I am currently working my ass of modelling stuff. My main goal is to get an art style for ‘Manage the Universe’, my new game. However for me to be able to create this, I need to have some proficiency in modelling. So I am modeling all kinds of stuff currently.
Size comparisons
One of those things I need to decide on is the sizing of things. Like how big is a spaceship compared to a human? Do I use ‘real’ sizes or do I allow for some per-situation scaling?
So to analyze this I modeled a few ships:
In the front is the very rough outline of the U.S.S. Voyager (340m) and in the back my own interpretation of a Star Wars battlecarier (1625m). In between the falcon heavy (70m) and a prototype of the players personal spaceship (10m). As you can see this will give some visual issues if you would allow ships of these sizes to be in the same battlefield, if you use actual non-scaled sizes.
Ship shapes
The ship shapes I used in the size comparison are all very distinctive. Using distinct models/shapes from merchandises can look cool but will probably problematic on multiple levels. My game will not be recognizable on its own, and there will be possible copyright issues.
So I decided to try out a few shapes of my own. This is the ‘hover-line’ multi purpose class. This is the transporter loadout with full armament. It uses anti gravity rings for floating and steering, and some warp capable engines for propulsion. Its main use is for invasion of planets. It’s length is 40m. For comparison: the middle cannon is 4m high.
I’m still working on the color schemes. I do like this greed/grey/black/red color scheme. Combined with the wings it reminds me of the old Lego space sets.
Re-modelling Find the Gnome
I am using the re-modelling of Find the Gnome as a tangible way to make more hours. And it seems I really like this kind of work. It feels the same as refactoring old/bad code. Additionally, I can use this opportunity to finally deliver on a promise I made to myself: to once get Find the Gnome to a better place.
One interesting thing to note here: The road is a system where the pieces are made to work together and nicely fit. This is where my previous experience with level design in Find the Gnome comes in handy. The houses use predefined sizes, as do the garden fences. This will speed up level design immensely.
Working on Find the Gnome feels very satisfying: It doesn’t matter what I deliver, the game will always be in a better place after this. With ‘Manage the Universe’ I feel much more pressure to deliver.
GameFeelings 