Extended Practice Hub World and Assets Concept Art and Testing

I then took the layouts that Sophie had created and used the mood boards that I had put together to start creating a bit of concept art that we could use as reference when creating the hub world itself later on in the project. I wanted to try and capture a beautiful and calm atmosphere throughout and ensure that it provokes peaceful emotions, to show that it can be a serenity when they are not under pressure from the badgers.

After creating my concept art I had a basic idea of what the level was going to look like and how everything was going to be laid out, so wanted to take it into Maya and Unity and test that I could link all of the worlds together and also get the hub world being the correct size. As the design was to make it in a huge tree, I first took the basic shape and modeled the different platforms that would be located up the middle of the tree trunk and the staircase that goes up to the next level.

I then added in the branching platforms where the portals would be located at the end of the 'branches' which would be modeled to look more like them later on in the process. The level was definitely starting to take shape by now.

The last thing I added was the cubes for where the portals would be going to be able to use this to test that they work and take you to the correct place. I then took it into Unity to be able to test the level. I first looked at how big everything was in terms of the character and found that it was all too big so I ended up scaling everything down to an appropriate size before writing out my Load Level scripts in Java. I had previously looked at creating these in my last project so it was fairly simple to adapt them for this one, and I was able to create links from the portals to the other game levels set in Egypt and India.

Below I then did a quick walk through to show the transitions between each level and how the level will load. We actually found at this stage that the level loads almost instantly, something that is perhaps a little bit too fast so we may need to think about adding in a loading screen just to slow the game play down between levels slightly, but this will be something that is very quick. Overall I am very happy with the final transitions between the levels and the scripts work exceptionally well, the next stage now will be to actually creating the character and environment and bringing everything together fully.

Extended Practice Hub World Design and Development

I then moved onto looking at the designs for the hub world itself and started by designing the portals that will be used to get to the different levels, I started by looking at the Chinese design, which is a level that will be on the first section of the game, but will not be one that we are making currently due to time constraints. In the end I went with a very traditional Chinese design and went with this arch below, exploring different colours that could be used, but in the end the red design with the black mixed in worked really well and I love the end result.

I then moved onto designing the Egyptian portal, as I had already come up with lots of different door designs this was fairly easy, but I tried to mix the designs up and test out different designs. In the end I really liked the third one as it was an interesting design that will stand out against the other aspects of the hub world and the Egyptian world and I tried to incorporate that blue design again running through, so that it was consistent with the other designs.

I then put together mood boards looking at different ideas for locations, and when we had already spoken about the idea we knew that we wanted to go with a forest type location due to the fact that it could be very old then with tall trees that stretch up far higher than normal, and it would create a very beautiful and mesmerising atmosphere for the Koala's to live in. I first put together a mood board of real forest, trying to gain some inspiration from them, how they form naturally and the general movement of the trees. I then looked at some existing digital paintings that people had created and found some beautiful ones that really captured what I wanted to create in a gorgeous way.

We then both sat down together and came up with very basic designs and sketched them out quickly, this gave us a good idea at how we could start to build the environment, focusing on how the platforms would be located throughout and where the portals would be.

We did these quick sketches together first and then Sophie went away and made them neater and ensured that everything was visible that needed to be shown. The designs are really good and overall we knew which one we wanted to take forward fairly quickly.

Sophie then produced the final design which we both decided was the strongest and then developed some colour swatches so that we could get a good idea about what kind of colour palette was going to be used on the hub world when it came to concept art. Overall our favourite one is the last. We feel that the last one works the best, making the tree look old and more like it would be more of a swampy kind of forest, but the hints and tones of red could be used over the forest itself, making the look of the hub world beautiful.

Extended Practice Second Ancient Character Development: Research, Design, Bio and Character Turnarounds

I then moved onto designing my second Ancient character which is based in Egypt and this is the level that I am creating. For this as I had already done a lot of research into Egypt I felt that I didn't really need to any more in order to come up with some really interesting designs for this Ancient character. I wanted to go with a fairly traditional looking character design and one that made him look instantly like he was from Egypt so I explored traditional and ancient outfits that the Egyptians wore to start off with to get some inspiration for a costume for this character.

Name: Menes
Age: 26
Human Age: 102
Date of Birth: 26/05/1988
Ethnicity: Egyptian
M/F: Male
Profession: Ancient Protector of the Wonders
Education: No education

Hobbies/Interests: He tends to sleep a lot throughout most of the day as he is a fairly old character but when not sleeping, or eating, he enjoys building model structures, and some of his favourite things to build are models of the pyramids and also ancient Egypt as he wants to recreate the old world in model form.

Political/Religious Beliefs: He believes in a religion based on polytheism, which is what Ancient Egyptian's believed in.

Disposition/Personality: He is a very cheery person when he is awake, but most of the time he is very tired and this is mainly due to his age along with the fact that koala's need to sleep a lot. He likes to be in the comfort of his own things but will gladly sit down with everyone to enjoy a stimulating conversation with the other ancients.

Weaknesses/Faults: He doesn't like to share what he has, he is a bit greedy with food and doesn't like it when somebody eats something he feels was his share or his in general. This gets to the stage where he does become a bit of a hoarder with food, concealing it in his room away from everywhere else.

Pet Peeves: When someone moved his food in the living areas of the tree where they live, or if they eat something that they he considers his own.

Fears: He fears that the ancient world is going to be destroyed soon and he doesn't know if they are able to protect the wonders anymore.

Guilty Pleasures: Sitting down in his room, modelling his ancient world while munching on some food.

Prized Possession: His models, he has spent his lifetime working on these and is always adding to it and changing different areas to get it looking as perfect as possible.

Proudest Achievements: Completing the model of the Pyramid's of Giza in full, complete with tombs and burial chambers.

Secret Talents: He can burp the entire alphabet in one go.

Clothing/Appearance: He is a fairly smart character and will always try to look good, but as he sleeps a lot he can end up with ruffled up fur in places and unfortunately over the years his clothing is starting to become a little tighter on him as he refuses to wear anything but his traditional Egyptian clothing as he feels that it would betray his ethnicity without it.
Dialogue/Interactions: He speaks with a hint of an Egyptian accent but as he has lived with native English speaking Koala's his accent has changed over the years and adapted to become more English sounding.

Relationship with the Other Koalas: He gets on very well with the other Koala's when he is awake, apart from when they eat his share of the food. He enjoys there company a lot but does like his own space. If they weren't there he would be upset and wouldn't want to do what he does.
Wants: He wants to fully complete his model of ancient Egypt, but feels that it will never get done due to his old age.
Needs: To probably eat a little less, and stop the hoarding as it is not good for his health.
The single thing the character wants the most: For the Ancients to be a peaceful place without an worry.

The next thing that I went onto doing was design what his look was going to be, again I used my initial design sheets for Keith to pick out the head and body shape for him as it made the process easier and quicker. I had previously already designed an Egyptian outfit that Keith could have worn and I thought that that really brought out the essence of Ancient Egyptian clothing so pretty much took that and altered it slightly for this new character.

I then looked at creating the character turn arounds and once again did the same thing as before, by creating a black and white version and a colour so that I could use them as reference when modelling them in Maya. I think overall the final design is great and could work very well once in the level itself. The character will work well with the other that I have designed and also the ones that Sophie has designed to come from England and India.

Extended Practice First Ancient Character Development: Research, Design, Bio and Character Turnarounds

I then moved onto creating the designs and doing research for the first Ancient character that we were going to be creating. The first character is going to be from China, and a protector of Chinese history and relics so I wanted to first look into a bit of Chinese history by watching some documentaries and reading up about key events that happened in there history to be able to come up with a suitable back story for her to be able to look at how she is as a character. I found a really informative website that I got the following information from and then used the information on the website to look at some other facts below.

'The history of China reaches back over 4,000 years. In that time, China has created a culture rich in philosophy and the arts. China has seen the invention of amazing technologies such as silk, paper, gunpowder, and many other products. Over the millennium, China has fought hundreds of wars. It has conquered its neighbors, and been conquered by them in turn. Early Chinese explorers such as Admiral Zheng He sailed all the way to Africa; today, China's space program continues this tradition of exploration.'

Key Facts:
- The capital is Beijing
- Power in the People's Republic is divided between the National People's Congress (NPC), the President, and the State Council.

- The official language is Mandarin
- It has the largest population on Earth with over 1.35 billion
- The size of China is about 9.5 to 9.8 million square kilometers
- As a result of its large area and various landforms, China includes climate zones from subarctic to tropical.

I then looked at a range of different outfits that are both traditional to current China and also more into Ancient Chinese outfits and found these beautiful images of how they depict what the clothing looked like, and it provides some brilliant inspiration for my first character. 

Name: Cheng Ling
Age: 21
Human Age: 93
Date of Birth: 02/11/1993
Ethnicity: Han Chinese
M/F: Female
Profession: Ancient Protector of the Wonders
Education: She trained as a martial artist when she was growing up and taught that to children and adults for many years before joining the elders.

Hobbies/Interests: In her space time she enjoys reading history on her country, even though she has read pretty much everything there is to know. She enjoys reading literature in general and also still practicing martial arts but at a slower pace.

Political/Religious Beliefs: She has no religious or political beliefs, she only believes in Peace around the world.

Disposition/Personality: She is generally very quiet and keeps herself to herself but does enjoy the company of others on occasion. She loves being with the other Ancients and loves to share in everyone's knowledge and wisdom and aims to live up to the reputation of the Chinese Ancient who came before her, her great-grandfather.

Weaknesses/Faults: She can have a fiery temper and when she first joined she had to learn to control it, but the others believed she could do it and allowed her to stay. Over the years she has calmed down and is a quiet and pensive character but when situations anger her, she can be hurt easily.

Pet Peeves: She likes things to be in order in her living quarters and when they are moved or touched she gets annoyed and her temper flares.

Fears: She fears not being able to find someone she trusts to take up her role as an Ancient and fears that who she picks may turn out to be completely wrong.

Guilty Pleasures: She enjoys lighting all of the candle she can find and placing them around her room and relaxing with soft and calming music. She enjoys the peace and the pure bliss feeling of being in pure relaxation.

Prized Possession: An ancient Chinese relic that she keeps under her pillow in her bedroom. It has been passed down for 13 generations in her family and she was entrusted to keep it safe until the time comes to pass it on.

Proudest Achievements: Being a member of the Ancients, it had always been her dream and she didn't think he great grandfather would ever pick her over her other family members.

Secret Talents: She was once a master in martial arts and although since getting older could still perform most of the moves.

Clothing/Appearance: She wears traditional Chinese clothing that have been passed onto her from her family and she always looks the part. She dresses to impress and doesn't like to be seen not looking her best. She is not very practical in her dress sense and will always opt for tradition over comfort.
Dialogue/Interactions: She is fluent in all Chinese languages and can speak some English in order to communicate with the other Ancients as this is the language most of them know best. She is on the quiet side though and prefers to be in calm situations without disturbances.

Relationship with the Other Koalas: She gets along extremely well with the other Ancients despite her quiet disposition, she is kind and generous and will do anything to help the others but does prefer he own space. She likes their company in small doses and does get involved whenever needed.
Wants: Peace and quiet in the world so she can lead a quiet life and learn all she can about the history of her country.
Needs: To find someone who can take up her role as an Ancient when the time comes for her to move on.
The single thing the character wants the most: For the world to be at peace with one another

I then moved onto designing her outfit that she would wear throughout the game. This was a fairly easy process as I had already looked at a range of different koala looks for Keith, and decided that it would just be quicker to pick a face and body from there instead of designing her from scratch. This felt like the best decision to go with and as I had already looked at a Chinese costume for Keith, again all I had to do was adapt this into a different design to suit her personality.

I then moved onto drawing out the character turn arounds so that I could use then to eventually model from later on in the process. The whole design I feel is great and really captures the country that I was designing it for. I again did one turnaround in colour and then one in black and white so that I could use the black and white one for the modelling and then the colour one to use as reference for the colours I'm supposed to be using.

Extended Practice: Creating the Mock Up Environment and Initial Testing

I then moved onto creating a more detail mock up environment for my own game level that I could use throughout the creation of the final level to ensure that it works as planned, and so that I could test how the character is going to move around the level effectively. This was a great test as I could get a feel of how the level is going to pan out and the overall size once completed and tested. 

I started by using the basic environment layout that I had already used and ensured that I added enough detail into each of the rooms to get an idea about where things where going to be going and what assets where going in each room.

I added in holes into the floor to create obstacles for the character to jump over and avoid and ensured that I started creating walls around them as well. I worked methodically throughout and pretty much created the rooms first, designing where the assets are going to go and what was generally in each room and then worked on the corridors and staircases after.

Creating the rooms with the pits in proved difficult as at this stage I didn't know how far the character would be able to jump and how it would work, so I added them in where I thought would be a good place for now and then would fix any issues later on.

After creating most of the room layouts I started to add in some extra features as I moved further into the completion of the level. I started adding in blocks where doors and traps where going to feature and also added in blocks for where the torches and light sources where going to be.

I then coloured them accordingly, making the doors green, traps orange and torches red, the same as my initial key that I created for the final layout of the level. I ensured that I tried to keep them similar colours so that it became obvious when looking at them that they where the same thing.

Once the level had been completed I decided that now was the time to take it into Unity and get a third person camera in there to test that the jumps where possible and the coridors weren't too narrow for the character to get down. For this, as I had not created my character yet in Maya, I used the pre-set third person controller that comes with Unity Pro and set him up to be the same size that Keith is going to be in the final level.

This was a very useful exercise as I learned that some elements in my environment were too long and the character struggled to get over the jumps, things that I can alter now that I have tried and tested the level.

I then recorded the first playthrough of the video showing the elements of jumping and platforming, but when playing through there were some elements that did need changing so that the player can actually progress in the level.

The first problems that I had where that I couldn't get over some of the platforms in the pit rooms, which I did expect would happen as it was hard to image how high the player can jump in the creation of the level. This was a fairly quick fix, just making the lower or higher where appropriate

The next thing I changed was where I had pits in the corridors, these where positioned too close together meaning that I couldn't jump over with ease, this was resolved by moving them further apart so that it flowed smoothly.

The last thing was that the orange squares where too long, these represent the spike traps, and the player just couldn't jump that far. This again was an easy fix that just involved making it slightly narrower so the player can jump over with ease.

I then created this final walkthrough video, again as a test to ensure that game was playable, which is was, although there were a lot of falls that occurred while recording, and I also added in the ceilings into this part as well to ensure that they where high enough in all situations, which they where, and so that it became smaller and the player didn't know how long the level was, making the level seem longer.

I then finally went through the level and adding in coloured blocks for where the energy cans are going to be along with the collectibles. This was a good way of looking at positioning them as I could see the entire map, and see if the place I had decided to put them was indeed the correct place, and in most cases it was.

Doing this test overall was such a huge help in the creation of the environment, but I do feel that the level is still slight too big. The playthroughs that I have been doing take about 5 minutes, but that is without all of the exploration that needs to happen. This may be alright in the end, as it creates a more detailed environment that people want to explore but I have to make sure it isn't going to take too long so people get bored of it.