Choosing Styles

(example of art style tests for the grass assets)

Before we could produce any finished textures, we needed to confirm our in-game art style.  To achieve this we decided to create a selection of textures for a couple of the models and see which ones looked best in engine.

We were surprised how good even the simplest of textures looked in engine.  The whole process really emphasised  the benefits of real-time changes to lighting that CryEngine 3 delivers.  The image above shows a selection of the grass assets using some of the different textures.  The one on the far right is just a single colour, the two in the middle are the same texture with different colour levels, whereas the one on the left used a storybook painterly style.

To fit in with the theme of the game and achieve the desired atmosphere, we decided on the storybook style.

Whitebox

(Whitebox of reconstructed Stonehenge)

To help get a feel for the scale of the world, as well as test any assets, we created a whitebox version of the map in CryEngine.  We set up the file structure ready for the assets and created some basic placeholders to populate the scene.  These were named appropriately with the real assets in mind.

(Concept / Reference Art)

The whitebox was created using a piece of reference art.  The measurements shown are those from the British Library map we chose.

(Whitebox image of Stonehenge game level)

We decided rather than making the player character smaller, we would make the world bigger.  This meant that the version of Stonehenge we've made in CryEngine is in fact twelve times bigger, as this is how many time bigger the standard character in the engine is in comparison to the faerie.  The reason for this is so we can easily implement changes to the design if we need to at a future point.

(Construction of the whitebox level using a reference image)

The whitebox was created using the map as a reference image in engine. We used the solids tools to create box to the size the diameter needed to be and scaled the map image to match.  This meant we could place the stones in the level accurately.

The next step in the production process is to test the art styles we are currently thinking of using before replacing the placeholders with more detailed finished assets.

Research

Unfortunately we haven't had the opportunity to visit locations to get primary research for the stones.  However we have been using internet sources to get the imagery we need.  Also we can photograph similar stones in the local area for texture references.

In regards to the other aspects like grass and environmental obstacles, we have taken huge number of photos of various bits of vegetation etc, both at the park and in gardens.

Not only have we been looking at content for the project itself but also on the technical side side of things.  With the project taking a unique approach to perspective we've needed to learn a lot about the CryEngine SDK.  The documentation on the Crydev site has been very useful for pointing us in the right direction.

Our next step is to create a whitebox with some 'place holder' assets to set the world scale and help with further asset creation.