Throne Room Flythrough, Delving On [WIP][UE4]

Jacob Lubinski

Introducing Delving On! Pre-alpha development in UE4. 

HI! I’m Jacob from Lost Day Games. Here are some early screens of the castle tileset in Delving on. Much more work has been done, but this area, while still WIP, is ready to show. All art, assets, and scripting were done by Lost Day Games. Me. No marketplace assets used. 

Delving On is a game all about exploration. Learning the world is rewarding. What secret lies around the next corner? Push further, deeper, risk it all just to see what awaits. In Delving On, the world is treated like a character.

Delving On is an action RPG focused less on twitch responses and more on a character’s skill stats.

Thanks for checking it out! More environments coming soon!

Lost Day Games

Check out the video!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CVl1K0D_pNg

Jacob Lubinski

Did some color correcting. Not  A huge change, but changed from LUT to tonemapper for correction. More consistent experience for the end user, and ultimately will work better when testing other environments. 

pixelpatron

It's okay...but I think this environment suffers greatly from visual symmetry fatigue. I think the time period is fuzzy cause these materials look almost sci-fi in nature, but not of the period. Can't say I love the lighting too much either. The modeling is decent, but I think focusing on something to introduce asymmetry and lighting that can start to tell a story, and a focal point to the viewer. Is it the throne? The windows bringing in light harshly from one side...I dunno, lot's of options but for now I can't say it's a space I'm too excited to explore. Looks more like a sterile operating room. 

teodar23

I like symmetry but i'm gonna go with pixelpatron. Symmetry is good but absolute symmetry is just repetition thus becomes boring. Unless its a gameplay thing (the environment needs to be symmetrical to show 2 mirrored worlds or something) try to avoid it because its unnatural, even for man made things. A bit of asymmetry here and there would be great. A good rule that i go by is to either have large scale symmetry and small scale asymetry or the other way around.

I also like pristine or almost pristine environments but having almost pure white materials in 80% of the scene looks unfinished or lazy. Add some decals here and there at least. If you dont want or have super realistic materials then do some stylised ones that are subtle but convey what the material is. If you leave it just one colour then it might get interpreted as something else. For example what should be marble instead it reads as white plastic.

About the lighting, unless you are doing a destructible env or a runtime procedural level, bake the lighting. Dynamic lighting doesnt look good in most situations in any game engine. Also, i barely noticed the sunlight on the floor. In an interior environment it is very noticeable in most cases.

The color palette is not very strong either. You have light blue with blueish white and a smudge of orange. Okay, but maybe mix it up a bit. Tint the marble yellow, see if that is more pleasant for the eye.
Best of luck.

Jacob Lubinski

@pixelpatron Thanks for the critiques! I'll definitely introduce some asymmetry, didn't even think about it. 

@teodar23 Thanks for your comment! 

Baked lighting might be in the works. Right now I'm focusing on the environment. 
I like your ideas on symmetry and color. The materials will remain relatively similar to what they are now. This will allow me to make loads of environments in reasonable amounts of time I'll try a yellow marble. 

Jacob Lubinski

Ok, so I took a lot of the critiques to heart, and this is what I've come up with. I got rid of some of the symmetry. Lighting has been improved. Some very feint decals to kind of dirty things up. More focus on the throne. 

Yellow tint did not work for the marble in this case. 

Notes: I can easily adjust all the material colors. I want the blue, green, silver that is happening here.  It could all be switched to red and gold and a darker brick, for a very different look. The idea of this style is to have something that looks good, but doesn't take forever and a day to make. This way I can make many environments. Think of it as a step up from the poly art style which is all flat colors. 

This is proof of concept, modular pieces put together quickly to form the room. Many different rooms can be created.

Jacob Lubinski

Did a few more adjustments. Added some details, changed the lighting a bit. Thanks for looking!