Game and Play

So for some reason the lighting in my Unity scene is really dark compared to Josh’s scene. He believes that it’s the graphics problem that’s causing the lighting bug.

Our scene looks completely different just because of this bug. Therefore the light that I will be adding will look strange when running on different computers.

Even so I still need to add more light so I imported the light models that I have made, created 4 extra control maps for them, add a light source and make it into a prefab.

Continuing scene building in Unity I realized that there’s still not enough models in the scene, so I made a list and tried to sketch out some ideas.

Light

Bed/cot

Clock

Map

Radio controls

Cabinets

Weapons

Cannon & Cannon holder

The scenery in Unity is now really dark, with only the lanterns I modeled as light source. Thus I decided to make more varieties of light.

As of now, my main goal is to create this one scene with a certain amount of realism to it. Using the mood-board/theme as a guide I want to create a fully fledged steampunk pirate zeppelin.  

Which is why the objects in the scene needs to be very believable. Like this stove I made earlier wasn’t very steampunk like. It doesn't have that nice detailing and complication that steampunk objects has. Thus I re-did it.

I took my time and looked at real life items that corresponds to what I want to make. 

I took the aspects that i liked and made this.

In order to grasp the art style and let it be consistent, I created a mood-board for myself as a guild. 

http://ryanchurch.com/john-carter-of-mars/

http://www.deviantart.com/art/Steam-airship-interior-414188264

https://nz.pinterest.com/KirkCommander/the-steam-era/?lp=true

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HLoM8erzZWY

http://sf.co.ua/id49678

Since creating a satisfying 3D scenery will take a long time, we didn’t have a lot of time for much planning, Thus the team quickly decided on a “theme” as a mood-board so that all modelers can base their design on it. This methodology is similar to the method my old team used when designing the board game. It allows the model created by different artist some what similar.

http://stephaniegames.tumblr.com/post/150513614748/board-game-design-methodology-for-artists

References:

http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.2752/175693811X13080607764854

We use Unity Collaborate to bring all of our works together. Collaborate is a simple way for teams to save, share, and sync our Unity project. It’s cloud hosted and easy to use so the entire team can contribute to one Project simultaneously, regardless of location or role.

Although there are some Unity “house keeping” that we needed to do before hand. Such as exporting models using .dae files instead of .obj (I learned that .dae is a better file format for unity) Or making prefabs with unity can quicken scene making.

Reference: 

After determining our setting we gave out jobs of what to create. Everyone takes some item to model and so we can have a sketch mock-up of our scenery.

Some of the models I have done:

Game idea in terms of HTC Vive.

“Aesthetics describes the desirable emotional responses evoked in the player, when he/she interacts with the game system” (Hunicke, Leblanc, & Zubek, 2004). 

Within a week we were able to bring the game to look more completed then just “ripped paper” prototype. We then gather as much people as possible to play test the game. The testers that came are people who have no experience with games or board games or have never developed a game before.

The methodology for play testing: 

“Give the players the assets and the rules, Then shut up.”

                                                              -Matthew Gatland from NZGDC

We tried to use the method in the first round of the game. We found out a lot of interesting things as the player miss understood most of our rules.

•    Terms on the rules are confusing: “player”, “floor”, don’t use abbreviation, •    No mention or explanation about the trackers or how they work •    Explain what each attribute means •    How to get cards and how do they work, how to identify them •    Explain how stamina and attacks work •    Players forget to pay the stamina price •    Explain how to regain health and stamina •    Explain abilities work •    Character cards information, wrong or lacking •    Hard to keep track of maximum stats •    Explanation on items and equips (maybe on the cards) •    Explanation on what happens if player is not strong enough to kill the monster •    Explanation on how ladders work (restrictions) •    Explain how the boss deal damage •    Explain who gets the card on a case of group fight •    Explain how trade works •    First play through VERY confusing •    Explain tile placing •    Little roleplaying •    5 floors in 45 minutes Second play through after explaining rules •    players strategizing a little more •    players using more skills •    still forgetting to replenish stamina •    use pictures in the rules •    Math gets complicated (tracker for bosses and character sheets) •    Dual wielding seems overcomplicated •    Realized they could move both ways (explain on rules) •    Trap tiles not clear •    Healing skill not clear •    Burn stamina to move (explain on rules) •    Re-think final boss •    54 minutes

I have created some cards before in the past thus I know that changing text, formation, images and backgrounds can be a pain because as the game develop, the context can change constantly. Thus is it a good idea to have a fluent methodology in terms of swapping and tweaking contents of a card. 

This is how I do it.

All the monsters are drawn in one Photoshop file. One layer a monster. Theres an option that can export all layers into an image file which creates a bunch of monster images. And if you ever tweak on anything, the image can be replaced easily.

The backgrounds and general layout design is done in another Photoshop file. Creating just the generic background that all cards will have. All symbols are created from illustrator. 

These assets are then imported into an InDesign file where all formation and text is done. InDesign is a great program for this sort of work because if any image is changed, InDesign will detects it and update the image.