Unique mechanics.
worthwhile stories.
Loving. Judgment.
People say that true love is non-judgmental. I disagree. Love is not blindness. And I know that I have not loved much or many, but I have loved what can be loved: autotelicity.
The act is the ends.
When you love someone or something without judgment, that is not love. That is mindlessness. That is the fear of the mob, staggering drunkenly in the darkness, reaching out— latching onto whatever moves. We cannot love what we cannot understand— not truly.
To love is to understand.
To love is to judge.
Because judgment is not authoritarian. It does not have to be. But people— people so afraid of true thought— individual thought— people cannot fathom what they cannot fathom. And so, they don’t.
Judgment is, in essence, hypocritical. We extoll “good judgment,” and we vilify “judgment.” It is cruel when the judge sentences a criminal to death. It is wise to not drink and drive.
That is not the fault of judgment, itself. Judgment is not, in essence, hypocritical. We are.
We fear the free thinker. To be selfish is to— we think— not embrace the world and its peoples. To be selfless is to welcome all into our arms.
But is that selflessness? To distance ourselves from the individual truths?
It is languorous to love “the world.” That does not require effort, or bravery. It does not warrant the individual person. And we are individuals. Yes, we share some core values— dependent on the cultures of our raising. But to love is to understand.
To be truly selfish is to put effort into understanding. And in that understanding, we grow closer to the subject. And that facilitates loving.
To be selfish is to value the Self.
It is the only way to be truly selfless. To value individualism.
How can we love a nameless entity?
I took an acting class in undergraduate study. The professor proclaimed “Do not judge your roles!”
I took issue with that proclamation. I understood that Bill Starbuck was flawed. I read into his character. But in doing so, I empathized with him. And I played the role better.
Judgment is not vice. Judgment is empathy. And empathy is the prerequisite for love.
Loving. Judgment.
Blog Post #4: A New Angle
Th. 9/26/2024
(1 hour)
I started researching 2D animation in Blender. So far, I feel like I’ve wasted my time. I watched 46 of the 50 minutes of this video. I learned a bit about the navigation within 2D animation in Blender, but all he covered was frame-by-frame hand-drawn animation— which I still believe is not how modern animators do it. (I hope that I’m not wrong.)
I started this 3D animation tutorial series. It is using Blender, as well.
Sa. 9/28/2024
(2.5 hours)
I watched this video, Character Animation for impatient people, and got some good tips:
• Go to graph editor, select some points, and press Alt O (oh) to smooth movements.
• To save poses, select bones, press F3— search “Create Pose Asset”.
• “Pose to Pose” principle: focus on animating big, recognizable movements first, then go in after and add the smaller movements.
It also went over just general animation principles— not just for characters— indicating that I was partially right and wrong; animation still uses keyframes, but you can blend between poses, instead of literally having to create a new image for each frame.
This video (Ultimate Animation Workflow for Beginners) presents some steps to follow.
Golden Poses and Anticipation: “Golden poses” are the main beats; if the character is turning from the left to the right, the golden poses are the frames when he’s facing the left, and facing the right. More complex movements have more golden poses involved.
Breakdown #1: “Breakdowns” are the poses between golden poses.
Speed of movements is based on the number of frames on which each pose is held. Typically 2 frames, 3 frames, or 4 frames. Cartoony animations are snappier, and have fewer breakdowns.
Leading: Certain body parts lead specific movements.
Arcs: Blender will transition between poses in a straight line, but realistically, characters move more in arcs.
Breakdown #2
Some body part (not the previous leading part) trails behind. *Side note: he talks about the arc movements (versus linear movements), but he doesn’t really say how to change from linear to arc. I’ve rewatched the video, but he really doesn’t. Something that I’ll need to research externally.
Mid-Point Pose: between Breakdown #1 and #2
Lead and drag continuation
Arcs
Ease In + Ease Out
Spacing: the art of inbetweening Timing Charts
Progressive (not linear): the more you get away from a specific pose, the timing gaps are bigger; the closer you get to the next pose, the gaps are narrower.
The Moving Hold: a slight drift while holding a pose (not completely static)
FFXVI (about an hour)
I unlocked this feature that lets me charge up a fiery sword strike. It’s interesting— this concept of delayed gratification. You could easily go just mashing X over and over, but variety is the spice of life, so a good game developer will account for customizable options that are worth it.
I’ve had an idea for Pareidolia: Unbound rattling around within my skull for a couple weeks. After being freed from the Hanging Grove, after meeting the Pumpkin King and learning alla prima, you follow Mason’s keen serpentine senses to a hovel belonging to the witch, Bena. (I still think this is manageable for the vertical slice, but what do I know.) My idea is the focus for the demo, where you meet the witch, who is baking a baby in an oven and proofing her hovel against intruders. The idea is that you have to defend the hovel with her when night falls against a horde of varied enemies, finishing with a giant troll (need to pick a suitable fairy tale creature) tearing off the roof. You fight off the enemies, and rush through the abode pouring salt over window sills and such. The weaker enemies equate to an increase in Inspiration [Points] (with their slaying), which you then use against the troll to dis-integrate it.
Su. 9/29/2024
(3.5 hours)
I started this tutorial series on 3D animation in Blender. I’m about half an hour in at this point. I started at the very beginning, even though I have a little bit of experience in Blender from that community college course I took a couple years ago— I figured there’d be a lot of overlap, but that I might still learn some stuff. So far, it’s mostly navigation instructions, but the instructor went over menus specifically geared towards animation that I’d never used before.
I’m thinking that I want to try and record myself doing the motions of a few evasion and attack animations for Pareidolia: Unbound. I’m thinking about doing that tomorrow, then working on transferring it via free mocap software into a digital animation. I want to have something to show— something that I’ve created— for my Sprint this week. I am hesitant to not make something indicative of my learnings, for fear of it not appearing as though I’ve progressed along this path.
Oh that reminds me! I need to update my Milestones.
I just worked on the GDD for about an hour. I revised the characters to be seen, as well as the premise, and started on writing a prose script of the vertical slice. Basically, I had this idea— shown above— of defending this witch’s abode from an onslaught of fairy Folk, finishing with a troll tearing the roof off, and biting Bena, the witch, in half. I defined the troll— from Norwegian folklore, there is a shapeshifting troll that transforms into a white horse and carries unsuspecting travelers to their watery deaths, His name is Nøkken. (Nøkken becomes an ally of Alice after being defeated, and grants the Boon of Passage— he will transform into his white horse form and carry Alice long distances— either three or seven times.)
Opening Cinematic
A grove of apple trees growing wild in the ruins of a courtyard. We see close-up shots of branches creaking in the wind, and apples swaying from their stems. A gust rushes through the ruins, and we watch an apple blown off its branch, thudding into the overgrown cobbles, before rolling to a stop. We watch it for a moment or two, sitting static, then a snake slithers into view by it. The snake is made of red stone, and is segmented. The end of its tail— the last eight inches or so— is stiff and immobile. Faded runes are carved along the snake’s length. We watch it from close-up as it slithers to the base of an apple tree, and starts winding up the trunk.
As soon as the branches come into view, there’s a flash of lightning, flaring across the screen, before disappearing, and leaving the courtyard— which had been lit by daylight— in the dark of night. And as soon as that change occurs, hanging figures appear strung up from the branches of the trees. Coarse ropes bind their wrists, from which they are hanging. Each figure is unmoving, except for the movement of the trees, and each has a coarse sack over their heads.
The snake slithers along the branches, and, with a decisive movement, slices the bonds suspending one figure. He crashes to the overgrown cobbles, limp as a ragdoll. From a distant shot, we see the scene as the figure stands shakily up, and removes the sack from his head.
We see a lanky, almost emaciated human man, wearing WWI-era breeches; his right arm is encased in a red stone sheath of sorts, carved into shapes reminiscent of gothic churches. He is shirtless, except for a leather harness over his chest, embossed with a large brass “A”.
Gameplay Commences
Alice is walking through the swemp, ducking under branches and vines, swatting away bloodsucking pixies. He is adorned the same as in the opening cinematic, with one change. He has a brilliant red scarf that leads seamlessly into a loose red hood. The snake, who must have been introduced to the MC, as he is calling it by a name— Masinry— is speaking, coiling through the air surrounding Alice’s stone right arm.
“Follow that scent! Smells delectable... you must be famished, ain’t ya— who knows how long you were hangin’ there.”
Visible scent distortions guide the pair to a three-story ramshackle hovel. It has stained glass lanterns— most cracked— hanging from numerous hooks around it, and nailed to the ironbound door is a goat skull and, below it, a dead serpent coiled in an “S”.
“Go on! Knock— I don’t got hands!”
Alice steps hesitantly up the steps to the door. As he passes the edge of the porch, a careless step brushes through a line of salt, which— when he looks down— appears to have been circling the abode.
“Don’t mind that— if ya ain’t famished, I certainly am!”
Alice knocks on the door, causing it to creak, and the dead snake wags limply.
From inside, a voice screeches in surprise, followed by the sound of heavy boots thumping on weak floorboards towards the door. There’s the sound of multiple deadbolts being drawn back, then a creeeak, as the door swings open. Standing in the doorway is a striking old woman.
She is bent with age, and must’ve been tall in youth— but now her stature is diminished. Her skin is wrinkled, with faint brown symbols seemingly tattooed onto all of it. She is wearing a leather apron covered in flour, along with a dirty gray shawl— from which are protruding two goat horns. She is wearing a blindfold stained with some black fluid— as if her empty eye sockets are oozing ink, instead of blood. She is wearing heavy, iron-shod boots, and has numerous iron bracelets encircling her bony arms. Where the metal touches her skin are raised burn marks; they do not appear to be fresh.
I really want this slice to feel cinematic, and I think I got a potent description of the shots to be animated.
I defined why the abode is being assaulted. Rook is the curse-child of Briar Rose and the prince— who was stolen by the 13th Fairy, Pestis, who cursed Briar Rose. Rook became a child of the Court of Whim, until he was stolen by Bena, to be baked into a loaf of bread, to be eaten, to restore her sight. So, the Court of Whim is assaulting the hovel to bring him back.
I think we’ll end the vertical slice with the upgrade HUD appearing, as Rook tattoos the tale of what just happened onto Alice’s exposed skin. As he tattoos, the player can upgrade certain attributes of the MC. I’m picturing it as the tattoo scene happening on the right side of the screen, and the stat upgrade HUD on the left.
I’m going to watch more animation tutorials, but I just had an idea! In the living room of Bena’s hovel are a number of story books. One is open, and has pages wrinkled and stained with inky fingerprints. The illumination depicts someone who looks just like Alice currently does, with a red snake twirling above his head. The passage legible describes the “hero’s tragic and impotent struggle against the bonds of mortality.”
“I” inserts keyframe menu.
After designing a new keyframe, press “I” to make it official, choosing rotation, location, and/or scale.
Auto-keyframing removes this necessity.
“G” moves keyframes, too.
Clicking the stopwatch icon by the keyframe start/end notation makes it possible to edit only select parts of the timeline.
(Another 20 minutes watching 3D animation tutorials.)
I just played FFXVI for another hour. It’s odd, because I typically haven’t really liked playing video games before— but I am enjoying this one. I started playing more games because that’s one part of my education; I didn’t expect to actually enjoy it. And I haven’t enjoyed every game that I’ve played recently. For Honor has a pretty droll campaign. (I know it’s more of a multiplayer game, but still.) It’s also interesting how much I’ve turned to liking 3rd person action games. Not entirely surprising— most of my gaming as a child was on the Wii, and that was primarily 3rd person. But I do know that I should play outside of this genre. In the near future, I’d like to play a more casual game, and a sidescroller. For the casual game, there’s this Early Access witch apprentice game, Reka, that looks intriguing. It seems like Hogwarts Legacy, but less grand and no combat. For the sidescroller, I’ve been interested in The Last Faith for a long time. It’s like a sidescrolling Bloodborne. One of my favorite games as a child was actually on my Blackberry phone— it was a sidescrolling Batman game. The Last Faith seems much more complex than that. Maybe it’ll ease me into soulslikes.
M. 9/30/2024
(2.5 hours)
I worked on the worldbuilding/plot of the vertical slice more today. I’m using the worldbuilding project for my Literary Development of Virtual Worlds course as an opportunity to build upon this project. This week, the assignment is culture. It’s a tough assignment— for my project, specifically. In the Epilogue, there are humans, and there are Folk (fairy tale creatures). Fairy tales are, obviously, super varied, and they don’t have a unified culture. So I’m choosing to focus on key characters present in the vertical slice. I have to have four sets of attire for the assignment, so I’m doing four characters: Bena the witch, Masinry the stone snake whip, Rook the binder faerie curse-child, and Nøkken the Norwegian troll.
I need to redefine my remaining milestones. Let’s do that now. I’ll write them here, as well as making new physical notes taped to the wall above my desk.
Milestone #2: October 2nd, 2024
What it was: Continue learning Unreal Engine; start filling in GDD for the end project.
What it now is: Continue filling in GDD; make character profiles for key characters; start learning animation.
Milestone #3: October 16th, 2024
What it was: Start working on the greybox prototype; continue completing GDD.
What it now is: Start work on art bible; model MC body + prosthetic stone arm; record mocap (even jank self-done) for an evasion move, whip swing, and idle close-up; make a list of ten fairy tale creatures for the assault scenario.
Milestone #4: October 30th, 2024
What it was: Continue work on the greybox prototype; start work on developing the alla prima mechanic.
What it now is: Continue work on art bible; learn Marvelous Designer + model MC’s clothing; animate the three mocap movements; find references for the Hovel abode.
Milestone #5: November 13th, 2024
What it was: Finish GDD (including base script for vertical slice); finish basic development of the alla prima mechanic; finish the greybox prototype.
What it now is: Write script for vertical slice; map out the three floors and basement of the Hovel; focus art bible work on key characters to be seen; make another list of ten fairy tale creatures for the assault (total twenty).
—
I really want to focus on learning animation— especially based on video references/mocap— as well as focus on character modeling. I’m going to stick to just modeling the MC— because I don’t think I’ll have time to do more, and because his design has organic, cloth, and artificial materials— so I think learning to do all of that will be beneficial for future character designs.
Short pitch.
For the rest of the semester, I will be developing the plot and characters, art bible, and MC character model and animation for the vertical slice of Pareidolia: Unbound— the studio project that I will lead next year.
—
*One small thing. I know how to rig joints, but I don’t know how to rig facial features. I think I could get by without doing that this semester, but I would like to animate an idle animation— and having some facial expression change would really bring something extra to that.
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I’m going to go to Amanda’s office hours again tomorrow, and show her these updated milestones. I’ll make any suggested changes, then make the physical notes to put over my desk.
From the culture assignment.
Fictional Race: The Folk
The Folk are the race of fairy tale creatures inhabiting the Epilogue of Ettingrad. They live in the Outer Circle— commonly known as the Wyrdwoods. They are composed of all of humanity’s [public domain] fairy tale creatures. As such, they are as varied as is possible. There are Folk of similar origins— even the same origins, such as the pixies— resulting in multiples of the same kind of Folk, but mostly, the Folk are a race of wildly different individuals.
As such, defining a central culture for them is challenging. I will define a number of cultures of various individuals and “Courts” (localized governed societies). I will do so for a varied group of individuals of differing social standings.
I will start with Folk directly related to the project— as in, Folk that will appear in the game that I will run next year.
Bena the Witch.
An outcast of the Court of Whim.
She is bent with age, and must’ve been tall in youth— but now her stature is diminished. Her skin is wrinkled, with faint brown symbols seemingly tattooed onto all of it. She is wearing a leather apron covered in flour, along with a dirty gray shawl— from which are protruding two goat horns. She is wearing a blindfold stained with some black fluid— as if her empty eye sockets are oozing ink, instead of blood. She is wearing heavy, iron-shod boots, and has numerous iron bracelets encircling her bony arms. Where the metal touches her skin are raised burn marks; they do not appear to be fresh.
Attire. A cloth-sack dress of indeterminate color; a dirty gray shawl; iron jewelry; a stained blindfold. She was outcast from her court, the Court of Whim, for devouring fellow members, to gain their power. As an outcast, she has limited access to materials and resources; most of her possessions are ancient, broken, or patinated. She was outcast with only a sack of potatoes; she must’ve repurposed it into clothing. Her iron jewelry is both a curse and protection. A curse, because she still is faerie, and iron burns her skin on contact. Protection, because her enemies are mostly also faerie, and therefore she is warded against them. She must have acquired it from non-faerie Folk or humans. Her blindfold obscures her empty eye sockets. They are empty and dripping ink as a withdrawal symptom of not having consistent access to Folk to feast upon. Folk are made up of literature, so she is a representation of ruined literature.
Gender. Folk can come in any gender imaginable... to folktale writers within the public domain. So that limits it. Bena is a witch. Witches, in this setting, are all female.
Relationships.
Love. When she was an accredited member of the Court of Whim, she had many a romantic tryst with powerful Folk. The most notable was with the legendary wizard Merl. As a witch, she was incapable of bearing children— except curse-children— children born of individuals she cursed. Perhaps that is why she sought out Rook— the curse-child of Briar Rose. Not her curse-child, but a curse-child still.
Young. Bena had a carnivorous attitude towards the youths. As her infamy grew, parents and wardens of the Folk’s youths warned their offspring to avoid her neck of the Wyrdwoods. She did have an apprentice— a “witchling” named Maro. I encountered Maro after leaving the ruins of the hovel. She had been bringing jugs of Ether back from Bruise Lake. She did not seem that distressed when I informed her of her patron’s demise.
Outsiders. Bena seemed hospitable towards me when I appeared on her doorstep. Perhaps it was a guise, masking latent underlying cannibalistic tendencies; perhaps she meant to set me at ease. But, despite her harrowing appearance, she was a fine host... at least, until the attack. She seemed cut off from her people— which she was— and more welcoming of outsiders than her own kin.
Education. Her hovel was full of books. While she only had one apprentice at the time, she seemed as if— at one point in the past— she was capable of educating a full school. Of course, when I was there (before the attack), most of the books’ pages were wrinkled and ink stained. She couldn’t see, see? She did seem intent on keeping me from her literary resources. It must’ve been the taboo against teaching men. Most of the books— as well as the faded brown ink on all of her exposed skin— were written in some kind of Romance language.
Masinry the Snake.
A crucifix of Sadism.
He is a segmented red stone snake. He instructed me to wield him by the end of his tail, which is not segmented. Along his length are engraved fine details— passages of words in a runic language, as well as illuminations— images of the scenes told, supposedly.
Attire. As a crucifix (whatever that means), he is composed of stone, and as a snake, he is incapable of wearing clothing. He did mention that others of his kind come in other forms— some humanoid, and therefore, capable of wearing clothes. He said that they tend to wear shades of red— uniformity with the color of the stone. Speaking of, my right arm is red stone. Am I a crucifix?
Gender. I refer to him as male, but he is stone. He said that crucifix creation is a dead art; no more are being made. And they must be made. I’m not sure whether he chose his name, or if it was placed upon him by someone else, but it seems a bit pointed.
Relationships.
Family. Well, not a biological family. More of a found family. He first guided me to the grotto of Obe, the King of Vines. That sentient jack o’ lantern seemed to have earned Masinry’s trust. The snake seemed quite content and loyal in the grotto. And it was Obe who instructed me in how to wield the snake as a conduit of the art known as alla prima. Masinry also seemed to know quite a few of the rocks and boulders that we passed. He called out to them. They did not call back.
Old. In the Hanging Grove, there was a red stone altar near the back of the overgrown courtyard. Masinry was intent on leading me to it. There were words— runes— engraved upon its surface— but they had faded, eroded, and crumbled. Will that happen to him, some day?
Outsiders. He didn’t seem off put by my presence— and I certainly am the oddest of strangers. I don’t know how long he had been slithering through the Wyrdwoods, but he seems capable and confident. We were attacked, several times, but he always told me the best way to deal with the various hostile creatures. He kept referring to me as the “Chosen.” I am certain that I do not know what he means.
Language. Upon hesitant questioning, Masinry disclosed that the language engraved along his stone length was known as “Old Runic.” It was the precursor to the Common-Tongue— which is what we’re speaking, and what I’m writing this in. He was uncharacteristically quiet when I inquired further. “Look I don’t know much,” he admitted. “But they’ve been there for as long as I’ve been, ya know, cognizant.” I found a book in Bena’s hovel— before the assault— in the same language. Masinry was able to translate some of it for me. It was about a coven— an “Unholy Trinity”— of witches who dealt with stone dust from “The Age of Sacrifice.” What that was about, I am uncertain; we were attacked by a drop bear shortly after beginning translation. But Old Runic is a runic alphabet, based phonetically, and it shares many similarities with the Common-Tongue— just more archaic. I wonder who engraved the runes along the snake, wrote the book, and crafted my arm.
Rook the Binder Faerie.
A curse-child.
Rook is the curse-child that we recovered from Bena’s oven. He is the size of a young toddler, with an infant’s body, the head of a crow, and crow wings for arms, ending in simeon hands. When we retrieved him, he was wrapped in iron chains. Nøkken, as well as the other Court of Whim denizens, couldn’t touch him. It was my task to unbind him. It did not lift Bena’s iron-curse, though. So, I was instructed to take him with me.
Attire. Rook is naked, except for a white loincloth.
Gender. Faeries have a unique relationship with gender. They can change their own at will, but most maintain a “mask”— their current preferred form— for the most part. Rook is currently male, and is branded with a Taboo of Age— keeping him a child.
Relationships.
Family. Rook had been raised as the son of Briar Rose, but he recounts that time almost as if it were a dream. When he was stolen away by the 13th Faerie, that is when he remembers waking up from that previous delirium. His new mother, the faerie known as Pestis, raised him as a lordling in the Court of Whim. He was eager to return to her, but the iron-curse would not allow him to be carried by the present Folk, and his feeble form would not survive the trek back alone. In the Court, he apparently had many “siblings.” That court (I am uncertain as to whether it is the same in all courts) is as a giant family, all living together within the verdant walls, bound by shared experiences.
Race. As a curse-child, Rook is part human? Unsure. Briar Rose lives in this Epilogue— and she is one of the Folk, but is in human form. She may not be truthfully human. Either Rook is insecure about this mixed blood, or is so at ease with it as to account for his cavalier attitude about it. He regularly screeches jokes about it— frequently screaming, “I’m an abomination!” or “What am I? No idea, kid!”
Gender. Faerie, as I have stated, can alter their gender at will. Rook does not do this. There’s no Taboo on him restricting his shapeshifting— at least where it concerns gender— but he retains his tiny, chubby male body. I am uncertain if I could tactfully ask about this. He doesn’t joke about it— which could mean anything, truly— but perhaps the constant flux and change around him inspired him to keep a static form; stability from within.
Art. Shortly after retrieving him from Bena’s oven, Rook manifested a thread, needle, and pot of ink— asking if I would like a tattoo. It seemed rude to refuse, and I have ample visible skin, so I allowed it. He was not gentle. I bled, but it was a gaudy orange liquid mixing with the black ink. His work was skillful, though. As he toiled, I recounted how I came to find him. As I spoke, he transcribed the tale on my skin in elaborate script and bold images.
Nøkken.
A giant.
Nøkken is a giant, thirty feet tall. I saw him for the first time as he was ripping the roof off of the hovel, grabbing Bena around the middle, and biting her in half. He was humanoid in shape, but had equine ears and short white fur covering his body. His white hair flowed as a mane from his low forehead down his back. Instead of feet, he had hooves. He had tusks protruding from his thin-lipped mouth, and icy green eyes— like a lake in winter.
Attire. Nøkken wore a giant suit of black enamel plate armor. From it, from hooks pierced through— cracking some of the enamel— dangled thick coppery-green chains. Upon close inspection of his corpse, I noticed that the chains— caked with algae— nonetheless were clearly engraved with hundreds and hundreds of names. At the joint of where his left armored arm met the shoulder, there was a red stone disk engraved with the face of a screaming demon. Masinry instructed me to take it. It is just big enough to serve as a shield.
Gender. Nøkken was a giant. Specifically, he was a faerie giant. Upon his defeat I used the snake to slice off the end of one of his tusks. It was hollow inside, and was easily converted into a horn. After leaving the ruins of the Hovel, after encountering Maro on her way back, we came across an impassable ravine. The snake instructed me to blow the horn. Immediately, I felt the rush of a thousand winds at my back; I heard the whinnying of a horse; I was carried over the gorge, accompanied by the sounds of cracking hoofbeats. Nøkken was a shapeshifter. Even for faeries, true shapeshifters are uncommon. It seems that the giant had the power to transform into a horse, and I gained the ability to summon him when the path proves impassable. He appeared male, and Rook referred to him as such, but his chimaeric nature offers an interesting question. If he could shapechange into a horse, was his shapeshifting limited to that? Was he like most faeries— fluid in biology? Could he have changed his sex? I almost regret slaying him. However, he was trying to eat me.
Relationships.
Family. Like Rook, Nøkken was of the Court of Whim. He had a similar family situation— a found family. Rook told us over the crackling of a bonfire many nights after that Nøkken had had a giant family ages ago, but that they had all been slaughtered by human raiders. I have learned during my growing days in this realm that giants are more than brutes; they are powerful mages. Folk magic is a treasured secret, and even more so for giants. Folk magic can be taught; it can also be restricted. Giant families are, therefore, strict and clinical in nature.
Old. There exists a world of spirits in the Epilogue. They are Folk, yes, but differ in their interactions with the material plane. During a séance held in the Mycomancer Lair, I offered condolences to Nøkken’s spirit. He didn’t answer, but a handful of looming pillars of smoke and shadow pressed in on me. I froze, but the sound of sibilant voices carried on the wind. As the smoke was blown away, I was left with the message, “He’s with his family now.”
Outsiders. Rook disclosed to me that Nøkken had the unfortunate tendency to lure travelers onto his equine back, and carry them to their deaths in the watery depths. So, obviously not a fan of outsiders. Learning of his family’s deaths, I sympathize with him, to an extent.
Education. From what I have pieced together from literal scraps of literature scrounged, looted, and conjured along my travels here, giant kind has a strict academic culture. Typically inhabiting caves and tunnels carved into the litterae terrae— to ward off the sense of towering over the trees— giantlings were brought up learning a special amalgamation of Folk and human knowledge. They were taught survival skills, court etiquette, and morals— but also sciences, arts, and critical thinking skills. Giants have short lives— usually less than 70 years— and remain with their cloistered families, devouring (sometimes literally) information. I’ve only come across one hand-scrawled account of it occurring, but when great injustice is brought into the world, giant kind will rise from their self-imposed isolation, weighing in with their potent magicks to sway the tides.
Later.
I played The Last Faith for half an hour. I chose the Stargazer class (the mage), and had a tough time. I could not beat the first boss, and my low wizard health did not help. It is a sidescroller— a Metroidvania— and I know— despite my tough time— that it was a good idea to start playing it, because now I’m picturing Pareidolia: Unbound simultaneously as a 3rd person 3D game and as a sidescroller. It also brings questions to my mind— such as how did they animate the characters— especially the MC? He has dynamic shadows cast from his complex combat animations— it makes me wonder if they really modeled him in 3D, and just made it look two-dimensional.
—
It’s almost tomorrow. Tomorrow, I will do the following tasks to further this seminar project. My Milestone #2 is the following day, and I’ve 1) started learning how to animate, in both 2D and 3D, and 2) done quite a bit in expanding my GDD. So, to fulfill my prospective Milestone qualifications, I just need to flesh out the main characters more. I did quite a bit for my worldbuilding project— pasted above earlier today— in writing about them; I think I just want to do some really basic sketches of them— just one each?
Of course, I will also be going to Amanda’s office hours to go over my new prospective Milestones. So that might change things. I have a lot to do tomorrow; tomorrow is a big day. I am going to journal, meditate, then go to bed. I will be getting up at 7am, per usual.
T. 10/1/2024
(1.75 hours)
I did not go to Office Hours, tragically. I slept until 3pm— which doesn’t feel great.
I just spent the past hour and a half doing these little sketches of the four NPC MCs.
I tried to do four different styles— mostly just to amuse myself. Left-to-right, we have: Bena the witch; Masinry the crucifix; Rook the curse-child; Nøkken the troll.
I sent my updated prospective Milestones to Amanda— but that was past 5pm when I did, so I’m not expecting a response until tomorrow— which is my Sprint #2.
And then compiling this into a blog post.
I don’t intend on sleeping tonight. I still need to do my slides for my Seminar presentation tomorrow, as well as the slides for Studio sprint (tomorrow, as well). Before I do my slides for Studio, I need to make more progress in whiteboxing the library. I’m planning/hoping to complete the whiteboxing for the entire first section.
I bought snacks to bring to Studio tomorrow: almonds (that were on the clearance shelf), trail mix (with cranberries and dark chocolate), more lemon zest Luna Bars, a blueberry muffin-flavored Larabar, and I have pineapple juice to bring, as well.
Hopefully I’m not making a mistake by not sleeping. We shall see!
I had an idea about reframing my sleeping dysfunction. I mean, obviously, it started with depression— which sucks and couldn’t have really been avoided. But now, I’m doing much better. And I’ve noticed that when I sleep so late, I wake up multiple times and fall back asleep— even after seeing the progressing time. I seem to have this mindset that the more I sleep, the more I just admit defeat— causing me to sleep more. Maybe it would be beneficial to reframe this into not “sleeping as much as doesn’t directly negatively impact me in an irreversible way,” to instead
“I sleep just as much as is necessary— no more (and sometimes less).”
Because sleep is not simply about hours. It’s about cycles. I can sleep three hours and do better the following day than if I slept seven hours. The completion of REM cycles— and at what point in a given cycle that I wake up— matters more than just time elapsed.
I’m going to look into this in the following ways: 1) I’m going to check on Mindvalley (because I still have a subscription until February) and see if there’s a quest on sleep; 2) I’m going to look on Spotify and YouTube for sleep health guided meditations (and possibly hypnoses?); 3) If I cannot find something like either of those, I’m going to write a script and record myself reading it in my most inspirational, resonant voice— add some instrumentals/frequencies in the background— and listen to it as a custom guided meditation.
Because I truly do need to fix this.
Blog post #3: Ah No, Not Quite
M. 9/23/2024
(4 hours)
I watched this tutorial on rigging in Blender. I forget who said it during my Sprint presentation— it might have been Amanda— but someone said that to help my workflow and the achievement of my alla prima vision, I should make an animation demo in Blender of what the mechanic should look like— and leave the actual programming to a programmer. So I’m modifying my end milestone (have a functioning alla prima mechanic) to now be: Have a short animation of what alla prima looks like.
I don’t know how to animate. In fact, I know so little about animation that I assume it’s composed of either one of two options: 1) mocap; 2) it’s still that animators draw each individual frame and stick them together Steamboat Willie-style. Rationally, I know that that can’t be the case— because it’s not 1920 anymore.
So I must learn to animate!
I can think of three aspects to this specific vision that will be necessary to become proficient with:
Make the MC as a 3D model, and rig him.
Animate the attack pattern.
Create the refraction special fx for the weapon trail.
As someone also pointed out, I should still learn a decent amount about blueprints and programming in UE5— so that I can relay basically what this effect will take.
I just found this really short tutorial on adding reference images to ZBrush. I have the front view of the MC, Alice, and the side view of the reference that I used for that drawing. I should be able to model the body (duh) and the gorget in ZBrush; the gothic-church-arm will probably be best done in Blender. For the pants, Marvelous? I know nothing about that, so that should be a side focus, as well— learning it.
I just spent the past two hours making the image below. It took so long because I was trying to save time by symmetrizing it; it literally deleted my work, so I had to start over— and then, I was still trying other methods of symmetry, but I had to keep fiddling with the settings.
Now I’m upset and tired of looking at frustrating models (I spent literally 13 hours yesterday making and remaking the Food assignment for Organic Modeling— similarly, it crashed and deleted my almost finished project, and I had to stay up until 4:30am trying to finish it. I did not.). I can’t wait until I can start sculpting; modeling is frustrating and difficult to me, but sculpting is intuitive and effortless.
I’m going to drink a bunch of Himalayan pink salt water (for electrolytes while I fast) and play FFXVI— it finished downloading while I toiled.
Later.
I had to clear a bunch of space on my computer, so that I could update my graphics card driver, so that I could play FFXVI. But I got there.
The first hour or so of the game was primarily cutscenes. But I dug it. It really expanded upon the key characters (at least, the current key characters). For Pareidolia: Unbound, I think there should be cinematics like this. So I need a good animator, voice actors (I’ll do a bunch, but not all), mocap, cinematographer. I’m going to Amanda’s office hours tomorrow to discuss the shift in my gameplan for this seminar project— going from a playable demo of the alla prima mechanic, to an animation of it. Still learning basic coding and UE5, but primarily working on that visual demonstration.
I need some guidance on how to approach this angle.
T. 9/24/2024
Even later.
I gotta be honest. I haven’t done a lot of work for this much this past week. For two reasons.
I’ve been struggling in my Organic Modeling class. I spent 13 hours Sunday night trying to finish the assignment due Monday morning, and I still haven’t finished it. Before that, I was experimenting with designing a custom alpha, and— well, that is largely irrelevant; I am not angling my OM assignments towards this project, like I am with my worldbuilding class. (I just finished that assignment that I’m behind on. Well, I sent Ezra pictures of it before I submit it.)
I was honestly a bit discouraged by Shivansh’s advice to take some big steps backwards. I know that it’s irrational; by learning basic UE5 stuff, I would be making better progress— instead of what I was doing: following project-specific tutorials and being unable to troubleshoot or create beyond those tutorials. But working directly on aspects of my project— no matter how inefficient— felt like an adventure. It felt driven. Watching five-hour UE5 introductory UE5 tutorials feels like all of the worst parts of traditional education systems— like I’m learning so much that doesn’t directly benefit me. Which is, as I said, irrational. But it’s how I’ve been feeling, and it’s affected my drive to learn-and-create towards this end goal.
Even later (but reflecting on Amanda’s office hours).
I explained my thoughts on the animation alternative for the end goal for this year’s Seminar project. I’m very tired, and am having trouble remembering exactly, but she agreed. Ultimately, though, she asked me a question: Am I more excited right now learning animation (and working on the GDD), or learning Unreal? Because, as she stated, I’ll have to do both. It’s just deciding which I do this semester, and which I do next semester. I said animation.
I suggested animating the MC swinging the whip in 3D, and the environment superimposed beyond that in 2D— including the paint smear. (On a new thought extrapolating beyond that, would I need to animate a resulting 3D environment alteration— and consequently, interacting with it— in 2D or 3D?)
I regret having so little to show this week. I told my Studio lead that I still had to write this post after finishing the OM model— and that I have little to report— and he said to just not do the blog post this week— that it shows more integrity to not write about little progress than to do the opposite. I’m still not sure whether to include that tidbit.
oh also!
I started exercising— pretty much for the first time since I moved here (a little over a month ago). I went to a Ninja Warrior gym nearby! I plan on going multiple times a week. It was very fun, very tiring, and I could barely move my arms after. I feel this is relevant to include, because all of the sitting I’ve been doing for this graduate program definitely needs to be offset with some physical activity. For, as Ezra said, a “healthy work/life balance.”
Blog post #2: Aback
I need to take a few steps back. Let me explain.
I’ve been doing quite a bit of work on my project(s), but not making a lot of progress. It’s been so long since I’ve been an amateur in anything I’ve been involved in, which is an interesting experience for two reasons. 1) It’s good to know that I’m doing something new. 2) I’ve realized that I seem to have forgotten how to learn— at least in how it relates to starting from the very beginning of a learning curve.
I’ve been so enthusiastic about the process; I just want to jump in and start making these games. But I understand so little about digital game design. I’ve been following all of these tutorials on mechanic development for my specific project(s), but since I don’t understand the base theory and logic of digital coding, for example, I can’t troubleshoot the errors that inevitably happen, and I can’t replicate any of the results without the tutorial.
Let’s get into what I’ve done this week.
Th. 9/12/2024
I played Hogwarts Legacy for 1 hour today— to refamiliarize myself with how the spellcasting toggle system works. I want to have something similar in Pareidolia— but instead of spells, directions of attacks— and thus, alla prima.
I did the front angle as a first concept for the MC, Alice. He has a Gothic-style stone right arm, WWI-era breeches and boots, and a harness with an “A” on it— for “Anothen” not “Alice”. (Anothen was the name of the top city of Ettingrad.) It also has a design for Mason, the sentient stone snake whip— including a little brush design at the base.
I did the Resources & Economy assignment for my worldbuilding class; I’m developing the setting for this game in that class. I made ten resources and outlined the economy. I’ll copy that in here.
Folkparts. Biological parts scavenged from fallen Folk. For example, this could be Baba Yaga’s middle finger, Pinocchio’s nose, a snortable amount of pixie dust, or anything else that might function for some dark, occult purposes. Folkparts are most valuable when they come from the bodies of Folk, but artefacts from those creatures are also sought after.
*Folk are the fairy tale creatures.
Artefacts. These are artificial possessions scavenged from Folk (you don’t need to kill the previous owner in order to acquire them). The gnome prince’s pointiest hat, Cinderella’s crystal slipper, or Robin Hood’s hood are all fine examples of artefacts.
Crucifixes. This literary afterlife (“Epilogue”) of Ettingrad is composed of two themes: fairy tale whimsy and blood magic. I know that I said that Ettingrad is just an altered New York City; that was misspoken. The map was based on 1910 NYC because I wanted a distinct metropolis, but Ettingrad was always just Ettingrad; not New York City. This “city of two heads”— from when the MC was still alive— had dieselpunk weaponry and technology equivalent to WWI-era tech, but the architecture was composed of red stone. That stone was red— as are the ruins overrun by rampant plantlife in the “epilogue” version of the city— due to blood sacrifices made upon stone altars centuries ago. Those sacrifices imbued the stone with supernatural fortitude— among other things. That is why it was chosen as the primary building material of Ettingrad. But those altars were not just used for architecture! No, they were also used to make mystical foci, to channel the power of the dark entities that the blood sacrifices were dedicated to. Those foci— known as “crucifixes”— can be found in both the living Ettingrad and in the Epilogue. They are rare, and incredibly potent. They are necessary for the casting of blood magic. Alice, the main character, comes into the possession of one such crucifix— in the form of a sentient stone snake, segmented as a whip. (That snake is called “Mason”— because it is stonework.) To be used as a spellcasting focus, these stone implements must be engraved with “Passages” of narrative, evoking powerful emotions.
It is taboo to carve new stories into crucifixes; stone naturally erodes, and carving over pre-existing passages hastens that end.
Litterae Terrae. The ground of Ettingrad’s Epilogue is composed of countless compressed sheets of paper bearing stories. There’s a reason for this. In the living Ettingrad, the most powerful individual in the city was a man named Seymour Snythe, who was an author-turned-publisher. His short stories grew in acclaim, and he used his earned riches to establish Wollumen Printing Press, a publishing company located adjacent to a park that he frequented as a writer, searching for inspiration. Needless to say, the public was starved for escapism, and, along with the recruitment of several rising writers, Wollumen became the most successful business in Ettingrad.
Snythe innovated the field of writing by creating the first instance of “Animated Literature”— a bound product that wriggled into life as a creature of sentience. That creature— a small child named Rook— was forever bound to Snythe— and, upon Snythe’s death, Rook was de-animated back into a manuscript, and was buried along with him in the park that inspired so much of Snythe’s work. That power— the potent magick of the animated literature— it altered the world— and, during the climax of the Great War, it created the Epilogue, an afterlife of sorts for all creatures, fictional and otherwise. That is why the earth of Epilogue is compressed literature; it was the foundation of the realm.
And now Litterae Terrae is a resource mined by the Folk and used for all kinds of purposes— such as a component in medicinal processes, as kindling used for the creation of Everlasting Fire, and as food (for the least self-respecting Folk, such as Book Mice).
Iron. Iron has long been the bane of the Fair Folk, and thus, the Folk. It only exists in Epilogue in the Frosted Heart, the central ring of frigid ruins and poison gas. Human survivors covet it, and use scavenged iron scraps— repurposing, re-smelting, and reforging it into tools, armor, weapons, and talismans against the Folk.
Ether. In the outer circle of Epilogue, the rivers (based on NYC’s rivers in shape) are not frozen— as they are in the Frosted Heart of the inner circle— and have mutated by the proximity of so many Folk. They are sludgy, starry, lavender-colored morasses. Just as iron is toxic to the Folk, the liquid “Ether” of the Wyrdlands’ rivers is toxic to humans. It can also be used as a healing tonic for the Folk, and is cherished as such. Whenever ether is siphoned from the rivers, the surface does not drop; it stays constant; it merely becomes more viscous. The more viscous the ether becomes, the less effective it becomes as both toxin to humans, and as healing draught to Folk.
Since Epilogue is surrounded by an impassable outer circle, the rivers do not replenish from external sources. As such, the draining of the ether is a climate crisis of sorts for the inhabitants of the Wyrdlands.
Miasma. The swamp base of the Wyrdlands is constantly bubbling with gas. Some scholars of Epilogue hypothesize that the gas— known as “miasma”— is the same as the toxic gas in the Frosted Heart— but that some chemical processing of the swamp environment purifies and detoxifies it. No one is certain. What is certain, though, is the power of miasma as a propellant. The technology of living Ettingrad is both nebulous and largely irrelevant to this project— but guns did exist there, and— few are certain whether this is true— they may have been purely gas-propelled dart guns, with darts tipped in bio-hazardous poisons. In Epilogue, that is true. Scavenged guns— found either in the Frosted Heart or in the outer Wyrdlands— fire darts, and thus, require a source of gas. While most Folk do not demean themselves to the level of gun-wielders (they think of human technology as farce), they do recognize the miasmous gas of the swamp as a potent propellant for these weapons. As a result, there are cash-strapped Folk who bottle miasma and sell it to humans.
One early part of Alice’s journey is to travel to the gnomish settlement of Gnome’s Point, to procure a gas mask. Such protection is necessary for any creature to survive the toxic gas of the Frosted Heart— where Alice must go to resolve the conflict of the narrative. These gas masks don’t just filter toxins from the air; they also supply purifying gas to the respiratory systems of the wearer. They function on miasma.
The toxic gas of the Frosted Heart is not just toxic to humans; if Folk wish to cross the Frosted barrier into the inner city, they also must wear such a gas mask— and, therefore, rely on miasma, as well.
Ink. Ink in Epilogue is both a technological and a nutritional resource. Scavenged caches of bottled ink can be found all over, typically spawning in the origin spot of potent stories of living Ettingrad. Both Folk and humans can ingest it as food and drink. It is also used as ink is typically used: in the offset printing presses still functioning throughout the realm. Folk cherish stories and writing— seemingly without recognizing that they are products of it— and a beloved vocation for them is writing new stories.
Flora. The Wyrdlands of the outer circle are overrun with rampant plantlife. The floor is most similar to a swamp biome, but the understory and canopy is more similar to a rainforest. Broad-leaved trees with thick, waxy cuticles catch moisture from the air and send it dripping ceaselessly downward. Verdant ferns sway in the wake of pressurized miasma. Reeds poke bravely out of the morass.
These plants are home to many Folk, and likewise prove a fundamental construction resource for those of more settlement-focused proclivities. Certain Folk— such as the feared Woodsman— fell great trees— but, for the most part, the plantlife is left undisturbed.
Ash. The most simple of creatures, moths, flutter through the tepid air both in the Frosted Heart and in the Wyrdlands. These radiant, clueless creatures are without purpose; there is no sun to guide them. As such, they bumble around, knocking gently into plants and animals alike. If only that were the extent to their existence.
Through the sleet of the Frosted Heart, through the dense canopy of the Wyrdlands, downward, endlessly, cascade these glowing white moths. Even the dimmest can see that they are magick. And blood magic is not the sole area of magick in Epilogue; in fact, hemomancy is largely reserved for humans; the Folk rely on more whimsical arcana. More enterprising Folk long ago discovered that these moths can be distilled into a solid state of pure power. Taking inspiration from the sight of them falling palely from the sky, they named this resource “ash”. It is a worthwhile resource, and can be used to power the strongest spells. The rare human— for they are rare in this realm— might recognize the value that the Folk attribute to these lepidopterans, and may strike out to capture as many as possible— not unlike an entomologist of the living Ettingrad, but different in a vital sense.
It’s wild to write this, but I have to describe the economic system of this whimsical setting as a market economy. There is no currency, but rather valuable resources that are traded depending on the demand of the individual with whom you are trying to barter. There is no government interference— because there is no central government. There are Folk royalty, but they do not have domains large enough to warrant having a currency. Traveling merchants— Folk and human— pick up valuable resources (as detailed above), and trade them however fairly they desire. I would not say that it is growth-focused, though, nor that private entities amass power. The purpose of economic transactions is not to acquire wealth or surplus (except for the rare Folk who covet wealth, or larger bands of human survivors hoping to have a stash to fall back on); it is merely to sate the direct, current desires and needs of the individuals interacting with each other.
The resource that I am choosing to write more on is Folkparts. In the game that I will lead next year based in this setting, folkparts will be an equivalent to currency (just not with a fixed exchange rate). As the player defeats Folk, they can loot the bodies and scavenge biological parts of them. These parts will always be tradeable, and will always be in need. Everyone— Folk and humans— can use folkparts; they are potent base materials usable for endless purposes. It’s also interesting, because as an economic system in the game, there will be unique folkparts scavengable from slain Folk— contrary to typical “I killed a kobold and found its purse of 6 gp and 3 cp!” Folk don’t cherish money, so why would they have currency on them? Also, this system will allow for interesting bartering scenarios, where buyers can have unique needs that may require specific folkparts.
It’s imported everywhere (if that’s appropriate for a bound region)— but primarily in the Wyrdlands; it is exported almost exclusively from the Wyrdlands; there are few Folk in the Frosted Heart. Humans don’t have such a whimsical nature that would allow for, say, alchemical brews requiring King Midas’ fingernails. These humans, after all, are dead citizens from a biohazardous war.
The state of the industry is pretty stable. There aren’t rampant poachers hunting Folk for their parts, but there are some bounty hunters who do do that.
Typically, traveling or sedentary merchants are the purchasers of folkparts. In the player’s travels, they will encounter fascinating traveling merchants who will be only so eager as to trade either finished products or other folkparts for any that the player has amassed. There are also marketplaces where folkparts are— shamelessly— traded en mass. The Fai Fair (detailed in the map assignment) is one such example.
F. 9/13/2024
I worked on one blueprint tutorial that Shivansh sent me for about an hour. It’s a three hour tutorial— I’m going to finish it tomorrow.
I also started work on a side project: Crossed Stars, a top-down arcady space shooter inspired by Bosconian. It’s about a crew of unscrupulous individuals who will do anything for cash. I did some concept work for the eponymous ship that they fly. I’ll post that in here tomorrow. I’m making it in UE5, so that I can learn more about the engine— in order to work on Pareidolia: Unbound.
Bosconian (1981)
Sa. 9/14/2024
Today I worked on both Pareidolia and my side project, Crossed Stars. I started with CS, making a flip book of the thruster flickering on the eponymous ship.
This is the eponymous ship, with thrusters on and off. It is the only playable ship with an animation— which I made via sprite sheets and flipbooks.
I used this tutorial on top down shooters. I ran into an issue that I brought up in the Game Studio discord: when I turn the space ship, the camera also turns— but the controls stay relative to the absolute environment. So controls get mixed up— which is one problem— and being all dynamic doesn’t look retro. Bosconian doesn’t turn the camera when the ship turns. I want it to be like that. I used this tutorial to try and fix it— to no avail.
I decided to work on importing the free 500+ Animation Sample pack from Unreal into Pareidolia. I quickly realized that I had forgotten how Shivansh did that. But I found this quick tutorial that refreshed me. The issue with migrating those animations into Pareidolia was, we had made a significant amount of code that wouldn’t apply— like keybindings to movements that are now significantly more complex.
I decided to scrap the movement code from before, and just copy the perspective toggling sections over. Fortunately, it works! I had to readjust the camera for both 3rd and 1st person perspectives; the dynamic lowered head that the new orange avatar has while running forward kept butting into the 1st person perspective. Oh and I had to rename the Sample pack’s camera to what the previous code denoted as the 3rd person one. But that was easy. And I’m learning! There’s still so much that I don’t understand, but I’m beginning to understand the logic behind blueprints— and my very meager knowledge of C++ helps.
Another thing about migrating the Sample pack in: I wasn’t able to convert the fixed 3rd person perspective; you can move the perspective around. That actually turned out to be a good thing; now, toggling back and forth from 3rd-to-1st person doesn’t have weird different angle jolts.
Sa. 9/14- Su. 9/15/2024
I worked more on Pareidolia— specifically the animations. I don’t have a clear plan on the order of things that must be done, but I was excited to get some crouching and ledge grabs in place, so I started following this tutorial series (24 minutes in). Following these tutorials takes so much time. I just have one screen, so whenever the instructor does anything, I have to pause the video and go back to Unreal, to replicate it. I’m making progress, though! The animation blueprint makes sense. It’s 12:41am. I’m going to get ready for bed.
I just went into the playtest window and it’s jank. The joints of the arms are floating apart, and he doesn’t move, just glides. I’ll fix it tomorrow.
Su. 9/15/2024
I meant to go to bed hours ago, but Nathaniel in the discord suggested Global/World Rotation, instead of Relative Rotation— oh for Crossed Stars. So I did that— and I swear I tried it earlier tonight, and it didn’t work, but this time it worked! Hurrah!
And then I made a sprite sheet and flipbook of the stars in the background, and I imported that over the ground of the level— so now there are flickering stars, just like in Bosconian. I’ve been using this tutorial to make sprites and flipbooks.
And I just used this tutorial to add a minimap to Crossed Stars.
Later in the day.
I designed the asteroids for Crossed Stars, and added the Destroy Actor code for the artillery to eliminate the BrigBrig (Brigand Brigade faction) ship. The AI on the BrigBrig isn’t working, but the elimination does. I need to go into the BrigBrig code and reciprocate it— so that if it runs into the eponymous ship, it destroys both of them. And then, of course, retro explosion animations. Below are the sprite sheets for Bosconian.
These are the three asteroid variants. You will be able to mine them for ore. I need to go in and upgrade the quality.
Bosconian sprites.
Here are some references for the static portraits of characters that will pop up in the bottom right corner as they speak.
For Pareidolia, I did not end up finishing that blueprint tutorial. I started modeling the stone snake whip— the one that frees the MC at the beginning. I started in ZBrush, but had issues with subtools, so I moved to Blender. I couldn’t get mirroring to work right, and it needs to be symmetrical.
I think the next step of the process for this project will be making and rigging that whip, animating the four attack animations, finishing the Viewfinder emulation, and socketing it to a refraction trail. I’m glad that I wrote that out. I honestly haven’t been working on Pareidolia a lot recently, just because I wasn’t sure what steps to take.
Research! I played For Honor for a little over an hour today. I knew a little about it going in, and I’m playing it to get a feel for and an understanding of the tri-directional attacking/blocking system. It’s surprisingly intuitive. For Pareidolia, I am intending on having a similar system for at least the melee attacks (and maybe the ranged knucklebones attack)— so it was good to get a feel for it in a comp.
This is For Honor. You can’t see it super well, but on each character (MC and focused enemy), there’s a tri-directional toggle— a stance for directional attacking and blocking. Having a visual for that is a good idea, as well.
M. 9/16/2024
Today I worked on Pareidolia (what this seminar’s project is). I found some attack animations on Mixamo, exported the skeleton that I was using (from the Unreal 500+ Animation Sample pack) from Unreal into Mixamo, and with some fiddling, I was able to import the resulting attack animations back into Unreal. I used this tutorial to attempt to keep the legs moving while running (from the 500+ pack) even while attacking. I couldn’t get it to work. I’m inserting screenshots of my work below.
I sent out a plea in Discord to get some help, because even though I was following the tutorial, I couldn’t get the legs to keep running. I ended up going to MACD; Shivansh tried to fix it. He was able to get it to work with a singular running animation, but not with the 500+ Animation pack. Turns out, though, that one big error I had made was referencing the first animation blueprint (before importing the 500+ pack) in the animation blueprint for the attack. So that’s one reason it wasn’t working.
Shivansh gave me some advice. I’ve been going at this from a project mindset. I’m working on two projects of my own creation (not counting the Studio project), and whenever I need to learn something specific related to the next steps in those projects, I look up tutorials— and fall down a rabbit hole of copying their methods while not understanding what I’m doing.
Shivansh said to start with watching a couple of those really long UE5 tutorials that go into theory and general information. That will provide me with the foundation to troubleshoot errors that come up.
I guess I was just being impatient. I want to jump into socketing the Viewfinder-esque weapon refraction trail onto a snake whip— before actually learning a bit about the foundation of the program. So I’ll do that.
Tomorrow is Tuesday. Tomorrow, I need to write my weekly blog post and make the PowerPoint presentation for Sprint 1 of the Seminar. I also need to contribute my portion to the Sprint slides for Sprint 1 of Adam’s studio project.
That feels like a lot, and I’m not sure if I’ll be able to work on anything else. Going forward, I’m going to work on those things multiple days prior— and just update the Tuesday before. Because I need to keep my momentum going, and cramming those three things onto a Tuesday will, I feel, kill it.
Blog Post #1: Ahead
This past week, I have gotten quite ahead. Let me explain.
Here are my milestones— set two weeks apart, starting next Wednesday.
Milestone 1 Goals.
Start Unreal Engine familiarization through tutorials.
Review GDDs.
Deconstruct comps (from a player perspective).
Milestone 2 Goals.
Continue learning Unreal Engine.
Start filling in GDD for the end project.
Milestone 3 Goals.
Start working on the greybox prototype.
Continue completing GDD.
Milestone 4 Goals.
Continue work on the greybox prototype.
Start work on developing the alla prima mechanic.
Milestone 5 Goals.
Finish GDD (including base script for vertical slice).
Finish basic development of the alla prima mechanic.
Finish the greybox prototype.
More explanation is necessary.
What is the project?
From my project proposal:
“Working title: [Pareidolia: Unbound].
“This project will be the researching and development of a unique mechanic in a functioning prototype. This project will cover all of the school year, and will set the stage for my Praxis project next year. Essentially, the movements of a 3rd-person character— specifically the movements of their attacks— will create a trailing streak, which will smear the two-dimensional image of the three-dimensional scene. This smear will act as a smear of wet oil paint composing the scene; the smear of colors, shadows, and details will reconstruct that with which it comes in contact— altering the three-dimensional layout of the environment. The working name for this mechanic is “alla prima”— the artistic term in Italian for wet-on-wet painting.”
“The end goal of the project— which will continue next year in Studio— will be an action RPG vertical slice. Aside from using alla prima to alter the environment (to bypass obstacles, solve puzzles, etc.), it must also be used to destroy certain enemies (typically stronger types, like bosses)— a finishing move. If alla prima is not used, even if a boss’s health is reduced to nothing, it will not be defeated. Both uses of alla prima require a consumable resource (working name: Inspiration Points).
“It is currently called Pareidolia: Unbound, because of the meaning we attribute to meaningless stimuli— which really presents a fair analogy to the alla prima mechanic. In addition to this special mechanic, enemies will spawn only if the MC’s perspective in the three-dimensional environments aligns specific visual details that come together to compose an organic, character-presenting shape.”
Let’s delve deeper into what I’ve done this past week.
9/5-7/2024
I bought the Learn C++ for Game Development Udemy course, and put in 3.5 hours into it these three days. The entire course is 12.5 hours. I also bought the Learn Unreal Engine 5 C++ Programming by Creating an Action-RPG Style Open World Game! course from the same instructor. That one is 53 hours, and the instructor recommended completing the prior course first, so that is what I am doing.
I also did some research into comps. The only one that I found to be immediately relevant was Viewfinder. Viewfinder has a unique mechanic in which photographs can be placed in front of the 1st person perspective, and the structures and objects of the photographs become real and interactive. I found a tutorial on emulating that in UE5 (Viewfinder was made in Unity). More on that tutorial later.
Viewfinder (2023)
9/8/2024
I wanted to start implementing my findings as promptly as possible, so I started a tutorial on creating a 3rd person game. I slightly modified the process: changing where the camera is to have a more intimate feel; having perspective constantly from behind and to the right of the MC.
Ignore the T-pose. This is the perspective that I decided upon for the 3rd person angle.
I got the “Brute” model from Mixamo. Obviously, I’ll create a unique mesh for Alice, but the bald-with-tattoos worked better for now, and I want something better than the standard robot mesh.
I set up the keybinds for basic movement.
9/9/2024
(2 hours)
Today I scrapped the Brute mesh because I got frustrated about not knowing how to import animations to it— back to the basic mesh. Then, I followed this tutorial to add a 1st person toggle. Well, really it’s a 1st person switch; I need to figure out how to have it go back to 3rd person when I release the trigger.
Updated 3rd person perspective.
Then I got 10 minutes into this tutorial on emulating Viewfinder in UE5. The plan is to follow the two parts of this tutorial and really get a handle on the Viewfinder mechanic, then add a combat animation with a refraction weapon trail; assign the “photo” to the trail.
Still today, but after walk: I realized that I don’t need the “flip flop” between perspectives if I want it to only go to 1st person while the button is pressed. So I deleted all of those nodes. It works, but two things can be improved upon:
1) If I try to go to 1st person, release, back to 3rd person, press to go to 1st person again— it doesn’t work; I have to press the trigger an extra time to activate 1st person perspective again/or have pressed some other button since. How to fix this? I currently do not know.
2) Going into 1st person perspective, release, back to 3rd person, press (twice) to go to 1st person again— the 1st person perspective is the same as where I left it; the angle of view is the same; if I previously was looking at the ground in 1st person, it returns to that same view when I go back into 1st person. I want the 1st person perspective to return to default whenever I go into it. How to fix this? I’m not sure.
This is what the blueprint looks like after removing the Flip-Flop, and swapping to a toggle.
9/10/2024
(1.5 hours)
I met with Shivansh, a second year graduate student. He helped me import the Animation Sample Pack from the Unreal Marketplace, and bind the running and jumping animations to my mesh. He also helped fix the issue where it took two taps of the trigger to re-enter 1st person. I’m not sure what he did— I’m pasting a screenshot of the blueprint code here— but it worked. He also tried to fix the issue where the 1st person perspective returns to what it had been before going into 3rd person. He couldn’t help with that at the moment, but he tried some solutions— none worked— and decided to look into it in his free time. I will do the same.
Shivansh's code.
I also research GDDs, and started making my own. Here it is.
And for my worldbuilding class, I am tasked with creating a worldbuilding project. I have chosen to use this opportunity to develop the setting of my game.
I detailed the notable sites in order of how I think the game plot will go— at least at this time. The class is inherently skewed towards hard worldbuilding; I am determined to add some softness to my project.
Next steps:
Continue implementing the Viewfinder mechanic tutorial in the 1st person mode.
Add more animations, such as diagonal running, running backwards, and ledge grabs (I will need to greybox a ledge in).
Add a basic weapon attack animation, and link a refraction trail to the weapon.
Figure out how to use the refraction trail as the “photo” of the Viewfinder mechanic.
To remind you, these were the Milestones for #1:
Start Unreal Engine familiarization through tutorials.
Review GDDs.
Deconstruct comps (from a player perspective).
So yes, I would say that I have gotten quite ahead.
Introductions
Game Design Seminar 2024-25
My name is Mason K. Brown. This is the logbook of my journey as a game designer for my Seminar (2024-25).