[WIP][UE4] Conscious (A story made in UE4)
polycounter lvl 7
Hello!
So I Haven't posted in a while here but I want to showcase my project with the community, friends and colleagues. I'm working (solo) on a story project in my spare time (which I have lot of now
) It's already more than 2 months in progress where I'm working on the project whenever I have time. I'm not spoiling anything about the story yet ( you can find a tiny bit more info bellow), but I can tell you something about the world and the art I've mad so far! (which is over 120 assets at the time I'm posting this.)
(A gif of me walking around on the ground floor of the city (more info bellow))
The basic environment design is based on drawings of how people thought the future cities would look like. (Like drawings from the architect Harvey Wiley Corbett: http://artcontrarian.blogspot.com/2014/04/harvey-wiley-corbett-style-cities-of.html) (See image)
A more present idea of the future are styles like cyberpunk/dystopian. I've combined those ideas, with the main environment design as design pillar to work around, and created the concept of my city.
Everything you see bellow is work in progress, there are some temp textures (and some models). So please keep that in mind
The city has 3 layers. The ground floor is where most of the people live. It has a lot of narrow alleys where people live, trade and shop. The first level is for the richer people of the city. The second floor belongs to the government.
The story follows a character that has been hiding from a big event that took place. Everyone fled the city. The people on the ground floor had almost no guiding in this a complete chaos arise. Where people on the first floor could flee the city very easily and safe.
Here are some screenshots from ground level, where most of the chaos hit.
I've spend most of my time on the ground level. But to give you an idea of the first level I've made a screenshot of that too.
Nature isn't part of cities anymore, so they've placed holograms of tree's and plants instead.
For now, it's more of a showcase. I'm interested in what everyone thinks of my ideas so far. And I'm trying to post some more behind the scene's and progress. I think I'll be asking some tips and critiques in the future.
So I Haven't posted in a while here but I want to showcase my project with the community, friends and colleagues. I'm working (solo) on a story project in my spare time (which I have lot of now
) It's already more than 2 months in progress where I'm working on the project whenever I have time. I'm not spoiling anything about the story yet ( you can find a tiny bit more info bellow), but I can tell you something about the world and the art I've mad so far! (which is over 120 assets at the time I'm posting this.) (A gif of me walking around on the ground floor of the city (more info bellow))
The basic environment design is based on drawings of how people thought the future cities would look like. (Like drawings from the architect Harvey Wiley Corbett: http://artcontrarian.blogspot.com/2014/04/harvey-wiley-corbett-style-cities-of.html) (See image)
A more present idea of the future are styles like cyberpunk/dystopian. I've combined those ideas, with the main environment design as design pillar to work around, and created the concept of my city.
Everything you see bellow is work in progress, there are some temp textures (and some models). So please keep that in mind
The city has 3 layers. The ground floor is where most of the people live. It has a lot of narrow alleys where people live, trade and shop. The first level is for the richer people of the city. The second floor belongs to the government.
The story follows a character that has been hiding from a big event that took place. Everyone fled the city. The people on the ground floor had almost no guiding in this a complete chaos arise. Where people on the first floor could flee the city very easily and safe.
Here are some screenshots from ground level, where most of the chaos hit.
I've spend most of my time on the ground level. But to give you an idea of the first level I've made a screenshot of that too.
Nature isn't part of cities anymore, so they've placed holograms of tree's and plants instead.
For now, it's more of a showcase. I'm interested in what everyone thinks of my ideas so far. And I'm trying to post some more behind the scene's and progress. I think I'll be asking some tips and critiques in the future.
Replies
The idea of holographic trees gives me chills that is a real dystopian setting.
Based on your screenshots the distance between poor ground, rich and government level looks not so big. Could be interesting to make more protection for the rich area via gates, drones or wire? otherwise the revolution is near!
I could imagine that the lowest floor has also more advertisements to flee into consume shopping an VR realities to escape this junk yard.
Are you planing to make a playable scene too?
Looking forwart to see the progress, keep it up
Thank you for your comment and input!
Yeah I've collected some reference for things like protection, still trying to figure out how to implement that. Things likes drones, gates and wires sounds interesting, I'll try to draw some ideas with that in mind
Yeah the difference between the 3 levels isn't really noticeable at the moment, I'm working per level, starting from ground till the government level. But the big difference will be in richer assets, and materials, architecture, more ''green/nature'' and clean/dirty.
Yes I'm planning to do a playable scene! I've already made the first steps on gameplay, but I'm no programmer so the first focus is Art at the moment
(Another Screenshot from the ground level)
I wanted to share another part of the city with you today. The city has 3 layers where people live, work and buy like I said in the first post. But there is another level. The sewers. It's in an early stage, but here are some work in progress screenshots that I like to share with you.
A concept I worked out today for the first floor (richer area). No more looking down at the poor district while eating dinner at your favorite restaurant, with the View Changer X2.
Excited to see more!
Okey today I will share a small part of the first floor I've been working on a while ago. This is the public toilet room from a club based on the first floor, also known as Club Sinatra. The club is almost done.
I've also made some 2D work for the club. Posters!
The Cyborg character is from a good friend ( https://www.instagram.com/janwdesign/ )
2 movie posters and 2 club promotion posters.
I've created more shop fronts (Uv's need some fixing) and created more side alleys to make the level more interesting and alive. The exterior environment consists of a cold lighting setting. The shops will have more warmer light to encourage the player to explore them and maybe find some secrets.
I've also worked on the basics of the gameplay (story elements). As an 3D artist, I've learned a lot about blueprints in UE4 the last few days!
The press F button will be replaced. Story elements will autoplay when triggerd instead of pressing the button, this for testing purposes atm. (except for objects with a story behind them ( Like in the game Firewatch for example))
Picking up, and inspecting objects will be a big thing in this game. If you pick up an object in the world an bring it to the trash bins in the first floor (these types of trash bins will only be in the richer parts of the city) and throw it in one of them, the trash bin will react on that. (The faces are temporary for testing, I'll add better ones later
''Bad'' objects.
''Good'' objects.
Man, you're just full of crazy ideas...
Idk how many hours I've spent on this map at the moment. The idea started back in September 2019. Since then I've not spent a lot of time on it, but started working more active on the project around February 2020. Most of the work has been done in the late hours and weekends.
This is a screenshot of September 2019 where I started with the basic design, concepts and first ideas for an story driven game.
This is a screenshot that I've made around the beginning of February 2020, that's where most of the ideas and concepts started to evolve.
I've already made 110+ assets for the game so far (most of the assets are final, some are temp or not (completely) textured).
I've no idea how many hours I've spent so far, but I hope I've given you more insight about on the progress of the project and an idea on how long I've already been working on it
I'm currently working on big buildings (more info and tricks how I did those later) But one part of the buildings are the huge LED signs. I need some help with them... I'm not 100% satisfied with how they're turning out.
Does someone have tips, tricks, documents, video's etc on how to make these huge LED signs more believable? In my opinion it's how they cast light on the building and the environment, which they don't....
PS: I have almost no bloom in the scene, I would love a solution where I don't need to crank up the bloom. Most of the ''bloom'' you see at the moment is from the volumetric fog. I've also tried to scale up the emisive, but it would lose color, but maybe I'm doing it wrong then.
I would love to hear your feedback and tips
I think this will do the trick! I still need to tweak the material. This is the first time I've heard about this topic, so i need to read more to see what it is capable of, but I really like it so far. I will explore this more in depth.. Again, thanks for the tip!
The buildings are starting to look way better then before! I'm working on variation but this is already one building (don't mind the Text signs, they are temp. to test the concept)
Here are some behind the scene's shots:
The building is made out of 4 modulair pieces (left) and some unique assets (to dress up the building and this way I can use the building more then ones without noticing it to much)
The buildings are made out of 3 layers atm which I can switch to create more variation. The textures are packed and 1024x1024 for the ground level layer and 512x512 for the other 2 layers.
The lights are (most of the time, there are some ''real'' lights) just planes (and planes with a bend modifier) with a lightbeam texture, this is way cheaper then placing a lot of lights and with this technique they don't fade at a greater distance.
The windows are currently a material out of the Epic Games Infiltrator content but will be replaced later. (with a material that shares the same technique but more to fit my project)
I hope this will give a nice impression on how I'm making the big high-rise buildings in the game. Tips are always welcome!
And a quick gif to get a better impression.
Hi! I've made de player movement a long time ago, but I think I used some elements of this head bob tutorial if I remember correctly: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fom2NOKuxXc
Sooo, it's been a while since I've posted the last update. I'm really busy with other projects besides this spare time project, those projects deserve my focus at the moment, mainly 3D and research projects. But I've found some time to do some more work on this project. Not so much art stuff (except for the club scene, looks really cool btw, I'll post screenshots later
I've 2 more weeks to go on my other porjects, but expect some more updates on this project around the summer.
Hello again! So some big projects came up, but finally got some time to work on my project again. First of, I've improved performance a lot since last time, I've modelled up to almost 180 unique assets and placed a lot of them in the game so an performance update was necessary. I've made a big Techno track for the club so prepare for some banging parties in the club scene
(
I've also continued with the pickup system, more and more items can be picked up. And last but not least, I've worked on some more level design, this time on the side alley's as you can see on the attached screenshot.
Hopefully I can work a bit more on the scene the following months, will see
Working on the small alleys of the city. Still work in progress, but loved the mood so much that I would like to share it would you already
Thanks for all the compliments! means a lot! it gives me even more motivation to work on the project! More and more improvements are made on performance and a big change was made level design wise, more info on that soon! Now those 2 things are done, I can start with modelling and level design again. More ''bring the city to life'' elements are made like the missing persons flyers. I think I'll start on the remodel and texture of the trashbags now, since they are not the most beautiful thing in the world right now ^^'
To get a word out for the project i started with a social media page. Nothing big at the moment since the game is far from done, but some more interaction is always nice
@Olingova thanks for the suggestion! Rats and movement on/in the trash are coming on the to do list!
We're going inside now! I wanted to give you a small preview already. More screenshots and a video will follow later. (it's only a blockout for now to test level design
More progress! The building that you can enter is the ministry of health. this is the 3rd floor. It's almost done level design wise (still need to texture a lot). Let me know what you think of the mood
PS: I'll upload a walkthrough video very soon so keep an eye out
Watch out for creepy health care robots roaming the ministry of health!
More work has been done on the building, more screenshots will follow soon!
More progress has been made on the ministry of health, a lot of offices are being, I wanted to show you some more unique locations in the building. The first image shows an office section, it's still under construction because i find it a bit out of style and it's still missing some fancy sci fi elements, that are pressent in the outdoor level for example. The second image shows a test location where they can take tests on sick patients, it looks a bit like your normal hospital environment, but a bit more sci fi. And don't forget the robots walking around!
The last image is the room that it is far from complete, but I wanted to show it anyways cause the idea itself is nice. I've found some reference images from elevator desks (if you want too google them yourself, and do more research, they are/where I believe in the central social institution in Prague) Some really cool images came up that inspired me! I want to give it a big sci fi touch so that will be next on the too do list!
Hello! So a lot of progress has been made the last couple of days! I'll show one image to give a small impression. More will follow soon!
So I've worked on the level design for a couple of days. A clear path has been made how to walk trough the level while keeping a bit of freedom to explore for yourself. I've written down some level design events what you should do where to also give me a clear guide for the level design.
The difference between the low level and the upper-class was not that clear so I made some improvements on that already. Trees are now only on the upper-class levels, fences (still wip) are being placed to keep the lower-class from climbing towards the upper-class. These are a couple of examples.
So not much modelling but more level design and writing. The promised gameplay video has some delay because of these improvements. But keep an eye out!
Some more work has been done on one of the puzzle levels I showed earlier (the elevator room). Big progress has been made on the room and mood.
Thank you for the compliment!
I've finished the data room! Here is a screenshot and the video!
Two more screenshots can be seen on my Artstation: https://www.artstation.com/artwork/nY8rrr
Thankyou all for the positive feedback so far! I'll be working on more gameplay elements now!
PS: I've used the awesome pack from the assetstore, check it out!: First Person Story Adventure Template
What about characters and more androids?
I've made one character 5 years ago and I think that's it.... sooo idk if im able and or going to model a lot of characters. But androids, yes! for sure! I've already made one and more are in my design document to make in the future!
Updated the side alleys
Here are a lot of screenshots of the current state of the game Conscious; I'm working. More areas have been made but here are some highlights! A lot has been done in 2020 and a lot will be finished in 2021! Let me know what you think so far!
PS: I'm currently working on gameplay and writing story elements. I hope that I can show some gameplay and story really soon in a video!