planning...

For my designs I have looked at multiple sources for each part of the game.

Characters

For the characters I want them to be very dark seeing as how the game is set in a secrete prison facility where the inmates are tested on (that’s why its secrete) there should be a good reason for why our character is in there and also why she can survive in this murder socked hell hole so I suggest we give her a dark history like e.g. she was a serial killer/ psychopath this could also explain why she is missing her arm, I want the all the characters to have an anti-hero look I don’t want any super overly heroic protagonist I want her to be selfish as that is the only way she can survive, the monsters aren’t the real enemy they are just mindless killing machines the protagonists adversary shall be her captors, so as she is a prisoner obviously she will be wearing a prison issue jumpsuit, so basically she is psychotically deranged but luckily so is everybody else in the prison, the monsters will be genetic mutations so they will be humanoid but will be superior to humans by being stronger and faster but won’t be very smart and will be primitive creatures that have disfigured and tortured features, possibly gothic is style, for the prison inmates because there insane and violent I thought adding a punk style to them could also add more insanity and for the remainder of the prison wardens survivors just plain old boring lab coats and uniforms to add a sense of superiority.

Location

The game is set under a dam, but the dam itself is in a winter environment were venturing outside on foot will be met with disastrous results to create more fear of being trapped because even if you escape the facilities your still in the middle of nowhere freezing to death, it has to have a industrial look as it will be designed with efficiency in mind, for the early stages of the game it will be set in the prison facilities located under the dam, area so it will have a very industrial feel to it as you progress through the game you will goo trough the living quarters of the scientists and wardens, which will be designed to have a very posh appeal because these scientists are living underground so they will be kept in a luxury environment with art deco styling later in the game you will enter the temple the facility is built on which will be very dark and gothic as this is the reason for the monsters, I will be focusing on the dam, the facilities interior and living quarters.

Weaponry

For weaponry again it will advance the later you get in the game you will use whatever you can find so when you’re in the prison/lab you will use blunt objects and surgical equipment, but as you progress you will get knifes from the kitchen and eventually weapons from the temple, but the main character has a missing hand which makes for some interesting weapon chooses she can attach a meat hook to her arm to help with sneak and grapple attacks and a drill for fast kills, so designing weapons will be interesting because we have to cope with the characters missing hand, but i will try and keep it reasonable and believable, many focussing on what random objects left around the facility that could be used.

DAM IT, AGAIN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

here are some early screens of my dam i am making for my game there are no textures yet but I uploaded this to demonstrate the fact that i used a displacement modifier to make the land as you can see from the black blob shaped like a tree, I then added water in to stages on to will the lake and one lower down to make a river from the dam, I will add more buildings like generators an other facilities that a dam requires i plan to ad snow effects once its textured to create the felling of disorientation as you wont be able to see much because of the storm. as yo can see i need to perfect the level of fog.

is that FOG!!!!!!!!!!!!

just a quick fog test i just messed with the enviroment features please note the pyrimd has nothing to do with my final enviroment and this is just a quick test

the fog could be helpfull in creaing a snow storm in my later enviroment

uncharted : edge magazine january 2009 page 54

manhunt : edge magazine may 2007 pages 34, 35

stubbs :video game art pages 74, 75 nic kelman

LOGO

This is my design for our teams logo, as you can see the eye is quite gory as I just got gory picture and Photoshop’d it in to make it look like a zombie penguin. As you can see the final version of my design is based off of this drawing only I added features in Photoshop, the font is called “You Murderer” which I chose because I liked the splatter effect the radioactive logo is simply the official recognisable radioactive sign and the detail in the eye is done with a smudge tool and the gore effect is of some real gore effects from the movie “braindead” for the penguin itself I scanned in my original drawing and coloured it in Photoshop

UPDATE

My design won in the vote and based on all the “constructive criticism” that I got I decided I will add more features to the penguin e.g. highlighting the spot on his belly more because apparently people couldn’t tell that it was a penguin, and also I will add a brain sticking out of his head to ensure the fact that its defiantly dead and not just the result of some animal cruelty act committed on the south pole, so basically i will add more zombie like features and more penguin like features.

ANOTHER UPDATE

this is the final design as you can see i have added more features and changed where everything is, people in my team are happy with the design.

concept

In this picture I drew I’m trying to capture the setting for our game its not finished yet because its not dark enough, I’m trying to give it an element of unknown so you can see the shadow of a creature but not the creature itself, mainly because I don’t think I could effectively draw that but also to try to get people interested by not telling them anything hopefully it will make them think about what the weird creature is that’s the thing I want our game to have mainly because it will look good in the trailer a good trailer is supposed to interest people and I think adding the element of unknown is a fun way of doing that. For the drawing I focused manly on shading as I tried to make it dark as the setting of our game is dark I only added colour I odd places as it adds atmosphere there has to be so signs of life so the monsters can seem threatening, if everything is doomed the monsters wont seem as threatening if everything is dead there has to be something to aim for some sort of motivation for the main character to move on and not just give up and take the easy way out (suicide)

DAM IT!!!!!

To day I have been researching of different environment and other features of my part of the teams trailer, I looked a several dams because our game is set in a base covered by a reservoir created by a massive dam the base, the giant reservoir will contain a one of the games boss encounters that will take place underwater the boss looks like an underwater giant critter.

for inside the dam it will be based on underground facility from films and games