Zenith

INTRODUCTION

For my Zenith project, I set out to create a 3D open world video game. I decided to use the programs Blender and Unity since they are both free and there would be many tutorials all over the internet to help me go about accomplishing my goals. Blender is a program that would allow me to model, rig, and animate characters, as well as create other game meshes. Unity is where I would program and put together all of the pieces of my work into a functioning game. My goal was to create a low poly style of game, this means that the characters and environment are stylized with a low amount of polygon shapes so they have more rigid, clean looking edges. I was inspired by various artist I’ve seen online and the models and games they have created. Also the concept as a whole is just interesting to me and was something I really wanted to learn how to do.

PROCESS

The first step of my process in creating this game was to come up with a concept. I took a recent drawing of a character I did and expanded on the world he might live in. The story I came up with is about an Inuit tribe that lives in the arctic. Climate change becomes a threat to them by melting the ice they live on and reducing the amount of seals that they are able to catch. In a panic, they gather up their entire lives and sail south. They eventually come upon a beautiful lush island and decide that it will be their new home. The main character is a young boy in this tribe. He and one of the sled dogs that he is close to go on a journey travelling around their new Island home.

Once I had come up with my Idea and created sketches I then began to model the characters in Blender.

With the character modeled, I applied materials to each polygon, giving it color.

This is the finished result of the boy (I decided to not give him long hair, it looked a bit weird):

The next step was to rig the model. This is basically adding “bones” which allows you to pose your characters.

When the bones were in place I altered how much they control each part of the model by weightmapping. This allows you to have control over how much control each bone has over the mesh and over what part of the mesh it controls.

When that was completed, my model moved how I wanted it to, so I began animating. I created a walk cycle, a run cycle, and an idle pose.

Next I imported my character into Unity and created a way to control the character as well as a camera that would follow him around using C# scripts.

The Controls are:

• w/a/s/d or arrow keys – walk (the character also faces whichever way the camera is pointed in and moves in that direction, this is controlled by moving the mouse)
• Left Shift – run
• Space bar – jump

With my character moving around smoothly and the controls feeling nice, I created the model of the map back in Blender and placed objects onto it in Unity. I also created a post processing profile to give the whole game a nice color scheme and effects.

Outcome

Consumer Product

Coming Soon…

Reflection

I grew up just in time to experience the expansion of the video game industry. In my lifetime video games have gone from blocky, uncanny, and poorly colored to beautiful, elaborate, and almost photo realistic works of art. I remember when I was young, my sister and I would battle Super Smash Bros or race in Mario Kart on our GameCube. I remember travelling through the world of Pokemon on my Nintendo DS and frantically trying to out-step my sister in Dance Dance Revolution. Video games were a major part of my childhood and I still play them to this day. Since video games have been a big influence on me throughout my life, I decided to make one for my Zenith.

With software like Unreal engine and Unity, now just about any idiot with a computer can make a game. This leads to some monstrosities, but it also encourages passionate people to create beautiful, moving video games who would otherwise be unable to. Games, especially 3D ones are usually made by large companies with big budgets but now many small indie games have been given the spotlight. I was inspired by various individual artists I’d seen online who were making models and games, seeing the actual process made making a game seem less daunting. I also was influenced by recent games like Firewatch, which is made by a small group of artists. I started out this project not knowing a single thing about Blender, Unity, or Coding, but by doing research online and following along with Youtube videos, I feel like I now have a solid basic understanding of these programs.

The concept for my game came about from a sketch I created to fulfill the visual development aspect of my portfolio for Laguna College of Art and Design and Cornish College of the Arts. It is a simple drawing of a young boy character and his dog. I knew I wanted to create a simple, open world game since a fully fleshed out story would be too complicated with my limited skills, so I built up a story around a boy and his dog to create context for the game. The story is about an Inuit tribe that lives in the arctic. Climate change becomes a threat to them by melting the ice they live on and reducing the amount of seals that they are able to catch. In a panic, they gather up their entire lives and sail south. They eventually come upon a beautiful lush island and decide that it will be their new home. The main character is a young boy in this tribe. He and one of the sled dogs that he is close to go on a journey travelling around their new Island home. This story made it so the game wouldn’t feel random or without meaning, and the character has a reason to be on that island.

The research I did guided my process by giving me perspective. It forced me to think more deeply about the intractability of video games and how the stories impact their players. I have realized that I value the storytelling aspect of games greatly, as opposed to just gameplay, and I think that the best games have a solid balance of both. For example, mobile games usually are solely focused on gameplay, they don’t attempt to tell a story, Whereas there are some games that solely focus on the story and the “gameplay” is just selecting the dialogue that your character says. Each type of game has unique pros and cons. Mobile games are a good way to pass time or entertain yourself, but you don’t take them too seriously. Story games are like an interactive movie that gets you invested in the characters lives, but some people are bored by them or don’t have time to play them. My research forced me to think about balance and forced me to carefully consider every aspect of my story.

With a surplus of online resources, I was able to complete this game by just learning off of the internet. Every time I was stuck or I couldn’t figure out how to do something it just took some Googling and watching videos for me to fix the problem. I used my friends to test play my game a few times so I could community feedback into consideration.

If i was able to do this project over I probably would have tried to create more models to decorate the island with and a bigger, more detailed Island. I would have liked to make my character interact with other characters, collect things, climb, swim, and other mechanics, but that would not have been feasible with such a short amount of time and with so little experience.

What I’ve gained from this project has been invaluable. I can now comfortably navigate blender, apply textures, rig, and animate characters. I am able to program a character controller and camera that works the way I want to with C#. I am also able to create a functional map, apply post processing effects, import my assets properly, create mesh colliders, change lighting, and various other things in Unity.

Beyond just the technical skills I’ve learned from creating this game, it’s given me inspiration. It has made me want to create more complex and functional games that work in different ways and have different stories. It’s made me want to experiment with user interfaces, and storytelling elements, and many other aspects of video games that I wasn’t able to try out this time. During the summer and in University, I want to create more games and I already have been coming up with ways that I can expand on the skills I’ve learned. I’m excited to also start creating more models and 3D artworks. I definitely feel that the outcome of my Zenith was one of, if not my most successful project yet at Freestyle Academy.