Initial Concept Art

To begin with I started by showing my initial concept art ideas, based upon 8 different levels that I could have made based around the idea of making a cave. I wanted to first explore different ideas before narrowing down so that I could select the best one.

 This mountain level was an interesting idea but I thought about it further and realised that there probably wouldn't be any other interesting objects that I could add into the level other than the ones that I stated. But I really like the look of the tunnel system thumbnail on the right and would definitely take a part of this forward in my designs. 

I then looked at a level which would be based in a canyon and thought about how the canyon could have been set in the wild west and been part of a bank robbers life, in which he left his treasure in a hidden trapdoor that is at the end of a cave system. There would also be parts of this level that are set outside on the side of the canyon.

I then had the idea that the cave system would be on a different planet as this game me the opportunity to add in interesting objects that are unique to this planet and also the cave system could be lit in interesting ways and in different colours to bring a sense of fear to the level.

I then looked at an island level where the caves would be in the hill located on it. I really like this idea as it could look bright and exciting during the day but then at night the caves could be misty and mysterious, again trying to bring that element of fear. I also thought about bringing another theme into this, that it could be an abandoned island once inhabited by pirates.

I then thought about how I could make a cave system in the city, as I wanted to explore different locations fully and in detail to decide which is the best one to create. I wasn't so keen on this level once I had created it as it was basically just a sewer system which isn't that creative and it would have been very stereotypical and include water and toxic green barrels.

I then moved onto looking at an underwater level which I did really like, and it included a lot of Atlantean based objects which would have looked really nice once created in unity. The problem with this one is that we are making a first person game and do not have the skills to be able to make the character swim underwater.

Again, I am not to keen on this level as it is not very imaginative and is a lot like the island level but not as good. Although I do not like the setting for it I can definitely use the idea of stalagmites and stalactites and also the plants hanging down from the ceiling. 

The last one which I looked at was a graveyard level, which again I really liked the idea of it but again like the underwater level, in my first year on this course I felt it was slightly too ambitious as I didn't know how to use unity let alone create monsters on it. 

The idea that I decided would be the best to go for in the end was the island cave as this would look very sinister in places and I would be able to theme it correctly as well in order to make the island as interesting as possible to explore. Although I have chosen to do this idea I will be using other influences from the initial designs to make the level even better.