Final Concepts

Research

Adapting 2D Style to 3D

This week, we are finalizing our character and environment concepts. Now we are looking ahead to adapting our 2-dimensional designs to 3d sculpted characters that will populate our game. Our challenge will be to match the stylistic approach of Loish's painting in a 3-dimensional environment. So we looked to see if others had already attempted this. And indeed they have.

Movement

Ferret

The times when the squirrels dart around is a good start for the ferret. Their movements are extremely quick and we could easily imagine that type of mobility with the ferret. Here is a clip from "Sword in the Stone."

Fox

The running and jumping of the foxes in "Fox and the Hound" has more weight than the squirrel while still maintaining a swift quality. The stretch and squash comes across as far more fluid and graceful than the ferret. The end clip has them both jumping on a rock before the log and that motion in itself made us think of how the fox could set off traps. It doesn't linger, it darts after setting it because the soldiers are coming.

Wolf

This clip from "Balto" doesn't have animation per say, but that powerful imposing nature is definitely what we want in the wolf. Slower than the other animals but only to emphasize more 'weight'.

These wolves from "Jungle Book" move realistically but we think the weight can be massively pushed to imply more power. It is a good base for motion.

Arya

We are thinking the best route is hyper realism where we have enough exaggeration to make it seem alive but the motions are relatively believable. Like How To Train Your Dragon or Rise of the Guardians. Arya's motions would be smooth, while the soldiers in contrast would be more stiff.

Soldiers

We would like to make the soldiers attacks/wolf attacks very snappy like the Halo kill animations. We feel like it'd give more impact compared to Arya's usual smooth actions and further emphasize that the violence does have an effect on her. Or at least have the contrast show she's a kid in a very unforgiving adult world.

Concepts - Final

Arya

Mother

Ferret

Fox

Wolf

Soldiers

Boss

Exterior

Interior

In Game Mock-up with UI

Technical Considerations

3D vs. 2.5D

It appears that we miscategorized our game by describing it as a 2.5D game. We tried to correct any misperceptions last week by changing our terminology to "3D game with camera rotation locked on the z-axis." The game itself is actually 3D, as the player can move on all three axes. But the camera framing simulates side scrolling. The camera zooms in and out so that Arya and the animal the player is controlling are always on screen.

We chose this style of gameplay because it always keeps Arya, who is the main protagonist, on the screen. The story is about her evolution as a person, and we can only get this across if she is on screen at all times. In terms of why 3D versus 2D, the game is designed around the player being able to sneak around or ambush soldiers, as well as explore the world and interact with objects in it to portray both the story and Arya's current state of mind. The Child No More team feels that 3D is the best way to achieve these goals, while limiting the camera to simulate side scrolling is optimal to make sure that Arya does not get "lost" in the action.

The game will be built in six layers. The background will be cards, the playable area will be 3D, and the immediate foreground will be cards. This will cut down on the number of 3D assets that will have to be produced for the game. The six layers are as follows, from back to front:

• Sky (cards)
• Mountains (cards)
• Two layers of cityscape (cards)
• 3D playable space (3D assets)
• Immediate foreground (cards)

Camera Framing

The camera features dynamic framing, and pans left and right based on the location of the animal that the player currently controls. The camera also zooms in and out to always keep both Arya and the animal the player is controlling on the screen.

Fur

In order to implement fur onto our animal characters, we would have to consider a few options: 

1. Implementing a free to use hair system that is compatible with the Unreal Engine (Hairworks) 

2. Making a material that simulates short hair/fur in the Unreal Engine 3. Using hair cards The problem with using Hairworks is that there may be no need to implement it if the camera is too far away from the characters in the first place. The information may get lost and it could bog down the gameplay. Another problem is that Hairworks is only integrated through a special version of the Unreal Engine, through a fork on Github. We would have to make sure that the version of UE4 with Githib can work with the current build of the game. If it cannot work with the build, then our team would have to use another solution for fur.

Wolf Injury and Soldier Personality Indication

The wolf, unlike Arya and the other animals, can be injured by soldiers three times in a level before he dies. Also, the soldiers will have one of three personalities assigned to them: cowardly, depressed, and aggressive. From a thematic standpoint, this shows that the soldiers have been affected from the war, just as Arya is currently being affected. From a gameplay perspective, the soldiers will react to situations in varying ways according to their personality, which will in turn vary the gameplay experience. 

The plan for portraying both the wolf's injured state and the soldiers' personalities is texture swaps. Each time the wolf is injured, the texture will swap to portray his wounds. Similarly, when the ferret scouts the soldiers their goggles will change color to reflect their personality: red for aggressive, blue for depressed, and yellow for cowardly.