Client Project- Rabbit Heart Concept Brief

On our Friday client session we was awaiting our group client project for the year much the same as the Whitefriargate project we did last year. To find out this time we have a choice of multiple briefs that we can choose to do as an individual as a small team or some were specifically the whole group of nothing so if one person didnt want to then we couldn’t do it.

After some discussion we was directed to the briefs at the new media website, personally I wanted to work in a group but not everyone did so Myself, Phil and David proposed to Gareth that we develop part of the Rabbit Heart project. This would be acceptable as Gareth and Paul our tutors are the clients for this and could give us direct feedback and critique of content that may be used in there game.

With this accepted we chose a concept piece we was actually given a few weeks before the start of second year as a mini brief to up skill. We didnt get past sketches for it as year 2 started and projects started coming in, so this time around we have the chance to develop what we wanted to work on last year. And with the increased experience in our work it should be a nice portfolio piece for all of us.

Full concept

Platform close up

Lift close up

(These concepts were made by Gareth Sleightholme)

The concepts are for the end of the tutorial level, this is the final step after you exit the cave before the full game. In the concept we have a broken ship, platforms, supports, rock structures, a lift, the rabbit and a vast background environment.

I went and took these concept pieces and did a rough scale reference which would assist us when developing the 3D.

These scales were based on work with Gareth to try figure it out. Much was determined based on the known scale of the rabbit of 16ft so the rock structure height was based off that. I understand looking back at it after out discussions of the concept on Friday that the rock from the platform to the floor is far more than 100ft, I think i had labelled this as 100ft in view possibly but it will be much bigger as we are building an in game environment not just what you can see here at this angle.

In addition to these I had done some sketches of designs for the mechanical structures holding up the platform and the lift.

Support Designs

Lift Designs

In the sketches multiple variations of each design was considered to fit the theme of the military organisation that seems to have abandoned the area and many things were quick setup transportable pieces. So from basic blocked supports to hydraulic supports were looked at. My personal focus was towards the hydraulic as its looks the part visually aswell as serving the purpose.

Then the lift designs, the idea would be that the lift lowers the player down to the start of the game after finishing the tutorial level. Therefore animation and mechanisms needed to be considered for the lift. I drew chains, cables, hooks, ropes, sliders and even magnetised lifts. These all be it first sketches of ideas but give a good basis to expand upon.

Moving on we as a team decided to separate the concept into sections for each individual to have. This was done baring in mind what each person was aiming towards for industry. Here is how it was split up:

Phil- Rock Structures (Cave outside/ mountain, archway), Environment Background (vast floor level, possibly forest, river, distant mountains).

David- Supports, Cables/ Fuel Pipe, Other Small Assets (populate area a bit more, possible pickup, toolbox etc.)

Myself- Broken Ship, Platform, Lift.

With Phil he is aiming to be an environment artist and recently worked on rocks, David wants to work in the line of 3D possibly props, and I am working towards being a 3D artist and have experience in vehicle modelling with the cars I have done previously.

Also it should be said with David the fuel pipe/ cables are not in the concept but with the theme of big power cables inside the cave we thought it would be good to continue it to suggest the ship was charging up, also I suggested the Ship could have been refueling but they ran out of fuel and had to abandon it which seemed to be a nice touch agreed by the rest of the team.

In addition to Phil’s goals with speaking to Gareth he was pushing that we dont know what is on the left side of that concept, so we have the freedom to implement a possible gameplay element or nice visual piece. A waterfall was proposed that previously in the level may have had a button that stopped the water flowing revealing a accessible cave underneath with a helpful in game item you would otherwise miss. This idea gave us expansion to develop on, I suggested that with it being a military abandoned area that surely they would have had a storage area so maybe there is a platform you can jump down onto (cant get back up so its a risk taken) that leads you round into a blasted hole in the side of the cave which is the inside of a vault seen in a previous cave room seemingly that you cant get into that holds pickups, potential weapons and additional pieces to your rabbit. To which you can then open the vault from the inside and your back in the cave to navigate your way out again.

Another idea i had that maybe the ship is right on the edge and when you get too close to it (if you do) it falls off the edge, but on the other side of it is a ladder leading down to a hidden location again that could have an item in or a interactive feature for later in the game. The idea is that they want the player to be aware of surroundings, I believe the admiration of the environments gives you experience or health but if you miss it that’s it and you maybe unable to return to that area missing say a helpful survival water vial for later in the game. So the player is rewarded for taking in the surroundings but should you just want to shoot and run your way through the game you can also do that but you may miss helpful items.

So this was separated nicely with portfolio goals in mind and gameplay elements also started to come into it. After the concept was split we went into ideas of gameplay elements more that we could try to implement in engine. I suggested for the lift when you first enter the level it will be flush up against the archway vertically so it seems like a dead end. But a button much like a big red emergency stop for a lift would be under one of the ships wings that you have to crouch down to press lowering the lift making it accessible.

Gareth suggested that he would love to see that when you get close to one of the ships thrusters that a group of birds swarm out and fly off to imply that they had been nesting in there undisturbed for a while.

Then we all agreed that the lift at the end if we could animate it properly it would be nice, to lower the player down from the end of the tutorial into the start of the actual game. This again could be on button press or pressure sensitive when the player steps on the platform so you cant go back if you have missed something.

For Phil’s area the importance on the archway was emphasised by Gareth in the sense that the archways are the games idea of a checkpoint or save, they signify progress but also if you die you return to your previous archway.

With all this considered we called it a day. A Facebook chat has been set up for a strictly Rabbit Heart only communication so that we can relate back to discussions on our work and also keep in touch about to-do’s and deadlines.

The task for next Friday was to have progression on our areas of work this following a design process of course with research and possible sketches then advancement into 3D. A grey block out for layout of the level shall be done using simple shapes to form a plan and key for our environment design and show base progression. As the concept is already done and nearly laid out for us much is done but any added features from us and positioning of assets to scale will be useful as well as colour coding to suggest that that part is interactive and so on.

Final Major Project “CarBeat”- Progression

My Final Major Project (“FMP”) will be a progression of my 2^nd year Self-initiated work to give me a more complete portfolio piece and I believe the concept of my idea had alot to be expanded on so I am not limiting any learning objectives by building on previous work.

To see any previous work on this project named “CarBeat” follow this link to my previous blog and select “Self Initiated” from the categories panel on the right of the webpage.

Here is an overview of my game from last year:

CarBeat is a modern day set racing game in which the player races to obtain cars to add to their collection. The range of vehicles varies in age, rarity and speed from classic cars to exotic hyper cars. The race itself will be drag racing on a quarter mile and half mile basis (varies distance), all cars will be run on a manual gear shift basis so that the player will have to shift gears at the correct time to keep up the speed. You become the ultimate Petrol Head on a pink slip basis you win the car is added to your garage you lose your car is lost so the element of risk is there. Friendly races will be there to upskill before gambling all on the slips race. Players can race head to head in single player career mode or split screen 2 players. Implementation of difficulty level will give a rank system of player’s skill also replay-ability on a higher level.

CarBeat is based on a racing tournament which you race to become the ultimate petrol head, only people who race with true passion and skill are considered to have a CarBeat (instead of a heartbeat). That passion and level of competition increases as every race goes by you can win it all or lose it all. With it being manual gear changes its all down to skill and car choice with different stats of acceleration, top speed and weight.

Upon acceptance of my project I was prompted to come up with different settings for the drag racing. The reasoning behind this would give players multiple environments to race on aside the standard race strip I have been working on. Also dependent on these environments there is open scope to incorporate weather factors to the race which I will go into more detail later on certain tracks.

With multiple environments and settings this will allow me to create a wide variety of assets to populate these and enhance my 3d work to support my target of becoming a 3D Artist.

Now going away from this meeting I was to think of environments, I will describe the setting and some possible assets that could feature alongside the track and in the background.

• Race Track: Currently in progress your standard modern day drag racing strip. Features crowd stands, sponsorships and professional setup. Could be multiple variations to have race tracks around the world.
• Desert- For outlaws to race away from police knowledge, much more custom cars, sand means less traction. Basic setup using cones.
• Desert 2- Luxury high class Desert race, setting of Dubai with the extravagant buildings in the background. On road but with sand flying about, could have sandstorm conditions for extreme races.
• Street- City racing, more of a car show to begin with people showing off car modifications in background lots of crowds, illegally shut off road for the race, downtown city backstreets so rather gang type area possibly.
• Ice- Race in the actual arctic have spikes on the wheels for grip, at some sort of artic research centre.
• Ice 2- Have a race track in ice cold conditions where stability and shift changes are vital to keep in the race. Blizzardy weather decreases visibility of other driver.
• Traffic Lights- Standard unofficial challenge at the lights to the next set of lights, also requires manoeuvre as well as shifting to avoid traffic.
• Abandoned Airfield- Rather rustic look to everything the track is cracked concrete with grass coming through, hangar on one side which is broken and empty, and then old broken planes that are rusty on other side.
• Container yard- big open container yard with cranes and ships ready to be loaded with containers, could have a bit of basic animation and life with the cranes picking up containers to move them gives the environment a bit more activity.
• Stadium- broken into baseball or football stadium, racing on grass which after a few races will be muddy and slippery. The challenge would be the build of a stadium.

There are 10 alternate environments to potentially be designed and then implemented into my game. Obviously each can have multiple variations in themselves dependent on weather, time of day and population (crowds busy or not) so this gives a lot of scope to expand the games visual aspects around the prime focus of the drag racing.

With some of these settings clearly only present in certain areas of the world it opens up a career mode potential of a world tour upon gaining higher prestige sponsorships from winning lower races and gaining more powerful cars. This will also improve the players feeling of progression as they play more and more they will eventually race for higher stakes (faster more exotic cars) in more luxurious locations (Dubai desert) so it can have an environmental progression to the game as well as the cars. From the abandoned airfield in the middle of nowhere, to the live broadcast drag racing championships on professional race strips.

In continuation of my ideas I will design a few things to support my ideas, this will include an asset list for each of the settings (some assets will be re-useable across the board as generic items e.g. traffic cones), gathering of reference images similar to my environment ideas, layout sketches of the strips, and block outs in engine for the layouts to follow my design process before making any 3D models.