Unity work begins

I didn't realise how long it was since I had updated the blog, much has happened.

Most of the work these past few weeks has been in unity, focusing on seeing what is possible in the engine as well as getting a decent pre-vis game working for the pitch we did to see if any 2nd year students would be interested in joining.

We have been using Playmaker in unity which is a visual scripting add on which is great for artists or people who do not know the specific syntax of a  coding language but understand how it works and what they need to do.

I began by using Playmaker to create three different camera systems which the team can look at and decide on.

The first one was an automatic camera which follows the player character and orientates itself slowly and smoothly to behind the character.

The second one was controlled by mouse movement, when you moved the mouse it looked around the environment by rotating around the player character. This allowed the player to look in different directions to the way they are running and made it more intuitive. This is personally my favourite camera type I made.

The third one I made was more of an experiment, it used fixed cameras which follow the player as he runs through the environment and when the player hits certain pre-made triggers it switches to a different camera. I liked this idea as you can have it as though the player is being watched by some unknown entities hiding among the trees but this didn't really work when I tried it. Further work could produce a better camera system but I still don't think it would work as well as the mouse controlled camera.

Right enough with the text, we are visual people after all.

I've done a few particle effects in unity, they're quite fun  and very easy to do. I'll show you the ones I have so far.

Dragon's fire breath attack (my favourite):

Impact Sparks:

Item Highlight:

I also did a quick promo like picture for the pitch of the characters in their current state. Although these were not used in the end it's good to have a more finalised picture so I can visualise it better.

Here's the centaur:

And here's the Player Character:

These are far from final, but it's pretty much where I am with the character designs atm.

And erm...yeah I think that's everything up to the present date.

The next thing we are working on is scripting in unity, I'm currently writing some pseudo code for the poison that the dragon can inflict on the player. Hopefully by next week this will be finished and working.

I also got my first grade of the year back, which was my presentation based on my final year dissertation subject. I got a 1st for my work on 'Aesthetics as Metaphor: A Study of Embedded Narrative' which is a focus on environmental storytelling and what effect this has on the player.

One final, final thing. I have just completed Movemeber and raised £44 for charity. So thank you to everyone who donated and congratulation to my Mo Bros on completing the hairy month.
http://uk.movember.com/mospace/1808076

Summer time!

So...yeaaah...

It's summer and I thought I'd give myself a few weeks off just to chill and get everything sorted at home before I got on with working...and it's been gooooood.

I haven't done any work as such since I have gotten back but I have been doing some research for our 3rd year project. I have been reading up on Celtic folklore, faeries and a like and there's some really interesting things out there. It's an overlooked area my most mainstream media but it has such an interestingly different look on fantasy rather than the same kind of mythologies used over and over such as the Greek gods.

I've also been looking at shaders in the Unity game engine and it's....erm...confusing... It's going to take a lot of work to get into shaders, which is something I would like to do, but I think I will still look at doing simple shaders in this 3rd year project as I think I can get some simple shaders working and it should help the project get an otherworldly feeling.

Lastly I've been looking at particle effects in Unity and it is surprisingly easy to create something quickly and seems to work quite smoothly in Unity, which is great. I made a 'wisp' which was one of the things I was researching for the folklore which is just simple round particles that vary from light to mid blue colours and move towards the centre of the particle system. They also stretch towards the middle as I set it to use a stretch renderer which I think makes it look more mystical.

On a more personal note... I've finished my favourite game ever yet again. Final Fantasy 9 is such a good game, the end of the game gets a bit weird and the ending isn't anything special, but overall the game is amazing and works so well even in this day and age. Some other games I've been playing recently include Bayonetta, another game I've played through many times, and Botanicula, and indie game by Amanita Design studios. Both games have very awesome art styles, I love the angle designs in Bayonetta and the unique take on the otherwise divine creatures. As for Botanicula I have loved Amanita's work since Machinarium and their games are so unique and interesting. I usual don't go for point and click adventures but this games always have me gripped and the sound effects...oh my god... I've haven't cried from laughter so much in ages.