Over hill textures – Symbiosis

Week 6 I made tiling textures for the ground. Here are some of the tests I made.
Click to view slideshow.
I found that small patterns were better that large ones because they didn’t look like they were tiled. The color in them also had to have a high enough contrast to convey a texture. If the colors were too similar they became bland and flat.
Down below are the 5 tiles that will be used within the game. They will be […]

Stone textures and PP-presentations Week 5

Stone textures! I wanted to make the rocks a bit more interesting than ordinary stone so I made small rounded spaces, as if sand had smoothed and worn points along the edges of the stone. It looks a little bit like meteorite, or space rocks.
The rock needed to be as round as possible to fit into the game mechanics. One of them is supposed to be used as a ramp in steep corners of the level.
In case somebody couldn’t get […]

Mushy textures! And more!

The third week was spent texturing more things, such as these mushrooms. Again I worked in Zbrush. Diffuse maps were done by: Lisa WS
Click to view slideshow.
I created some more models for the game. Some tree mushrooms that both characters can climb, that will also serve as decoration in some cases. Then there are the leaves that are platforms for the light character, Lumi.

T-t-t-textures! Symbiosis w.3

Third week in and the first prototype is coming together.

This week I created the most needed assets and then jumped into texturing what we got. Down below I go through the steps of texturing the trees with ZBrush.

I mask off round forms in the tree and use “inflate” to give them a dip. Then I use a custom alpha brush to give the bark texture. Lastly I use a thin brush to go over the dents again and give them […]

Symbiosis Week 2 – Planning and building

To say that it’s only the second week I work on this would be a lie. I have worked on the concept and idea for this game for about four months. But it is only two weeks of having a full team and beginning to build this game.
This is the last course of year two at Uppsala University and will span 8 weeks of development before the exhibition of Gotland Game Conference.
Symbiosis is a single player game where you control […]

Week 9 of the Piñata – Sprite monkey

The final week of the project is almost here and the game Night of the Piñata is in its final stage of polish. The graphics for the game is just about done and the few things that get a new finish are the objects I made over the weeks.
The objects in the game have all been designed to fit with the theme of the festival Dia de los Muertos. They are colorful and festive, but have been mostly static up […]

Week 8 of the Piñata – HUD in a different order

This is a continuation on last weeks work, which was on the GUI and HUD. In short I were making the different bars and working out effects that tells the player what is going on while they play the game. For this week I have changed it around as well as tweeked some shapes in it.
The week kicked off with playtesting of our game and we gathered the feedback and went over it, discussing how we could use it and […]

Week 7 of the Piñata – How to convey it

This is the seventh week on the project Day (or Night) of the Piñata. The name is not set yet. My main focus this week has been on the feedback in our game, everything the player will see and hear when something happens in the game. These ties in with our GUI (graphical user interface) that will help the player understand how to play the game.
To begin I made a mockup of our GUI on the background of the game, […]

Week 6 of the Piñata – This game needs objects

Over the course of taking the concept of Day of the Piñata and making it into a full game I have been working on the many objects the game needs. The player will play as a piñata raging through the streets on Dia de los Muertos, to wreck the festive decorations. These objects are the ones the piñata will stomp down.
To begin the process of every object I do a few quick thumbnails in no more than three shades. I […]

Week 5 of the Piñata – Candy chase

During this week I have been very busy with the walking animation cycle of the kid design I wrote about last week. Because I have had very limited knowledge of animation earlier I broke down the process into small enough steps that I thought I could manage. I also made this using photoshop CS, which is not the most ideal program to use for animation, but it works and I still learned a lot about frame by frame animation.
I […]

Fourth week – Dangerous kids (Day of the Piñata)

I am now four weeks into a ten week project of creating the game Day of the Piñata. My team and I over took the concept document for this game from another team and our task is now simple; make the game as fantastic as it was first intended.
For this game you play as a piñata come to life, as it is possessed by a vengeful spirit who passed through to our world on the Day of the Dead, Dia […]

An introduction

My name is Matilda and the past two weeks seemed to just fly by. So many new, lovely people, so many new places to see and so many new assignments. Game Design and Graphics at Uppsala University Campus Gotland: a good choice for me as I see it.
I will be updating this blog with everything I find especially interesting about the program or what I have learned from it over the week.
Stay creative,
Matilda