Humanoid idea sketching

Here the start of the humanoid designs of the level, these are not only ideas for the main character concept but also the enemy soldiers and how there both structured, I've stuck to a human looking being but with warped features, the reason for this is to show an evolutionary growth with the character and his background, the main character comes from a jungle like environment which means he would of adapted to it with limbs that can get around it quickly and patterns upon himself to blend in to better hunt and stay away from danger, the enemy character are from a darker region of the world and are a bit more insect like which brings into the scene a number of different features, more will be done on this while concertizing the final designs.

Theme of environments and characters

Themeboards

I have decided early on to produce a forest based environment, above is a theme board of the wanted out come, a very dense forest that has overgrown and produced some weirdly wonderful areas and as my level will be on another world then a heavy alien influence will be present, the design of the forests will be however relevant to our own so players will recognize and know what must be done in certain areas of the environment, The level will let me look deeply into interesting lighting.

The alien presents of the world will all come down to its inhabitants, in this theme board i show what i wish to create, a strange and odd eco system of creatures for the environment as forests and jungles have extraordinary amounts of difference within them, i will have to be creative with there design, this wildlife should really bring out the feel of a truly alien world around the players, also along with this, the sentient beings among them as well as the players character will also relate to the forest and around the same theme to represent a natural evolution together with his/her surroundings.

For the level structure itself i have looked into many games and how they plot the paths and areas of a level, so i have chosen to show some that best show what i am after, altho i am not doing huge expansions and keeping the player to a "tutorial" style area i will still like to create a big enough environment for exploration and optional direction paths to be present, the top left image of the badlands from a game known as borderlands best suits my kind of level.

Major project introduction

And so it begins, for my final year project i have my heart set on a game type that i am greatly fond of, i have chosen to do an RPG based game set in a world created of pure energies and powerful forces far from the reach of man where life has developed in a very different way, i would like the game play to be very open and so ive decided to create a very adventurous game style where players will have to explore there environments to seek out its hidden pathways or levers to open new areas but this is just one side to things i have also chosen to put in a strange style of conflict in the form of magical warfare, wielding strange energy driven ranged weaponry it will true turn it into a fantasy 3rd person shoot em up.

The idea was inspired by games that really give you the feeling of new worlds before you that is yours to explore and live in such as skyrim, however for this project i am limiting my self to a certain quest, so the player will not be in a open world but rather a liner path for that very quest.

There will be 1 main character as well as a side kick companion that will aid players on the quest as its been decided that the quest i have chosen will be the introduction quest to the game, to glace at the game play it will be a very open environment where the feeling of the wild will be apparent from the  start, you must fire your way through many over grown areas of terrain and beat back wild life within its lands, attacks can randomly occur in this dangerous land such as a large boss like being entering the mix at any time keeping players alert of there surroundings at all time, the paths of the level will not always be apparent but help will always be in the form of a small companion.

The world is set on a planet where greatly powerful ores and minerals warp the world into a strange realm, where weirdly wonderful environments are born(for my level i shall concentrate on a forest like zone as your tribe comes from the grand jungles of the world where life is hard) and unlike our own world not one but many sentient races have sprung up but unaware of any of them you and your people are about to enter a conflict that will leave you journeying to find answers ( your tribes village is raided and your people taken, you journey to find them, and team up with an unlikely little companion).

The aim of the level will be to track down the raiders to there encampment and return your people, however not everything goes to plan and so starts an even greater quest, this is when you enter the expanse of the game itself.