CAGD 470

Me No Sea

Sprint 4

In Sprint 4, I worked on models for the game, like a base for the player to search for loot, a skeleton of a creature, and lastly a sea fan coral. The first task I took was making the base. I made it easier for myself to make the walls modular, so they are easy to put together.



I made the map look damaged, with a tower in front that fell apart, to give the feeling that the structure was getting too old. The player can swim through the building, trying to find collectables to loot and take back to sell. I made sure the player can access the inside by placing a character model from Maya in the middle of the doorway to match the exact height. If that wasn’t checked, during testing of the game, the player would get stuck at the door, not allowing the player to even attempt to search for loot. The next model that I worked on was the coral so that the world can have more to offer. The coral had me stuck for a while, just on how to approach the shape and try to get the right feeling.



I got a reference from another model already created, placed the image plane, traced with a cube, and extruded the faces to match the shape. It was a mission to UV the object just because of all the square tops and different branches that I had to cut in order to get the UV shell ready for texturing. An issue occurred when trying to texture: I would bake the model but saw that the middle piece did not match the rest of the model. The texture would wrap around the shape, but the UVs were badly cut, causing the texture to display poorly. I went back into Maya and fixed the UVs in that area, and when I returned to Painter, the problem was resolved. Something I wish I had done better is to use thinner lines for the branches, but the model still came out good, and it is ready to be part of the game. The last model that I worked on was the bones of a sea creature to be placed on the map. The player will be able to go between the bones of the creature and kind of spook them out when they scan it and realize something bigger is down in the water.



I got a reference for this one as well, with the model having lots of extrusions and having the right shape so it didn’t look ridiculous. The hardest part for me was making the ribs. I had to guess when it started to get to the fin because, in the reference, the rib was covered. So my solution was to trace the bit that I was able to see and follow my guess of the rib where it was covered, and it came out well. Going into the next sprint, I will be modeling again to get more props for the game. The other task I will be taking on is to set up the rest of the scene for the player to sell his items. This will involve adding an island to the scene I made last sprint so the team can see how it will look in-game. Lastly, something that I didn’t get to complete this sprint was making the last coral. That will be the first task to take on so it doesn't sit there any longer and so I don't miss the chance to get to it again.

Me No Sea

Sprint 3

During sprint 3, I worked on some props for the map and an item that the player will get to purchase in-game. Another task I was assigned was making a scene where the player will go to sell the items that they found while underwater. The first item that I worked on was a glowstick. The glowstick will be a purchasable item in-game.

This glow stick was a simple process; the model involved just a cylinder with some bevels, and the top, where the handle is, was created by bridging the top of it. This was needed because this item will be bought by the player, so when textured, there will be different colors so it's not just one single color. The other prop that I worked on was one piece of the coral reef for the game. I am working on 3 pieces for the set but was only able to get one done for this sprint. 

This is one of the pieces of the set; it was a bit tricky to figure out how to even start on the overall shape. I did a little bit of research, found a video on how people approached it, and I found a video on it and found out it's just a bunch of squares that are extruded. Once I got the overall shape, I started extruding random areas and turning them into the reference. The other 2 will be completed for the next sprint to have them in the game.  Seashells are also going to be a set of 3, with all of them being different. The shell that I made was a conch shell, and I was able to texture it for this sprint.

This is the high-poly model of the shell, and since the face count was too high, I made a low-poly model so I could bake the high-poly onto it. I went into Substance Painter and tried my best to get the colors right for the model.

The whole shape of the model took a good amount of time. The shape is unique and was created by a cylinder and extruded multiple times. Since the parts that come out of the shell are different, I made sure to make them all different sizes, and I made sure that one wasn't too big and made the model look off. It took me multiple tries to even get the shape right and also get the curved concave part of the shell to look smooth, with no vertex errors. It was my first time attempting a model like this, and it's not a fast task; it needs a lot of work to nail it. Two types of barrels were created, one being an oil barrel and the other being a wooden barrel.

I made sure to get the textures to match the vibe of the game. I added moss to give it the look that it was underwater for a good amount of time. Around the rings, I added blood to make it look like wherever it came from, it went down with other people. The oil barrel was designed differently, with no moss added to it, but it looks really destroyed by the water damage. 

I made sure to have a bit of rust on the barrel, and I made the word oil a bit erased to also give it that feeling that it's been just sitting under the water. 

The player will be met with this nice sunset with moving waves around them. My other team member is making the island for this scene, so when together it will create the scene for selling items.

Me No Sea

Sprint 2

In this sprint, I was in charge of the tutorial level, with tasks of UI and getting it ready for the player to understand the game. The first task that I completed was getting text to pop up when the player triggers the collider. This wasn’t a cakewalk because the text would overlap when the player hit the collider over and over again. The other issue was the text being cut off when the player left the collider and the text not loading back in so the player could read it.



To resolve the problems that I was facing, I asked my programmer why this was happening. He advised getting rid of the panels that held each text box and just making them into one. This helped a lot, making the game not load in all the panels and also having one panel controlling everything. We made the colliders hold each text, and they will display the same as the panels being duplicated. For the text being cut off, my programmer added code to my script to prevent the cut-off from happening. I also tested more with the text and noticed the second problem of the text messing up, and that took 2 hours to have it work perfectly. Something that looked like it was an easy fix turned into a small nightmare, but eventually the problem got resolved. The next task that I was assigned was making sure the player could understand the game controls, and my idea to the lead was to have the controls displayed for the player in-game to look over.



I pitched the idea to the designer because my vision was not to implement the controls tab in a menu but to have this display as soon as you start. The player can read over the controls and hit Tab to make it disappear. The player forgets the controls, so they don’t have to pause the game; they are going to be able to just hit Tab and continue on with gameplay. This menu will pop up during actual gameplay and not the tutorial level itself because the map will help the player learn how the controls work. The other tasks that I was working on for the tutorial were implementing task completion so that when the player finishes the tasks, the player will activate a door.



In this picture, the wall ahead will move to the side, and the player can enter the room, get greeted with a congrats, and be able to go to the actual game. Since the player didn’t do any tasks as shown in the picture, the wall ahead isn’t going to open for them.

In this video, it shows that when the player is done with the tasks provided, the door will open. The lead and producer agreed to have the player be able to enter the submarine when they exit the map. This map was designed for the player to get the feeling of how the game will operate so they can have a nice experience and not go headfirst into a game they haven't played at all. Since the Tutorial is 99% ready for a build, we are looking forward to getting playtests for our first prototype for our new game. For the next sprint, I'll be working on some assets and getting them into the game to boost our mission to finish the game in 7 sprints.

 

Me No Sea 

Sprint 1

 For Sprint 1 of this new title, Me No Sea was fast; the deadline was only one week. For this project, I will be working as a 3D modeler/Flex. Having everything prepped for the team by the designer helped the team see the vision they were going for. The producer started sending out tasks for the team to get started.  So, the first task I tackled was making the tutorial map. The map was needed to help players understand the gameplay before jumping into the actual game. I made sure to always show the designer the map outline and make sure he agreed with the design. 

So, this is what I created: the player starts in a hallway with light so the player can see and collect the scanner. For the next sprint, I'll provide the player with pop-up texts that will help the player learn the gameplay.  I will make sure that a control tab will show the player how to move around and use the scanner we provide for the player. We want to get the tutorial done by the end of sprint 2, so playtesting can be done. Getting feedback as soon as possible will help steer the game in the right direction. 

The next task I was assigned for this sprint was making some of the loot that the player will find when diving into the sea. One of the loot items found in the game is an emerald. The emerald will be found scattered around the diving site, so you can potentially find more than just one.

The making of the emerald was somewhat easy, but the texturing came with problems. I was going back and forth with the designer to get the right texture that he was envisioning. The first model of the emerald wasn't what he was looking for. He wanted fewer scratches, more translucency, and to be able to see the edges better. To get to the designer's wishes, I went back into Maya and added more edges and bevels. Another error that I made was that the front of the emerald had detail and the back didn't. I mirrored the object, so the back and front looked the same all around. After I added more edges, I hardened the edges so that they're more visible and the texture won't override the shape. With more back-and-forth with the designer, the top emerald was made and ready for the game.

The next loot asset that I worked on was a diamond that will also be scattered around the map. The diamond was a model that came out great.  The only problem was having quads for the shape, because the first time I tried modeling it, triangles appeared. I got the quads to start showing up after I started adding cuts around the shape of the model. After completing the model, the designer was happy with how it turned out, unlike the emerald, where lots of rework needed to happen. 

At first, it was all smooth edges, but with the emerald, I also hardened the edges to get that cut feature. I knew that diamonds aren't blue or fully white; I made it a blend of both. Another asset that was created was a simple pearl. The reason it was simple to make was because it was a sphere that had been smoothed to get that ball look. This is also an asset that will be collected by players to earn money for their findings.

Going into the next sprint, I'm going to work on UI for the tutorial map and some more models. Since the sprints are going back to 2 weeks, I will get more work completed to aim closer to the finished product.