The Art of NanoLegends
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The Art of NanoLegends
Nano Legends is a platforming educational game about cellular biology and cancer awareness using the Nebula2 engine. It was developed by Commgraphics. Our target age group was junior high school kids, so we kept everything fun, but with a dark edge to grab their attention. Nano Legends have nine chapters with over twelve different monsters through twenty-eight platforming, shooting and/or driving areas. We had a great time developing this title, and hope to see in schools soon!
A little background info: myself and Chad Gleason (animator) came up with this game idea, and built a demo in the Serious Sam engine with the programming help of Michael Bickel. This took around three months to develop, and it had a few monsters, boss fight, player model, and a pretty huge level. We submitted our demo to the National Institute of Health (NIH), and it received their highest awards giving us a grant to create the full game. Eighteen months later we wrapped up the title, and it's current in it's final stages.
To all aspiring garage developers, it can happen! It was a dream to be able to design our own game, and we couldn't be happier with the final results. Thanks to everyone that helped us along the way!
Level design, model, texture, and lighting by Chris Holden.
Level design, model, texture, and lighting by Chris Holden. Additional texture by Barry Collins.
Level design, model, texture, and lighting by Chris Holden. Ship texture by Barry Collins, background model by Chad Gleason.
Concept by Douglas Shuler, model by Jon Jones, texture by Barry Collins.
Concept by Douglas Shuler, model by Jon Jones, texture by Barry Collins.
Original concept by Chad Gleason, model by Jon Jones, texture by Brian Jones.
Original concept by Chad Gleason, model by Jon Jones, texture by Brian Jones.
Concept by Douglas Shuler, model by Jon Jones, texture by Barry Collins.
Concept by Douglas Shuler, model by Jon Jones, texture by Barry Collins.
Developer Credits:
Chris Holden - Designer
Chad Gleason - Animator
Michael Bickel - Programmer
Douglas Shuler - Concept Artist
Jon Jones - Character Artist
Barry Collins - Texture Artist
Brian Jones - Texture Artist
Kochun Hu - Sound
Andrew Weldon - Writer
Nano Legends is a platforming educational game about cellular biology and cancer awareness using the Nebula2 engine. It was developed by Commgraphics. Our target age group was junior high school kids, so we kept everything fun, but with a dark edge to grab their attention. Nano Legends have nine chapters with over twelve different monsters through twenty-eight platforming, shooting and/or driving areas. We had a great time developing this title, and hope to see in schools soon!
A little background info: myself and Chad Gleason (animator) came up with this game idea, and built a demo in the Serious Sam engine with the programming help of Michael Bickel. This took around three months to develop, and it had a few monsters, boss fight, player model, and a pretty huge level. We submitted our demo to the National Institute of Health (NIH), and it received their highest awards giving us a grant to create the full game. Eighteen months later we wrapped up the title, and it's current in it's final stages.
To all aspiring garage developers, it can happen! It was a dream to be able to design our own game, and we couldn't be happier with the final results. Thanks to everyone that helped us along the way!
Level design, model, texture, and lighting by Chris Holden.
Level design, model, texture, and lighting by Chris Holden. Additional texture by Barry Collins.
Level design, model, texture, and lighting by Chris Holden. Ship texture by Barry Collins, background model by Chad Gleason.
Concept by Douglas Shuler, model by Jon Jones, texture by Barry Collins.
Concept by Douglas Shuler, model by Jon Jones, texture by Barry Collins.
Original concept by Chad Gleason, model by Jon Jones, texture by Brian Jones.
Original concept by Chad Gleason, model by Jon Jones, texture by Brian Jones.
Concept by Douglas Shuler, model by Jon Jones, texture by Barry Collins.
Concept by Douglas Shuler, model by Jon Jones, texture by Barry Collins.
Developer Credits:
Chris Holden - Designer
Chad Gleason - Animator
Michael Bickel - Programmer
Douglas Shuler - Concept Artist
Jon Jones - Character Artist
Barry Collins - Texture Artist
Brian Jones - Texture Artist
Kochun Hu - Sound
Andrew Weldon - Writer
Replies
I was out of the loop for most of the later stages of this one, so it's very cool to see some new bits here and how far it's come since the beginnings. Woo!
lawl.
The character and creature design is very good - and I could have told you exactly who did those textures without even reading their names on the credit lists
My only crit is the level design in the first pic - those textures (in fact the whole level) seems oddly squashed and stretched, kinda like watching a non-widescreen movie on a widescreen TV, if you know what I mean. Also, whoever designed that hallway floor wasn't really thinking - why would you make a floor that had a massive raised section every couple of metres? It'd mean stepping up and down again as you walk along - just doesn't make much sense to me.
On the whole very solid work all round, impressive stuff guys!
The monster designs are wonderful. That chompy plant has to be one of my favorite monsters I've seen in a game.
With this being educational and targeted toward kids, what kind of license does this game have? Is it shareware/freeware or standard purchase?
It's nice to finally see more info, I've always been interested in this. Great work guys, and congrats!
Alex
I wanna do something exactly like that one day. Except less education
The Mouthy-plant kicks all sorts of ass.
Again, super congrats, this is awesome!
All saved to the inspiration folder.
Nano Legends is a platforming educational game about cellular biology and cancer awareness.
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Cool, but I can't see anything about that in your screenshots (as a molecular biology student)
Would you mind to elaborate this a bit further?
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NanoLegends was developed in the Nebula2 engine.
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Is that engine already production level? Last time I checked it was still in a very alphaish state.
JKMakowka: Story, dialogue, and tasks you complete in a level have actual counterparts in real cellular biology with a bit of a sci-fi edge. The levels were designed to represent how parts of the cell might look on such a microscopic level. For example, the endoplasmic reticulum is long winding folds where proteins are transferred and converted in ribosomes for delivery to the golgi apparatus. For that chapter, the player much convert a protein picked up in the previous level, and drive through the endoplasmic reticulum making jumps, dodging obstacles, and avoiding carcinogens to transfer it to the golgi apparatus.
Your second question about the engine's status answers itself as we have a final game.
Marine: The original Aerin character model had to be toned down because the educators feared she might come of as too sexy for the junior high school audience. The game was for all the kids, not just the boys. Her final model carries far more value, but I'm sure Jon can vouch for just how super sex bot her original model was.
As long as that "how it might look" thing doesn't end up like Tron...
Keep it up! and drop me a line if you find the time.
/jzero
JKMakowka: Story, dialogue, and tasks you complete in a level have actual counterparts in real cellular biology with a bit of a sci-fi edge. The levels were designed to represent how parts of the cell might look on such a microscopic level. For example, the endoplasmic reticulum is long winding folds where proteins are transferred and converted in ribosomes for delivery to the golgi apparatus. For that chapter, the player much convert a protein picked up in the previous level, and drive through the endoplasmic reticulum making jumps, dodging obstacles, and avoiding carcinogens to transfer it to the golgi apparatus.
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I see, sounds good. But I guess visually this could have been taken a step further, with modern day pixel-shaders
@jzero: nothing easier than that: work on that stupid Army game
also it would stop the annoying people going "videogames are scum of the earth" if more people took up doing gam,es that have some educational significants.
looks great,now where can I pick it up?
john
show more, show more !!!
and dammit, where and how can we have a try at it ??
http://chrisholden.net/08.htm
showing a bit more variety
some parts look like taken out of peppi's undead god texture.
Very cool all this stuff. Pretty damn amazing actually.
Cheer Buddy.