Independent Games Project

Mood Board

In order to begin this independent project, I had to create a mood board of what i am to take inspiration from and possibly reference when making my game project.

Above is an attached image of my mood board for assets like weapons, environment inspirations, shields and what colours I may or not use during development.

Nintendo Style Game Research

For my game the style that i have taken inspiration from is Splatoon as most of the platforms and terrain is blocky and simply designed. I have implemented this by making any explorable ground simple and blocky so that the player has an easy time getting around. It is also a shooter game so this fits to my game plan.

Diagrams

We made diagrams to learn how to use activity diagrams for when it comes to coding and how to plan it out to make things easier for ourselves in the future. An activity diagram is a chart that functions similarly to a flowchart and presents a series of actions. Below is an example of a diagram I made during the lesson

Making my character

When it came to making my character, I took inspiration from the librarians and/or the patron librarians the from the game "Library of Ruina" as they have a simple design and are relatively easy to recreate in Maya.

Image of librarians

Close up of an librarian, specifically the one I am using for a basis of the character for my games project.

The reason I have decided to base my character design around these characters is because while they will be simple to model, they are from a game I know a lot about which will help me when developing this project. It also helps that they're a rather plain body shape, being rather square.

Below is the process of making the character model I will be using for development. It is not the best because I am not the best at Maya

I started out with just a cylinder as the head, I then rounded it off and changed it slightly to try and obtain a similar head shape to the reference image. It is not perfect as it would be near impossible to get the correct head shape at my level of expertise.

Next I added the torso and the legs, the torso consists of a warped cylinder which has been stretched in order to produce a torso shape. The legs are two cylinders each. The reason for the legs being separate pieces is that they would be like this for any sort of animation work needed

Next I assembled the arms, the arms consist of 3 parts which include 2 cylinders and a sphere cut in half and combined with the second cylinder of the arm. much like before, the reason for the body parts being separate is so that it would be easy to animate.

Peer Review [JM]: I like the way this model has been outlined and the general concept of the model that was illustrated from the concept art, however there could be a few suggestions and implementations that could be placed in, for example by finishing the state of the model and adding details such as facial features. However, I do like the way the head is shaped as I find that very realistic and is unique, compared to other models. 

GDD

A GDD is a Game Design Document, its main purpose is to help get across the ideas and concepts of the developer as best as they can to maybes persuade the person he is pitching to. Other uses include helping to keep track of ideas and improve persuasion. 

Unity

in unity and most game development studios, greyboxxing is a method used to help map out how a level or area will look like without having to make proper models while it is still in development which saves developers a lot of effort as they wont have to make a model for the greyboxxed level. An attempt of greyboxxing can be found below.

The area from Sunderland which I have greyboxxed is Wessington Way near the riverside. The greyboxxed models are the buildings on the riverside ranging from the bowling alley to MTC Training.

Scripting

UV Unwrapping Key Terminology

UV Shell/UV Island

UV shells or UV islands are a set of UV's that are connected in a UV map, look like the faces of the model and control where the textures are placed in the model. The 2d UV shell is where the textures are added.

UV Seams

UV seams are the edges of UV islands and can define how well a 3D model will be unwrapped. They also depict where a face ends and where it starts.

UV Packing

UV packing is the process of arranging UV islands within UV map and helps to find distortions and any stretching, making the texturing process easier.

UV Distortions

UV distortions is the phenomenon of UVs becoming distorted and affecting how a model looks by making it look as if it is stretched and/or compressed.

UV Texel Density

UV Texel Density  is linked to the amount of texturable area in a model by its texture pixels per unit of area on the models surface. Having a consistent Texel density helps to keep the quality of the model and its texture with little to no reason to change the texture several times.

Character Rigging

What is a pivot point in 3D software?

The pivot point in avatar rigging is the point around which a joint, bone, or control rotates. Proper placement and adjustment of pivot points contribute more to more natural and efficient character animation.

What is a parent-child hierarchy in 3D/Games Dev?

The parent is a control/component that influences the transformation of the children attached to it. It acts as a controller that effects the children.

The child is a component influenced by whatever is done to the parent. Whatever you do to the parent will also be done to the children attached to it.

Why would these concepts be useful for animating our character?

They would allow for easier control of the limbs making it substantially easier and less time consuming of a process.