A bit late this time. I took a week off to visit family. Here’s what I did
3D artwork
I playing RE Village, and I was inspired to redesign the medical injector and give it a more industrial and machined metal look. This is a piece for my portfolio, it will not appear in the game at all.
I treated it as a hero prop, and not just an item you use in a 20-minute section of the game, not to mention any time/budget limitations the artists had, so it’s obviously more detailed.
Like I said, I changed the design to make it less sci-fi, even though it first with Umbrella Corporation’s design. Think of it as an older, more primitive version.
I also had fun making the paper note. I made the sketch and writing IRL with a pen and printer paper, then I proceeded to make the paper dirty : folded it, stained it with diluted coffee, ink, threw it on the ground and stepped on it, spilled water on it and dried it over a stove twice. Below is a picture with the result.
I scanned it, adjusted colors, and made minor texture adjustments. Here is the result, with fake game UI.
For more renders, wireframe and breakdown visit the post on ArtStation.
Rhythm Mini Game
I worked more on the rhythm mini game. The first thing I did was to expose the gameplay data, things like time, next prompt, last pressed key, score…etc. I made a demo with a guitar actor that reads the data. When a key is pressed it plays a specific animation, depending on which key is pressed.
The status of mini games are now automatically included in the save file, just like NPCs or interactive objects. I repurposed the “check friendliness” feature to become a more generic “check interaction score”, which is where I also keep the high score of the game, and it is included in the basic save. I added streaks and score multipliers and a nicer UI as well as a final touch.
In this example an NPC can ask you to play the guitar (prentend the disembodied hands are the player’s hands, I kept that model and animation simple). If you don’t exceed the score, the NPC tells you to keep practicing more, but if you do they compliment your skills. The score is kept between sessions (by default, I can override it if needed), so when you start the game again the NPC will still remember that you played well and will directly compliment you, instead of asking you to try it out again.
This is just one example of course, the models can change, the complexity and style can also be adjusted. It can be even used as the basis of a fishing mini game if I increase the speed and also spacing and make custom models and animations.
Journal
I thought about a Journal for the player character last few weeks and it became a core mechanic/feature of the game. That’s where you keep a recap of the events that happened in the day, tasks, and also a drawing. The drawing is just for character and charm, not really useful for anything, but it’s nice to have.
I added crossing out invalid tasks and journal entries, because sometimes you can invalidate a task by doing something else, or get incorrect information and then rectify it.
Entries are written in the order they are accomplished. If you do task A before task
Another nice feature I wanted to have was seeing the journal entries get written in front of you. I didn’t want to force the player to open the journal immediately, and I also didn’t want them to never open it and see what’s being written and drawn, so I made all new entries pending, and when the journal is opened they will be processed and written in front of you. If the player doesn’t open the journal, there is always a forced journal entry before going to bed. Below is a demonstration of writing pending journal entries.
In addition to keeping track of tasks and events, I’ll include information about NPCs, a map of the village, definitions and meanings of certain words and names and so on.
The font is custom, made with my own hand writing. I tried to be as robotic as possible while still being imperfect. A blend between perfect CNC and imperfect human writing. I’m quite happy with the result.
And I started integrating it with the interaction system. In this example talking with the NPC adds a new journal entry.
I still need to implement modifying entries (cross an entry out, or mark a task complete), and then more tests to make sure it works as intended with the save system (working, but not 100% tested yet).
Miscellaneous
I made a few robot head sketches, worked more on hard surface modelling a rotary hammer, and wrote more and reorganized parts of the story. I also played and finished GTA San Andreas and Resident Evil Village. Resident Evil games always have inspiring environments and models, I like the vibe.
That’s all for this 75-76. Next devlog will be shorter because I took a week off, but I’m excited to do certain tasks, more info on that next week.