Welcome back to our regularly scheduled blog posts! This week, you’ll hear about some of the asset creation for our game Keeper’s Curse.

The Dock

First of all, the dock was fairly simple to make. I tried to make the planks look worn, with scratches and uneven edges. I made a few different ones so that they could be rotated and placed irregularly so that it gave the illusion that all the planks on the dock were different so that they didn’t look uncanny and artificial.

Trees

For the trees, I made use of the bend modifier and managed to twist the trunks in a lifelike way instead of letting them look too much like cylinders. Using several of the different sculpting tools, I added a lot of bumps, ridges, and also used the tools to pull out some of the branches. The sculpt tools are good for organic objects that have a lot of bumps and irregular surfaces. Trees are pretty important because they appear so often throughout the map, so I wanted to do a good job with them. It is interesting that many AAA game studios have a vegetation artist solely devoted to creating trees, bushes, ect.

The Keeper

In the original concept, the lighthouse keeper was simply a skeleton. When I began making the keeper I used a photo reference of a skeleton and started to make the bones in an anatomically correct way. It was also good practice for learning anatomy. The rib cage was easy, but was the most time consuming section of the skeleton. The pelvis was really difficult and I had to try a lot of things before it even looked like a pelvis. In the end I had to just settle with having the general shapes and structure.

I left out adding vertebrae to the spine so that the model would fit better with the games cartoony style. The skull ended up being cartoonishly goofy looking and with a Lighthouse Keeper’s hat. In real life Lighthouse Keepers would wear a long coat with buttons. Because I had extra time, I also made a coat. I used a cloth modifier so that it fell over the skeleton like real cloth or fabric would, according to physics. After that I just needed to use the sculpt tools to make more creases and folds in the coat.

Miscellaneous Props

Lastly, I also made some props to fill the interiors of the ruined buildings that appear throughout the landscape. I made a clock, cookstove, trunk and lantern, among other things. These props took on an antique style to fit with the spooky nature of the game. Also, lighthouse keepers are a thing of the past, because in modern times all lighthouses are automated. Therefore I thought it was appropriate for the furniture and objects in the houses to also be from another time, but this is left pretty ambiguous. I ended up with a good supply of game assets.

For the chest here, I tried to pay attention to all the details and incorporate them into the model- like the decorations on the corners, clasps and even the nails.

What do you think?

This week, vote on which asset is your favourite! Leave your answer in the pool below and feel free to leave any feedback, thoughts, or opinions in the comments section at the bottom of the page. We highly encourage it as we love to read or hear anything you have to share. Byte Size Studios takes into consideration all the comments posted, might even make a change to the final game! Back to our regularly scheduled blog posts on Monday!

Supersurvey