Just some new 2D/3D ideas and proposals
Posted: Fri Mar 31, 2017 11:28 am
Hi to all, Gav told me to sign up here and introduce myself
My name is Vladimir and my professional background is 3D/2D artist, animator and illustrator. Ive worked on the Genesis Rising video game back in the day (published in 2007), tho due to some personal stuff and family reasons, Ive not been able to move to another country which had better game industry opportunities. So after that Ive worked as freelancer for a decade, unfortunately for me because if Ive worked in some gaming company I would be project leader/lead artist by now lol. Never the less Ive managed to scoop up great deal of knowledge and experience working as freelancer on various projects for people around the world.
Sorry for my rambling on, anw, I've played Daggerfall when it came out back in `96 and really enjoyed and have quite fond memories of it. This brings a lot of pleasant feelings for me.
Ive mentioned to Gav some ideas and posted him links for some demos to illustrate my proposal. He was kind to forward me here and asked me to introduce my self and write down all I have in my mind considering this nice little project.
My suggestion is that maybe (maybe), we can make it a little better as a whole. Dont worry, Im not talking about -remake- lol, which would mean that it is completely redesigned and new game with all new and moderns standards. I am more talking about sort of -redo- or overhaul, it would be like a kind of version v1.5. Which means to retain original style, atmosphere, gameplay and just to elevate graphics and whole system a little bit, but the core to remain the same. If its changed too much, it will brake in a way, because it will stop being what it was and why people loved it. So, one needs to be very careful in this way. I could write whole master thesis just on the subject of doing “remakes”, prequels, sequels and why they dont work if bend it too far.
Ok, Daggerfall was designed around mechanics of being procedural based game in its core and today we have gone pretty far in that area of programming, logic and complexity. Im sure that you are aware that you can do much more complex things with procedural generation and to retain good gameplay and graphics with ease, in present time.
My proposal is this – as you can see from my examples, my idea is just to make environmental models a little bit more complex with new hand painted textures, retaining original design of models and color pallets. Each house can be made from simple parts which would have hard points on them, so they can fit and click together like a lego blocks. This would be true for all environmental models, exteriors and interiors. For map/terrain blocks textures placement, you can do similar things, by using procedural generated alphas (projected by curves) to guide texture placements and maybe some terrain modifiers to cut through it, so you can have better representation of rivers for example (nothing too fancy . Essentially Daggerfall was not a big game and Ive checked the image tool - It can be done today with relative ease.
Also, my proposal is to change FPS sprite weapons and actions with the actual 3D models. And to replace/add characters into 3D...but that would be next phase (also can be done).
To sum up – Daggerfall's style is stylized (so, not photorealistic) hand painted procedural adventure and heavy in atmosphere (snow, rain, fog, mud, sand storms, lighting, sun, overcast) in broad/huge world of its own, with original color palette. This is what is needed to be preserved and build upon to retain its old charm. You can look at it like sort of “super mod”.
Also, it would be great if we could focus efforts in a single point. Looking from some distance, all work here is so much dispersed. Im not trying to bash anyone (so not my intent really), just talking from my professional experience point and that it would be great to infuse a little bit more focus and practicality/organization to the project.
Examples:
https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B1vHJ ... GNLd0xjOUU
https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B1vHJ ... WlBUWU3Z2s
https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B1vHJ ... nhVelhPSTQ
PS – in my 3d environment examples the textures Ive used are not mine. Ive just used the ones Ive found to illustrate better my proposal and idea. But similar hand painted texturing can be done easily. (house, tavern and fallenTree models are mine as well fallen tree texture).
PSS – for the good procedural environment (exteriors/interiors) there is great example for the UE4 called “Dungeon Architect”.
Cheers,
V
My name is Vladimir and my professional background is 3D/2D artist, animator and illustrator. Ive worked on the Genesis Rising video game back in the day (published in 2007), tho due to some personal stuff and family reasons, Ive not been able to move to another country which had better game industry opportunities. So after that Ive worked as freelancer for a decade, unfortunately for me because if Ive worked in some gaming company I would be project leader/lead artist by now lol. Never the less Ive managed to scoop up great deal of knowledge and experience working as freelancer on various projects for people around the world.
Sorry for my rambling on, anw, I've played Daggerfall when it came out back in `96 and really enjoyed and have quite fond memories of it. This brings a lot of pleasant feelings for me.
Ive mentioned to Gav some ideas and posted him links for some demos to illustrate my proposal. He was kind to forward me here and asked me to introduce my self and write down all I have in my mind considering this nice little project.
My suggestion is that maybe (maybe), we can make it a little better as a whole. Dont worry, Im not talking about -remake- lol, which would mean that it is completely redesigned and new game with all new and moderns standards. I am more talking about sort of -redo- or overhaul, it would be like a kind of version v1.5. Which means to retain original style, atmosphere, gameplay and just to elevate graphics and whole system a little bit, but the core to remain the same. If its changed too much, it will brake in a way, because it will stop being what it was and why people loved it. So, one needs to be very careful in this way. I could write whole master thesis just on the subject of doing “remakes”, prequels, sequels and why they dont work if bend it too far.
Ok, Daggerfall was designed around mechanics of being procedural based game in its core and today we have gone pretty far in that area of programming, logic and complexity. Im sure that you are aware that you can do much more complex things with procedural generation and to retain good gameplay and graphics with ease, in present time.
My proposal is this – as you can see from my examples, my idea is just to make environmental models a little bit more complex with new hand painted textures, retaining original design of models and color pallets. Each house can be made from simple parts which would have hard points on them, so they can fit and click together like a lego blocks. This would be true for all environmental models, exteriors and interiors. For map/terrain blocks textures placement, you can do similar things, by using procedural generated alphas (projected by curves) to guide texture placements and maybe some terrain modifiers to cut through it, so you can have better representation of rivers for example (nothing too fancy . Essentially Daggerfall was not a big game and Ive checked the image tool - It can be done today with relative ease.
Also, my proposal is to change FPS sprite weapons and actions with the actual 3D models. And to replace/add characters into 3D...but that would be next phase (also can be done).
To sum up – Daggerfall's style is stylized (so, not photorealistic) hand painted procedural adventure and heavy in atmosphere (snow, rain, fog, mud, sand storms, lighting, sun, overcast) in broad/huge world of its own, with original color palette. This is what is needed to be preserved and build upon to retain its old charm. You can look at it like sort of “super mod”.
Also, it would be great if we could focus efforts in a single point. Looking from some distance, all work here is so much dispersed. Im not trying to bash anyone (so not my intent really), just talking from my professional experience point and that it would be great to infuse a little bit more focus and practicality/organization to the project.
Examples:
https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B1vHJ ... GNLd0xjOUU
https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B1vHJ ... WlBUWU3Z2s
https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B1vHJ ... nhVelhPSTQ
PS – in my 3d environment examples the textures Ive used are not mine. Ive just used the ones Ive found to illustrate better my proposal and idea. But similar hand painted texturing can be done easily. (house, tavern and fallenTree models are mine as well fallen tree texture).
PSS – for the good procedural environment (exteriors/interiors) there is great example for the UE4 called “Dungeon Architect”.
Cheers,
V