Lecture 17 - Set your game mood

Peter_Gambell · July 6, 2020, 11:04am

This thread is for responses to the Lecture 17 - Set your game mood challenge

I’ve chosen to convey a cartoon-like, storybook mood. The game should feel like a quest in a childhood tale, in a world of mystery and magic, but fairly lighthearted.

The concept art at Epistory concept art show the kind of look I have in mind, particularly the above picture.

The models in the game will have a low-poly count and fairly simple materials and textures to complement and enhance the storybook feel. I would also use complementary colours with high saturation to give the game a very vibrant and energetic feel.

hardcyder · July 6, 2020, 1:37pm

Mood: Cartoony. 2D. High Saturation and complementary colors to keep it bright and upbeat. High resolution sprites to give it a clean and clear feeling. Very simple shading.

The above concept art (link to artist) demonstrates the desired colors and resolution. While this art is based off Paper Mario, I feel that it “pops” more than Paper Mario. A characteristic likely due to its vector art.

Dan_Miller · July 5, 2019, 4:11am

Setting The Game Mood

For this project the following choices were made:

Photo-realistic
Hi res, low poly (to be used on the Samsung Gear VR)
Clear
Well lit room; direct light from the ceiling and various lamps.
Grey, brown, white, with some greens and reds used sparingly throughout.

To give some context to this. The woman is the primary focus, however, she is actually a robot. Partly human in appearance with obvious areas of her body that reveal she is actually a robot. The concept art would try to give a first impression that the woman is real, but then a closer look reveals that she is really a machine.

sampattuzzi · October 10, 2016, 8:00am

That’s a very nuanced feel. I look forward to seeing it in reality.

Dan_Miller · October 11, 2016, 5:06am

Thanks, the concept was just for this course and nothing immediately planned. However, I have been playing with something similar in my mind but there are too many things I don’t know how to solve to make it the way I have it envisioned.

For example:

My focus is mobile VR because I think that is where the sales will mostly happen. This project is photorealistic so not sure if I can make it happen on the Android platform in something like the Gear VR.

Perhaps with different scanning technology like Light Stage from Otoy. They’re doing some cutting edge work with light fields and GLTF delivery format. Perhaps their strategy will make it light weight enough to consider.

The AI segment has me a little baffled as to how to solve. I wouldn’t want anything hard coded because then it just provides the same experience to all users from the developers perspective. My thinking here is the experience is tailored to each person by use of … hmm, I probably shouldn’t put all of this on an open forum. One day I actually do plan to figure this out.

In summary, I have a lot of ideas for this concept but I do not have the knowledge and skills yet to consider it.

Yazaraya · July 5, 2019, 4:14am

The mood I had in mind was dreamy, wrapped around a fantasy world. I would keep the chroma and value at a fixed setting to keep a dreamy feel, and maintain a low resolution texture of the scenery along with a slight fog throughout the background. The colors would be coherent around nature: lots of earthy tones and a few metallic colors here and there.

tylerlindell · July 6, 2020, 3:38pm

I build holographic interfaces with Augmented Reality but am making these design choices based on a book I’m reading called “The Girl With All the Gifts” by M. R. Carey (Amazon link).

So, it being Zombieesque, im going with a grungy mood and photorealism. I have attached the concept art below. The characters will wear normal clothes. Colors will be darker satuaration and will use analogous colors.

soundslikepants · July 5, 2019, 4:17am

For my game I would go for a very dreamy atmosphere and artist style. Very grainy and low saturation taking the main character navigating through peoples’ dreamworlds. My colors would vary depending on the mood of the dream but would likely center around contrasting as the image shows above: lights blue and dark.

Amanda_Lynn · July 5, 2019, 4:17am

I’m glad to see that I’m not the only MLP fan. I’ve been considering making MLP fan games as well. But I’ll try to focus on something portfolio worthy first.

For my own concept game, I am also in Ben Tristem’s other class (Learning to Code), and I want to do my own version of the block breaker game. I really particularly enjoyed this section of the Unity Certification class because it appeals to my artist side (I’m an Industrial Graphic Artist by degree and in my day job, but they want me to do programming now too). I don’t have any concept art quite yet, but I did pick out a palette.

I got to bring out my Color Index graphic design book again for this, and I really loved that! I picked out a muted palette, something chic but still restrained. I’m doing this partially because I want to make a block breaker game, and I intend to use primarily restrained colors for the background. I want to use brighter, and less natural-toned colors for more active game objects. This is what I have for now.

AssaSquid · July 6, 2020, 8:27pm

Here is what I’ve done :)!

Jacob_Wilson · July 5, 2019, 4:21am

The Young Necromancer

The concept art I have chosen looks like a jolly wizard of some sort, however when was the last time you heard about a young, happy necromancer? Never they are always trying to take over the world with the dead. This game will be focused on combating that sterotype by raising the dead to help take out your neighbors garbage, like Stardew Valley -- top down but at an angle.

It will be cartoony and use a vibrant color palette much like the witness but slightly toned down, it will have a low-poly count, low resolution, clear of fog (maybe the occasional wispy cloud) and have very soft edges. It will also go against a unifying color by dropping the chroma to gray scale, to really simulate the necromancer side

Christopher_Pachucki · July 7, 2020, 12:05am

I’m a fan of 80s and 90s video games and action anime, so that’s what I’m going for with my game idea. So in addition to a cartoony look, it will have:

Low polygon count
Mostly flat materials
Mid-res textures
Some foggy areas
Light colors in outside areas, darker in city and caves

Maybe I’ll make it out of pixel art with manga-style cutscenes too.
My inspirations include Zelda, Metroid, Final Fantasy VI and VII, Gundam, Outlaw Star and Cowboy Bebop, just to name a few:

BenL · February 8, 2018, 3:17am

Mood: Cartoon(?), retro 8bit(?) (I guess I’m not quite sure how to describe it…)
The Legend of Zelda: Oracle of Seasons

I’ve always loved this style of game design, and I really like pixel art (particularly the works of Mark Ferrari). I don’t really know much of anything about producing game art (yet) but I’m not wanting to make my game look like it came out in the late 80’s/early 90’s, so I’m thinking going for an “8bit-ish” style is where I want to be. (To understand what I mean by “8bit-ish” you can watch Mark Ferrari’s GDC presentation here: https://youtu.be/aMcJ1Jvtef0. Even if you’re not wondering, it’s still a great video and I found it very inspirational.) I really want to draw on the example above by changing the Chroma and hue of the environment to match where the character is in the world, what the weather is like, and (possibly) what his mood is. This is my first foray into game design, so I’m sure many things will change with time and as I learn more.