Group Project - Space 2023

The brief

(Page 1)

(Page 3)

(Page 2)

The brief - Summary

In preassigned groups, make a demo of a game set in space. Cover as many game development design principles as possible within your teams. Short deadlines and a time plan will be essential for this. Teams will be chosen in a way to compliment individuals strengths. The game idea must have an ethical and environmental consideration and you must use this to underpin the narrative elements to the game. Ideas will be presented to a senior university lecturer (on Teams), who will give feedback and focus on specific areas of development, so that each team member has some personal feedback to help to improve their main area of focus.

Learn to work as a team and select a project manager. You will need to pick which members of your team focus on what design principle. Communicate! The preproduction part of this brief requires us (AS A TEAM) to:

evidence weekly Trello updates,
Gannt chart (used to keep track of and plan out the amount of time spent of certain things),
Milestone timeline planning doc,
Research paperwork, mood boards, sketches & comparative game case studies,
Team structure, roles & working practices,
Weekly meeting evidence.

There is a collection of different jobs, a memeber of the team will be assigned to the ones that corrilate to the skills needed to make this part.

I am only summarizing the parts which may/do apply to me. These roles are:

My area of focuses production log,
Concept art,
Character design,
3D models,
Environmental design,
Texture design,
A GDD,
Logo and branding.

(NOTE: I am going to colour the roles that I am definetly doing green and the stuff I might end up helping out with in yellow, since the team is so small me and my team mates are probably going to end up crossing fields at some point, most likely due to deadlines and a need to get things done or someone needing an extra hand, etc...)

The brief - Response

This brief is pretty straight forward, make a game about space. My team decided on the idea of World War 3 happening on Earth and the atomic bombs making Earth uninhabitable, while you play as a billionaire who escaped to space, you have to survive and navigate Earth finding supplies and rescuing any survivors. Due to this game having the narrative it does with nuclear war the ethical consideration is basically anti nuclear, whilst the environmental consideration is more about nuclear power as a renewable energy source and the waste products from it that harm everything around it. I will have to work in a team, this is something I do struggle with as I would rather go off and do my own thing most of the time. The roles that I have been assigned to is mainly the more traditional art roles, since I generally specialist in concept art anyways, but I have offered to help out with some modelling and the GDD as well, since I am able to do these things and it means if I finish before the others I am not left without anything to do, as concept art is usually finished before any modelling start (obviously we aren't doing that now, there is not enough time), it also means that if we need to push some things along before the end I can help to finish some things off.

Trello

Trello - Week 2 Part 1

(NOTE: I was not here the first week of college, since I had a funeral out of county to attend, so I missed the initial ideas phase of the project, so my Trello board recording will start a week later than my other team memebers, although I will upload a photo of the first time I added to it (start of week) and the end of this week. After this first missing step I will upload Trello board updates weekly.)

(Main Board view)

(The idea opened, plus covered information from before)

(Concept art, Kipo inspiration opened)

Quite a productive first day working on the Trello, as I found some inspiration for my muted animal design, along with some photographic evidence to go with it and added it to the Trello. Due to this being my first day working on the Trello there isn't much on here from me yet, but the stuff my team mates have added to the page is important information to the game.

Trello - Week 2 Part 2

(Adding a checklist for group GDD creation to complete)

No GDD has been written yet, so I thought I should create a checklist for all of the things we will need to include in it. I used an old example that Joe showed us for a game he made at university and added all of the sections relevant to our game into our GDD and onto the checklist. I also wrote all of the titles for all of the things we need in our GDD into the shared Word document, that way they won't miss anything out, if they don't look at this checklist.

Trello - Week 3

(Enemy animal concept research & decided upon locations)

(GDD checklist plus easily accessible link to GDD shared collaboration word doc)

This week I have been focusing on the research for my concept art, plus I also added the link to the GDD document to the Trello, otherwise you have to find it in email and its impossible, hopefully this will make it easier to find. So far I have looked at 7 to 14 animals for 3 of the 7 locations on Earth, as animals (other than common international pets) will be specific and native to their location. The moon doesn't have animals and it's to complicated to keep livestock alive on the moon base, so I don't need to think of any that the player could take to live up there. I have picked the location I have so far for a few reasons: one they create a natural difficulty level, two, they all have a different range of resources available that the player would need and three the animals living in these locations are diverse from each other.

Trello - Week 3 - GDD updates

Another thing that I have been doing this week is starting to add things to the GDD. Some of the sections are things that only I can do, since it directly involve my concept art and the others art working on it, so I though that I should at least start these bits, they don't really interact much with what I am doing, since i'm designing the stuff we need to show in our pitch, that they don't have enough time to model and can't do, this is mainly all of the organic life.

(GDD doc currently progression, level system)

To start I decided to add to the level design section, as the animals I am designing will have a natural difficult system, that directly corresponds with the food chain hierarchy and deadliness, plus considering the types of animals in some of the locations I picked, some of them are going to be a lot more difficult than others. For example one of the countries I picked is Australia, pretty much everything is deadly or poisons over there, so it would be a lot harder to survive there than a place like the UK where the only deadly venomous thing we have is an Adder and their not even that dangerous, plus the only dangerous animals we have are deer and wild boar, but you very rarely see them.

(The more artsy side of the project, this is the main section that I need to fill in as I will be desiding on the final look)

(GDD doc currently progression - Hardware and Software pretty much done unless anyone else adds something)

I also added to the enemies paragraph since pretty much everything I am designing is an enemies to the player, so this was something I had to do. I also started on environments, so far I have picked the UK, Africa, Australia, U.S.A and both of the poles as my environments, as previously mention this is because they are diverse, have different difficulties and different useful resources. Props was another thing I started as this was pretty easy and quick to do, although I might see if my team mates have anything else to add. Hardware and Software was something I completed, as I already know everything everyone is using. You will notice that there is no game engine on this list, this is because no-one on our team is a coder or can do complex engine work, so we aren't making a game demo, only a diorama, props and concept art. The brief didn't say that we must cover every design principle only that we should do as many as we can. I'm probably going to fill in the sections Time plan (Gannt chart) and Plan at the end, since this has been such a rushed and chaotic project to get everything done that planing has kinda gone out of the window by this point, I'll just record what I did and when for these two sections at the end, but I can';t do the other member of my team so their own plans and Gannt charts are up to them.

Trello - Week 4

I haven't really done much on Trello this week as I've been focusing on production, so far it is going slowly and it is going to be a push to get things done, but i'll work it out, I always do. Anyway back to the Trello blog. The only thing I've really added to Trello this week was adding in one note about the environmental design. It basically mentions how Chernobyl, Nagasaki and Hiroshima has become a big inspiration in my research for my future environmental design (haven't done any environmental design yet), and that most of the built up locations are going to look similar, since they are all bomb sights and everything is destroyed, they only difference would be that the colours, types and shapes of the debris might look a bit different. The diorama that is being made is of a bombed city so I'm not sure if I am going to do a range of destroyed cities yet or I'm going to focus on the environments that are more diverse, like the poles. FYI, I've decided to ditch the idea of using the U.S.A as a location and changed it to Brazil, specifically the Amazon rain forest.

(A page on environmental concept art design choices added)

(Updated GDD checklist, some things are written but I think it needs improving, that is why it is not marked off with a strike-through)

(Expanded on location dictated animals, and received a comment from one of my team mates in response)

I've also done some more work on the GDD this week, as none of my other team mates have yet, and I though it was looking a little bare, although there are a few bits I won't be able to do on my own so I'll leave those bits till the day of the presentation and if they aren't done then, I'll have to do what I can to fill them in. I've updated the checklist depending on what I have done now.

Trello - Week 4 - GDD updates

(P.g.1. High concept, platform, done. Genre and mechanics need expanding on)

(P.g.2. Need to add more to level design, need rest of group to help with this bit, objectives done (long term on next page))

(P.g.3. Objectives, lighting, camera & particle effects added to needs refinement)

(P.g.4. Enemies and environments, pretty much done just need to do Brazil as change location from the U.S.A to Brazil last minute)

(P.g.5. Props done to best of my ability, can't think of any more to include at the moment, aesthetic and style + Hardware and software done)

(P.g.6. Roles done, going to do time plan at end of project it has been to much of a chaotic rush to get things done to be able to plan it)

These are the pages of the GDD that I have done, some of the sections are pretty much complete while other need a bit more refinment. I'm not sure what is bothering me about this document but I just feel like I'm missing something and I'm not sure what it is yet. At the moment I think I'm going to have to complete the rest of this GDD on my own, as the team is pretty disjointed. I wouldn't really call us a team, just 3 people all working on the same project, as the modelers can't wait for me to design something then model it, because there isn't enough time with this project to do it, and there is no coder to put all of our work together in a game engine. I think the project is going to be a combination of multiple mediums that give you an idea of what the game would have been like.

Trello - Week 5: Final week

Research

(1., 2. & 6.) Research - What is radiation?

The term radiation refers to the emission of energy, either as electromagnetic waves or as moving subatomic particles. Radiation can contaminate land and water, allowing it to spread and contaminate anything grown or living off the land or drinking the water, this can cause genetic mutations, a shortened life span, destroy any reproductive capabilities or death for anything that comes into contact with it. Radiation can also effect plants animals and humans. If anyone comes into contact with high levels of radiation it will usually means sudden death for them in some way, either by the explosive impact (atomic bomb) or by the side effects caused by it. These side effects can include: radiation poisoning, radiation burns, mutations, cancer, keliods (scar tissue), premature organ failure (eyes, thyroid, lungs, stomach, reproductive organs, skin & bone marrow) and cell damage (1.), although quite a few of these can be treated, you will most likely have to be on medication for the rest of your shorten life (In the case of mutations caused by radiation, I have noticed that they are mutations occur naturally, but the radiation increases how often they occur).

(The effect of radiation on the human body (1.))

The best example of this is the people who had to go onto the roof of Chernobyl since when the reactor exploded it blew the roof off of the building, all of the radioactive material had to be placed back into the building that would eventually be placed inside a tomb that would stop the radiation partials from spreading any further. They got volunteers to shovel this material off of the roof and back into the building, they couldn't spend more then 30 seconds exposed on this roof other wise they would get radiation poisoning, so they would run out onto the roof shovel up one pile throw it back into the building and run back inside. These people were called "biorobots". Most of the people who took part in this process died earlier than they should have (2.). On the other hand there is a man called Tsutomu Yamaguchi who survived two nuclear bombings within a few days of each other. During the bombing of Hiroshima he was less than 2 miles from ground zero. He soon left the bomb site and walked back to Nagasaki to reunite with his family and to seek medical attention for the severe burn to his hands and face, they were so bad that his family did not recognize him, thankfully although he was caught in the Nagasaki blast he wasn't injured and his family had survived the blast, but all were exposed to radiation. After a few day the radiation began to take its toll, his hair fell out, his burns became gangrenous and he started repeatedly vomiting, but unlike most he began to survive and lead a normal life again, nearer to the end of his life he became a spokes person for the anti-atomic weapons movement. He finally died at 93 year old. Most people don't survive or died prematurely as a result of exposure to radiation, but this man seems to be the exception. Not only did he survive but he live quite a long time even by today's standards (6.).

(2., 3., 4. & 6.) Research - What are some places that have been effected by radiation?

(3. & 2.) Chernobyl's experimental nuclear power plant - Probably the most famous nuclear disaster in the world, when nuclear reactor 4 melted it core due to technical error and contaminated all of the land around it. It is now uninhabitable, but some of the old residents have returned to the edges of the area, once nature retook the city animal moved back in, as a result it have now become a sort of nature reserve.
(4.) The bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki - To put the end to the Japanese in World War 2 America dropped the first atomic bomb on Hiroshima, the explosion alone killed 80,000 people, tens of thousands would follow soon after due to the side effect of the radiation. Just 3 days later the second bomb was dropped on Nagasaki immediately killing around 40,000 people. Japan surrendered on August 15th. "A new and most cruel bomb."
(3.) Fukushima - A nuclear power plant damaged by a tsunami 9 years ago, causing reactor meltdowns. The most radioactive place on earth.
(3.) Mailuu Sui Kyrgyzstan - A town built on nuclear waste (WHHYYY! is my response to that.) Uranium veins were found on this site, as a result it was soon mined for the material, and waste material from this process was hidden underground and around the site. This area is prone to seismic activity which will disturb the radioactive waste, it will cause it to contaminate all of the water sources around it (the land has already been contaminated, but the minute it enters the water source the radiation has the chance to spread further then it would have been able to before).
(3. & 5.) The Windscale fire - In 1957, the UK Windscale nuclear power plant went up in flames after a routine heating of reactor 1 got out of control causing an explosion, then a fire that lasted 3 days, the only precaution that was put in place was to stop milk production for several weeks, people weren't evacuated. When the reactors were finally entombed a massive amount of damage had already been done, the land and water was contaminated as well as Irish waters (Sellafield) being polluted by the radiation leak.

The effects of radiation on the human body - the dangers and uses of radiation - CCEA - GCSE physics (single science) revision - CCEA - BBC bitesize (no date) BBC News. Available at: https://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/guides/z6k6cqt/revision/1 (Accessed: 11 January 2024).
Inside Chernobyl’s Mega Tomb (2021). BBC. 28 April. Available at: https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b08650s6 (Accessed: 11 January 2024).
Grčar, A. (2023) These are (still) the 12 most radioactive places on Earth, TheTravel. Available at: https://www.thetravel.com/radioactive-places-on-earth/ (Accessed: 11 January 2024).
Editors, History. com (2009) Bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki - causes, Impact & Lives Lost, History.com. Available at: https://www.history.com/topics/world-war-ii/bombing-of-hiroshima-and-nagasaki (Accessed: 11 January 2024).
The Editors of Encyclopedia Britannica (2023) Windscale Fire, Encyclopædia Britannica. Available at: https://www.britannica.com/event/Windscale-fire (Accessed: 11 January 2024).
Andrews, E. (2015) The man who survived two atomic bombs, History.com. Available at: https://www.history.com/news/the-man-who-survived-two-atomic-bombs (Accessed: 11 January 2024).

Research: Native animals to the accessible locations

(A map of the world with the locations being used in the game circled, plus the North and South pole are also location that will be used in the game, but they aren't on this map)

I've circled some locations on the map where the mutated animals I am designing are from. I've tried to include as broad an area as possible so that the animals in each location are unique to that location, although I am going to include some common house pets that can be found everywhere around the planet like dogs & cats, etc... In each location I want a range of aquatic, flying and land animals, so that there is more of a range of enemies and differences to each attack. I also intend to create a enemy hierarchy system by including more smaller weaker animals and only a few large ones to act as the boss for that area. Some areas will end up being harder than other because I am trying to keep the animals original traits even though they are muted, I want to use the radiation as a way to amplify these traits, so obviously places like Australia where everything is deadly and it is literally where Satan's petting zoo is going ot be a much harder area to enter instead of the UK where the most deadly thing we have is the adder.

Research: Native animals to the accessible locations - The United Kingdom

(Wild Boar)

(Noctule Bat)

(European hedgehog)

(Red squirrel)

(Common frog)

(Red deer)

(Badgers)

(Otter)

(Brown Trout)

(Adder Female)

(Adder Male)

(Buzzard)

(Pheasant)

(Robin)

(Magpie)

(Barn owl)

Mammals – British animals - woodland trust (no date) Woodland trust. Available at: https://www.woodlandtrust.org.uk/trees-woods-and-wildlife/animals/mammals/ (Accessed: 17 January 2024).
Reptiles and amphibians - British animals - woodland trust (no date) Woodland Trust. Available at: https://www.woodlandtrust.org.uk/trees-woods-and-wildlife/animals/reptiles-and-amphibians/ (Accessed: 17 January 2024).
Fish - british animals - woodland trust (no date) Woodland Trust. Available at: https://www.woodlandtrust.org.uk/trees-woods-and-wildlife/animals/fish/ (Accessed: 17 January 2024).
Birds – British animals - woodland trust (no date) Woodland Trust. Available at: https://www.woodlandtrust.org.uk/trees-woods-and-wildlife/animals/birds/ (Accessed: 17 January 2024).

Research: Native animals to the accessible locations - Australia

(Blue-ringed octopus)

(Green sea turtle)

("A platypus. Perry the Platypus!")

(Kangaroo)

(Kookaburra)

(Common lion fish)

(Salt water crocodile)

(Eastern king brown)

(Koala bear)

(Cassowary)

(Pink cockatoo)

(Red-tailed black cockatoo)

(Sulphur-creseted cockatoo)

Dineley, J. (2013) Australia’s dangerous animals: the top 30, Australian Geographic. Available at: https://www.australiangeographic.com.au/topics/wildlife/2013/03/australias-dangerous-animals-the-top-30/ (Accessed: 17 January 2024).
Australian parrots (no date) Australia’s Wonderful Birds. Available at: https://www.australiaswonderfulbirds.com.au/parrots (Accessed: 17 January 2024).

Research: Native animals to the accessible locations - China

(South china tiger)

(Forest musk deer)

(Golden snub-nosed monkey)

(Chinese Pika)

(Black-necked crane)

(Golden/Chinese pheasant)

(Siberian tiger)

(Giant panda)

(Red panda)

(Crested Ibis)

(Chinese green tree viper)

(Chinese giant salamander)

(Koi carp)

Animals Native to China - WorldAtlas
30 Animals That Only Exist In China – Femanin
Wildlife in China - Types of Chinese Animals - A-Z Animals (a-z-animals.com)

Research: Native animals to the accessible locations - Africa

Inspiration

Inspiration - Visible deformities & illnesses caused by radiation

For the creatures on Earth who have been effected by radiation I have decided that I am not only going to do mutation, but I am going to use some of the visible health issues that radiation exposure can cause (table for possible health problems in section called Research - What is radiation?) in my character design. I'm hoping to use this as a sort of hidden timeline for the progress of the radiation poisoning on Earth. It is more likely for an animal or human to develop a mutation if they are conceived/born in a radioactive area or by a host who has been exposed to and damaged by radiation, problems that can cause mutations in offspring are cell or reproductive organ damage, as this messes up their DNA and which can impact the child's development. It is less likely for a creature that was around before the radiation leak to be mutated severely after being exposure, since their body is already full developed and they are more likely to either die or suffer with health problems, than become mutated. It is easier to mutate something that is developing than something that has already finished development.

Inspiration - KIPO and the Age of Wonder beasts (a NETFLIX series)

KIPO is set in a world where a mutagen got loose and mutated all of the animals turning them into mutes. Animals with sentience. Mega mute are the animals that were physically effected more then mentally like the normal mutes, this gave them superior size and exaggerated features like to many or less eyes, legs, noses, wings, etc... this is why I am specifically looking at mega mutes. I really like the designs of this series because although the mega mute are mutated the type of mutation they have exist in the real world, they have just been amplified for the visuals and style of the series.

(Kipo Oak - Mega mute: Jaguar (7.))

(Beak Beak - Mega mute: pigeon (8.))

(Mega mute: Walrus (11.))

(Song Oak - Mega mute: Monkey (13.))

(Mega mutes: Corgi and Old English Sheepdog (10.))

(Mega mute: Turtle (9.))

(Mega mute: Bunny (12.))

ART, C. (no date) KIPO and the Age of Wonderbeasts, Google Lens. Available at: https://lens.google.com/search?ep=subb&hl=en-GB&re=df&p=AbrfA8qOXPj_UPZfvrrrfuvFQr4rNPj9Jb8f7bouVFpDZVXSXXmFtYg9GSp58enVwMhFvww8ISwe8XyKuUTUhfisqSejON1C6YptHOqW2ap0XgZoJkiOM28QmXUMy24lNa0bI4WW6faPVCdVMmd2u10D7J_svBge1MbL1vxtvibH7vsoUpI5DcZr-08KydfWnNvqAl00xH7yLRUiqQ%3D%3D#lns=W251bGwsbnVsbCxudWxsLG51bGwsbnVsbCxudWxsLG51bGwsIkVrY0tKR1JtWkRnME1qZ3dMVEkwTmprdE5ETmpaUzA1WldObUxUY3lNamN5TURsa09URTNOQklmWjNwdlRGTkdPVWsxVkc5bVRVbG5SM0JuU1V4dVVETnZjelkyUlhwNFp3PT0iLG51bGwsbnVsbCxbW251bGwsbnVsbCwiMC0wIl0sWyJlNGQyNGFiMC1mYmMyLTQ3YjctOGRkZC1mMzJkNGVmYzE0ZjciXV1d (Accessed: 11 January 2024).
Magicman4201 (2020) Mega Pigeon, Kipo and the Age of Wonderbeasts Wiki. Available at: https://kipo.fandom.com/wiki/Mega_Pigeon (Accessed: 11 January 2024).
Fugue-itive (2020) Mega tortoise, Kipo and the Age of Wonderbeasts Wiki. Available at: https://kipo.fandom.com/wiki/Mega_Tortoise (Accessed: 11 January 2024).
Sechrist, R. (2020) Watch Kipo and the age of wonderbeasts: Netflix official site, Watch Kipo and the Age of Wonderbeasts | Netflix Official Site. Available at: https://www.netflix.com/gb/title/80221553 (Accessed: 11 January 2024).
Mdwyer5 (2022) Kipo Mega Walrus, by Mdwyer5 on DeviantArt. Available at: https://www.deviantart.com/mdwyer5/art/Kipo-Mega-Walrus-924424568 (Accessed: 11 January 2024).
Elia0224 (2020) Mega Bunny, Kipo and the Age of Wonderbeasts Wiki. Available at: https://kipo.fandom.com/wiki/Mega_Bunny (Accessed: 11 January 2024).
Sechrist, R. (2020a) Watch Kipo and the age of wonderbeasts: Netflix official site, Watch Kipo and the Age of Wonderbeasts | Netflix Official Site. Available at: https://www.netflix.com/gb/title/80221553 (Accessed: 11 January 2024).

Concept art - Final outcomes

Due to the short deadline on this project I am not creating concept art for everything that is going to be modeled, plus this game is aesthetic of this game is realistic so for things like general props and environmental assets the modelers on my team (Toby & Sam), can just get some pre-made profiles off of the web to use and model from that. This means that they can start modelling from the very beginning of the project and don't have to wait for me to create the concept art for everything, so we will be ahead with our project and be able to finish on time. On the other hand, I will be creating concept art for the animals and environments. For this project I am going to a character sheet for each environment, with one sketch for each animal, around 7 sketches of 7 different animals. The aesthetic of this game is realistic so I can't go to overboard with the mutations. Honestly realism is not my strong suit, it doesn't interest me so I am struggling to get motivated to do this. Depending on how much time I have I would like to texture my designs, if I have enough time. I'm going to use Procreate to draw my concept art, as I am currently trying to master the software and this will give me some experience, plus it is available on portable device so I can take it on the go with me.

Concept art - Experimentation sketches: China

This character sheet is for China, I picked the:

Sketch 1 - The Chinese Pika. I chose this animal because I needed some smaller mammals to help balance out the difficult system for this country as it is a medium difficulty location, plus it so cute that I had to include it. The mutation that I gave to this animal was two sets of ears, this is inspired by the mega bunny form Kipo as I thought that they has similar body shape and this would be a nice reference to my inspiration,
Sketch 2 - The Giant Chinese Salamander - I have been using amphibians as a natural Geiger counter in my concept art, as it is much easier for them to pick up radiation particles and become mutated, so that they become translucent. I wanted to try an include this feature in each region in some way, but not have a frog in every country, so I thought using a salamander would be a good idea for this, as their body structure are similar. I personally love this design, it is probably one, if not my definite favourite, since this animal is the literal interpretation of the emotion grumpiness, plus I love they idea of having translucent marine wildlife. The only thing I would have done slightly differently for this design is put the layer for the skeleton as an underlay not overlay as the head looks a bit messy,
Sketch 3 - Is a Koi carp and a reference to a famous mutated fish that only had one eye in the middle of its head, but it is also a reference to the story of the three eyed fish caught by a fisherman in Argentina, in a reservoir fed by a nuclear power plant, since I left the eye socket and took the eye balls out. The texture of this fish would also be translucent but less so than the salamander, I would also like to have given them a slight glow,
Sketch 4 - A giant panda, a symbol of China. I wanted to include some animals that people would think of straight away when you say the name China, so I settled on the Panda. I wasn't quite sure what to do for the panda, so I gave it a massive radiation burn down its back, plus balding, some infected scratches (if I had had enough time to texture every animal I would have made them glow) and finally I also gave it a deformed back leg, that hadn't properly formed the foot,
Sketch 5 - The golden snub-nosed monkey. I wanted to exaggerate the key elements of this animals design and since it is a monkey this is the fingers and thumbs as no other animal has thumbs, so I decided on giving them extra fingers. Other than that I couldn't really think of anything else to change about the design so I left it there,
Sketch 6 - The black-necked crane. I needed something that could fly for this region so I picked a crane, as it is an image you see commonly used in traditional Chinese art. I gave the bird a cross-beaked and scissor beak mutation, this is because this is a relatively common mutation seen in poultry eating birds today, due to the way they are breed, I thought I could use this. The other mutation I gave this bird was an extra set of deformed legs. I did this because big bird, with long legs often fight with they legs by jumping and kicking each other, by giving the bird extra legs I was thinking that they could use this to their advantage when attacking the player,
Sketch 7 - The south China tiger. I couldn't really think of what mutations I could give this creature, so I thought of giving it a mutation that is caused by problematic breeding and incest. This is because in the 90's rich people and celebrities wanted white tigers as pets and the only way guarantee the production of a white tiger is to breed two together and since they were so rare, this often made breeder conclude that incest was the best option (like seriously what is wrong with them), the best example of this is Kenny the white tiger. It is a subtle mutation, but you can tell that something is wrong with the animal.

This character sheet is probably my favourite for all of the designs, they are all informed and something that could realistically happen. I also went a little less conventional to real life for this sheet, by exaggerating a key part of each animals design, I had quite a few complex designs and a few simple ones to balance it out. My favourite animals are definitely the salamander and the crane. The salamander because I love the outcome of the overlapping, semi-transparent layers, this is a skill that I already knew how to use, as it works virtually the same as Photoshop. I like the crane because of the multiplied, deformed legs and the possible functionality in battle that they can use them for. Definitely one of my more thought through designs.

Concept art - 3 Final variants: Africa

This character sheet is for Africa, I picked the:

Sketch 1 - I struggled with the hippo sketch, I knew that I wanted to exaggerate the size and shape of the teeth, but I wasn’t quite sure what I could do past this, as other than the weird shaped head they don’t look unique. The only other thing I could really do for this design was burn textures on the skin,
Sketch 2 - For the zebra I had a bit more of an idea of what I wanted it to look like. I ended up deforming the joint in the front left leg so the joint bent the opposite way to what it is supposed to, plus I also deformed the hoof and gave them something called keratin fingers. Leg deformities are some of the most common in horses due to how fragile they are, so I though it would be best to do that,
Sketch 3 - I couldn’t think of any mutations I could give the lion, so I just ended up making the animal experience the effects of radiation exposure. I settled on weight loss, as I hadn’t used this effect on any animal prior on any other designs. This design was just generic and I don’t really have any strong feelings about it,
Sketch 4 - My design for the elephant is pretty much the same as the my one for the hippo, it is just the tusks that are enlarged this time. I did this for pretty much the same reason as the hippo to,
Sketch 5 - I had a lot of fun with t he ostrich design, as I was getting bored with all of the generic designs. I ended up giving it to head, not for any particular reason other than I was bored,
Sketch 6 - I gave the flamingo a deformed neck, with a bunch of cricks as this is quite a common deformity in bird, especially chickens,
Sketch 7 - For the giraffe I added two extra stumps on the top of the head and an extra tail. This was another design, I wasn’t hugely sure on what to do with. I liked the idea of the two tails but I wish I had made them longer and more noticeable now. I also would have preferred to have given the giraffe the two heads instead of the ostrich , as this would add a gameplay element to the design, because when giraffes attack each other they swing their necks at each other like maces, but I couldn‘t have two animals with two heads on the same character sheet. By having two heads it makes them a harder enemy to beat.

Overall, I think this character sheet is the weakest of them all, the designs where just a bit to generic for my liking and the sheet is to oversaturated with basic designs and not enough complex ones. There is no balance. I would have also like to texture at least one of the animals on this sheet as the black on dark beige is pretty boring.

Concept art - Animal practice sketches: The UK

This character sheet is for the UK, I picked the:

Sketch 1 - Barn owl
Sketch 2 - Adder
Sketch 3 - European robin. I gave this bird extra toes as this is a common mutation in birds. An example of this in the real world is the Silkie breed of chicken. Chickens are only supposed to have 4 toes, 3 at the front and 1 at the back, but Silkies often have 5 - 7 toes due to breeding, they are also often absolutely nuts. They are like the pedigree dogs of the chicken world, as a result they have been over breed and this has caused gene mutations,
Sketch 4 - Red deer. There weren't many dangerous animals that I could use in the UK for enemies for the player to fight, so I just tried to find the largest and most aggressive animal possible, so I decided on the red deer. I ended up doing two sketches for the red deer as I had a massive gap left in the middle of my sheet, as all of the animals I picked are relatively small, plus I thought I could do a better version of the antlers, so I ended up including both. I like both sets of antlers, but I prefer the version on the untextured deer better, because the still had a natural shape to them even though they are mutated and didn't obstruct the movement of the animal. I loved the texturing I did on the first deer. I've always struggled with texturing thing, so I tried something new out and it turned out really well, it actually looks like fur and I even managed to get a glowing effect for the dribble and eye. I started by making a layer called base colour and coloured filled all of the sections of the deer in there respective colours, darker than the layer that will sit over the top. The next step for the fur was to create a new layer and use a textured brush called
Sketch 5 - Red squirrel
Sketch 6 - Badger
Sketch 7 - Wild boar

Concept art - Finalization: Australia

This character sheet is for Australia, I picked the:

Sketch 1 - Green sea turtle
Sketch 2 - Eastern King Brown
Sketch 3 - Great white
Sketch 4 - Cockatoo
Sketch 5 - Kangaroo
Sketch 6 - Salt water crocodile
Sketch 7 - Koala bear

Games Design Document (GDD) The PowerPoint pitch presentation (Collapsible group -->)

Link to origonal document - Space game GDD.docx

I didn’t end up having enough time to complete the GDD, with the amount of research, blog work and concept art I had to do. The other issue I had was that the whole team was supposed to work on this (link was emailed to team and in Trello), but I seem to be the only person that added anything to it and I can’t write a whole GDD on my own with the other work I have to do. If I had had help with this it probably would have been finished.

The PowerPoint pitch presentation (Collapsible group -->)

This is the link to the origonal presentation, you can have a look if you would like, but pictures of the slides are also below - Group space game powerpoint presentation.pptx

The PowerPoint pitch presentation - Armando's response

The PowerPoint pitch presentation - Armando's response: Whole group - EBI

To many mechanics,
Need to look at some comparative games,

The PowerPoint pitch presentation - Armando's response: Specific to me - EBI

My concept art should have changed the shape of the animal more, instead of just burns, and exaggerating key features of the animals bodies,
I need to focus on one type of animal, whether that is flying, aquatic or land, otherwise I will have such a range that there will be just to much to make,

The PowerPoint pitch presentation - Armando's response: Whole group - WWW

Confidently spoken game pitch.

The PowerPoint pitch presentation - Armando's response: Specific to me - WWW

Can't think of anything, I he didn't seem to like my concept art much.

The PowerPoint pitch presentation - Armando's response: My reply

I can’t really reply on the feedback he gave to the team on my own, as giving some examples of comparative games needs to be done in the GDD and decided along by the whole team, but since we only have a day left there is no way we would have enough time to add this in and I can’t exactly decide on what these games will be without the whole team, as we all need to document this. Personally, I’d say comparative games would be the legend of Zelda botw & totk, since they have similar mechanic and survival elements and for the space part of the game I see more a similarity to Starlink battle for atlas. In regard to the mechanic, he didn’t say that having this amount is a bad idea, just that we should pick some to priorities over others for the amount we have. I think he was just u-set that we mentioned all these mechanics but couldn’t make them, because we had no coder on our team.

When looking at feedback specific to me I agree with the fact that I should have made my designs more interesting, I won’t have enough time now to go back and fix this though, but I would say that I may have subconsciously limited the amount of creativity that I could put into this project, because I wanted to make my design a realistic and seem as if you could actually see them in our world. I think I sort of forgot that if I am finding my own designs lacking creativity, then they are not going to be immersive for the player. I kind of agree with his second point to, but not fully. I think I should have kept the idea of having animals for the land, sea and skies, as it would be weird if you don’t encounter enemies in all of these environments, but I should have decreased the amount I made to one, maybe two and made 3 possible variant of the same animal instead of a bunch of different ones, that way I wouldn’t be repeating things like burns as often and you could see how these thing apply differently to each animal better. It would also allow me to try out some different ideas and refine my design better than the method I used.

Conclusion:

In conclusion, I’d class this project as a failure. At least for me. I struggled with it a lot and my team wasn’t really a team. I ended up having to do a lot of the stuff we should be doing as a team on my own. In all honesty I hated doing it for quite a large portion of the time. This project is a failure to me because I barely got to finish anything I wanted to, I couldn’t get all of the enemy animal character art sheets done that I wanted to and I didn’t even get a chance to start on anything else. My design became repetitive, because I placed invisible limitations on myself and wasn’t enjoying the project and didn’t want to do it. I wasn’t inspired to create anything. I had to do a lot of the bits of work that should have been a group collaborative on my own. I was the only one who added stuff to the GDD and I also had to write the whole PowerPoint presentation myself (apart from my team mates own individual section), I also seemed to be the only person updating the Trello after week 2, so I had no idea about what was going on with my team mates. Due to the fact that I had to make so many of these things on my own, I didn’t actually get enough time to spend on the concept art.

The bad outweighs the good on this project for me, but I did get a few things out of it. This project allowed me to experiment, practice and better how I draw texture and has helped to give me an idea of how I can refine my own personal style. Before this project, I really struggled with introducing texture into my projects, it is just something that I couldn’t get before now, but this project has resulted in me drawing some of the best texture I ever have. My best example of me using this new skill is the red deer textured sketch on the UK character sheet. When making the sketches for this project, I started experimenting with my use of lines and their placement, as well as how I outline my work. This has resulted in me further developing my own personal style, as I have noticed that I like using purposeful lines that are the bare minimum that I need and realized that I don’t need to draw the whole outline of what ever it is I am drawing, as I can use texture to fill in the gaps, plus if I am particular about where the gaps are in the outline I can use them to show where highlights would be. I think the next thing I want to try with this is adding colour to some of my outlines, instead of just using black all the time.

Overall, I’d say that this project did end up as a bit of a mess for me, as my major issues was just bad planning and my team was not communicating with each other. If I had not had to produce a whole GDD and PowerPoint by myself, I could have spent more time improving my character designs, as I am not happy with how quite a few turned out, everything is to generic. Though I will admit that this project has allowed me to refine my texturing and drawing skills, which will be very useful to me in future projects and work. I would definitely not do this project again, I didn’t like it and I work better individually, but if I was to do this project again, I would plan out time better so that the whole group had to work on the group parts together instead of just me (will admit I am a bit salty about this). I’m not sure how I would get the team to work in a less separated way, as I can’t force them to do stuff and if they haven’t done the group parts of the work, I have to pick up the slack so it doesn’t effect my grade, even if they don’t care. This is something I will have to think of a solution to.

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