#3

Introduction

Hi there! Every other devlog up until this point has been written by Jared, the programmer for the project. Given that this is an art based log I figured that I would write it and give Jared a break from trying to get these things out on time when we’re all struggling with things like school given the situation of current events. So I thought I’d introduce myself and give a sort of distinction between the devlogs going forward. I’m Roland, and I’m the artist for the project. If a devlogs main topic is art, it’s probably from me, or at the very least partly from me. If it’s about programming or technical knowledge, which I have none, it’s from Jared. It doesn’t necessarily matter who it’s from, we’ll cover things in largely the same way and we both look over each other's logs, but I thought that I would take a moment to familiarize you with the two of us. Now then, onto the log!

Design

Designing games in the PS1 style is tough. This is because the texture size and polygon count are so low but designs still need to be detailed and unique. I tried to find a way around this by simply giving my characters unique silhouettes, as well as unique colors, and appealing design. Take the Outsider, the player character, for example. When trying to find what could make him unique I took inspiration from other media that had a knight in shining armor type character in it. What I found is that all of my favorite characters had asymmetrical designs and appealing colors. So I made the Outsider a purple knight with dark armor and gold accents. I thought this would make him unique but also emphasize his Spanish origin. I considered giving him engravings, but it just wouldn’t have worked with the limited texture budget. He still needed a better silhouette. So what I did was give the Outsider a side of his body with larger armor and a side of his body with lighter armor.

You’ll notice that he has a bigger pauldron on his left side, at least when looking from behind, but that's not the only thing, the gauntlet and glove are also bigger than the ones on this right side. When creating this aspect of the design, I also took into account how the player would see the Outsider through the game's main camera. This is why the larger pauldron is on the left side rather than the right, so that the outsider takes up a smaller portion of screen space and doesn’t obscure the view of the player.

Concept

When beginning a concept usually I’ll start by jotting stuff down or doing simple sketches of either the character or aspects of the character. Once those are ironed out, I’ll do a simple sketch that sort of melds together every idea that I’ve had for the character and brings it all in for one cohesive design. Looking at the merchant, originally she was supposed to be a sort of druidesque, ancient character with a sort of toga-like outfit and a simple scroll and sword (she was also male!).

At that point, I decided that I wanted to do something a little different for her. She ended up becoming a sort of amalgamation of a bunch of different eras and ages but still had a lot of design elements that the original concept did, such as the mask, darker skin, and hair.

Model

Once the concept is finished, I’ll divide it into three pieces and use those pieces as my reference in Maya. Once they are divided and centered, I calculate the height of the subject in centimeters and scale the planes of reference accordingly. After that, I block out each part of the character with specific objects, the head and torso are generally squares at first, and the arms, legs, and neck are cylinders. The feet and hands are also squares. For other items such as accessories, clothing, or hair, I will make the best judgment call on exactly what polygonal objects I will use to start out with. For example, the Outsider’s hood started out as a plane and was extruded to be a 3D object, as was his robe, while the Merchant’s mask started out as a cube.

Implementation

After the model is finished, I rig it, export it to the FBX file format, and throw it in Unity.

At least this is what I would usually do. At the moment we are using Adobe’s Mixamo to rig and animate our characters. This is a very temporary solution that we are utilizing to give more time to other aspects of the game. The final version of the game will likely not be shipped with any Mixamo assets implemented.

How To Support?

Our social media will be your best bet to get new information about our company. We have recently submitted our game to Steam so the store page should be coming soon. Our Twitter is @ComicGamesTm and Instagram is @officialcomicgames. Red Dungeon’s twitter is @PlayRedDungeon. Lastly, you can join the discord where you can talk to the developers and fellow Red Dungeon fans: https://discord.gg/JfFc92B