Week 3 - Chad

Hello my name is Chad, and I am one of the 3D artists on the project. There are a lot of things to cover between the main character, texturing, VFX and beyond. It is my turn to welcome you inside the design and ideas behind our game!

3D modeling and Texturing

• Player character
• Rifle
• Dev weapons/ props
• Lava Lamp

The team and I decided to model a headless character. This was done for several reasons related to immersion, performance, and development ease. It allows for a more immersive experience by placing the camera at the character's "eye level" and avoiding visual distractions like clipping or misaligned body parts. This also simplifies animation leaving rigging less prone to errors than animating a full body.

The design of the weapons was created to make a nod to games of the era as well as the specific games we referenced as the abandonware we like and enjoy. We also wanted to make a reference to what the player is about to play so we’ve littered some of our assets in the room with the laptop to tie everything together.

The texturing of the models is an important step toward immersion and sometimes breaking that immersion to give them a reality check. The contrasting textures from the opening apartment to the first game Rex Hunt serves to push the player to believe they have been pulled into the game. We’ve pushed hard to differentiate the textures between the starting house and the games they’ll be playing to drive the immersion.   

VFX

• Eruption VFX
• Dino glitch VFX
• Car exhaust VFX
• Dino glitch explosion VFX

Players should feel immersed in the world and visual effects are a great way to build the ambience of a game. The volcano visual effects were made to give the area the feeling you had watching Land of the Lost or playing prehistoric games of the past. Three separate effects are housed in this effect: a smoke effect, a floating ember effect and a heat lightning effect.

The dino glitch is important to give the player a specific objective. All the dinosaurs are deadly; however, the player is here to eliminate the glitched ones. This draws the player’s attention and helps them move toward completing the objective. We wanted to give the player feedback while they cleansed the glitched dinosaurs, so I created a death explosion to push immersion.

The car exhaust effect was made while experimenting with the VFX graph in Unity. This is another example of VFX being used for immersion. Sounds and visual feedback give the player a sense that they are driving an actual vehicle.

 As we are moving along with this project, several more posts will detail the environment and aesthetics our team has created for you to enjoy and see the ideas behind. We are so excited to show you more of our hard work on the game.