Skip to main content

Before20 project - Issue three - weeks 7&8

  • It’s been a while since I’ve written a blog on what I’ve been up to. Mostly because I’ve been quite busy with all sorts of work. Thankfully the outcome of which is that I now have quite a deal of things to write about.

    First to talk about…

  • Hi everyone.

    I want to make a call out to find out who’s out there in the local scene. I’m on the lookout to see who’s available for a project I’d like to get started midyear.

    Project codename: Play-bit Heroes!

    The proposal:…

  • Hi everyone!

    Chris here from Roo Games.

    After the release of Mole - Quest for the Terracore gem! We've been hard at work on our next project for the iPhone.

    It's Called Power Surge!

    Power Surge has the player linking…

  • Hi everyone. After much hard work from the project mole team i'm proud to announce our game is now in the app store! Mole! You play as Mark the mole as you quest to find the fabled Terracore gem! Gameplay features: · An easy to play touch based…

  • Hi everyone.

    With Mole just about close to a month until it's iPhone release I wanted to show my thought process in how I went about designing Mole.

    One of the best ways to show you guys is to showcase the design document.

    So…

  • First off I’ll disclaim that as far as my experience at GCAP is concerned I was only a exhibitor. I didn’t attend any of the keynotes or talks. I sat in at the Mole table 90% of the time. The rest was spent talking to people and playing the…

  • [Note: This post is quite long. Just wanted to establish that so no one tells me to shorten it. :D ]

    Designerwatts' 7 rules of making your first team-based indie game.

    Hi everyone,

    I wanted to take the time to write out my…

  • Our submission for GCAPs indie awards.

    To be honest I didn't submit Mole in the hopes of winning awards. I'm more so interested in getting the opportunity to showcase the game to developers and publishers in December. At which point Mole…

  • Another busy month in the world of freeware game development.

    Due to the efforts of some very dedicated and skilled volunteer developers. There have been some noticeable changes to Tower City this month.

    Our talented enviornment…

  • Team name:
    Team Tower City

    Project name:
    Prototype Project Tower City

    Brief description & Target aim:
    Tower City is a freeware project created for promoting the volunteers who help to create the demo and to claim…

Submitted by designerwatts on

[img]http://www.furry.org.au/caroo/game/logo%20before%2020.jpg[/img]

BEFORE20 - ISSUE THREE- PART ONE

Please refur back to issue one to get a sum up of why I'm doing this project.

Production week 7:

Defiantly a slow and not very productive week. I think I see a pattern forming up here. Productive week and then unproductive week.

Not really a design week I guess. More a production week. I made five small static meshes. All of which is to help out with assembling the gunroom into a usable and nice looking area. Currently minus a hologram screen the cannon room is coming along quite well.

[img]http://www.furry.org.au/caroo/game/level_design_dev_022.jpg[/img]

As you can see for what I?ve done so far I?ve tried to keep consistency in concept to production in terms of placement. But as you can see I made quite a move on the control hub. The reason for this is that it's new position the player can see the gun clearly exit into space. So in the case I don?t have time to animate a movie clip of the gun firing I can have the player watch it from a clear view. In other words. It's a backup.

Since a lot wasn?t done this week though I should take this time to show you my basic blue print on the level as a whole. Something that while I did before even touching unrealED I haven?t shown you all yet.

[img]http://www.furry.org.au/caroo/game/level_design_dev_023.jpg[/img]

This box format shows you how many rooms and of what size they?re to be. It's a good measure of my level as a whole. I have also made a lot of small sketches based around each room. But they?re messy and unprofessional at best so I?ll spare the readers pictures of those.

Production week 8:

This week was what I guess you could call a moderately productive week. I didn?t touch Maya or UnrealED. It was a week of solid concept art.

The focus was on characters. Mainly the character you play as. I started out by dedicating a page to just scribbles and ideas. Sketches and such. The purpose of this is to just play around with my idea. Try to improve on the pictures in my head.

[img]http://www.furry.org.au/caroo/game/maincharacter%20skem.jpg[/img]

As you can see my design for the main character Lu. He's a worker. An engineer on board the ship. He wears the colour bright yellow. An engineering colour. Magnetic boots to make sure he stays on the ground if the artificial gravity of the ship he's in fails. On his left arm he has a tool bracer, which houses a few small and useful tools to override circuits and repair small problems. His right arm has a communicator and com system bracer. However Lu has modified it to also monitor and maintain his human form.

While he is obviously sized up and looks like a hero he also has that ?real man? appearance.

I?ve set up a web page, which hosts the concept art, and some other bits and pieces of the before20 project:
[url]http://www.furry.org.au/caroo/conceptart.htm[/url]

A lot has been happening outside of the project and sadly it's not good news. In fact it has been negatively hindering the production of my folio.

I?ll try to make this not sound like a bad drama. But. My family and I are getting evicted from our house. Not because we were bad tenets and didn?t pay the rent. Nope. The house I currently live in is deemed so low on living standards [no air con , broken heater , bad hot water service and no heating through-out the house.] that we have been kicked out so they can repair it. Given 60 days to find a new home and move. It's not much time when it comes down to the fierce competition that is Melbourne rental estate. I live with my younger brother and father. And my old man is getting on his years and is just really starting to feel the wear and tear my sister and mother have bestowed on him. [Long story to put short. They both screwed him and me over hugely.]

Due to this stress and the need to help my family out more I?ve bit the bullet and applied around to the Melbourne studios to see if anyone is willing to take on a junior designer. Though with my current skill level I?d be lucky to get critique back on my application. Also the tightness of the industry and the closure of some companies don?t help my chances. But I gotta give everything a shot once.

If nothing comes of it I?ll simply reapply when the folio is completed in a few months.

Anyways. Any production is better then no production. So until next time I hope you all keep working at your goals as well.

Submitted by azmodai on Tue, 01/08/06 - 10:45 PMPermalink

It's amazing to see someone put so much effort into their reel. Really quite uplifting to see someone with so much dedication.

If you ever want some assistance or advice with level & game designing using unreal, feel free to give me a bell.

Submitted by Caroo on Wed, 02/08/06 - 12:13 AMPermalink

quote:Originally posted by azmodai

It's amazing to see someone put so much effort into their reel. Really quite uplifting to see someone with so much dedication.

If you ever want some assistance or advice with level & game designing using unreal, feel free to give me a bell.

Thank you very much mate. The kind words are always well received. I came to the conclusion some time ago that if I really wanted in the game industry. I would have to show how dedicated and head strong I was to get into it. Thus they I?ve been so passionate about this folio.

Your support is also well received. If I ever get stuck on anything I?ll give you a buzz.

[img]http://www.furry.org.au/caroo/game/logo%20before%2020.jpg[/img]

BEFORE20 - ISSUE THREE- PART ONE

Please refur back to issue one to get a sum up of why I'm doing this project.

Production week 7:

Defiantly a slow and not very productive week. I think I see a pattern forming up here. Productive week and then unproductive week.

Not really a design week I guess. More a production week. I made five small static meshes. All of which is to help out with assembling the gunroom into a usable and nice looking area. Currently minus a hologram screen the cannon room is coming along quite well.

[img]http://www.furry.org.au/caroo/game/level_design_dev_022.jpg[/img]

As you can see for what I?ve done so far I?ve tried to keep consistency in concept to production in terms of placement. But as you can see I made quite a move on the control hub. The reason for this is that it's new position the player can see the gun clearly exit into space. So in the case I don?t have time to animate a movie clip of the gun firing I can have the player watch it from a clear view. In other words. It's a backup.

Since a lot wasn?t done this week though I should take this time to show you my basic blue print on the level as a whole. Something that while I did before even touching unrealED I haven?t shown you all yet.

[img]http://www.furry.org.au/caroo/game/level_design_dev_023.jpg[/img]

This box format shows you how many rooms and of what size they?re to be. It's a good measure of my level as a whole. I have also made a lot of small sketches based around each room. But they?re messy and unprofessional at best so I?ll spare the readers pictures of those.

Production week 8:

This week was what I guess you could call a moderately productive week. I didn?t touch Maya or UnrealED. It was a week of solid concept art.

The focus was on characters. Mainly the character you play as. I started out by dedicating a page to just scribbles and ideas. Sketches and such. The purpose of this is to just play around with my idea. Try to improve on the pictures in my head.

[img]http://www.furry.org.au/caroo/game/maincharacter%20skem.jpg[/img]

As you can see my design for the main character Lu. He's a worker. An engineer on board the ship. He wears the colour bright yellow. An engineering colour. Magnetic boots to make sure he stays on the ground if the artificial gravity of the ship he's in fails. On his left arm he has a tool bracer, which houses a few small and useful tools to override circuits and repair small problems. His right arm has a communicator and com system bracer. However Lu has modified it to also monitor and maintain his human form.

While he is obviously sized up and looks like a hero he also has that ?real man? appearance.

I?ve set up a web page, which hosts the concept art, and some other bits and pieces of the before20 project:
[url]http://www.furry.org.au/caroo/conceptart.htm[/url]

A lot has been happening outside of the project and sadly it's not good news. In fact it has been negatively hindering the production of my folio.

I?ll try to make this not sound like a bad drama. But. My family and I are getting evicted from our house. Not because we were bad tenets and didn?t pay the rent. Nope. The house I currently live in is deemed so low on living standards [no air con , broken heater , bad hot water service and no heating through-out the house.] that we have been kicked out so they can repair it. Given 60 days to find a new home and move. It's not much time when it comes down to the fierce competition that is Melbourne rental estate. I live with my younger brother and father. And my old man is getting on his years and is just really starting to feel the wear and tear my sister and mother have bestowed on him. [Long story to put short. They both screwed him and me over hugely.]

Due to this stress and the need to help my family out more I?ve bit the bullet and applied around to the Melbourne studios to see if anyone is willing to take on a junior designer. Though with my current skill level I?d be lucky to get critique back on my application. Also the tightness of the industry and the closure of some companies don?t help my chances. But I gotta give everything a shot once.

If nothing comes of it I?ll simply reapply when the folio is completed in a few months.

Anyways. Any production is better then no production. So until next time I hope you all keep working at your goals as well.


Submitted by azmodai on Tue, 01/08/06 - 10:45 PMPermalink

It's amazing to see someone put so much effort into their reel. Really quite uplifting to see someone with so much dedication.

If you ever want some assistance or advice with level & game designing using unreal, feel free to give me a bell.

Submitted by Caroo on Wed, 02/08/06 - 12:13 AMPermalink

quote:Originally posted by azmodai

It's amazing to see someone put so much effort into their reel. Really quite uplifting to see someone with so much dedication.

If you ever want some assistance or advice with level & game designing using unreal, feel free to give me a bell.

Thank you very much mate. The kind words are always well received. I came to the conclusion some time ago that if I really wanted in the game industry. I would have to show how dedicated and head strong I was to get into it. Thus they I?ve been so passionate about this folio.

Your support is also well received. If I ever get stuck on anything I?ll give you a buzz.