rhysjcshaw
Project: Orient
DevLog 01 - 23.04.25
Initial Developments
What's Been Worked On?
Character Design & Animation
Finding, animating and implementing the player character models was the first task I undertook as part of development.
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I wanted the character models to be shared by players and NPC's for efficient asset use and congruity of visual design; the models chosen are low poly for efficiency, visual notability and to act as a base for the player to project their own interpretation of the characters onto.
Character Selection
The second task I decided to focus on was creating a working character selection menu.
One of the first gags I thought of when thinking about what I wanted to do with this project was to have three gender-exaggerated characters for the player to choose from.
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Whilst it may occur to some that this feature would be better left until later in development, I decided to do it early to help me get back into the flow of using UE without attempting to demanding of a task.
Visual Style
As can be seen in the captures above, I have created and implemented a cel-shader material which is applied in the PostProcessVolume to all objects in the level.
I decided on cel-shading for a couple of reasons, mainly to highlight a lack of seriousness [as cartoons are typically absurd] whilst adding a distinct style.
Design Documentation
I've been documenting my design and process using a Miro board which acts as a visual flowchart for my ideas, showing how they link from topic to topic.
I find this method more effective than rigorous documentation in a word processor, as it allows for quick editing during iteration.
Narrative & Level Design Foundations
During the development of the tasks mentioned above I have also been forming the groundwork for the narrative situation & level design.
Part of this has been formulating a scenario so that a classic murder mystery party can take place.
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The level design so far has been fairly simplistic as the setting is a mansion, so the majority of the work has been deciding on the layout of rooms and how they may relate to each other during the narrative.
Challenges
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Motivation
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Time management
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Prioritisation of tasks
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Correct asset implementation
What's Next?
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Systems development​
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Level construction
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Virtual slice
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Dialogue production workflow