Environment Thumbnails
Inspiration -
For my thumbnails i was finding it difficult to come up with ideas to create sketches of buildings, I had a look online to how some other artists created architectural thumbnails and i found this artist who worked mostly in silhouette. I decided to follow a similar technique for my own thumbnailing process, mostly using the marker brush and three different tonal values to define shapes. Below is the piece that inspired me to try out this technique, as well as the link to their Twitter post.
INFO -
Faction: Marauders base, Sphyr Auction compound
Inspiration: Brutalist architecture
Game: Looter shooter / Beat 'em up
Purpose for location: Quest location and boss arena
Auction Building -
For my hero building [AKA the Auction building] I was really inspired by the very geometric and blocky look of brutalist architecture, I feel this sturdy, utilitarian look fits in well with the marauders faction and their premise of functionality over aesthetics. Combined with grimy concrete or metal exteriors, i wanted these buildings to give off an intrinsically evil and dark look to them. Somewhere that you wouldn't particularly like to visit. For most of these designs, I kept the bases of the buildings quite simple, just using blocks to build rooms and decorations to keep the overall brutalist feel, i also added some slight dead foliage and barbed wire to help push the dire, oppressive atmosphere. I switched to a more isometric view for the second lot of thumbnails as i found this made it easier to see the different sectors of the building. I really like thumbnails 6, 7 and 10, though i feel something is missing to really push the feeling of an auction building. I like these designs best as i think they combine sci fi and brutalism well with their blocky shapes and unique window designs, these designs also feel both like some sort of evil villain lair, and also retain some sense of professionality that you would expect from an auction house. I am hoping to get some feedback on what i could add to really help tell the story of this being an auction building as this is really important to the story of the game. This building, in terms of the game, would host the boss until it is ready to be released, the players would likely not be able to enter the building, at least not fully, so it's purpose should be apparent just from outside appearances. I also imagine this building to lie either centrally or towards the back of the enclosed cargo yard, so that when the Hogg and Swine emerge from the building, it makes for more dynamic battle weaving in and out of the other environmental obstacles. This building would also be quite large and well illuminated, separating it from the other yard assets and solidifying it's importance to the player.
Watchtower -
The watchtower is the first of my "street furniture" assets, in the game the watch tower would be the main element of the "stealth mission" of infiltrating the base. My two main ideas for the watch tower would either be some sort of motion activated turret, that the player would have to avoid its line of fire, or a watch tower with lights on its perimeter and a small team of snipers on the inside, that will attack any player that crosses into it's line of sight. For my thumbnails i tried to keep in the same brutalist style as the main hero building, I think number 13 and 18 stick with this theme best, though i do think the more traditional looking watch tower of number 16 is still somewhat in-keeping with the theme. The watch tower should be seen as a very intimidating structure, and i think number 13 and 18 do the best job of this, they look very sturdy, and the barbed wire elements really help show that this building is something to be avoided. Ideally there would be a few watch towers placed on the map, perhaps at least 4, located at the north, south, east and west of the map, their lamp lights illuminating a large portion of the free ground serving as an obstacle the players must constantly avoid. I think adding the gun turret on top also tells the player what will happen if they trigger the watch tower, which i think is better than just letting them find out by themselves. Personally i think number 18 fits best with what i have in mind for the watch tower's function.
Cages -
Throughout the cargo yard, there will be many cages containing sphyr hostages scattered around. These cages will serve as the second part of the mission where the players will have to free hostages without being caught by the guard, or alternatively, whilst fighting off hordes of Marauder soldiers. I explored a range of styles of cages, some open air, some with viewing windows, and some that are completely concealed. I think in terms of practicality for the setting, the concealed cages make more sense, this would protect the cargo from being injured from potential attackers, shield them from the weather so that they do not die from exposure to the elements, and also reduce the likelihood of any escapees. with this in mind, this certainly rules out designs 19, 21, and 22 as these would not be very effective in the sense of protecting the hostages. I really like designs 20, 23, and 25, with 20 being my favourite in terms of the container looking the most secure and in-keeping with Deadzone's Sci-fi setting. I really like the vault door detail and the slight chamfered edges that give it a more futuristic look, whilst still being believably practical to transport, stack, and store in the cargo yard. The vault door also adds an additional aspect of being a good marker to show the player what they should be interacting with to free the hostages. A cog is quite a recognisable symbol and semiotic wise usually represents something a player can interact with or use.
Main Gate -
My final piece of street furniture would be the huge main gate that the marauders and GCPS use to get into the compound. This gate would be both absolutely monolithic and also heavily guarded, making it appear to be a completely unscalable obstacle that the player must find a way around. This sets the scene to the player that the facility they are about to enter is going to be quite hostile and a touch challenge to overcome. The main gate would also have the ability to be shut off behind the player, trapping them in the area until all quests are completed. Aside from this being a game mechanic, it would also show the player that this place is heavily guarded and that they have little choice other than to face their enemy. For my environment piece that would be used as a splash piece/loading screen to introduce the player to the setting before they load in, i imagine the gate would be placed in the background behind the hero building, it sets it apart from being something of immediate importance, whilst also creating an imposing and looming figure in the background that instills a sense of fear into the player. Of my designs, I really like design 31 and 32, i think these look the most sturdy of the designs and really show that there is no way to scale this obstacle. The slanted surfaces on the top and bottom of the support pillars would be incredibly difficult to climb upon, especially with the smooth concrete exterior, the entrance to the compound is only big enough for a transport vehicle to pass through, deterring any players from climbing on a vehicles roof, and the gate can very quickly be sealed much like a medieval portcullis. I especially like the big cog detail on the side of number 32, i think visually this ties in with the mechanical nature of the Marauders faction, especially with the prevalence of the cog decal on the Hogg and swine.
Feedback -
Presenting my thumbnails to the class along with a short description of the criteria i was trying to meet, i got some feedback on what was effective/what could be improved with my designs.
For the first post-it note, I am very glad that they liked the lighting element of my designs, light will be a very important mechanic in my proposed game and I'm glad that was something eye catching to them. For the experimentation with shapes, I will note that the geometric and very plain and blocky look to my designs was an intentional decision, I had a look at a lot of brutalist buildings in my mood board stage and the main aspect i picked up from those buildings is the use of strong shapes such as cubes and cuboids, and very little external details. I tried to use as many of the shapes that i could see in my mood board images within my own work, and so admittedly there is not a lot of variation in terms of shapes. I will also say when I presented my work i forgot to mention the brutalist inspiration, so i think if i had explained that beforehand that this would have better explained my reasoning for shape language.
In the second post it note, the person asked if i was making a stealth game, and thought my designs were reminiscent of a prison [they also mentioned the GCPS which whilst wasn't my focus faction, plays a huge part in the lore of my game, with the Marauders being hired under the GCPS's control]. I am really pleased that the prison influence came through in my designs, i was trying to emulate the very oppressive and grim nature of a prison in my thumbnails so i am glad this shined through. On top of this, whilst i am not making a stealth game per se, one task within this area for the game is reliant upon hiding from the enemies [Marauders] so in some ways, stealth will be important. Having this show through my designs is useful if i were going to make this into a real game, the less i have to explicitly explain to the players on what to do in this area the better. A player gathering that stealth will be needed to avoid the spotlights is very useful as they don't have to keep replaying the mission to understand their objective, or have to read through a tutorial.
The third post-it note gave me some insight on which designs look best to an audience. For the auction building, this person really liked design 3 for it's overall shape, and design 8 for resembling a villain base. Although i personally didn't like either of these thumbnails, i can definitely see that number 3 has the most unique of the building shapes with it's exaggerated big window, and that design 8 has a lot of barbed wire designs that helps it feel more evil. The exaggeration and detail is something i want to work into my final design, so it is helpful to see what silhouettes are most eye catching to people. For the watch tower they agreed with the same one i chose, number 13, to be the best option. I like how they compare it to the tall watchtowers at airports, this is something i hadn't thought of looking into but will certainly take a look at to see if i can improve my design. The last post it also reiterates that number 18 is a good tower defense design, i agree with this as the turret on top provides a clear indication that this building is not something to be entered, but something to be avoided.
I also asked my tutor for some advice on how to make my hero building more interesting. He suggested that for design number 7, although interesting in shape, i should extrude the hall to make it seem more believable that there is space for an auction hall in there, as well as having room to house the Hogg and swine. He also suggested adding in an incinerator and chimney block for the marauders to dispose of Sphyr captives who did not make it to auction. With this idea in mind, i did like the overall shape of building 9, but really hated that strange "chimney" i added in, i like Sam's idea for the incinerator chimney stacks so i think i will just remove the old chimney, and put in the incinerator there. Also he suggested more chain link fences to give a more secure feeling to the facility as a whole. I think this information was really useful in giving me a more direct path for making changes to my designs, I was really stumped on what to do to improve my ideas, and with these suggestions in mind i think this will not only improve the visuals of the building, but also the storytelling aspect.
Implementing feedback -
With the feedback i was given by my peers i took designs 7 and 9 and improved them with the revelant feedback. I made number 7 wider and added a side door where the Hogg and swine will emerge from, and for design 9 i made the left wing bigger, added and incinerator, and also added some more exterior details. I asked my peers again which design they liked best, and it seemed to be a tie between the two. Personally i really like design number 9, but i will certainly add more of the griminess of design 7 to make it more atmospheric. I will also provide a front, side, and back view to show all angles of the building and their purposes. I think these changes make the buildings look more believable, visually interesting, and more fit to the purpose of an auction hall.
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