Asset Design - Sniper Nests

Reference

 

 

"In the Pacific theatre the Japanese used trees for their snipers. They'd climb a tree and snipe from there.An expansion of that would be great. Maybe a small platform and an easy exit like a zipline for the development.

A collection of trees for the building unit, the sniper takes up on of these trees. Although you don't see the sniper he's there and only dies if all the trees are destroyed."

Asset Designs - Walls

Reference

After discussion with the client the following pictures were established as points of reference for ideas which the client may like for different types of cover.

 

Upgrades

The idea also came about for an energy shield. I will explore this later as an upgrade potentially.

From these a sheet of thumbnails were created:

For this first sheet of thumbnails I gathered feedback from the client.

3 - He immediately likes the look as it is very trench like. Wants to see it worked up with Moss and a wet look too it.

6 - Looks like the side of a bunker.

2 - Very good for light cover.

4 - Looks like a subway tunnel - perhaps could use it as lidded cover.

5 - Likes this for heavy cover.

Damage

Damage stages were also discussed. 3 stages of damage would probably be best to echo Age of Empires and Warcraft 3.

Age of Empires 2: Stages of decay in a wall.

Property Balancing.

Outlining the properties for each of the unit types (enemy and player) is very important in order for proper balancing to work.

I outlined Unit type, the cost to make each of them, the attack, attack speed, defence, max shield of each unit at 4 levels and the damage type.

I also did the same for 7 different types of enemy.

These statistics now need testing to check the balancing in play.

The following charts are for the Player Units and then the One Bakkar Units.

Unit Faction	Unit	Cost	Attack (L2/3/4)	ATK Spd/Sec	Def (L2/3/4)	Max SHD (L2/3/4)	Damage Type
109th	Fealoke	N/A	4 (6/8/10)	1 (1/1/2)	12 (13/14/15)	5 (5/6/7)	M/H
	Maddox	N/A	3 (5/7/9)	1 (1/1/2)	12 (13/14/15)	5 (5/6/7)	H
	Soldier L1	20	2	1	9	4	H
	Soldier L2	35	3	2	10	5	H/L
	Soldier L3	50	4	3	12	6	H/L
23rd	Vortex	N/A	4 (6/8/10)	1 (1/1/2)	15 (16/17/18)	6 (6/7/8)	H
	Soldier L1	20	2	2	13	6	H
	Soldier L2	35	3	3	14	6	H/L
	Soldier L3	50	4	3	15	7	H/L
205th	Jin	N/A	3 (5/7/9)	1 (1/1/2)	12 (13/14/15)	5 (5/6/7)	H
	Isolde	N/A	2 (4/6/8)	1 (1/1/2)	12 (13/14/15)	5 (5/6/7)	H
	Soldier L1	20	2	1	9	5	H
	Soldier L2	35	3	1	10	5	H/L
	Soldier L3	50	4	2	11	6	H/L
98th	Sparek	N/A	4 (6/8/10)	1 (1/1/2)	15 (16/17/18)	6 (6/7/8)	H
	Clara	N/A	4 (6/8/10)	1 (1/1/2)	15 (16/17/18)	6 (6/7/8)	M
	Soldier L1	20	3	1	13	6	H
	Soldier L2	35	4	2	14	6	H/L
	Soldier L3	50	5	2	15	7	H/L

	One Bakkar Name Difficulty /10 Pay ATK ATK SPD DEF Max SHD Grunt 1 10 1 1 3 2 OB2 2 12 1 1 3 4 OB3 4 16 2 1 4 4 OB4 5 20 2 2 4 5 OB5 7 24 3 2 5 6 OB6 8 28 4 2 6 7 OB7 9 32 5 2 7 8

Ken Yeang - Environmental Design

https://www.google.co.uk/search?hl=en&sugexp=les%3B&tok=NJ3q2UD1ar7wA82qu1xjpw&cp=6&gs_id=m&xhr=t&q=ken+yeang&bav=on.2,or.r_gc.r_pw.r_qf.&bpcl=38625945&biw=1191&bih=947&wrapid=tljp1353339733815010&um=1&ie=UTF-8&tbm=isch&source=og&sa=N&tab=wi&ei=e1OqUOSPCKvO0AW_1IGQDw

Perspective, Distance and Depth

 Key words and Definitions

Linear Perspective

Based on lines - the edges of objects. The receding edges are projected into space and continued along until they meet a point on the horizon line.

Atmospheric Pressure

The effect air has on light passing through it. The more air, the more noticeable the effect will be. The most common example is the way the colours of objects in an outdoor scene shift towards blue as they get further away.They also lose contrast and sharpness.

The Horizon Line

A Horizontal line which represents the height from which the artist is viewing the scene. It can be anywhere. Everything above that is being looked up at, everything below is being looked down upon.

The Vanishing Point

A point on the horizon which all parallel lines from an object converge. There can be more than one vanishing point depending on perspective.

One-point Perspective

Occurs when you and all the objects are parallel to each other. Like looking down an isle in a cathedral. The edge closest is the leading edge.

Two-point Perspective

This occurs when the angle of objects are at an angle to you, not parallel. There will be 2 vanishing points.

Three-point Perspective

Is similar to two-point, but the third vanishing point is above or below the horizon line.

The Vanishing Trace

Is a point above or below the horizon line for vertical objects or along the horizon line for horizontal objects. It is used to determine correct and even spacing for objects.

GUI systems.

Here is a collection of links to various sites I looked at regarding HUD, GUI and Menues

Menu systems

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QCPWd7roTNw

H.U.D Systems

http://feedgrids.com/originals/post/a_look_through_14_beautiful_video_game_hud_designs


http://devmag.org.za/2011/02/02/video-game-user-interface-design-diegesis-theory/


fourth wall

http://www.gamasutra.com/view/feature/4086/a_circular_wall_reformulating_the_.php

Ui Design - what gamers wants

http://www.gamasutra.com/view/feature/4286/game_ui_discoveries_what_players_.php

Designing Your Organism Interface

• Look at your main avatar - "the hero". Describe how it feels to be the hero
  • Example: Badass, Confident, Fearless, Aware
    • Is your hero "aware" of being an elite soldier? You have to make sure the player feels aware! How do you handle enemies outside the screen, enemies behind the player, enemies behind trees, etc.?
• List the functions you know must be present in the UI (without regard to how it will eventually be implemented)
  • Example: Crosshair, Health, Ammo, Mini-map, Weapons inventory, Objective locator
• Start designing a preliminary interface
  • Map your "must haves" to different interface methods, diegetic, HUD, etc.
• Review your preliminary design by asking: "Will this UI allow me to be aware of 1, 2, 3 and will I feel A, B, C when I do it?"
• Iterate on your UI design until you can answer the above question "yes!"
  • Remember that UI comes in many forms, Audio, Animation, HUD, effects - mix it up!

(Where 1, 2, and 3 are your must have functions and A, B, and C are how it should feel to be the hero.)
In the last step you are bringing the avatar and the organism together by designing interface solutions that will make the player actually feel and behave the part assigned by the game.
It could be argued that "feeling badass" is not mainly achieved with UI but that depend mostly on the interpretation of UI. It might not be achieved with a 1999 HUD, but with a skillful implementation of various UI components from various categories tailored to fit the experience I would argue UI has everything to do with feeling badass!

Exerpt from :
http://www.gamasutra.com/view/feature/4286/game_ui_discoveries_what_players_.phpAge Of Empires 3: UI 
 





Diagnostics on the bottom. Map, Health of Units, skills of units at the side...

Unit specifics are located in the middle.


The panel which changes the most is the right hand side panel. This panel is for Unit orders and skills.

A quick break down of the AoE3 HUD

Pepakura

Pepakura


"Pepakura Designer allows you to create paper craft models from 3D data.

Pepakura Designer is developed in Japan and has been translated to English.

This software is open to the public as shareware so you can download and try it freely although some advanced features are limited until you purchase a license key."


Pepakura could be used to construct the play pieces of the board for a board-game version of the game.