Tag Archives: progress

State Of The Art – September 2017

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Welcome to State Of The Art, September 2017 edition! This monthly progress report is written by Frank DiCola and is focused entirely on how the game’s visuals have improved in the past month. Without further ado, let’s explore the major leaps forward we took in September!

 

Aqueduct-H

World 3, Aqueduct

This World has been started and is looking promising so far. It’s one of the easier ones on the list, since this World is mostly deep water and narrow pathways. Compared to some of the other ones I did this month, that’s a cakewalk.

Aqueduct-0.PNG

The Aqueduct is a cavernous waterway built by humans that Obe explores midway through his journey. The Levels here often make use of light sources that don’t come from Obe’s lantern.

Aqueduct-1.png

This World is not 100% finished – but nothing ever is, at this stage of the process. Jack is currently modifying a water plugin I downloaded from the Asset Store to work with our strange lighting system. There are also highly specific items I still need to model. That always gets left as the last thing…

 

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World 4, City

I’ve been looking forward to working on this World for a long time. I loved the cool mountain desert aesthetic we had in the Demo, and it’s a shame that didn’t make it into the final game. This is even cooler though – a pueblo style city in the middle of a sandstorm! What’s not to like? (Sandstorm sold separately)

City-0.png

Creating these detailed environments takes time. As I sat down to write this, I realized that 3 of the 5 Levels in the City aren’t even in good condition to show the public! While every Level in this World is functional and the art has been started, very few of them are complete.

City-1.png

Get out of there, Obe! Nothing good ever happens in alleyways…

This World tells a complex story in a short amount of time, and a lot of highly specific artwork is still in the works. Look out for those missing Levels in a future update, and accept my apologies. I spread myself quite thin this month in order to cover a lot of ground quickly.

 

SotA-S-Header

World 5, Hills

I really stretched myself this month by going even further and starting World 5, the Hills. I hadn’t originally planned on doing this, but I got artist’s block on the City and decided to move on. This is usually a good idea – by the time I return to my previous work, I’ve had some kind of epiphany for what to do.

Hills-0.PNG

The Hills are modeled after the dreary cliffs of Ireland. We’ve decided to make this like one long graveyard, with mechanics to match: little tombstones that turn into ghosts when they’re covered in shadow. By the time you shine a light on them again, they turn back into tombstones… but they’ve moved. I think you can get an idea of how puzzles might work here. This is our own twist on the Boos from Super Mario, which behaved differently depending on whether Mario was looking at them.

Hills-1.PNG

The Hills require a ton of very specific modeling to complete, and have proven really challenging so far. I prefer to use modular tool kits because you get more mileage out of them. Even so, you can’t argue with the results! I threw out the aesthetic seen in the Level above because it was too formulaic. It obviously made use of one piece over and over again and I got sick of looking at it. Now the Levels in this World will all look more like the image below.

Hills-2.png

This is now my favorite Level in the game. I hope you can see why! (And it’s not even done, I still need to add little grass bunches)

 

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World 6, Summit

Since I was feeling insane this month, I actually got started on World 6, Summit. This is basically the top of a snowy mountain. It’s really not done yet – you could hardly call it “started”. I don’t even have any screenshots to show you! But maybe you can get a sense of what they’ll look like based on my Concept Art drawings of Jack’s finished prototype Levels.

Obe ventures out into the freezing cold. He’s completely alone… except for the ghosts of the damned! (Ghosts of the Damned sold separately)

 

 

Don’t Expect Much From October

I apologize for the lack of video this time around. I usually like to keep myself to the high standard of showing footage of the game instead of screenshots. (Video is harder to fake, which means I have to own up to failures in the game’s visuals.) This time around I took the easy way out, since I’m leaving today to go on a crazy week-long business trip. Speaking of that…

September marks one of the greatest leaps forward the game has taken aesthetically so far. To be honest, I was overcompensating for the fact that October is going to be a slow month. Because of this trip (and another during the middle of this month), I won’t have as much time as I normally do to make artwork.

In a perfect world, I would finish World 6 and 7 before we get to November, but I doubt it. Between Unite 2017, IndieCade 2017, and the Mobile Games Forum, I’m missing an entire 2 weeks of work this month. That’s insane! At least you get to hear my thoughts on the shows in next week’s blog post… [ ^_^]!

Just warning you not to get too excited. See you at the start of November for another recap!

 

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We hope you enjoyed this update about the game’s artwork. Have a question about aesthetics that wasn’t mentioned here? You can find out more about our game at WhereShadowsSlumber.com, ask us on Twitter (@GameRevenant), Facebook, itch.io, or Twitch, and feel free to email us directly at contact@GameRevenant.com.

Frank DiCola is the founder of Game Revenant and the artist for Where Shadows Slumber.

Introducing Our Audio Team!

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We’ve been waiting a few weeks to announce this, but now it’s official: Where Shadows Slumber will have professional audio designed by Alba S. Torremocha and Noah Kellman. Please extend them a warm welcome to the team!

It would be a shame if I spent this entire announcement post blathering on instead of handing the spotlight over to them, so instead I’ll let them write their own introductions. Take it away, you two!

 

Hey all!

“Here we are! Finally! The last pieces of the Dream Team, reaaaaady to rock! And roll. Mostly roll, since we’re recording A LOT.

Everybody knows that sound guys are always the coolest, but let us introduce ourselves
real quick so there’s no doubt left about it.

Alba S. Torremocha (Music & Sound Design).png

Alba was expelled from Hogwarts for using her wand as a baton.

Alba S. Torremocha (Music & Sound Design) Alba comes from a highly-refined background in classical composition and orchestration. She walks around with an eyebrow raised because well, that’s what snobby classical musicians do. She studied violin for 10 years and then Classical Composition and Conducting in Europe for 4 years, with a strong focus on French orchestration techniques (hence the raised eyebrow). In the US, she won the residency of the NYU Symphony in 2016, and recently received the Elmer Bernstein Award. Her pieces have been premiered and awarded around the world, and she always makes sure everyone is aware of this at all times. Her alter ego appears under the full moon and is a kick-ass film and video game music composer. She recently collaborated with the renowned video game composer Tom Salta (Prince of Persia, Halo, Killer Instinct…) on one of his latest projects. More: www.albastorremocha.com

 

Noah Kellman (Sound Design & Music).png

Noah spits fairy dust when he’s excited. No one knows exactly why.

Noah Kellman (Sound Design & Music) Noah comes from an intensive jazz piano background. He toured the country at the Brubeck Institute while working with many jazz greats along the way. He spent year after year striving to be the best until someone finally said to him, “Your music sounds terrible and I don’t understand any of it, so it must be the best jazz I’ve ever heard!” At that point, Noah knew he was a true jazz master and he decided to pursue becoming a master of other things, including filling his medicine pouch in Horizon Zero Dawn and driving with cruise control set to 11 mph collecting rare Pokémon in NYC. But, in his glorious return to professional sound creation, Noah began creating electronic cinematic soundscapes using acoustic instruments to create strangely familiar yet unrecognizable timbres. Although he works intensively as a composer and sound designer throughout the film and game world, his pride, joy, and utter financial downfall is his independent Cinematic Post-Rock project “Nozart”, which has also garnered him attention as a songwriter, producer and performer in the Indie world. More: www.noahkellman.com

 

 

We often work as a team because, as you can see, we come from very different backgrounds and, when we combine them, really cool stuff happens. Also, it’s more fun to have someone else to blame and panic with when the deadline hits your face. We first heard about Where Shadows Slumber at Play NYC. We played it and were instantly amazed, but we quickly noticed there was no music or sound design.

When we asked them about it, they said: *slo-mo, camera closeup on their lips*

‘We’re looking for a Sound Team.’

(Actual footage of the moment)

Then, a choir of angels appeared and bonded us to this sacred quest. Next thing we know, we’re recording lantern sounds in our living room.

We knew right away that Where Shadows Slumber called for an exceptionally unique sonic landscape. After discussing this in great detail with Frank and Jack, we understood that Obe’s story takes place in a world that bears some nostalgic resemblance to ours, but is actually full of creatures, inhabitants and landscapes of mysterious origin. We wanted our sounds to be surprising, alien, and yet somehow recognizable. We tried to accomplice that goal by using unconventional methods to reflect familiar creatures and landscapes. For example, in the following video of World 0, we used a combination of synthesis and acoustic flutes to create the birds throughout the atmosphere. The two types of birds function differently within the game, bringing the soundscape to life.

We also wanted to break the barrier between music and sound design. Instead of an
inanimate loop that plays over and over, we created a soundscape in which both music
and sound design breath together, affecting and changing with each other as the player makes decisions in the game. For example, different layers of music are activated (or deactivated) with the player’s progress (or backtracking) in solving the puzzle throughout the level.

Overall, Where Shadow Slumber is an exciting challenge, and we love nothing more
than helping transport the player into a completely new, beautiful and immersive world.”

-Alba & Noah

 

Look Forward To More Audio Updates

Jack and I are thrilled that we’re able to bring Alba and Noah aboard! Our game has been a silent vacuum for quite some time, and it gets a bit soul-crushing. Hearing the birds chirping in the Forest for the first time suddenly made the game feel alive in a way that it hasn’t since the Demo days. It really is incredible how one missing crucial piece, like the sense of sound, can cripple the experience.

Well, no longer! Look forward to more audio updates as time goes on. We’re all working on different sections of the game right now; Alba and Noah are making their way chronologically though the Worlds starting from the Forest, as Jack finishes up the game’s ending Levels and I’m somewhere in the middle doing artwork. In time, we’ll converge and show our fan(s) the combined effort of everyone’s talents working together. Until then, you’ll have to be patient!

 

EDIT (Sept. 26, 3:00 p.m.): A previous version of this article mistakenly contained the wrong video file showcasing the game’s audio. The video has been updated.

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More audio updates are coming in the next few months. Until then, you can find out more about our game at WhereShadowsSlumber.com, ask us on Twitter (@GameRevenant), Facebook, itch.io, or Twitch, and feel free to email us directly at contact@GameRevenant.com.

State Of The Art – August 2017

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Welcome to State Of The Art, August 2017 edition! This monthly progress report is written by Frank DiCola and is focused entirely on how the game’s visuals have improved in the past month. Without further ado, let’s explore the major leaps forward we took in August!

 

Rekt

Obe’s Feline “Friends”

This part of the update is directly tied to the cutscene discussed below, but I wanted to give it special attention just because I like how they turned out. I modeled some cats! They really only appear during a few short cutscenes during the game, but making each one took quite a long time. Here’s the Leopard:

Leopard

The spots on his coat came out way better than expected, although the top of the head is a bit off.

And the Lion:

Lion.PNG

The way his mane frames his face gets me every time!

I especially like the Lion’s mane. It was a struggle to get it to look as simple as it does. I kept making overly detailed 3D hair but it just looked wrong. At one point I considered using Cloth to simulate a glorious flowing mane, but I knew Jack would probably kill me so I backed off. I ended up going with a simple cylinder with a rotated back and it just looked right as soon as I saw it. I stepped out of my comfort zone and ended up with something super cool! Throw on Jack’s shader and voila – a glorious, friendly* Lion.

Astute observers will notice a few things about these models. For simplicity, they’re actually using the humanoid torso + limbs combo that Obe uses! But the reuse doesn’t end there. The Leopard and the Lion both have the same Head model, just with a different texture. The Lion’s mane does even more to differentiate them. A+ if you noticed this without me telling you!

* Watch the cutscene.

 

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World 2 (River)

The River World took a giant leap forward during the month of August. I’d show you a bunch of screenshots, but I made a pledge last month to show more videos of the game in action instead of just screenshots. This is part of pushing ourselves to be better – if the game doesn’t look good in video format, we need to work harder! You’ll notice of course that there’s still no sound, but we’re working on that.

 

The core pillars of the River’s design are its gross yellow water, jet black dirt, log wall structures, and rickety boardwalks. There’s a really cool interplay here between the water and the black foliage – it makes it look like more things are in shadow than there really are. I love how the trees look, stretching out into the water / sky. This is one of my favorite Worlds!

Enjoy the highlight reel of all five Levels in World 2, above. Don’t worry – there’s no spoilers for puzzle solutions, just a walking tour of what each Level looks like.

 

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“Wardens” – The First Cutscene

You walk through the forest, alone and lost. You come to an intersection… which path to take? Suddenly, a Lion appears from behind the shadowy veil. To your left, a Wolf! As they bear down on you, you wonder if they are friend or foe. And what’s that sound behind you?

This cutscene is not quite 100% finished yet, but I’ve reached the point where it’s time to leave it and move on. I’m going to throw some facial animations in there, but I’d like those to coincide with sounds (roaring, laughing, screaming) so I’m avoiding it for now. Of course, as a final pass, we’ll need to add sound effects.

There are also minor touch-ups to his clothing that I need to do. I didn’t have to animate his robe or his chasuble, which was a godsend. But with automated animation comes other issues… notice how his clothing clips through his body and the ground sometimes. It’s possible to fix this – and it’s possible it won’t even be noticeable on an iPhone – but it’s one of those things you need to leave until the end of the project. Focusing all my energy on it now means neglecting the rest of the work on my plate, so it’s not an option.

 

Enjoy the cutscene (above) and look forward to a 100% version later, with sound!

 

CityWIP

What To Expect From September

This coming month, my first task is going to be World 3 – the Aqueduct. We’re pretty much going chronologically here, so that’s next. I’d also love to move on to World 4 – the City. The City has been started, so one Level is already basically done. Getting those two Worlds finished would be awesome! Time will tell.

I’m satisfied with how I animated the Wardens cutscene, which means I might take a break from cutscenes for now. I really just wanted to get that first proof-of-life cutscene done so our audio crew can have something to work on as a reference for how cutscenes work.

Speaking of audio, that will also be my focus this month. I won’t be working on audio per se, but I’ll be paving the way for an audio person to come in and start adding stuff. That means some light scripting and a lot of brainstorming. It’s not visual, but it counts as “aesthetic”. Maybe I should rename this monthly post State of the Aesthetic? Is greater accuracy worth wasting one of the greatest puns of all time? Surely not…

 

See you again in October!

 

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We hope you enjoyed this update about the game’s artwork. Have a question about aesthetics that wasn’t mentioned here? You can find out more about our game at WhereShadowsSlumber.com, ask us on Twitter (@GameRevenant), Facebook, itch.io, or Twitch, and feel free to email us directly at contact@GameRevenant.com.

Frank DiCola is the founder of Game Revenant and the artist for Where Shadows Slumber.

State Of The Art – July 2017

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Welcome to State Of The Art, July 2017 edition! This monthly progress report is written by Frank DiCola and is focused entirely on how the game’s visuals have improved in the past month. Without further ado, let’s explore the major leaps forward we took in July!

 

MountDoom

Pictured above is our classic scene where Obe throws the ring into Mt. Doom

World 1 (The Jail) Is Ready

It looks like the entire first real World, our volcanic prison that you must escape from, is ready! I say “ready” and not “finished” because nothing in the art world is ever truly finished. But these five Levels are “ready” because I’m ready to move on to something else without worrying about these all the time. They look good. They look pretty done. Will I need to tune them up later? Absolutely. But I’m not going to spend more time getting these Levels from 90% to 100% when there are some Levels at 0%.

Having said that, bask in the molten glory that is World 1!

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Level 1-1, “Light” is the first Level of the Jail World.

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Level 1-2, “Detour” shows off some of the cell blocks in this prison.

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Level 1-3, “Lock” contains a rarely used side-exit door.

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Level 1-4, “Pressure” needs a different back wall than the one currently shown.

1-5

Level 1-5, “Ascent” has a lot of annoying overlapping lights and we’ll fix those later.

What do you think of these Levels? Please leave a comment with your feedback, as I have a few concerns of my own and I want to see if casual observers would notice them. Maybe I’m just paranoid!

 

Obe

Obe’s Clothing Is Ready

Our main character has quite the wardrobe. He’s wearing a lot of complicated clothing! Some of it is made from animated mesh, but other parts are physically based cloth that Unity simulates in real-time.

Getting this right has taken me a long time. But now I’m done messing with it and I’m ready to give it the ultimate stress test – cutscenes, weather (wind and rain!), and lots of animation. I believe his accessories can withstand the stress and remain looking cool.

Obe-Pants.PNG

Dude what happened to your pants?!

Undoubtedly, his clothing is going to get messed up sometimes. We’ll just need to identify those situations and preempt them with special scripts that manage his robes and keep them from going haywire.

Obe-Detail.PNG

Currently, the robe can clip through his white alb and skirt. This should be fixed by launch.

What do you think of his clothing? Is it worth it to have such a detailed robe on such a small character? I promise, for these close up cutscenes, it will look great!

 

River

What To Expect In August

This month, I’m going to aggressively go after the Levels in the River World. I’ve been so excited to work on that one for a long time! It’s wide open (as opposed to the claustrophobic Forest and Jail) which is a nice change of pace. The color scheme is totally unique, and the assets are really interesting. There’s some creepy story stuff happening there as well.

I also want to get cutscenes rolling, probably the first two (Intro to Forest, Finale to Forest) since they are the first things players will see. I don’t like the idea of waiting until the very end of the development cycle to start cranking out cutscenes. These things are going to be trailer-fodder and they need to look awesome. A rushed cutscene is probably going to end up being a cut cutscene 😛

See you again on September 1st!

 

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We hope you enjoyed this update about the game’s artwork. Have a question about aesthetics that wasn’t mentioned here? You can find out more about our game at WhereShadowsSlumber.com, ask us on Twitter (@GameRevenant), Facebook, itch.io, or Twitch, and feel free to email us directly at contact@GameRevenant.com.

Frank DiCola is the founder of Game Revenant and the artist for Where Shadows Slumber.