Alice and Concepting

When we were discussing our game plan, we decided we wanted to play out the story from the opening in the canal down through the garden. Despite this, most of our team concepted almost exclusively for the corridor, leaving us an abundance of hallway designs to choose from. The standouts tended to be ones that referenced architecture from relevant iconic places as well as smart designs like using the floral patter on the front cover of the book as a wallpaper design. Meanwhile this left me with almost complete creative control of the forest area. I'm not a particularly strong painter, but I did have some solid ideas on the direction I wanted to take the level, so I used photobashing to put a layout of the level together.

I wanted a strong sense of how magical wonderland was, and also the scale of Alice and how that would effect her perception of the world around her. I thought a lot of the picturesque background pieces could be done as graphic planes, with the foreground being modeled- for both effect and to reduce the amount of unique assets we need to decorate a level, as I was aware of the complexity of the scenes. But I wanted to embrace that business and cluster.  

My next job was to make it work as a cohesive level, I made a speculative route plan -that would be far more stretched out and spaced in the actual rendition of the level- trying to inlcude as much verticality as possible to try and improve some of the linearity that is often attributed to side scrolling games. I also considered game play mechanics as I went along- like a house of cards that fall down and has two different consequential routes depends on if you manage to jump onto the next platform before it falls, of if you tumble down with the rest of the cards. Also things like pushing a boulder to make a stepping stone to get across the 'river of tears'. Besides this I also added the 'theater planes' as the form of the oxford roof top landscape that's being engulfed in the river. 

A small but I feel nice addition is also the checkerboard sky, as the checkered patter is commonly associated with Alice and Wonderland and it aided the dream like atmosphere I was going for. On reflection though, it does look far to busy, I think the oxford towers could do with being lowered because they block out too much of the path Alice travels on, instead of just parts of it like I intended. 

Creative Differences

Our next big group decision was style. We knew we wanted a side scrollers but all had very different ideas of what that would encompass. Regardless, this is where our group had it’s first creative divide. Luckily everyone was reasonable  but it did turn into a strange battle of wills. Fundamentally, 3 of us wanted to make a 2d side scroller based around a 3d modeled world, this was founded on the fact that we had no concept artists, and what I mean by that is in reference to the specialization sheet I mentioned last week. Our 3d presence was far more prominent that anything else. It also offers a better opportunity to show case 3d skills for  portfolio pieces after the project is over (since none of us are interested in pursuing a career in 2d). The other half of the group was more inclined towards the 2d painterly aside, and I have to concede that the examples and style guides they showed us were gorgeous and the possibility was intriguing, but I honestly don’t think we could pull it off. 

Both sides of this debate tended to rally behind it’s ‘example’ game, which acted as a metaphorical battering ram, the representatives generally being Trine 2 and Child of Light. While there was no outright hostility in the group- quite the contrary we were communicating well and generally getting along, it did leave some tension in the group. Especially since there was no established ‘leader’ that generally emerges in these types of situations. 

To try and alleviate some of the underlying conflict, I put a style guide together that in-cooperated both 2d and 3d. It was generally well received, with a structured 3d world, but set up like a ‘stage play’ with 2d environments protruding in the foreground and mid ground, that makes the whole thing abstract and wonderlandesque. It was generally well received and helped unify the conceptual direction the group was heading in, though obliviously creative liberties were still encouraged, considered and discussed. We actually managed to come up with a pretty cool style between us, and I have every confidence that if it’s carried through to the final iteration, we’ll have something different and interesting. 

Alice in Wonderland

This next project is actually an external competition, the ‘Off the Map’ project made my Gamecity in conjunction with the British Library to create ‘exciting interactive digital media’. Our source material is Lewis Carrols’ classic Alice in Wonderland. Now, Alice and Wonderland is riddled with potential and creative opportunities, perhaps the only limit was our anchor to Oxford and the original text- which is very different to the popular retelling of the story. Loosely, our game had to be based in a fundamental world we recognize in the context of the story. But this is fine, Alice is a fantastic subject matter and I couldn't be happier to be making a game on it. I’m also very relieved to break away from my sci-fi streak, time to do some natural form! It really has been too long since I've modeled a bush...

This week was actually pretty controversial in terms of our years unrest, the first offender was our groups were set for us. While I’m not opposed to this in the slightest (I think it resembles industry working conditions more accurately) it was jarring. In our two years at DMU there’s never been a project where we’ve been set groups. I think the real problem is this project is by far our longest project of the year, almost tripling the length of our previous ‘longest’ time allowed for a project. It’s also our final project and an external completion so the stakes are fundamentally higher- it matters far more than any other group project that we are able to work well with our group. I think it would have made more logical sense to have randomized groups in every project but this one. Either way, I’m at lest somewhat familiar with the members of my group and am looking forward to working with them more closely- time to build some bridges.

The second aforementioned controversy was that during our introduction lecture to this project, it was mentioned that our projects would have to be a side scroller. I think I went through a very brief but dramatic roller coaster of emotions in the following two minutes; at first I was alarmed, then annoyed, then interested, then finally- excited. It was different and new and there are some fantastic 2d side scroller games I adore. Some people didn't have the same reaction and student battled staff for a day or so, before our staff relented and decided we could do anything, including the much desired 1^st person 3d world that most of us are accustomed to. Thing is though- by this time most groups (and I’m relieved to include mine in that statistic) had already warmed to the idea of a side scroller. If I had to guess, I’d say around two thirds of the year decided to do a side scroller.

Our groups weren’t entirely random though, the week prior to this we were asked to fill in a form where we chose our primary and secondary specializations. I was quite uncertain filling this o ut because I’m really not sure what I want to do, or be shoe horned into a job for this project. I think it was a defining moment where I had to choose between what I should and could do, verses what I wanted to do. I chose environmental artist, with a back up as an engine person. I think these are m,y strongest comparative suits and it would be unfair to any group I might have been put in to not sign up as mmy strongest roles. Ironically however I needn’t have worried so much, our group in particular (I can’t speak for other groups,) was terribly imbalanced. Out of five os us, we had three character artist, no concept artists and no engine person. This has knock on negative effects because then during job distribution we felt obligated to adhere to everyone’s jobs, which means we doled out three character jobs instead of an ideal one character- Alice. It also meant myself and Jake (who both had engine as our secondary preference) to do engine work, instead of any dedicated single person.

Right, so after deciding on a side scroller, we talked as a group about what category we wanted to go into out of the provided ones: Oxford, Garden and Underground. We decided that while we more more inclined towards the Garden and Underground which both had a written place in the book, we would read the source material before making any decisions. As I read the book I made a detailed document on all events and how they could potentially translate into game mechanics, like the dog, or chasing the rabbit, or chasing the animals to get dry. When we reconvened we decided instead of basing a game around a single one of these areas, we would just recreate certain sections of the book that would make worthy gameplay areas, and retell the story based on the events that happened in the book. We also made the conscious decision to try and align ourselves as closely with the book as possible, partially to please the British Library but also to make a streamline game experience. In regards to the inclusion of Oxford we decided to scatter referenced abstractly into the scenes, or include it in any architecture on the basis that because the world that Alice explores is her dream, that what she finds would be familiar. So all trees and fauna and anything else would be based on things you find strictly in Britain. The rest of this week was spent concepting and making stylistic decisions which I’ll go into more detail with next week.