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Hello and welcome back to my journey in game design and game development! This week I will cover the creation of the graphics for our parallax effects! In our game we are navigating on a spaceship and in order to create some sort of depth on our game (considering it is strictly top-down), we needed some sort of backdrop or similar in order to make it more visually pleasing to play. So we decided to design our map in a similar fashion to FTL/Starcraft 2 in the sense that we who play the game, sees the spaceship sitting in a point of space and can see the exterior of the ship and beyond if we go to the edges of the maps. (Example: https://youtu.be/-PfkVeI7AiA?t=11m5s) This allows us to create an interesting backdrop image and the game in general will enjoy an array of beautiful colors whilst still maintaining our bland, industrial look within the ship itself.
I mostly relied on smooth brushes for the galaxy and nebula in order to create smooth transitions between colors. For the aquatic planet I mostly laid down the base with chalk brushes then I created the atmosphere and clouds with soft brushes. I also took in mind where the light will hit the planets according to the closest star which is “off-screen”. (The moon still needs some tweaking) The planets and the rocks are going to be independent images and not stay static in the galaxy itself as the player moves around in the ship, in order to create the feeling that they are in fact closer to the player. What I had most difficulty with was how to make the continents on the aquatic planet to be “on” the planet. My first attempts made it seem like it was a different object in front of the planet rather than part of it. I solved it by giving the continents depth by darkening the edges towards the water, then making it slightly blend with the water making it seem like the continents are originating from the bedrock beneath the water. Other than that the game is coming along nicely and I believe we will get to a point where the game is completely playable for the Beta this time around. Next week’s subject is still undetermined but I must admit it is getting more and more difficult to find interesting things to write about, as a game designer my main task is to offload paper-work and similar from the team so they can focus on the game. (Ergo, GDD and general design tasks) Have a great week / weekend! Morgan out!  |
