VIRIDIAN
[Student Project]
Embedded Files
Spring & Fall 2023
Viridian is an original IP I came up with to utilize in two University classes. In Game Design 1 the goal was a demo outline/GDD + a whiteboxed level. In Game Design 2 I worked on replacing the whitebox with Unreal store assets that I had to use in very smart ways to match the unique aesthetic I wanted. Most of this project is about presentation. I did spend a lot of time on gameplay programming, but primarily for the magnet mechanic which would be the selling point of the game.
This presentation shows off aspects, aesthetics, and gameplay ideas for the IP but does not represent a playable, cohesive experience. In the future, I hope to take the work I've done here and use it as a basis to design this game from the ground up with a full vision. Below is in-engine footage showing off the magnetic mechanics as well as demonstrating an atmosphere for this world.
Gallery - Sep, 2023
Whiteboxing
Whiteboxing
[Spring 2023] - Sophomore
I began learning Unreal Engine, and started with whiteboxing a tutorial level I designed for one of my recent IPs.
This level consists of a mushroom village atop floating islands. The game world will be focused around magnetism, the invisible force holding up this ring of meteorites in a massive chamber known as the Apparatus. Its inhabitants have been studying this bizarre location for decades, but its purpose is still unknown. To the creatures that live here, the glowing core in the center of the camber is their sun, and the meteorites their land. Revealing the secrets of the Viridian Isles appears to be many years away still, that is until the surface people arrive, a curse at first glance. The blessing comes in the form of the player who is the only individual willing to fight for the indigenous of the isles.
Puzzles and dialogue throughout the game will all tie back to a narrative about anti-colonialization and the tragic cause for the extinction of an intelligent species. At the heart of all my concepts is mystery and there is so much to learn here.
Of course the key to whiteboxing is using the most basic shapes possible to illustrate the tone and design of a level. The majority of these low poly objects were modeled in Blender then imported in UE4. Heavy use of blueprints made it easier to spread tens of instances across the level. These were the key elements I was focused on:
• Depth / Mystery = In of itself, movement throughout the level should be interesting despite any other mechanics. Not only does this bizarre concept attract intrigue, but it's designed to hide secrets. There is lots of verticality, bridges and platforms are strewn about to supply traversal to an otherwise unlivable environment. At all times there is something obscured from view, even at the highest point--there's always something for the player wonder about.
• Pacing = This is the tutorial village, meaning it's design needs to lead the player to multiple characters and scenes that facilitate some kind of world building information or mechanic.
• Believability = While the isles are not realistic, its components should be inspired by realism to some extent. This village is meant to feel livable. There will be a marketplace, botanical gardens, ritual hall, and a mill powered by moving magnetic currents.
The very first whitebox of the level was purely to indicate how the player would move around.
To better indicate the visual style as well as setting I created very low poly assets in Blender.
Viridian GDD Gameplay - Cencored.pdfGameplay Mechanics Overview
GDD Creation
GDD Creation
I'm very protective of my IP so I will refrain from showing any of my game design documents in full. This game concept has the most detailed GDD I've created so far, but primarily outlines the beginning chapter and tutorialization. For the full game there would be more specifics and breakdowns of all puzzles and interactions.
I think a primary skill I've developed and something I appreciate in other games is fitting the narrative information with the player's mechanical experience. Often games will delegate the narrative "stuff" to cutscenes or lore texts. I personally prefer when the entirety of the game is narrative in some way. What the player is doing mechanically shouldn't just be entertaining but progressing the themes or plot. I use M.D.A. often to organize this:
Mechanics [tools/input the player is given]
Dynamics [how the player uses the tools/input]
Aesthetics [how does this use make the player feel]
I am primarily an art driven person so I usually start with the aesthetics then build the mechanics based off them. In this game I wanted a story about how conflict between sapient beings lead to a cycle extinction--the story assumes humanity is progressing towards extinction as a cautionary warning that we are not eternal nor is any other species like us. There are two primary, mechanical sections here:
Magnetism - A lot of the puzzles and traversal in the game involve this magnetism. I spent a lot of time researching the science behind this force [which magnetism is not actually a force apparently but the illusion of one, like the centrifugal force]. Magnetism ties back to the main theme because it shows the player how fragile we are in the face of the forces around us. Magnetism may seem unimportant to us in everyday life, but the Earth would be uninhabitable without a magnetic field.
Faction Conflict - The second set of mechanics more directly involve the theme, where the player is asked to converse with different ideologies and come to a peaceful understanding. To do this the player has to be observant, they have to collect evidence and develop arguments. Ultimately, failing to quell this conflict adds to the scales of extinction.
Art Direction
Art Direction
While being PantherDev Vice President a primary element I felt was being neglected within student games was the art design--the narrative as well as the art influences and references. It's important to have not only a variety of influences from other works of art but also a collection of fundamental references i.e. real life pictures and diagrams.
For Viridian Isles I wanted to show a world of cartoonish fantasy arising out of the depressing ruins of the past. The world is dark on paper but light-hearted in visual style. A huge inspiration for this concept is the television show Adventure Time [2010 - present] created by Pendleton Ward. Adventure Time is able to fuse futurism, fantasy, and post-apocalyptical styles into one connected universe. Undeniably, underneath the careful use of fantasy and kid cartoon tropes, the show broadly explores a vast pool of ideologies and human developmental themes. Despite the world being bizarre, the characters fully believe themselves to belong there and they have relatable, emotional struggles.
The ruins of old in the Viridian Isles are not human, but some other intelligent species after us. The fungal growth throughout the lands, it's colossal scale and evolution hints at some kind of cause for the extinction of this civilization. Whatever it may have been, the remaining technology from this era is now magic to the sapiens of new.
Scientific Inspiration
Scientific Inspiration
Behind most of my concepts is some kind of scientific element. Magnetism was always something I never fully understood. Gravity makes sense, but a field of charged particles that follow a specific pattern was kind of weird--why does it induce such a specific pattern. Gravity on the other hand just exerts equally in all directions in a spherical way. Turns out I was thinking of the "field" entirely wrong.
It's not that the field lines are following a specific pattern but are taking the path of least resistance to the pole they are being attracted to. Magnetic force is quite similar to gravity, but what complicates it is the fact that a magnetic force requires a negative and positive pole. We've never discovered a mono-pole in nature--a magnet that would exert a force equally in all directions. The idea of a mono-pol object sounds very interesting and its something I would like to play around with in the plot. The idea of a physics-breaking object in existence automatically intrigues the audience--the idea that Cooper will be the first human to witness a naked singularity, the inside of a black hole in Interstellar [2014] demands attention.
Something I mentioned before was the fact that the "magnetic force" is not real. In reality magnetism is sub-force caused by the change of another. The electromagnetic force is really what causes magnetic attraction and repulsion. This single force has two fields: the electric and magnetic field. A change in one field causes a change in the other, but they are not the same.
Electric charges can be negative and positive and can exists by themselves. Magnetic poles also have negative and positive poles but they must exist in a pair. In a vacuum the magnetic field is 0 until there is a change in the electric field i.e. positive changes moving away from negative changes. A changing electric field will generate a perpendicular magnetic field. But it gets even weirder. A changing magnetic field can create perpendicular electric field. So basically the two fields can create each other in a loop.
Nature is great inspiration. Not only do these rules inform the different interactions that can be used within the game but it also adds an element of realism. The idea of a ring system held up by a magnetic field is not something you hear of often, because it's very hard to achieve. Gravitational and electric force have an inverse square exertions in a spherical direction allowing things to orbit easily. Unfortunately, magnetic force is has an inverse cubed exertion making orbits unstable.
Like in all science fiction there comes the point where you have to concede to the impossibility of certain concepts in real life. Often what writers do is introduce a fake rule [fewer is better] that will make their concept possible if that rule was real. In the case of Mass Effect [2007] the fake element, Element Zero, solves the idea that you need infinite energy to go the speed of light. Once this element is subjected to electrical force it can increase or decrease the mass of objects within its field. Viridian will require a smart rule such as this to feel conceivable. Of course not everything should be explained, but seeing as magnetism is the foundation of the game it demands research.
Kit-Bashing
Kit-Bashing
[Fall 2023] - Junior
I decided to carry on with Viridian going into my Game Design II course. My goal at the end of this course is a functioning tutorial prototype outlined in my GDD. To me, this will be a proof of concept/demo reel project. I want all of my IPs to be fully realized on their own terms eventually.
In order to fully detail the tutorial village I needed to use free assets from the Unreal Engine marketplace as well as Quixel Bridge. Not all of these assets fit the aesthetic I was outlining within my GDD so I had to get creative, utilizing post processing and blueprints.
These buildings are a combination of single assets from 'Stylized Fantasy Provencal,' 'Soul: City,' 'Soul: Cave,' 'Infinity Blade: Grass Lands,' and 'Old West' packs. I altered many materials to fit the art style of Viridian. Some assets are meant to be futuristic, some medieval, but I manipulated them enough to create a considerably cohesive look.
Post Processing
Post Processing
For the first time I played around with post processing shaders in Unreal. The level of detail on the different assets in the project is obvious so I wanted to mitigate that as much as possible.
At first I tried a cel shading effect but seeing as the normal maps and geometry were so high res, it did not fix the difference in quality. I decided to go for a simpler method of adding noise over every surface in the game with this simple setup above.
For the mushrooms, scaling them up so much caused them to look super smooth and plastic-y so this noise really helps add roughness to them.
I spent a lot of time on perfecting the color grading, bloom, light shafts, ambient light, volumetric height fog, etc. Post processing adds a lot, it enforces the art direction and can also easily allude towards realism.
Post Processing: OFF
Post Processing: ON
Post Processing: OFF
Post Processing: ON
Gameplay & Blueprints
Gameplay & Blueprints
Raycast To Interactable/Button Prompt System
Magnetic Object
Magnet Electrify/Pole Rotate Device
These blueprints are still very much a work in progress. I made an effort to keep this project as original as possible. Using past knowledge of Unreal I was able to create all of these scripts without a tutorial. The MagneticObject system especially required hours of testing and bug fixing. This system is pushing Unreal to its limit. Trying to parent objects to others and have them interact with physics has resulted in a variety of bugs primarily involving collision, but it finally works!
Page updated
Google Sites
Report abuse