Assets, Textures and UV Maps Pt.1 (Digital Prototype)
When it came down to creating or even finding the correct tools I needed for the game there were a few ideas that did come to mind.
I have to create the maps
I have to create/find assets that the team can use
Making sure that Probuilder in Unity is suitable
Thinking of the sounds used
And then this goes even further than just these simple three things, I need to think about Sound, the actual Game objects that are going to be used. Now I thought initially the game’s perspective would be like a traditional platformer where it’ll be on a flat plane, but using 3D graphics, vaguely similar to modern Super Mario Bros. games which I was content with that idea. so I decided to start with at least the map design.
The Map
This was going to be as basic as a platformer could be as I wanted to present something genuinely quite simple. Separate platforms that are either higher or lower than the players start position and also some additional blocks indicating to the player where the drop zones are. This was made using ProBuilder in Unity which thanks to my previous experience with Autodesk Maya didn’t take me to long to accomplish, but understanding how it worked in Unity was a bit different so it did take some time, honestly. Overall, this was very simple to create.
Now the next step, making it look cohesive
The Look
So it needs to like I’m inside the flesh, so I have to think about the textures and the backdrop for the game, so I did some digging and I found a few things. First the backdrop had to be something representing being the bloodstream so a simple Google search helped me find something which was being a inside an artery… i know right shocker but finding the correct one was difficult thinking of the lighting and how it’s presented towards the player.
Next I decided to look at a what type of texture could be used for the main level object, being inside the body it would have to be flesh, so obviously I did some more digging and found something which I believe would be quite suitable for the purpose of being the floor for the player.
For it to truly serve the correct purpose of making any coherancy, the floor must be actual meat. so it has to show the fleshy insides so even though it may clash the colour has to be either a dark red or a light pink to represent the floor on which the White Blood cell must walk across. I chose this one because it seem fairly easy to use without it seeming too real, as we wanted to keep it at least not looking realistic so this would be perfect for the texture of the map, my only worry is the black might have to change. I’m unsure about it being this scheme but we will see once it renders out in Unity
The Game Objects
So what game objects do I need, just two:
The Player - White Blood Cell
The Enemies - The Virus (in this case Covid)
With the Antibodies we can just make a simple prefab in Unity which shouldn’t cause any difficulty and these would be the things I need to focus on. I need to Asset flip and find the correct 3D models that I can.
Whilst doing my search I found that getting free 3D assets for Covid was actually quite easy, but getting a White Blood cell was incredibly difficult. It’s weird how they had that type of parallel but regardless I did manage to find some useful assets that I can show the team
The Sound
For this part I focused on just what the atmosphere should bring to the table, initially I was going to create the atmosphere and producing the track, but ended up thinking it was something over my capabilities or at least because it’s to do with produced a whole track of ambience, it’s a little out of my skill range, I have done so before, but I wanted to be a perfectionist. Thankfully, Dan from the team knew a source of where to find quality sounds for backing tracks so I searched it and found the perfect sound on there.
The track normally would be used to give of a horror vibe to the experience, but it did fit well with our game because we imagined it as being in deep dark space and that is somewhat related being in a deep dark space on the microscopic level. So this was the one I was going for
Now with all the elements in place, it’s time to show the team and see what they thought about the choices