#josh jertberg

[it-tormentrpg-blog]

Updated Our Journal (44): George Ziets, Josh Jertberg e Jeremy Kopman Intervengono su Live Stream

TL;DR: live-stream di Torment; concept art sull'Asylum; i progressi della mappa di stoffa.

Qui è Thomas che scrive.

Colin McComb, il nostro direttore creativo, si è fatto rivedere in carne e ossa in ufficio (è sempre con noi nello spirito, naturalmente). E’ possibile che abbiate visto questa simpatica foto della Sagus Cliffs story session o il suo cammeo alla fine dell'infomercial di Bard's Tale IV. Ma, pugni-uniti a parte, è stata una visita veramente produttiva. Continuiamo a fare enormi progressi in quella che è la nostra principale preoccupazione, le aree iniziali del gioco.

Questa sera daremo un party che coinvolgerà tutto lo studio per celebrare i nostri recenti successi nel campo del crowdfunding e della produzione: Bard's Tale ha raggiunto il suo obiettivo di finanziamento, e Wasteland 2: Director's Cut è sulla buona strana per non mancare la sua data di rilasciato a fine estate. Il party sarà in live-stream dalle 4 alle 6 del pomeriggio, Ora del Pacifico, nel Canale Twitch di Quill, il celebre streamer. All'interno dello strem, abbiamo deciso di presentare ai nostri fan alcune novità sui nostri progetti in corso: Wasteland 2: Director’s Cut e Torment: Tides of Numenera. La Director’s Cut sarà in live-steam per la prima volta!

Per quanto riguarda Torment, il lead Area Designer George Ziets, il nostro Animatore Capo Josh Jertberg (entrambi nella foto a pugni uniti di sopra) e il nostro Crisis Design Lead Jeremy Kopman, parleranno durante il live stream. Non mostreremo il gioco in azione ma George condividerà qualcosina in merito alle Sagus Cliffs (piccoli spoiler), Josh parlerà delle nostre animazioni in root motion, e Jeremy del design dei sistemi di gioco. Assicuratevi perciò di essere sintonizzati più o meno tra tre ore.

Asylum, di Chang Yuan

Progressi Fisici

Mentre il gioco si va assemblando, stiamo ovviamente lavorando sulla creazione e le modalità di consegna delle ricompense fisiche. Una delle cose che speriamo veramente di produrre in abbondanza è la mappa di stoffa, avendo appreso la lezione di alcune recenti mappe di stoffa di altri giochi. Abbiamo messo l'autore delle cartine di Numenera Christofer West a lavoro sulla mappa, facendolo basare sul nostro lavoro di design, e ci stiamo informando sui materiali e sui processi di stampa che danno i risultati migliori. A seguire uno scorcio della mappa globale, work-in-progress:

Dentro la Notizia

E per finire, abbiamo un'intervista da condividere: Kevin Saunders e Adam Heine intervengono su Red Bull Games, discutendo un ampio ventaglio di argomenti, tra i quali il setting, le Tide, le Crises, il sistema di abilità e altro ancora.

Grazie,

Thomas Beekers

[tormentrpg]

Updated Our Journal (44): George Ziets, Josh Jertberg and Jeremy Kopman Talk on Live Stream

TL;DR: live streaming Torment talk; Asylum art; progress on physical map

Thomas here.

Our creative lead Colin McComb was in the office again in the flesh (he is always with us in spirit, of course). You may have seen this amusing photo from a Sagus Cliffs story session or his cameo at the end of the Bard’s Tale IV infomercial. But fist-bumps aside, it was a very productive visit as we continue to make great progress on our number one focus, the opening areas of the game.

This evening we’re doing an all studio party to celebrate our recent successes in crowdfunding and production as Torment is making great progress, Bard’s Tale IV achieved its funding goal, and the Wasteland 2 Director’s Cut is in a good state to hit its late summer release. We’ll be streaming this party live from 4pm to 6pm Pacific on the Twitch channel of famous streamer Quill. As part of the stream we wanted to present our fans with more on our ongoing projects Wasteland 2: Director’s Cut and Torment: Tides of Numenera. The Director’s Cut will be live-streamed for the first time!

As for Torment, Lead Area Designer George Ziets, our Lead Animator Josh Jertberg (both also in the fist-bump photo above) and our Crisis Design Lead Jeremy Kopman will each talk during this live stream. We won’t be showing the game in action but George will share some about Sagus Cliffs (minor spoilers), Josh will talk about our root motion animation, and Jeremy will talk systems design. So be sure to tune in about three hours from now!

Asylum by Chang Yuan

Physical Progress

While the game is being crafted, we are of course also working on the creation and delivery processes for physical goods. One of the things we really hope to knock out of the park was the cloth map, taking lessons from recent cloth maps from other games. We had Numenera mapmakerChristopher West draw out the map based on our design, and we are scouting for materials and printing processes that would get the best results. Here is a glimpse of the world map, work-in-progress:

In the News

And finally, we have one interview to share: Kevin Saunders and Adam Heine talked to Red Bull Games, discussing a wide variety of topics including the setting, Tides, Crises, skill system and more.

Thank you, Thomas Beekers Associate Producer

[tormentrpg]

From the office of Torment: Sagus Cliffs story session with (from left to right): Evan Hill, Josh Jertberg,  Aaron Meyers (behind Josh), Daniel Kim, John Winocur, George Ziets, Chris Felts, Colin McComb, with Jason Dora taking the photo.

[wastelandrpg]

Developer Blog: Wasteland 2 Animation

Hi Wastelanders,

My name is Josh Jertberg, and I have the incredible fortune to be your lead animator for Wasteland 2. I want to open the channel of communication for anybody that is interested in discussing the application of animation in our project:

http://wasteland.inxile-entertainment.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=12&t=2829

This will be a spot I can check frequently so we can discuss the animation. If you have an interest in the inner workings of game development, maybe I can give you insight from an Animator’s perspective.

Animation in Wasteland 2 was an unknown for me, never having worked with the Unity engine before. I did know one thing in my mind though when we started: I wanted to hand-key the animations. It’s an ambitious goal of mine and one I hope fans appreciate in the end. It’s my feeling that I can bring more personality and flexibility to the animation, as opposed to using motion capture. Plus, let’s face it; as an Animator I will be more artistically invested in my hand-keyed animations. Even with the best motion capture actors you are many times stuck using what you have recorded. The unique aspects and camera of this game do present some good opportunity and challenge for me as an Animator.

One of the struggles as an animator in games is the animation system. A good system can make or break the look of the animations. The animation is broken into so many different pieces that if you don’t have some decent way of controlling that, the entire flow of the animation can feel off. Animation systems have evolved a LOT in the past few years. Wasteland 2 is not a controller driven game and many of these systems are designed for analogue input. I needed a simpler solution and I think I’ve found one.

Browsing the Unity store for animation solutions I found exactly what I needed. I am familiar with the use of an animation tree to drive in game animation states. Sage: Anim Graph Editor is a tool that allows me to intuitively build animation trees that drive the different states of the characters. This is all accomplished without me writing a single line of script. I have no talent for that, but Sage helps me overcome my inability to write script in Unity. I have built up one heck of an animation tree for our rangers so far, and I love the level of control I have over the flow of the animation. The Rangers have a lot of “states” they can be in, so being able to manage and build those states myself is liberating.

Going forward I want to dig deeper and highlight more of this tool and my process. Hopefully this can be a starting point for deeper conversations as development progresses. This project and the opportunity given to us by our backers is unique and refreshing. Reaching out to the fans during production is not something I’ve done in the past, so this is new to me. If anyone wants to ask questions or discuss Animation and game development, I am hoping this will be the place. The more discussion I have with fans that take an interest in the animation, the better it will be.  At least that’s my hope. Let’s see what happens. Thanks again for all of your support.

Special thanks to Andy at Altered Reality Entertainment.  http://www.alteredr.com/sage/

Josh Jertberg