Author Archives: Oscar Molin
Advanced Assignment – 3D-I Week 3; Pre-production
Alright, so as an effect of having previous knowledge in 3d, me and a few others got a more challenging assignment. For this, we were given the choice to make one out of four vastly different vehicles.
A starship
Now, all of these are very interesting and all have their own virtues. However, The Bull is the one that got my attention the most; it’s got an interesting style, it’s got mechanical […]
Advanced Assignment – 3D-I Week 3; Pre-production
Alright, so as an effect of having previous knowledge in 3d, me and a few others got a more challenging assignment. For this, we were given the choice to make one out of four vastly different vehicles.
A starship
Now, all of these are very interesting and all have their own virtues. However, The Bull is the one that got my attention the most; it’s got an interesting style, it’s got mechanical […]
3D-1 Week 2: Assignment 1 – Modeling crates
Second week of 3D, we now advance to specific props; we were namely tasked with modeling 3 individual crates, because *every* game needs (and has) crates in them. However, not all crates look alike. Depending on the style and theme of the game, even such simple props can differ vastly!
The styles we had to choose from were:
Science Fiction
Urban Contemporary
Medieval
Post-apocalyptic
Cartoony
My normal go-to style would be Cartoony, but I felt like challenging myself and expand my horizons a little. So, the first […]
3D-1 Week 2: Assignment 1 – Modeling crates
Second week of 3D, we now advance to specific props; we were namely tasked with modeling 3 individual crates, because *every* game needs (and has) crates in them. However, not all crates look alike. Depending on the style and theme of the game, even such simple props can differ vastly!
The styles we had to choose from were:
Science Fiction
Urban Contemporary
Medieval
Post-apocalyptic
Cartoony
My normal go-to style would be Cartoony, but I felt like challenging myself and expand my horizons a little. So, the first […]
Game System Analysis 1 – DUST
Intro
The first week of our current game design course, Advanced Game Design, we were tasked with playing a board game of our choice and, once played a minimum of 3 sessions, analyse it and figure out it’s underlying game system. We chose, without reading anything about it prior, a game called DUST.
DUST is a competitive strategy game played on a map of the earth. The map has connected, circled land or sea areas scattered over it. Some of these areas […]
Game System Analysis 1 – DUST
Intro
The first week of our current game design course, Advanced Game Design, we were tasked with playing a board game of our choice and, once played a minimum of 3 sessions, analyse it and figure out it’s underlying game system. We chose, without reading anything about it prior, a game called DUST.
DUST is a competitive strategy game played on a map of the earth. The map has connected, circled land or sea areas scattered over it. Some of these areas […]
3D-I Week 1: Screenshot analysis and temp-level creation
Starting a new year here at Gotland, the focus has now switched from 2D to 3D. ”Finally” if you ask me. Given that this is where I’ve been focused for the bigger part of my life, and being entirely self-taught, it’s nice to finally get some professional guidance for a change.
Given that this is the first course in 3D (Aptly named 3D-I), the initial focus is on really basic stuff, since there is no requirement of prior knowledge. This I, […]
3D-I Week 1: Screenshot analysis and temp-level creation
Starting a new year here at Gotland, the focus has now switched from 2D to 3D. ”Finally” if you ask me. Given that this is where I’ve been focused for the bigger part of my life, and being entirely self-taught, it’s nice to finally get some professional guidance for a change.
Given that this is the first course in 3D (Aptly named 3D-I), the initial focus is on really basic stuff, since there is no requirement of prior knowledge. This I, […]
Sewing an optionsmenu
One week left until final. As graphic artists we are running out of things to do, and are mostly just polishing what we have, and adding some extras. One of those extras was that of a background for our options menu.
In our main menu screen, the options are reached by clicking on the sewing machine.
As such, we wanted some continuity and chose to switch the screen to one centering on the sewing machine itself, and center all the options […]
Sewing an optionsmenu
One week left until final. As graphic artists we are running out of things to do, and are mostly just polishing what we have, and adding some extras. One of those extras was that of a background for our options menu.
In our main menu screen, the options are reached by clicking on the sewing machine.
As such, we wanted some continuity and chose to switch the screen to one centering on the sewing machine itself, and center all the options […]
First impressions; designing a themed main menu
The very first thing a player sees when he/she starts up a game is, in most cases, the main menu. And since, as we all know, first impressions matter, it matters greatly to set the theme and feel for the game! We had previously decided to have the player play as a tailors ”little helper” (think of the mice in Disney’s ”Cinderella”), and so we wanted to use the main menu to make that connection. As such we concluded that […]
First impressions; designing a themed main menu
The very first thing a player sees when he/she starts up a game is, in most cases, the main menu. And since, as we all know, first impressions matter, it matters greatly to set the theme and feel for the game! We had previously decided to have the player play as a tailors ”little helper” (think of the mice in Disney’s ”Cinderella”), and so we wanted to use the main menu to make that connection. As such we concluded that […]
Loading screen; presenting with style
I’m starting to feel, that I’m running out of things to write about, since most of the assets I create are very similar, and I feel that such posts would benefit noone.
At this point in the project, we’ve come to a place where we don’t have much to do, graphically. It’s mostly just finishing up and refining what we have and adding extras. One of those extras, we realized, was a loading/splash screen. Looking at our usual style-guide (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BBgghnQF6E4), we […]
Loading screen; presenting with style
I’m starting to feel, that I’m running out of things to write about, since most of the assets I create are very similar, and I feel that such posts would benefit noone.
At this point in the project, we’ve come to a place where we don’t have much to do, graphically. It’s mostly just finishing up and refining what we have and adding extras. One of those extras, we realized, was a loading/splash screen. Looking at our usual style-guide (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BBgghnQF6E4), we […]
Curvy trails of motion; using Beziers to smooth things out
So… I like OpenGL…. and trianglestrips… so this will be yet another post about something made using just that: namely ”motion trails”!
For those unfamiliar with the term, trails (they probably go by different names too), are essentially what makes up the ”blades” in games like Fruit Ninja:
Too make this, I followed basically the same steps as I did when creating the walls (see last blog post). I start by, every few frames (initially I set it to once every […]
Curvy trails of motion; using Beziers to smooth things out
So… I like OpenGL…. and trianglestrips… so this will be yet another post about something made using just that: namely ”motion trails”!
For those unfamiliar with the term, trails (they probably go by different names too), are essentially what makes up the ”blades” in games like Fruit Ninja:
Too make this, I followed basically the same steps as I did when creating the walls (see last blog post). I start by, every few frames (initially I set it to once every […]
A leap between dimensions
Alright, so I study graphics, and I am baffled by how many people are.. well, baffled.. by the idea that I can program as well! Are people’s personal ambitions really so low that the very concept of being good at more than one area is cause for the reactions that gett? Anyhow, I’ve been making games since I was 13, and by that, I mean that I’ve been handling/learning all vital areas connected to that; 2d-graphics, 3d-graphics, programming, sound design […]
A leap between dimensions
Alright, so I study graphics, and I am baffled by how many people are.. well, baffled.. by the idea that I can program as well! Are people’s personal ambitions really so low that the very concept of being good at more than one area is cause for the reactions that gett? Anyhow, I’ve been making games since I was 13, and by that, I mean that I’ve been handling/learning all vital areas connected to that; 2d-graphics, 3d-graphics, programming, sound design […]
Tail of a Tailorman
The concept that we chose, aptly named ”Suit ‘Em Up”, is about a tiny tailor. He’s been tasked to fight off evil bugs before they munch up his favorite suit!
Given the concepts focus on tailoring and fabrics, our minds we’re instantly drawn towards early 1900′s. With this, an idea regarding the visual design was born in the mind of our dear lead artist; namely that of early Disney cartoons.
Researching this a bit narrowed our visual guidelines down to a few […]
Tail of a Tailorman
The concept that we chose, aptly named ”Suit ‘Em Up”, is about a tiny tailor. He’s been tasked to fight off evil bugs before they munch up his favorite suit!
Given the concepts focus on tailoring and fabrics, our minds we’re instantly drawn towards early 1900′s. With this, an idea regarding the visual design was born in the mind of our dear lead artist; namely that of early Disney cartoons.
Researching this a bit narrowed our visual guidelines down to a few […]
Recap
During the first semester, we were, like previously mentioned, put into random groups of 6-7 people. With this group we were destined to complete 2 major assignments over the course of the year; the first was to create a Shoot ‘Em Up game concept, together with Concept Documents, One Page Design documents etc. and then present this concept to the other groups. The reason for this being, that at the start of this semester, we were to pick one of […]
Recap
During the first semester, we were, like previously mentioned, put into random groups of 6-7 people. With this group we were destined to complete 2 major assignments over the course of the year; the first was to create a Shoot ‘Em Up game concept, together with Concept Documents, One Page Design documents etc. and then present this concept to the other groups. The reason for this being, that at the start of this semester, we were to pick one of […]
GameJam 2013 ”Everybody is a noob”
An activity becoming more and more common in the game developer industry are so called Game Jams. For those who don’t know what such are, the concept of Game Jams is to, over a varying (but generally rather short) time, create a game and compete with others over which is best in certain categories. This can be done either in teams or individually. During this years alumni days, we had such an event. The theme of it was ”Everybody is […]
GameJam 2013 ”Everybody is a noob”
An activity becoming more and more common in the game developer industry are so called Game Jams. For those who don’t know what such are, the concept of Game Jams is to, over a varying (but generally rather short) time, create a game and compete with others over which is best in certain categories. This can be done either in teams or individually. During this years alumni days, we had such an event. The theme of it was ”Everybody is […]