Screen Shots From The Latest Build!

GDC Crunch

So last minute we had to come up with promotional box art and a build for the school for GDC.  For some reason, even though I only deleted the non-deformer history, it still broke the rig.  So then we went to what should have been the original plan, and just used the original textures and UVs as a template.  Since it was such short notice, I did a very basic texture, essentially just blocking out the colors.  I'll go back to add details to it later, for the next build.  I also made the box art below, and a scene for the website and Facebook page.  And we finally settled on our small logo for Twitter.

New Theme In Game

So we got the new artwork in the game and it looks great!  I think I like it even better than the original theme.  We showed this build on Tuesday to the class and some grad students who haven't seen it before, and they loved it.  I still have to get the new character's texture done.  I accidentally broke the rig when I deleted the history after laying out the UVs in Maya.  So I had to go back and redo them, only deleting the non-deformer history.  We should have it done on Thursday.  We're pretty much focusing on getting everything working and perfect for GDC next week.  

New Toy Factory Art Assets

So over the weekend, I pretty much just made a bunch of new art assets to replace the old ones for the new theme:

 

I also added some details to the"cupid" turret, now it's a baby doll that shoots plunger arrows at you:

Here is the new MelterMan Logo:

As you can see, the background stone tiles are now a blue-gray instead of having a purple tint.  Also, I got some new brushes for photoshop that look more like graffiti.

I still have to work on making new graffiti images that will replace the hearts.  I'm thinking gears and some factory signs.  I also need to make an asset that will replace the curtains.  I'm going to try to make some lamps that will tile nicely and hopefully look good.  We want to get this all done before GDC, so we have about a week left to get it all in.  I'm also going to work with our programmer Austin today to set up the scene for the start menu.  We will have the new logo and the menu buttons to the left, and on the right we will have a conveyor belt dumping toys into a pile.  After some time, red goo will spray onto the toys and melt them.  I think this will look great and be something interesting going on in the start menu.

Theme Overhaul!

Since we are shooting for an E ESRB rating, we have decided to completely change the theme of our game.  We know we have a fun mechanic and game play, that don't really hing on the theme.  To avoid any interpretation of a sexual theme, and to re-purpose as many art assets as possible, we have decided to set the game in a toy factory.  The idea is that MelterMan must restore order to a toy factory that has been taken over by evil toys.  In order to show the rest of the artists how we can change the theme with some of what we have, I quickly  made the scene below.

We should have a lot of the new assets done this weekend, so I will post some actual screen shots soon.  I plan to make rubber duckies to replace the candles, a toy box to replace the couch, the heart graffiti with gears, the teddy bears will remain.  We haven't quite figured out what to make to replace the curtains, but were thinking industrial lighting of some kind.  We will also incorporate conveyor belts, which should add some fun to the game play.

Textured MelterMan!

So we got the main character in the game and he's all textured.  Turns out the animations from Miximo aren't going to work for what we need him to do ie: hold a gun and shoot.  So Brandi, our animator has started making animations in Unity.  This is very new to her so it might take a while to get them done.  As far as the texture goes, we realized that his hair color is too dark and blends in with the background.  To fix this I made him a red head.  I think I might try making him blonde and changing his shirt to green instead of yellow.  I also upped the saturation on the rest of him to make him pop against the background even more.

The programmers are also having to completely change the controller for the character.  I think once that's done he will at least move fluidly and we'll have a good sense of how he will play in the game.  Our designer is also figuring out what size he should be to keep the feel of the game the same as with the Spelunky character.  Adding this 3D model has pretty much broken the game for now, but I think once we get it done, it will be great.