End Sprint 3: Apple, Updates, And Paperwork

So with Sprint 3 coming to a close, there have been a few things that've happened this week.

Not exactly what I would've liked, but I'm going to roll with it.

Let's Start With The Apple

I recently updated my Macbook to the latest OS version (10.11 El Capitan) and it's been playing havoc with my pipeline. Mostly because it has effectively made the drivers of my Wacom drawing tablet completely redundant and it was causing a lot of trouble for people. 

My first work around was a flop, however, I've got a better workaround for now. With any luck, I can get back on track with actual work.

The Update

The tablet works again now. 

And The Paperwork

Seeing as most of my time this week was spent looking for a way around the driver problem, I spent a lot of time refining the visual style of the project starting with the characters. For Inspiration, I turned to my staple for fantasy visuals in games, Fable.

Redesigns for the Templar and the Viking.

In the end, this style works much better aesthetically than what I was using before. The silhouettes are much more defined and you can more easily see who they are as characters and how they will move and play in-game. The Templar is obviously more tanky than the Viking, so I (to quote an XCOM post mortem discussion at GDC) 'Chunkified' the armour and shield. The same thing was done to the Viking, just to his arms to emphasise his offensive playstyle.

TL;DR, it's looking much better than it was before.

Other than that, I got a quick rig done on the old Templar model using mixamo, which also has some basic animations that you can use. I haven't exported those yet, but I do have this one horror shot.

Just imagine he has a sword and shield and it'll be fine.

That's pretty much what's going on with this pipeline. It's had a couple of hiccups but it's still going.

Moving On

I know not much happened this sprint, but get some basic assets out for sprint 4.

To do in Sprint 4:

1. Export basic Templar with Mixamo rig and animations so that some gameplay can get going.
2. Work on basic environment assets for testing purposes (with substances attached)
3. Some proper digital artwork for this project such as:
1. Mood art to capture the feel of certain levels
2. Character paints to help with the design of player characters and enemies

I figure I started out on the wrong foot getting back into this project out of the pantomime, that and hardware issues. The exporting of the basic stuff will give my partner, Alex, something to work with for actually building the game's core mechanics into something fun. I think what I need to really focus on this week is getting something out that I can easily build momentum from. 

Now that the hardware issues are behind me, I can actually start on getting something good out.

Also, I'll be posting extra drawings to my Facebook page so that it actually has some art on it rather than just being a signal boost for this blog so keep tabs on that.

See you in 2 weeks!

Jason.

End Sprint 1 - A Good Guy, Some Bad Guys, And a New Guy

Another fortnight gone, another sprint comes to a close. Mostly with lots of rendering.

Cutting it close to the deadline (within hours), I completed all of the sprint goals and a bit more.

Some Housekeeping

I realised that a fair amount of those who read this blog aren't as savvy with development terms as I am. So to bring everyone up to date:

• A sprint is a two week work cycle where you set certain goals and work hard on them for the entirety of the sprint. It's a sort of motivating workflow so you can do what you need for your project without spending more time than necessary on them.
• Base Meshes are low detail 3D models (usually of characters or anything that will be animated) that are used as starting points (so that more can be added to them later if they need more detail) without breaking the workflow.
• Polys are an easier way of saying polygons. (One-sided 2D planes in a 3D space used to create just about everything in anything 3D).
• Tris are the triangles that make up polys. (Polys are more often than not rectangular, it's a bit easier for computers to break that up into 2 triangles.)
• Unity is the game engine that is being used for the new project. 

So with all of that out of the way, let's get to the post.

A Good Guy,

The Templar character was one of the first characters that came to mind when designing; he was also a fun character to make as far as the base mesh is concerned. His equipment (a sword and shield) will likely be a job for next sprint.

Some Bad Guys,

The fun thing about demons is that you can go wild with designs. I wanted to play around with ridiculous proportions and I think it came out really well.

This little anklebiter wasn't in the sprint goals but I managed to make him up in time.

And A New Guy

Alex and I came to the decision that if we were having medieval and historical warriors as player characters, we needed to have a Viking.

Don't mind my footnotes

He will come around in future sprints.

Moving Forward

I'm keeping my sprints fairly simple due to the amount of work I'm doing outside of this project. For Sprint 2, I'm hoping to achieve:

• Hooking up all current models so they will be ready for animation
• Concepts of environments 
• Base meshes of some environment assets (rocks, trees, misc things you would see lying around in the Underworld/Hell)
• If there is time - Readying models for texturing

That wraps it up for this sprint. I'm feeling pretty confident after seeing what's come from the past fortnight and I'm looking forward to the next sprint.

See you in 2 weeks!

Jason