Machine Island Blog

2010-09-17T10:03:00.003+02:00

We're back in action!

We're finishing the game up this fall, and that means a lot of assets and textures are still being created. Here's the beetle guy you will encounter in the Hollow Hills, should you be successful in you quest.

2010-05-19T01:59:00.000+02:00

This is Tohil. Learn to fear him.

2010-04-29T05:13:00.001+02:00

2010-04-06T02:28:00.000+02:00

Work in progress, beetle dieties.

2010-03-16T18:43:00.001+01:00

Get ready for THIS!

2010-03-11T10:34:00.000+01:00

FINAL LAY-OUT!!!

It's been a long and bumpy road, but here we are now, at the finish line.

2010-03-10T10:27:00.002+01:00

Inside the factory

2010-03-03T15:35:00.001+01:00

SLAYERRRR!

2010-02-08T14:41:00.001+01:00

Textures and Models

2010-02-08T01:06:00.002+01:00

This is the sort of thing Lisa and I have been looking at for a while now, and will be for the coming two months. Exhilarating!

2010-01-22T11:41:00.000+01:00

2010-01-21T11:32:00.001+01:00

2010-01-20T10:41:00.000+01:00

2010-01-18T15:35:00.000+01:00

2010-01-14T11:49:00.000+01:00

2010-01-07T17:04:00.000+01:00

2010-01-07T15:07:00.001+01:00

2010-01-06T12:04:00.000+01:00

2010-01-05T12:09:00.000+01:00

Locker Room

2009-12-23T11:33:00.002+01:00

Med hensyn til Turbine Room og Control Room, så er de jo begge puzzle rum, som lige skal testes igennem før vi kan bestemme os for et layout, men du må meget gerne lege med nogen ideer ang. generelt design i dem. Prøv osse at bruge shape guiden. Ellers rigtig nice work. :) Jeg sidder og roder lidt med scriptet i de her uger, men det er et stort arbejde, så det kommer til at vare lidt før det er på plads. Indtil da, så bare gi los med Dam skitserne. :) Også karaktererne.

2009-12-22T14:45:00.002+01:00

2009-12-10T18:03:00.002+01:00

Here's the first proper test animation with Kiijo, doing what animators just can't get enough of making things do; walking.

2009-12-10T16:03:00.001+01:00

2009-12-10T13:55:00.000+01:00

Robot Kiijo

2009-12-08T10:27:00.001+01:00

Forest scene 5.

2009-12-02T11:33:00.000+01:00

Pumping station with color

2009-12-02T11:00:00.002+01:00

Guido's Gestures

This little guy, nick-named Guido, is still our test-subject.

Here he stars in a short talking/gesturing loop.

2009-12-01T20:22:00.001+01:00

Rough value study

2009-12-01T11:24:00.001+01:00

With color

2009-11-30T21:51:00.000+01:00

Forrest scene with bridges TAKE 2 - with owl, berry bushes and waterfalls.

2009-11-28T20:07:00.002+01:00

Forrest scene with bridges.

2009-11-26T19:41:00.000+01:00

The standard rig is approaching a finished state, so I testdrove the annoying guy through the classics.

Light Shrugging, Saturday Night Live, and Tying Shoes.

2009-11-24T16:03:00.000+01:00

Another layout remix, this time the second scene of the Forest.

2009-11-24T11:47:00.002+01:00

Badass Purple Edit Forest (R) Remixed by sZimm

2009-11-20T14:02:00.004+01:00

Color tests for woodland area

2009-11-20T10:53:00.004+01:00

Two revised layouts, one new, and two colourized.

2009-11-19T16:20:00.001+01:00

Shrine & Tohil

2009-11-18T21:26:00.000+01:00

Forrest of badass

2009-11-17T22:16:00.000+01:00

The Pumping Station

2009-11-17T18:40:00.002+01:00

Here's what amounts to a light and texture "sketch".
I am currently figuring out how to do our UV maps in the most efficient way, and how our textures and lights should play together.

This character is lit by 4 lights, a light yellow key, a turquoise fill, a white rim, and a lavender bounce.

2009-11-17T16:25:00.000+01:00

Bridges

2009-11-17T14:01:00.000+01:00

Shrine

2009-11-13T16:35:00.001+01:00

okay so I totally fell into friday mode but here's the rest of the thumbnails that I didn't get finished.

2009-11-13T11:40:00.000+01:00

Sketch of the pumping station in the forrest

2009-11-12T11:41:00.000+01:00

2009-11-11T22:48:00.000+01:00

Forrest concept

2009-11-11T17:22:00.001+01:00

Forrest concept - mechanical inferno

2009-11-11T13:28:00.000+01:00

This is one vision of the forrest as a moist, rainy place. I like rain.
I will continue to update with all kinds of images of what the forrest could look like for the rest of the week.

2009-11-06T11:21:00.000+01:00

Tohil model & expressions

2009-11-05T22:10:00.005+01:00

Here's your average townsman.

He and other standard models will form the backbone of the Hiijan population. He can easily be made taller, wider, or have props and apparel added to him, to make up more defined characters.

For the first area in the game, he will take on the roles of city guard and travelling salesman.

Constructing him took roughly 8 hours.

2009-11-05T15:23:00.001+01:00

ULTIMATE TOHIL!

HE GON FUCK YOU UP!!!

2009-11-04T20:12:00.004+01:00

Looking over each team members collage, and discussing the different ideas they gave us, we decided on a final list of changes to the design rules:

- More small chimneys in top floor roofs, angular, ornaments
- Mirror of this is the pipes at the bottom floors, also angular, grabbing the ground
- "Street" layout is now based around a temple building in two, terraced floors with houses on top
- Top floor houses are more circular (tank/tube-shaped), bottom floors are square, middle floors are an in-between (hexagonal, octagonal)
- Higher floors have less of the textured ornamention on the walls
- Bottom floor doors and windows are square, mayan-styled, top floor windows are round, like portholes with spokes inside
- There are railings around top floor terraces, and more struts and scaffolding (cranes, walkways)
- More, bigger pipes and gears to tie lower floor buildings together
- Top floor windows have metal shutters, bottom floor have ragged cloth instead, or nothing
- Bottom floors are eroded, and machinery is visible through the cracks and openings
- Beetle-related statues/artwork are unmaintained, knocked over or destroyed, replaced by imposing ajaw stone statues, and installation art composed of gears and pipes
- The inside of the city wall is "hollowed out" and used for acommodation and machinery

To try and visualize these new rules I did a drawing where I tried to use as many of them as possible:

2009-11-04T20:10:00.000+01:00

To try and get some new ideas regarding the architectural design, we did a series of photo collages, that we painted on top of. Here's mine:

2009-11-04T20:02:00.006+01:00

Things have been hectic lately, so haven't gotten much posted - I'll try to make up for that now. :)
First, here's a set of pencil layout drawings for the village:

The content of each layout is pretty much set in stone, but after a design consultation, we decided to try and push the design further.

2009-11-04T14:57:00.001+01:00

CHARACTERS IN PROFILE

2009-11-03T17:51:00.002+01:00

2009-11-03T02:05:00.000+01:00

2009-11-03T01:20:00.001+01:00

2009-11-02T23:25:00.001+01:00

House concepts - purpose: Find a clear way to separate new architecture from original AND at the same time making it fit together.

2009-10-29T17:02:00.000+01:00

2009-10-20T21:23:00.000+02:00

Early earlyearly concept ideas for Uxmal...

2009-10-20T20:04:00.000+02:00

Kiijo poses

2009-10-19T14:07:00.000+02:00

A look at the feeling in town.

2009-10-18T12:36:00.008+02:00

Whoops, just realized that I had forgotten to upload these:

Series of thumbnails to explore different types of detail, and ways to get more texture and clearer values into the village area.

2009-10-15T20:35:00.002+02:00

2009-10-14T23:54:00.002+02:00

More sketches of the village. Key words: BUSY & POLLUTED.

2009-10-14T18:08:00.000+02:00

House sketch

2009-10-14T11:35:00.002+02:00

Some thumbnails for the Village, experimenting with some alternative views and details - colours are getting a bit too soft and bland, so we need to find a better value balance for the final artwork. One way to gain contrast is to place foreground objects close to cam and make them dark silhouettes.

2009-10-14T11:33:00.004+02:00

Preliminary shape script for the different areas of the game. Healthy Island intentionally left blank. :)

2009-10-14T11:28:00.004+02:00

Colour script page for the style guide.

2009-10-08T21:32:00.001+02:00

First draft of colorscript for the village.

2009-10-08T14:59:00.000+02:00

2009-10-08T13:31:00.000+02:00

2009-10-06T11:41:00.004+02:00

Some ideas for Kiijo. I played a bit with the idea of him being more of Ajaws boy than a child of the natives (at least mentally), so he's wearing an old shirt that he got from Ajaw that is stained with oil (it has patches on that the grandmother has used to stitch it up with over the years, so there's a toutch of the natives symbols and patterns as well). Also I gave him a more scruffy appearance as I figure he's pretty indifferent to the way he looks, it just has to be practical for him.

I think this has a nice spread to it, combining the native look of Kiijo with more western styled clothing.
Here he' s even wearing a similiar type of boots to the ones Ajaws wearing, thus linking the two together in a subtle way.

2009-10-06T10:42:00.003+02:00

Sketches for Ajaws armor/work gear

2009-10-06T10:31:00.002+02:00

Sketch of the "Fields" area just outside the village walls. It's wider than usual because the camera can pan.

2009-10-05T22:27:00.000+02:00

Ajaw in the factory, in his all his get-up

2009-10-03T16:22:00.000+02:00

Cam 4 view.

2009-10-01T15:16:00.001+02:00

Concept sketch for the "Street" area of the village:

2009-10-01T12:34:00.000+02:00

Aaaand a more decent version

2009-10-01T10:32:00.000+02:00

Back by popular demand - my crappy cam #3 view.

2009-09-30T10:46:00.001+02:00

2009-09-30T10:20:00.000+02:00

Shaman sketch

2009-09-29T18:25:00.001+02:00

2009-09-29T17:45:00.001+02:00

Just for the record, I realize I'm getting ahead of schedule by drawing Tohil and Ajaw - don't worry, next bunch of drawings I'm back on track!

2009-09-25T15:37:00.002+02:00

Sketches of robots and peoples. Notice that the middle robot in the second row is actually just a guy dressed up as a robot!

2009-09-25T10:45:00.001+02:00

New concept - more machinated and sicker colours + robots!

Plus I tried to correct the colors on this older piece to make it fit.

2009-09-24T14:38:00.000+02:00

Concept of village.

2009-09-24T14:05:00.000+02:00

2009-09-24T14:03:00.002+02:00

The OFFICIAL colour scheme - DUM DUM DADUUUUUM

2009-09-24T11:54:00.001+02:00

Work-in-progress names for characters:

boy: Kiijo

island: Hiija

rebel leader: Ajaw

grandmother: Uxmal

sabotage grp leader: Tohil

ancient priestess: Xaochul

2009-09-24T10:32:00.007+02:00

Rough storyboards for the hospital cutscene and the ending of the game.

2009-09-24T10:27:00.001+02:00

More sketches - one of the village temple entrance, and one of the forest.

2009-09-24T10:24:00.002+02:00

Sketch of village area stuff.

2009-09-24T10:12:00.003+02:00

A rough overhead map of the village area - the temple is on the right, with a big wall enclosing the whole area. Outside are the fields. There is a town square, with three roads going away from it, the left one going to the hospital building. Each of the two lower roads has a gate that limits the players access at certain points in the game. There are pipes leading sewage into the ocean.

2009-09-23T23:24:00.000+02:00

List of reference games for Machine Island:

Final Fantasy 9
Here we can adapt many things; the use of speech bubbles for ingame dialogue, using locked or slightly movable cameras, overall character design style and simplicity. The distance from camera to action and the amount it varies also matches our idea pretty well. The environments are pre-rendered however, while ours are going to be real-time 3D, and therefore more simple, but also more animated.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZJUWGT0SPVE
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S6uu0zlhc-4&feature=related

Final Fantasy 8
Again, speech "bubbles", locked cams. The art design is rather realistic in this game however, and tends to favour complexity, which is not our intention.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eL1J1Pqxc80&feature=PlayList&p=6744B897B02054DC&index=70

Monkey Island
Here, we are looking mostly at the general point-and-click gameplay style, minus the inventory and constant cutscenes. The map screen is nice, and rather similar to what we want.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hRIW5IgYw_o&feature=related

Neverhood
Again, point-and-click style, camera placement. Also note the mostly inventory-less puzzle solving.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1jBhCZgKbjE&feature=related

Sam and Max
Point-and-click, simplistic graphics (but more cartoony than what we want). Also, we are not using spoken dialogue throughout.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fUXvDTVb9BM&feature=related

Hand of Fate
Another example of point-and-click, this time an older 2D version of it. We would like this kind of painterly look for our textures.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g6YrI0cfu-w&feature=related

Zack and Wiki
This is a Wii game, so it has quite a different approach than what we are doing, but it has a nice, colourful simplicity to its design that I think we can use.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5-dmibmunGQ&feature=PlayList&p=62752916E8D0E814&index=52

Trine
A platform game, so again, far from our genre, but it has some aspects in character design and the use of 2.5D (3D combined with a 2D perspective and left to right progress) works really well. Also, the backgrounds have a lot of depth through the use of 2D planes and parallaxing.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SgFxIopLANU

Besides this list, we draw puzzle reference from games such as Myst/Riven, Pipe Dream, The Incredible Machine and Cogs. We are not aware of a game that combines the kind of gameplay we want, with the type of story and art style we have, so its a matter of piecing together reference from many different places.

2009-09-23T22:51:00.003+02:00

better late than never, a quick sketch of the islands general layout i did last week:

...and a VERY quick rough of the same layout, but with an alternate design for the factory area:

2009-09-22T17:30:00.002+02:00

Concept of the village. There's the grayscale version as well as one in color, but I felt like the colors sucked ass so maybe it's nicests to just have the grayscale version.

2009-09-22T14:35:00.000+02:00

Rough of the village

2009-09-21T15:10:00.000+02:00