Final Product!

Here is a screen recording taken by Jack showing what the final product (for now) looks like along with a few minutes of gameplay

 

Final Character Design! - George Andrews

 

Not much more to say than what I said previously, I added a few new patterns and shaded it to look more 3 Dimensional!

Final Character Design (?) - George Andrews

This will probably be the final design, I really like how it came out. I could perhaps give it a bit more detail but overall, I'm happy with how it came out. I didn't want them to appear they are wearing some kind of uniform, I took heavy influence from the character design of Boba Fett from Star Wars, getting the cape underneath the equipment on his back.

Rather than using a jet pack of sorts to manoeuvre through zero gravity, I gave him rocket boots for easier control of his trajectory. I don't imagine this would play much a part in the gameplay as they would only be able to be used in short bursts to move through an area, meaning if there is gravity they'd provide a slightly higher than average jump height at best.

I'll see if I can't add a little bit more to the design before deadline day.

 

More Helmet Designs - George Andrews

I like both these ideas, but I'm a particular fan of the one on the right

may adapt design further

 

Final Build Artwork - Georgi Aleksandrov

 Very atmospheric artwork by Georgi of the final thing built by Jack, looking very dark and eerie. The harsh shadows contrast well with the cheap looking bright strip lights illuminating the space, making an unnerving vibe for the viewer

More Helmet Ideas - George Andrews

I decided to try getting some general shapes for the helmets and ended up finding this nice design with a kind of flattened rim around the bottom and a bigger visor area. The big open visor was nice, but I wasn't sure what to do with the rest of the helmet with the larger dome visor. I may try and incorporate designs from an existing helmet type to finalize the look, as whilst they're looking alright so far, they seem rather plain, and could have some more detail added.

 

Menu Screen - Jack Venn

 A very nice looking menu screen that Jack put together. Not fully textured but already has a spooky vibe about it. It will have the standard menu buttons like a Play button and an Exit button, probably towards the bottom left of the screen.

Faceless Protagonist No Longer Faceless - George Andrews

I figured a good way to design the character's suit would be to first decide who would be under the suit. Before this point I was designing a faceless, genderless space farer for the player to take control of, but I decided to try and design a person behind the mask as it were. This is who I came up with, a 40-50 something man who clearly suffers no lack of experience with the exploration of strange space vessels. I may try and incorporate this into the final design.

Whilst I am happy with how the face has turned out so far, the suit I added to the design needs serious work, I may try a few more helmet designs to then base the rest of the suit on, to get a solid theme down.

 

Outer Space - Jack Venn

 Here we have where Jack added in an exterior to the map the player occupies, two skylights open up to 2 different suns in the far distance, one being red and the other being blue with some floating bodies out in the foreground.

the difference outside each window implies that the each window looks out to a different point in space, as no suns could normally exist as close together as these ones seem, working more on the space-warping non-Euclidean geometry shenanigans happening. 

Medieval Suit Design - George Andrews

Here, I took inspiration from a more medieval styled helmet, and tried drawing out some concepts based on this style, along with finding a good theme for the rest of the armour. Sadly, most of it was lost due to software crashing, but I was still able to get this design down which I am rather fond of. I'm unsure if this design will go anywhere or if I should scrap the idea for something else. For now I'll continue on with different ideas and see what truly sticks.

 

Space to Planet Teleportation - Georgi Aleksandrov

 Doorway in a mountain range that appears to be on some kind of planetoid, rather than on the space station illustrated by Georgi. Entertaining the idea that perhaps the player can go to and from the orbit of this planet by simply walking through a doorway, using this trippy technique to make the seamless transition. 

Fancy Strip Lights! - Jack Venn

 Some cool lighting that Jack added to the warehouse! As well as it being a bit more populated with props and such.

The Warehouse and the Fuse Box - Jack Venn

All the models created by Jack have been compiled into this big warehouse scene, meanwhile the picture puzzle has been swapped out for a fuse box puzzle instead. It's basically the same puzzle but much more thematically fitting with a space ship.

 

Face Helmet Design - George Andrews

 

This is a design I got the idea for from some of the older episodes of 'Power Rangers. The visor of the armour is quite big, easily enough to see out of and actually represents the mouth of a face. This is purely an aesthetic design and doesn't serve any kind of function, but I think it looks cool nevertheless, perhaps the 'eyes' could be utilised in the design also? I was thinking something like headlamps or cool spots on the helmet would be a nice touch.

I was thinking the blue squiggly line going across the visor could be animated to move, and depending on the player characters health (?) its movement speed and hue could change. The game is first person but perhaps a subtle blue line could be going across the screen.

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.