#theravenblight

[matthewblandnz]

Some prototype work on our Monster Bird - Sound and Animation.

[caroalnajjar]

Exposition Dump

In any medium that deals with narrative, one of the main challenges a writer will face is how to get across exposition in a way that isn’t so obvious it will take the audience out of the experience. Video games especially have an issue in this regard. The vast majority of games with an actual story I’ve played fall very hard on the tell don’t show scale. Because of this, games like The Witcher 3 stand out because they employ actual story telling techniques to show, not tell, the backstory of their characters and explain to the audience why they’re there and what they’re trying to do. 

In this vain, being in charge of our game’s story this semester, I’ll try my best to get across all the exposition without an NPC coming around the corner saying “We used to be such good friends, but you were never the same after your mother died six months ago.” 

First of all it would be good to establish what information needs to be conveyed for the audience to understand the game. 

Who are you?

What are you?

What’s your problem?

How will you fix it?

In The Raven Blight as we have named our game, you will be playing the leader of a small town. You live on land previously inhabited by a nobleman and gifted siphonist, siphony being the magic of drawing power from nature. After performing a particularly challenging spell, the siphonist drew so much from the local forest, parts of it became inflicted with what your people have come to call the raven blight, which corrupts plants and animals, and has been spreading through the forest over the course of centuries, slowly corrupting more and more of it. Finally, long after the siphonist that used to rule these lands has died and your people have come to live at the border of the radience, the magical forest that offers many resources and powers to local people, the blight has spread to the local crops, killing off many of the domesticated plants and creating a food shortage. Once people started dying from hunger, political uproar followed. The feudalistic government was overthrown and in the power vacuum that resulted, people turned to you. Being the most skilled siphonist of your people, as well as a charismatic person who deeply cares for his people, the town put its trust in you that you will save them. You are trying to help your people as best as you can using your magic, however you know that the blight is spreading and that the only thing you can do to save your people is to find them a new place to live. 

Obviously the smaller details of this backstory aren’t really necessary for the audience to know, for example, it’s very unlikely that we’ll get into the original nobleman who lived in these lands, or the revolution that put you in charge within the 10 minutes or less of gameplay we’ll be preparing for open studio. However, it is important to have an idea of how to provide the audience with all the necessary information, which is what I’ll do now. I will be working under the assumption that we won’t have any dialogue in the opening sequence, but that other than that we can be as cinematic as I would like. Because of this, everything is object to change as I’ll have to check with Claudia if everything I’m imagining is possible and with the entire group if they like it. But here goes my hopefully subtle exposition.

The game will start with a cinematic of your pet raven flying. First it will fly over the radience, then it will fly over the ruins of the old siphonist’s castle, then it will fly over the blighted forest, where it is attacked by a blighted trix, which from a distance also looks like a raven, but much bigger. The point of this is to give the audience a kind of linear narrative to follow: first there was perfect nature, then humans came and corrupted the nature, and now the nature is out to getthenm. This last point is enhanced when the raven escapes the trix and flies across the largely empty crop fields around your land, introducing the audience to the main challenge your people are currently facing. 

The raven then flies to you, landing on the tower you are standing on. It has a note tied to its foot. The note reads: “[allied town] cannot help you. You will have to leave your lands.” This tells the player what he/she needs to do. 

Next the player will be given full control. Presumably they will start walking around the tower. We could use this bit to maybe give a bit of a tutorial and introduce them to the fact that they have magic and how to use it.

Eventually you will come to the stairs leading down, triggering you to be teleported to the bottom of the tower. Down in the village, your raven will leave your shoulder and fly a way from you, toward the ruin, flying so far and then making sure that you’re following. As you go through the town you may see people bowing to you and maybe someone burying their relative to hammer home the dire situation of your people and the fact that you are in fact their leader. 

Your raven guides you to the centre of the ruins, where you find a large chalice type object filled with bright blue flames. When you look into the flame, your surroundings evaporate and show you a beautiful alternative world. Telling you where you will want to go. The chalice is also covered in markings that turn out to be the instructions for the spell you need to do. Maybe you need to go home and translate them, maybe you just have objectives pop up on your screen, someone who knows more about games than I do should make that decision.

Most importantly, you know that you are the leader of your town. You are also a siphonist. Your problem is that your people don’t have enough food and are dying. And you will fix this problem by doing a spell that will transport you to a different place. 

[matthewblandnz]

A short video showcasing some audio and animation work I’ve been doing for our ‘Trix’ Enemy

[matthewblandnz]

Player Animation Testing

Idle

Jump

Run

[matthewblandnz]

Centipedes are not the only gifted creatures. 

[samy-bct]

Reflection

Another year is coming to a conclusion, and so is the last semester of being a second-year student. Time does fly faster than the thoughts of man, saying that I learnt and have done things that I have never have thought I would be capable of doing. Comparing my project and personal development to the first semester of this year and the second semester, I have learnt and gained skills than I ever could in the first semester. In this semester I learnt what real game development looks like and playing a substantial role in the team that has a similar work ethic as you. Going from working on a 2D game in the first semester to a  3D game it was quite a game changer and a whole different way of thinking and skill set that I needed. In the start of the semester i didn’t know what i was  doing this semester until I was approached my Mathew and after he explained his concept I was sold and joined his pre-existing team from last semester. Now thinking back I was wise to join their group because I have learnt quite a lot in a short amount of time. Looking at my workflow, there were things that I had done right and things I have  done not entirely wrong but they caused me to lose track of time a little. As I took electives that coincidently complimented my studio project which allowed me toI pulled ideas and influence from different disciplines such as game design (Play methodology -Art and Design Paper) and 3D modelling, texturing and all components of working in a 3-dimensional space (Synthetic Realities-Creative Technologies paper). The major disadvantage I discovered that I can be a little stubborn in my ways and can take my time to realise something that was quite obvious. This was shown when I was figuring out how to do the textures. I did exhaust all my options and resources that I have known an figured out that any of the new software have come across wouldn’t help me and the software that I had already some skills with can do what I wanted. This is a character flaw I have to work on If I am to continue successfully down the road of becoming a”Creative Technologist”. Things take time to learn thus I realized this semester to first discover if a software can help you then learn it (this is talking from a student's POV were time is gold). Looking at the project as this is still in its beta form, thus if I am was to work on this project again firstly I will have to further increase my skill set as an artist and a game designer. To carry on a project from one semester to another you need to always up your“Game” you have to refine and review the existing and make exponential strides in the project by the end of the new semester, For that to transpire I will have to develop myself further first. Looking towards the future, as I stated I will be on a shelf improvement journey both skill wise and personal attributes wise. This will help with my journey down the road of becoming “Creative Technologist” even though this year I have come to realize what I would like to specialise in for the future which is in the area of game design and world design that doesn't mean I have lost interest in everything else. Creative technology allows you a safe haven to test out your skills and to a certain extent test yourself. Why be one thing in life? It's boring when you can be what you want to be and have a skill set like a toolbox full of different disciplines. This semester has given me a newfound respect for the people in the industry who are in the serious fireline and have no time mistakes and redos. Time is a foe that you can’t beat. Thus, you might as well learn to work with it (Samy.2018)

[matthewblandnz]

The Raven Blight - Gameplay Trailer

After a long semester of conception, planning, drawing, building, and tweaking, our game is nearly finished!

Once I finished placing assets into the world to create our biomes, the team and I began tweaking small parts of the game until we felt that it was time to build a Trailer. 

We hope that this trailer I put together really shows the viewer what our game is at its core as well as give them a hint towards the story.

[samy-bct]

Dipping my hand In particles effects.

As my last job before submission, I had to create a fog particle effect for the blighted area.

There Is not much out there in how to create a custom fog particle system without buying any assets from the store, but I managed to find a tutorial that would help I create the base and i could build on it.

The above shows how to make fog for a 2d game which I had to take and adapt it to a 3d game.

Above image is of me creating the system on my tester game scene.

First attempt and implementation in the game, as Claudia stated it was too and the particles too ball like. Thus I took another try and applied a material to the render and lowered the volume of the fog, that said the volume of the fog had to be also lowered by Claudia and the system adjusted as she was well versed with the game and had the most current version of the game.

Final fog implementation of the particle system into the game. At the end it was a good experience top have a look at in the world of particle effects.