Step 3 of 8: Level & Environment

Level & Environment:

I want to create a fictional ancient environment that operates on very basic mechanical motions, taking inspiration from the Steam Punk style, aswell as Aztec and Egyptian architecture/puzzles. I want to form a environment that was once home to an advanced segregated civilisation, left undiscovered for centuries as it was hidden down in a cave. This will be fairly easy to achieve with the UDK assets and gives me huge scope for design, also having a vast quantity of research available as it is a popular subject. Now I have a basic Idea for my environment I will have to gather research to form a more solid plan.

ALL INSIDE A CAVE
Forrest- Overgrown, huge trees, shruberry
Desert- Sandy, ruins, empty
Temple- Stone, hyroglyphics, patterns

Step 2 of 8: Purpose & Feature

Purpose:

The purpose of the project is to convey the idea's of the 'Butterfly Effect', the notion that every action has a chain of resulting consequences, seemingly creating a reality that could have been very different if the action was changed. I need to use this Idea to fuel my level design process, using this as a basis to create unique and interesting Gameplay.




Feature:

I want my level to feature mainly puzzles, using the idea of changing something small to create a specific result. I also want to focus on an environment that flows smoothly and has a well balanced tempo for the player to stay engaged during the level. Because it's going to be mainly puzzles the tempo will be fairly slow, so I will have to think of a way to keep it balanced, maybe having a high tempo section at the end to increase tension.

Step 1 of 8: The Idea

For this project we have to create a level, based on our original theme; mine being 'perception of reality'. I have already explored the idea of seeing a different realities based on moods (split personality) and I have explored the idea of a micro-universe with similar physical constraints as ours. For this assignment I want to explore a new idea, 'The Butterfly Effect'; the Idea that changing something in the past can have a knock on effect in the future; the smallest of things can have a huge knock on effect, meaning everything in life is perfectly balanced and everything happens for a reason, nothing is coincidental.

Furthermore I want to explore this Idea of a coincidence, conveying to the player the notion that nothing in the game is accidental or random, even if it may seem so at first; each tiny event is completed for a reason.


Definition of The Butterfly Effect:

"In chaos theory, the butterfly effect is the sensitive dependence on initial conditions, where a small change at one place in a deterministic nonlinear system can result in large differences to a later state. The name of the effect, coined by Edward Lorenz, is derived from the theoretical example of a hurricane's formation being contingent on whether or not a distant butterfly had flapped its wings several weeks before.

Although the butterfly effect may appear to be an esoteric and unlikely behavior, it is exhibited by very simple systems: for example, a ball placed at the crest of a hill may roll into any of several valleys depending on, among other things, slight differences in initial position.

The butterfly effect is a common trope in fiction when presenting scenarios involving time travel and with hypotheses where one storyline diverges at the moment of a seemingly minor event resulting in two significantly different outcomes."

Wikipedia.com, The Butterfly Effect, retrieved from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Butterfly_effect 

Mudbox Model

Low poly model

Here is the base model I have made in 3DS max. Totalling 552 tri's, now I need to send it to mudbox and begin creating a vector displacement map, to make the low poly mesh have a lot more detail..

Here I was testing out light's and seeing if it was possible to make the alien glow, much like micro-organisms. 

Character progression..

Here is a little development from initial sillhoutte, trying to get a good design down. 

This is my final design, taking bits from each idea to form this. A micro-organism alien being that is being taken over by a deadly virus. 

Design Change.

Because my last Idea would be unachievable in under 300 poly's I decided to go back to the drawing board and think of a simpler, biped being. In the shape of a human but much less developed... The addition of the tribal body paint suggests that he may be a developing species that has formed tribes and have developed intelligence.