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Current Members: Alexander Jose, Andrew Dunn, Benjamin Mayhew, Jett Lewis-Fisher, Ruby Herbert
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Tumbletail Announcement
Tumbletail Announcement
TumbleTail is a fun, stylised 3D platformer based on Australian themes and culture. You take on the role of the responsible older sister [MC name] to a troublesome younger brother, who has run off lost into the Australian bush on his own dangerous adventure. Leaving rubbish and havoc wherever he goes, it is now up to you to find clues to his whereabouts, and explore the Australian landscape to bring him home.
TumbleTail is currently in development for Windows PC, however the date for completion is still underway. We plan to release more details and behind-the-scenes about our game in the coming weeks. Our first goal is to work on pre-production elements, getting our designs thoroughly reviewed and in place for our game to start taking shape.
Week 6 Project Status
Week 6 Project Status
During this week, we thought of some creative ideas to change up the original "TumbleTail" brief that we had. After meeting & discussing on Discord, we planned to go with an alien narrative, and focus on a unique player controller that could transform into different Australian animals and gain different abilities. However, when repitched, we were informed that our "alien" idea was too complex and out of scope for this project moving forward. Our feedback was to focus on simple mechanics, and really nailing down the "platformer" side of the game. Due to this project also being an "Open Studio Project", we were also told to use the Unreal Engine rather than Unity for our development process. As most of the team is experienced with Unity, this will be a learning curve for the project moving forward.
After the repitch, we focused on designing the main character, which we really wanted to nail down so that we could create a character model and move to player controls and animations. Drawing inspiration from our original brief, we looked at games such as Kao the Kangaroo & Ty the Tasmanian Tiger and what elements made those games stand out in the platformer genre, aside from Aussie-ness of course. Having an anthropomorphic animal as our main character would allow for wild, platformer-style movements to fit in nicely, and accentuate the Australian style of the game in the design.
Week 7 Project Status
Week 7 Project Status
Concept Art
Concept Art
This week we developed the main character; the choices made here will affect the game design, narrative and tone of the game. We decided on a Tasmanian Devil because their habitat is only in Tasmania, making him stand out in his travels. We decided on a slimmer body type to differentiate him from Knuckles from the Sonic franchise and then explored different Australian stereotypes for clothes. A scrappy personality was forming through his design. 3D platformers depend on their main characters to draw players and gain notoriety and our main character, Declan, has a lot of personality in his design. The design on his shirt is the Tasmanian Blue Gum, the state flower for Tasmania, which links him back to home while on his travels.
Final Character Design
Original Character Exploration
Main Character Refinement
Main character clothing exploration
Colour Exploration
3D Art
3D Art
Using the concept art and turnaround, work was begun on the 3D model for the player character. Taking notes from standard face modelling techniques was an important step in the modelling process, while also making adjustments to accommodate the fact the character is a cartoon Tasmanian Devil. Early on we made the decision to have the eyes be made by having a floating pupil in front of an unshaded eye socket to give the illusion of a proper eye, as using a regular sphere would not fit in the socket.
Programming
Programming
This week in programming we made a character controller for the player to move the character around and added a double jump along with a wall-slide action. Its important to the game that the character feels good to control, with a focus on speed and control. With platforming being a heavy part of gameplay, having the player feel unresponsive or floaty with negatively effect the rest of the game. A review of some Unreal Engine tutorials was undertaken to prepare for the coding that will be required in future weeks.
While not wanting a deep or complex form of combat, we still want it in our game in order to break obstacles and defeat simple enemies. Making the system modular is also important, as we only have place holder assets at the moment. The punch combo works off root motion, meaning the character moves forward with the animation. Because of this, the sped up Mixamo animations look quite janky, but planning ahead for the final controller is vital to the project.
Week 8 Project Status
Week 8 Project Status
Concept Art
Concept Art
This week we developed the hub world and the style guide.
After discussing our style guide with Henry, he did not approve of our main character Declan. He believed that Declan was too scrappy and rebellious for our family friendly game. The next week will be spent iterating the main character further, exploring softening Declan or making a new main character with him as a side character.
We also developed the hub world which will be an Australian “Pub” (Without the alcohol and pokies of course). The same pub will appear all over the coast during the main character’s journey, housing shops and NPCs that the player can interact with to progress the gameplay or story.
3D Art
3D Art
This week, after discussing with Henry about our style guide, we worked on creating an asset list for the 3D art team to start modelling for our art corner to display in Unreal Engine. To start, we really wanted to focus on our main "Hub Pub" environment and what props would be used to decorate the space. With the pub designs and layouts done by our 2D artist, we got to work modelling on some cans, bottles, caps and a chair. The asset list can be seen down below, however Flow will be utilised to manage this workflow for the next couple of weeks. We also quickly created a grey box environment based off the pub layout concept art, in order to start getting an idea of scale between the main character and the environment.
Work continued on the character model, adding in the body and hands, however it was advised to the team to stop working on it until the character design had been finalised.
Programming
Programming
This week we added programming tasks to Flow to ensure that we have an up to date timeline of tasks that need to be completed with the information easily accessible to the team. A helpful tutorial exercise from Intermediate Gaming was accomplished that involved learning about how to develop a Collectable Items Game in Unreal Engine which will prove very useful for Tumbletail.
Week 9 Production Update
Week 9 Production Update
Concept Art
Concept Art
This week we continued iterating on the main character. We ran into some issues of our ideas for main characters being denied but now we are working closer with our Art and Animation Lead to make sure both parties are happy with the final design. The two options we have developed so far are a boy and a girl character, both of which can be included in the final game as siblings. No matter which character we use for the main character, we can use the other to move the plot or even as a playable character down the line. We also made some concept art for the art corner. All assets will be used in a restaurant inspired by classic Australian pubs. The layout and a rough sketch of the outside are below.
We ended up going with 1D and 2A, with 2A being the main character and 1D (Declan) will be her little brother. He will guide the story, running around Australia while she follows him.
3D Art
3D Art
This week we started developing the first collection of assets in order to create an art corner. Implementing these into Unreal Engine 5, we've started experimenting with aspects such as transparency on materials and black outlines to mimic a cell shaded style. With multiple 3D artists on the team with different skill sets, it's important to focus on communication in order to create a consistent art style between all the assets. To help with this, we've requested a wood texture from our 2D artist to use across the models in order to help with this consistency. Once the models are all in engine and textured, this will give us a good basis for the game's art style moving forward.
Some difficulties arose with the modelling of the chair for the art corner when unwrapping and texturing. Textures were becoming pixelated/broken along seams, of which the UV unwrap needed to be redone multiple times. However, this was quickly resolved, and we were able to place this asset in-game for our art corner.
This week the stool and the chair were UV unwrapped and textured. The stool was textured using substance painter and took use of two brushes, that being 'Kyle's paintbox - Gouache Blair 30' and 'Kyle's paintbox - Gouache Wet Round'. These were used to fit with the art style of the game and for ease of texture creation.
Programming
Programming
After the development of the collection items from the art team, we have been working on the item collecting mechanic. Initially we created a Branch in GitHub to safely work on these elements. Using Blueprints, we developed collectable items that detect the player's position and moves towards them once collected. The item then disappears, adding to the score. We also created a HUD that is displayed on the player's screen showing the score of the collected items. Once completed, we uploaded to the branch and then merged to the main. Next we will be working on creating different value amounts for the various collectables for example a bottlecap would be worth 1 point, a can worth 5 points and a bottle 10 points.
Prototyping
Prototyping
In preparing for next week's studio session, creating a playable level is vital in order to gain feedback for the project. With Tumbletail planned to focus on collectibles and exploring, creating levels that are more akin to open playgrounds with branching paths and secrets to discover, instead of a more linear experience that focuses purely on the path ahead. Finding a blend between these level designs will be key in making Tumbletail enjoyable and also stand out compared to its competitors. For our prototype, giving the player an open view of the level whilst also giving hints to the player where to go is very important. We can do this with both the layout of the level (using geometry to create vector lines and guide the eyes on where to go) and using collectibles to lead the player along. Moving forward, adding more interactable environments, enemies and collectibles are a priority.
Week 10 Project Status
Week 10 Project Status
Outfit Experimentation
Colour Experimentation
Concept Art
Concept Art
This week we continued to develop our main character, the girl needs more development before we're ready to finalise. We played with making her different ages, eventually deciding on a tween girl because it had more character and gave her more room to grow. The pigtails in C had the best silhouette and the outfit from A was very well suited for a girl who is platforming. We also made the decision to keep her more feminine to differentiate her from other main characters of 3D platformers.
We also created a perspective drawing of the inside of the hub "pub" for the 3D modellers to work off of.
3D Art
3D Art
This week the stool and the chair were UV unwrapped and textured. The stool was textured using substance painter and took use of two brushes, that being 'Kyle's paintbox - Gouache Blair 30' and 'Kyle's paintbox - Gouache Wet Round'. These were used to fit with the art style of the game and for ease of texture creation.
During this week, we also worked on other props that would be utilised as tools/powerups throughout the game. To fit with the iconic Australian theme, we thought to add a pair of Aussie thongs as a "speed upgrade" within our levels. Ideally these thongs would be placed in relation to the level environment, where more speed is required to maneuver around obstacles. These would be placed around the level floating with visual clues as to indicate to players that this is a valuable tool/item.
Work towards finalising the 3D model for the player character continued now that a design had been approved. The decision to start the model over rather than reusing what had already been created was made due to changes in the character's clothing and proportions, as well as to improve topology over the original model.
Programming
Programming
We needed to implement a win/lose condition into our level by creating obstacles and a kill zone. Obstacles were added by creating moving platforms that slide left to right and a kill box was developed and placed over the water. A pause screen was generated for the player to leave the game. In addition we developed different values for the collectables that accrues in the overall score.
Game Design
Game Design
With having a playable prototype completed, we were able to gain feedback from the studio team in order to improve our project. Firstly, the level needed a clear goal for the player to achieve, as right now the player runs around aimlessly. Secondly, jumping felt off in a few ways, and needed improving. And lastly, lighting needed to be better. To tackle these problems, we:
A. Added an end door to the level, that would only open once the player has collected enough points (made in a way that the points and door could be set modularly, meaning we can re-use this blueprint anywhere.
B. Fixing a few bugs with the jumping. Firstly, the player could wall slide on any wall, which felt unresponsive and clunky, as if the player caught a lip they would jump off it, this was fixed by making wall slide only work on walls with the 'wallslide' tag. Also fixed a bug were the player could drop off a ledge and could jump twice instead of once.
C. Moved the world light directly above the level in order to cast less shadows and improve visibility.
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