Death Be Thy Name - Week 6 Development Blog

As previously stated last week I set myself the task of creating the main player character model and a piece of concept art to accompany it that could potentially used as a main menu screen or as part of the itch.io page. Firstly by taking inspiration from a variety of sources i.e. PSX games that include skeletons, artwork and most notably YouTube I feel that I was able to create a convincing skeleton model that could go straight into the game as is. However it is my understanding that the group feel that by adding a robe it would help portray the character as being the grim reaper more effectively. throughout the creative process of modelling the skeleton i knew that the poly count would have to be relatively low so that it would be relative to the style of game that we are trying to achieve. I do in fact feel that I was successful in doing so as the entirety of the model has a total poly count of 840 tris.

Following by outsourcing a copyright free low resolution reference image of a skeleton i was able to apply the texture to the model and by affecting the images alpha values once it was on the body I was able to replicate the affect of having games between the characters bones unlike the untextured variant in which the torso was a solid mesh.

Following the creation of the main player character model I started developing the concept art. Based on the fact that I had the model already I was able to use it as a method to scale and subsequently block out how the render will look. Knowing that the first mission in the game was going to be based in a warehouse i had the idea that the game could start by having a cinematic of The Grim Reaper walking towards the warehouse directly from the main menu screen, so I took this into account when blocking out the scene and tried to give the warehouse a menacing feel whilst simultaneously keeping deaths foreboding silhouette as the main focus.

In conclusion this week I feel I contributed a significant amount to the project by not only making the main player character model that will be used through the entirety of the game whether it be through gameplay, cutscenes or box art. Furthermore, by rendering a piece of concept art I feel that it is an important asset that could be used for the games itch.io page to display what the game portrays.

on reflection however I believe that during this week if I was to improve I could have began working on enemy models using the main characters model as a base so that all the models follow the same art style.

Targets for next week:

• Model an enemy model to display to group and discuss whether or not it is something that will be used.
  

• begin discussing playtesting methods with group.
  

• Start work on getting a minimum playable build.
  

• Model more environmental assets for the mansion level.