there is always time, time to be crafty

So what has happened recently? Well there was just a huge hand in, the epic pre production document and a lovely pile of concept stuff that went with that and also the first two chapters of my draft dissertation. Since then I have been doing work but taking it a bit easier so as to not stress out too much. I am eager to get on with the game because I enjoy doing it and I want to see it succeed. So here are a few shots of what I am thinking the environments will be like, imagine more colour and great composition and some more depth of focus implemented in different ways.

Here are the shots, but yeah basically all the assets will look like this and hopefully it will be the coolest looking game you will play all year!

So I guess that is all I am showing right now, but it keeps you updated. Obviously this is great because I love the whole crafty side of this project and it provides a much needed break from animating. Listen to me, I am actually talking about procrastinating from my own work by doing more of my own work that I enjoy more.

Until next time!

imagination vs the waking world

I have been sitting in my room for days now without really looking out the window at the awesome snow fall. As a result a whole heap of work has been completed the entirety of the Pax Insectica concept bible is complete. I have to print it off and compile it all and then it is ready for it's submission. There is a whole lot of development that has happened in this project and it has safely come out on the other side quite nicely I think.
So now comes the next part, painstaking animation and building it all carefully into the game engine, testing and hopefully making a game worth talking about.
I want to thank all my great friends for their support and this next leg of the journey will be great fun.
For now it's back to work.


Oh and the above concept was something I was working on for a front cover section of the Pax Insectica concept bible. Just something for you to enjoy, it features (from left to right) Unlce, Blatta and Rasputin.

venture with me into the lost world

Snow is so fascinating, and I find is an amazing thing to look at I find it amazing that England is currently blanketed in the stuff and when I look outside it steals my attention. So instead I have been embracing the cold that seeps into my room and wrapped up warm as I can and have been working at an exponential work on all that i have to complete.
I am of course happy to tell you my hard work has not been in vain, the dissertation soldiers on and the concept document should come together nicely, I never thought I see myself type this...but I am enjoying what I am producing!


Here is some art to look at, should give you an idea of the direction that I am taking:

Still not sure about these colours yet, but basically the assistant is based on the look of a dung beetle, the character is quite small and will always be near his master Rasputin, the only times he is seen alone is when Rasputin has sent him on a mission. I wanted to give him a strong figure while also looking too innocent to be completely independent. When he appears completely in shadow I wanted him to have this great silhouette.

This is Rasputin, the concept is based very strongly on a praying mantis, I wanted his height to be a big factor. Making him so giant that he has to stoop to stand in almost any area, I wanted his look to be that of someone wise and yet tired as if he has never had his way and is always in want of more.

I wanted to save the best until last as I really enjoyed doing this concept. This is Uncle, he stands casting a perfectly sharp shadow over his nephew Blatta. I chose to look at Victorian dress for the character, this is due to my interest in how powerful it makes the character look while giving him still a sense of comedy. I like him being fat because it splits the approach in the animation he can almost appear as two characters, the stupid and loveable Uncle but also the glutinous and evil minder.


So there you have it, a little look into what is going on behind the scenes at the moment. These are just some of the concepts and I realise the lack of the background, I guess this is because it keeps your focus on everything I want you to see. But mostly because I haven't set on what I would put in the background (you got me I'm not very good at all that)

we tear it down just to build it up again

As promised in my last post here are the long awaited (and equally not exciting) game engine shots each with exciting information that points out either the bleeding obvious or the downright helpful!

Here is a great example of how to not size things correctly, one of the first and best mistakes to date. Practice makes perfect and you can thank my lack of photoshop and exporting for the web for this monstrosity, scary but cool.

Second try was a vast improvement, you can see that there is a white line around the character, I discovered this was due to it not being a transparent image, if you make the image with a transparent layer underneath it and then save it as a .png24 for web devices, voilà! No white lines and it looks like it belonged in the game all along.

This just points out adding in new frames to make a walk cycle, where it all goes how boring the engine looks and basically how it all works. You can see for yourself and think "hey I could probably make my own game, but I'd rather read his blog"

Last although certainly not least this is simply to show you the importance of cropping, if you notice the character is off to the left (yeah that is my drawing for you) if it is cropped fully meaning the character appears central it generally just helps with lining everything up in engine.


So there you have it! More kinks need to be ironed out and plenty more of this needs to be done, i am a little afraid that time will run away with me. But I aim to remain confident and to one day soon be able to show you all a working copy of this game which you can try out. For now keep checking back and I will deliver exciting new concept art and more fantastic news from Pax Insectica.


Goodbye!