First character concepts - George Andrews

 

Inspiration for this first design was taken from both the protagonist from the game 'ABZU' along with some of the customization options featured in the space exploration game 'Elite Dangerous'. Whilst the design is nice, I may take it in a very different direction as it doesn't scream 'explorer' to me, not to mention its a bit too cartoony for the theme of the project we are working on. I may first decide to change up the helmet a bit.

Alien Starship Bridge - Georgi Aleksandrov

 Here is a much more unorthodox design for what seems to be the helm of a star ship, illustrated by our location designer, Georgi. Its strangeness works to its benefit however, as the odd rounded shapes and strange layout provide a truly alien feel to the whole design. The strange statue in the middle of the scene is a portal that the player would be able to look through and travel through, not dissimilar from the other portals featured throughout the game, its just this one would be a bit more obvious to the player.

Small Model Archive - Jack Venn

Some of the many models created by Jack! Filling up the cast of props to populate the space station to feel lived in!

 

Building The World - Jack Venn

3D model of Georgi's concept art by Jack!

 

Vanishing Hallway - Georgi Aleksandrov

 

Here is a similar piece to Georgi's last illustration but displaying another angle as to how the effect of casting textures from somewhere else could work. If you were to look out the window, you would see nothing but space, along with the nearby planet and star ship in the distance. However, if you were to glance towards the end of the corridor, you would see the corridor actually changes direction, heading in the direction of where the windows are facing, but you can't see this corridor. This is the magic of this effect, just little details like this can truly make the idea of the non-Euclidean space come to life and show the player the space they occupy simply doesn't make sense.

Proof of Concept Illustration - Georgi Aleksandrov

After having decided on the location for the game to take place being on a space ship/ space station, Georgi has put together this really nice proof of concept illustration, clearly displaying the use of non-Euclidean space by two entire different portions of space visible out of two pairs of windows that should both lead to the same place. Whilst lots of space looks the same, the effect is conveyed using colour and objects of focus.
 

Moodboard - Georgi Aleksandrov

  Mood board Georgi will use for some inspiration in his designs.

Basic puzzles - Jack Venn

 Here you can see Jack has added in some basic puzzle elements, where a picture needs to be assembled and the player needs to travel between the two rooms through the doorway in the middle to collect them all, along with a little spooky surprise.

Spaceman Mood Boards - George Andrews

 Space man mood boards!
 In order to get a solid protagonist design for the project, I'll need to branch out and see what kind of sci-fi outfits exist in fiction currently.

I want to design a protagonist who is kitted out enough to be delving through ruins in deep space, but clearly doesn't belong to any 'faction', rather just on their own or with a small posse of explorers

Initially I was going to do map design and Georgi was going to do character design, but we decided to switch that around!

Initial Character Ideas - Georgi Aleksandrov

 Here are the first character ideas created by Georgi, clearly mixing together both the themes of clothing, both modern and fantastical with technology, like space helmets and robotic limbs. Starting off with some very interesting ideas that could be built off

Possible Map Layout - George Andrews

 Generic map layout by me! Each coloured box corresponds with the other coloured box on the next square, showing doorways that would link up, overlapping the map with itself. Here I show ideas of infinite corridors, or infinitely deep chasms the player could at least look down. This of course is not a set in stone map and more just to give an idea as to what the layout of the map could be like. Lots of tight corridors and doors that lead to places they shouldn't

Video Game Concept - Jack Venn

Video of the concept for our game coded and built by Jack Venn! We want to utilize mapping dynamic textures onto 3D objects projected by a second camera, to create the effect of a doorway. This will create the very believable illusion of non-Euclidean space 

a short but informative video explaining the concept in greater detail here: