to a scene that tries to capture the style of a painting by Francis Jukes.

The concept art was produced to help me plan how I wanted to layout the level, as well as act as a very short storyboard for when things would happen.  I also worked on making the project logos that I needed for the submission.  With the changes in design I was worried that I would need to rename everything, which thankfully never happened.

When I knew what I was doing, I started making the whitebox assets.  The models were constructed in a way that allowed me to add detail at a later point if needed. these models remained for the most part, relatively unchanged and being used in the current build of the level.

I decided to use a few texture sheets as possible and I've managed to use only two textures.  The overall aesthetic I was aiming to achieve was inspired by Francis Jukes (provided by The British Library's asset pack) and popular videogames that use a painted style (such as World of Warcraft and Vagrant Story).  Components that make up the abbey are chunky and angular, and the textures were hand painted by myself.  The brick texture took the longest out of the texture pieces, as this would be the most visible part of the game.  The UV's for all of the models were mapped to a single texture as stated before, which probably took the most time.

It's been hard work but very rewarding.  I've learned a lot more than I thought I would during this project.  I will most likely take this project further and turn it into a more polished portfolio piece, as I quite enjoyed the visual style used.

Thank you for reading my blog.

Style Guide and Schedule

(Project Style Guide)

I've been working on a small style guide / mood boards in order to maintain graphical consistency across all my work, as well as give me something to refer back to if I start to struggle with any of the artwork.  Whilst working on this guide I produced the project logo which will become the header for this blog (it's also a requirement for submission).

(The first version of my project planner)

I've created a schedule / planner to help me keep on track, as well as ensure that I don't forget anything.  However, I have to say it is incredibly optimistic, with no room for anything to go wrong and for me to burn myself out.  There are a number of aspects I am willing to remove in order to achieve a completed project but they're listed in case I actually get a chance.  The deadline is marked as the 1st August rather than the actual competition deadline which is the 4th.  This is because I will not be able to work on the project after the 1st.

A Shadow in Whitby

Though the project name (A Shadow in Whitby) is remnant from the Dracula design, I think it's still applicable as the player is now being thought of as the shadow (also, I don't want to have to rename everything I've done so far).  First is a bit about the concept itself, followed then by some actual design and artwork.  Included throughout will be explanations on how the source materials provided by The British Library  has helped inspire my ideas.

The main mechanic of the game is finding and collecting Jet artefacts and placing them in the correct place to unlock new areas and items.  Objects and structures will appear, indicating what the next part of the puzzle might be.  The initial play area will be quite small, with the hopes of expanding if there's enough time.

(North West view of Whitby Abbey)

(South East view of Whitby Abbey)

My main sources include the images above, which were among The British Library's assets provided to everyone.  The first thing you might notice is that the abbey shown is a bit more intact than the abbey's present state.  The addition of the tower in the middle gives better scope for the level design.  I also managed to find an artists reconstruction of the abbey on the English Heritage website, which has helped me understand how the current architecture relates to that shown in the images above.

(A View near Whitby on the Yorkshire Coast, Francis Jukes, 1804)

The art style I have chosen to use was inspired by the image above by Francis Juke.  I particularly like the colouring of it.  There will be further details on this in the style guide, along with a mood board to help demonstrate the effect I'm going for.  Moving on to some designs and concepts, below is a quick concept showing the start of the game.

(Concept image of starting area with the bridge made of light active)

The starting area will be a small, circular area next to the small pond near the abbey.  The player is trapped there within a fog barrier with a pedestal and an artifact carved from Whitby Jet.  The bridge shown in the image (above) does not exist and is something that will appear when the first puzzle is complete to allow access to the next area.  To complete it, the player simply needs to put the artefact on the pedestal, demonstrating how future puzzles work.  Below is the design layout that goes with the concept showing the placement of objects, as well as notes on how each bit works.

(Level design for the start of the game)

Though specifics for the general layout of the abbey section is still being confirmed (finished design will be shown in a future post), I have definite ideas on how particular aspects of the puzzles will work with each other and roughly how many I will need.

(Rough designs for the abbey section of the game)

There will be an altar at the head of the abbey, which when activated, will reveal a platform with indentations in it.  These indents require artefacts that are found in other places (sometime needing the player to complete a puzzles to obtain) to power it.  Once all are found the player is moved to the tower where the player will collect the final artefact.  Players will then be shown a door that has appeared at the perimeter of the play area (a way out), which the player has to use the last artefact on to end the game.

(Concept of the final door that ends the game)

Unfortunately there is no guarantee I can actually achieve this, despite how small it is.  I only have 10 days to work on this project between now and the deadline (due to other commitments), including making and texturing all of the models, researching and implementing the puzzles, blogging my progress and fulfilling all of the submission requirements (videos, images, packaged build etc).

Wish me luck!

Whitby

(Picture of the seaside town of Whitby, in North Yorkshire)

As stated in my previous post, I have chosen to create something in CryEngine based on the Whitby asset pack provided by The British Library.  Ideally I would like to visit the town to conduct some primary research of my own; however I don't have the funds available to make this possible.  As a result I have been conducting extensive research online to make up for it.

All of the research had to be quite specific to my needs to make sure I didn't spend too much time researching rather than actually making the final piece.  This means that future blog entries will contain some of the research related to it's topic, making this entry a general overview.  My sources will include:

• The library asset packs.
• Photos taken during the visit to The British Library.
• Online searches for types of stone and vegetation in the area.
• Online image searches for reference materials.
• Google Maps and Street View to aid with world scale and to act as a substitute for visiting the town.
• Other source materials (e.g. The book, Bram Stoker's Dracula).

The Maps

So the first thing I needed to do was to pick which set of resources I wanted to work with.  The British Library provided us with some wonderful maps that made it very difficult to decide between them.  The library trip, which I thought would help my decision, actually made it harder because it turned out to be quite inspirational.  I was able to eliminate The Masque of the Red Death while I was at the library but the other two themes had plenty of arguments for picking one over the other.

So as I mentioned in my previous post, there were a selection of asset packs that we could download, which we needed to use as our inspiration; one for Fonthill Abbey, one for The Masque of the Red Death and one for Whitby.  I originally downloaded all three (together with the sounds that have been made available) so I could decide which to use.

I have come to a decision as to which one I'll be working with and the choice I've made is Whitby (quite obvious given the name of this blog).  As you may have guessed from the previous post, I'm looking to create something that includes gameplay, as games development is my chosen field.  Though Fonthill Abbey would have given me a better opportunity to concentrate on modelling a small area in great detail, the restriction in size made designing fun or interesting game elements very difficult.  Whitby on the other hand, despite being a whole town, will provide me with a better opportunity to re-use art assets more often, thus reducing the workload and subsequently allowing me to make something in the short time I have left.

Another inspiration was this video by The British Library that provided information about Whitby and some of the aspects they might like to see in one of the entries.  I particularly like the idea of Bram Stoker's Dracula, given the horror theme of this year's competition.

The British Library Visit

(Gothic architecture example across the road from The British Library)

On 2nd April The British Library hosted a workshop for the Off the Map participants so that we could view the source materials, some of which we had been able to download from the competition page previously.

The first section was a set of presentations by the library and GameCity, about the competition and the forthcoming 'Terror and Wonder: the Gothic Imagination' exhibition.  We were then able to ask questions based on the information to get a better idea of what we are required to do.  There is no set brief or direction that we're expected to take our creations in, only that they are clearly inspired by and relatable to the source material.

Afterwards we were able to view the maps themselves, as well as some supporting pieces from the library's archives.  Seeing the actual artifacts was quite inspirational and started giving me some ideas for each of the themes.  I took lots of photos of everything, as I hadn't yet decided which of the themes to choose.  The decision would go to whichever of my concepts I liked the most after I'd had time to think about them.

The Whitby materials had additional maps of Transylvania, due to the town's part in Bram Stoker's Dracula.  This increased the scope for which a full game could be made using multiple locations, or even try to be a bit different and set the entire thing in Transylvania.

(Map example of Transylvania)

I was quite fond of the idea of creating a virtual Whitby on the hill up towards the abbey, which gave me more ideas for a Dracula based hide & seek game, where players would be chasing the shadow of a beast.  A particular map I liked showed a panoramic view of the Whitby coastline together with images of important landmarks (see below).

(Panoramic style map of Whitby's coastline)

(Detail drawing from the panoramic map)

The Masque of the Red Death was the next set of resources I looked at, which were probably the most horror orientated assets on show.  When I looked through the asset pack online beforehand, I saw some great potential, especially with how strong (sometimes abstract) some of imagery was.  I also believed that this may be the hardest to create a game with, given the potential number of characters required, as well as the specific structure and length of the story itself.

(One of my favourite images on show for Masque of the Red Death)

Given that I have less time than most I decided against working on The Masque of the Red Death quite quickly, as all of the ideas I had for it would have taken too long for one person to do.

The last set of artifacts I looked at were for Fonthill Abbey.  I really wanted to have a shot at this one as there are a number of things the final creation could become.  It could be a portfolio piece to show off art assets (which would allow me to dedicate my time to 3D modelling and texturing, something I have not yet had a chance to do outside of my team managing and engine work during university projects).  It could be a recreation of the building and / or the surrounding grounds.  It could potentially be a number of different game types including horror, puzzle or exploratory.

(Map of the area around Fonthill Abbey)

My initial idea for a game for Fonthill Abbey was an ambitious one that would definitely require a team to complete, but I liked it so much that I held on to the idea for a while.  Without going into too much detail, players would explore the building and come across a creature that would chase them, breaking through doors etc.  The game would inevitably end with the destruction of the building.

Of the materials on show, my favourite was a book called 'The Delineations of Fonthill and its Abbey'.  Anyone wanting to recreate  the building could do so with an immense amount of detail because of the descriptions given in this book.  I found myself wanting to take photos of every page just so I be as accurate as possible.  At this point I had an idea of maybe picking an area within the abbey to concentrate on, making it possible for a single person to realistically create a finished playable piece.

 (Colourful interior view of St. Michael's Gallery in Fonthill Abbey)

(Decoration designs used on the ceilings of the building)

After the session I took the time to look at another exhibition where they were displaying the Magna Carta.  I thoroughly enjoyed this visit, it was well worth the journey to London to see it (all the way from Newport in Wales).  The next entry will be about the map I have chosen.