[UE4] Western Recall

[ItzOmega]

Hello there!

 

We are a group of students from FX Animation, located in Barcelona, and today we are showcasing what is going to be our next project for our Master at FX Animation as Art & 3D design for Videogames.

This project will be called: Western Recall, and it will consist in a mod for the VR game Robo Recall. It will have a duration of 2 months, and the goal is to create a fully playable mod for the game.

As we are 3D Artist students, what we will try to achieve is an outstanding project in the visual part. Programming and design is also important for us but it is not in what we will focus our efforts.

 

The team is composed of the following people:

Project leads (Teachers):

-Aitor Rider (3D) ( https://www.artstation.com/aitor_rider_3d )

-Alberto Martinez (Programmer)

 

Lead Environment Artist:

-Pau Sanchez ( https://www.artstation.com/bubucela )

 

Lead Character Artist:

-Alex Martinez (

 

Producers:

-Irene Cruz ( https://www.artstation.com/truenaike )

-Elisenda Ferrer ( https://www.artstation.com/elisendafr )

 

Level designers:

-Jordi Oller ( https://www.artstation.com/jordios )

-Marcos Romero ( https://www.artstation.com/maroag )

 

Community managers:

-Pau Casas ( https://www.artstation.com/itzomega )

-Francesc Xavier Gonzalez ( https://www.artstation.com/fitngo )

 

Characters team:

-Nuria Sanahuja ( https://www.artstation.com/nuriasanahuja )

-Elisenda Ferrer ( https://www.artstation.com/elisendafr )

-Martin Cebrian ( https://www.artstation.com/idestined )

-Claudia Vilanova ( https://www.artstation.com/kineko )

-Edgar Provana (https://www.artstation.com/ndredg )

-Alex Martinez (
 

Enviornment team:

-Pau Sanchez ( https://www.artstation.com/bubucela )

-Jordi Oller ( https://www.artstation.com/jordios )

-Marcos Romero ( https://www.artstation.com/maroag )

-Aitor Garcia ( https://www.artstation.com/aitorg )

-Carlos Martinez ( https://www.artstation.com/phyco49 )

-Pau Casas ( https://www.artstation.com/itzomega )

-Irene Cruz ( https://www.artstation.com/truenaike )

-Hao Jin ( https://www.artstation.com/jin_h )

-Francesc Xavier Gonzalez ( https://www.artstation.com/fitngo )

 

 

Western recall is going to be created in UE4 using the Robo Recall mod tools that Unreal Engine provides for the developers.

This project will be set in a Western Town, where outlaw robots have taken the control of it, and we will have to restore law and order. The aesthetic is going to be mixed with old and futuristic assets.

For now we just started with the project looking for some ambientation and creating some moodboards for the scene, guns and characters.

 

Some Environment moodboards:

 

 

Some characters moodboards:

We have also started with the Top Down Layout, to see how big the scene is going to be, how are the buildings going to be distributed, and what is the path that the player is going to take.

 

Town layouts:

 

 

Saloon layout:

 

For now we know that we are going to do 2 scenes, one in which the player will have to move around the town killing enemies, and the other where the player is going to be inside a Saloon and waves of enemies will try to kill him.

What we will try to achieve in this project is to work as much as possible as a Company producing a real Videogame.

The ultimate goal is to have a fully playable mod that people will be able to download and play. We as a team think that this is an amazing opportunity to have a great project in our Curriculum and something that we can be proud of.

 

We are going to update the project developement every friday, so any comments or feedback will be appreciated!

 

Edited May 16, 2019 by ItzOmega

[Interfearance]

If you are trying to replicate the real design process of a studio you should probably draw a flow map first, and then a more realistic map. Dirty bomb has a excellent comprehensive game design pdf that has such flow charts in the mapping section. Its not a guide for noobs, rather a documentation of their design process. Also, you might want to integrate more tech into the western architecture  I see on your mood boards. A really good existing map with western/industrial theme is Buried from BO2 zombies, if you ever need extra reference. Its one of the most atmospheric maps I've played:

Spoiler

 

[ItzOmega]

Thanks for your reply! We will take a look at that Dirty Bomb GDD as it seems a really nice document to take in consideration. 

For now we are just trying to catch the general aesthetic of the levels, but the goal is to integrate and mix more tech and futuristic things on that. We have many more mood boards but I didn't want to oversaturate  the post already.

And yes we will also take a look at that map, I remember playing it a long time ago and it might be a good reference!

Edited April 26, 2019 by ItzOmega

[ItzOmega]

Some really early blockout for the Saloon level. Looking for general measures and spaces. As it's going to be a VR game we are making everything a bit bigger than what it should be, so you can get a nice feeling of everything. (Blockout made by: Jordi Oller). What are your thoughts?

[ItzOmega]

 

The project is going in the right direction and we already have what we need to start production. For now we just finished the GDD for environment and characters (Which unfortunately I won't be able to share), and we have already done some tests with VR with the basic blockout to see how the gameplay feels. For now we are trying our mod with basic guns and enemies from the main game, so we can already get our hands on how it's going to play. In the final mod scenario, player gloves, guns and enemies will be replaced with our own custom assets.

Testing the Saloon level:

 

 

2nd Blockout pass for the Saloon level:

 

 

2nd blockout pass for the Town level:

 

Some of our concepts for the robots:

For the guns, our player will have a set of futuristic pistols, as he comes from the future, but we will also be able to take other guns from the robots that will also be futuristic but with parts from the western universe that robots have tweaked in order to fix their guns.

 

Main pistol concept:

 

The goal now is to start production as soon as we can and create everything we need for the game. The characters team is going to research on rigging and skinning for our custom robots, as we have to use the exact same one as the ones we already have in the game.

Level designers will be testing general gameplay and tweaking the level itself to adjust it.

Environment team will start creating the main kitbash and all the assets and props for the level, and by the time we get them start developing our final level.

[Interfearance]

 Saloon is looking really good. I have to say, however, the octagonal lighting fixtures seem kinda medieval to me. Maybe a wagon wheel would look better 

[ItzOmega]

@Interfearance Thank you! Yep, keep in mind this is just a blockout and everything will be replaced with all our custom assets. Saloon is going to have more out of a futuristic feeling, with holograms and screens, more or less this kind of ambience (This is going to be our main reference), but also with some "classic" assets and parts:

[ItzOmega]

 

Hello!

 

The project is alive and kicking. For now all members of the team have played the game with basic blockout and default enemies, and there has been a lot of feedback for us to consider, from basic scale to general flow from gameplay itself.

 

 

Some of the main guns are now in developement. We are trying them with a basic blockout while we work on the final ones.
 

Main pistol

Laser gun

 

We also just finished all the assets that we are going to use as a resource as we create all the buildings from the town. There are all king of assets, from metallic fans, to electric poles, solar panels or antennas.

 

 

Character team is also working really hard with the enemies, using all the concepts that we set as reference.

 

We are also preparing a tutorial for custom character import in UE4, that we will share once is finished so it can be usefull to anyone that wants to create a custom mod for the game.

 

For now the project is going great and we are excited as it seems it’s going to have a great result. We will update the project as we game some gameplay video to show and everything that we are woring on right now gets in a good state.

 

 

Edited May 10, 2019 by ItzOmega

[ItzOmega]

Custom gloves blockout:

 

Flying bot low poly:

 

Female enemy blockout:

 

Basic blockout from the church:

 

Edited May 16, 2019 by ItzOmega

[ItzOmega]

Getting the mood for the Saloon level, more soon!

Edited May 18, 2019 by ItzOmega

[Interfearance]

This lighting reminds me of... 

[ItzOmega]

 

Hello again!

 

As we move forward to the 5th week of the project, we are just 3 weeks ahead for the delivery day. Most of the big work has already been done but we still have a lot to do in these days that we have left.

First of all the main levels are already in a good progress and most of the blockout has already been replaced by the final meshes. The Saloon level, as it’s smaller than the main village, has had more improvement and most of the kitbash and main props have already been created, so we are now working on set dressing and smaller props to give to the Level more variety and to make it more beautiful. We are also working on the lighting part to try to give it the ambience we want.

For the village level we already have all the main structures and houses with the final mesh, but we are still working with textures and shaders, so that everything that we have created has the same visual style. Also all the enemy waves have already been set and the game is already fully playable.

We are trying to get to a same artistic style for all the level, as 8 different people are working on it, and sometimes it is difficult as each one has his own way of working and his own style.

 

Saloon:

 

Some screenshots from the Main village:

 

The church is one of the main buildings that we consider it has the style we are looking for, and it’s what are we going to use as the main reference for the other buildings.

 

For the characters side, all the Robots have already been implemented and are fully functional. The character team is still working on them, as we have the main blockout in the game to test everything.

 

Female biped:

 

Big bot:

 

Flying bot:

 

Speed bot:

 

Bird bot:

 

Custom gloves for the player have also been implemented in the game. We are working on the HP + Bakes, and they will be replaced once the texture part has been completed.

 

And finally for the guns, they have also been implemented in the game and are fully functional. Shotgun, Laser gun and revolver are completed, and we hope to finish the automatic pistol this next week.

 

Revolver:

 

Laser Gun:

 

Shotgun:

 

Automatic pistol:

 

This next week we are going to playtest the game with some people to see how they feel about the whole game, and to change what we need based on the feedback that we recieve.

We are also going to work on finishing characters and creating some bigger hero props and some smaller ones for detail and set dress.

There’s still a lot to do but we think that we are doing a great job and we expect to have an amazing project by the time we finish it.

 

Have a great day!

Edited May 25, 2019 by ItzOmega

[ItzOmega]

This is our first Gameplay test! A lot of things are missing but the gameplay part is already finished and fully playable to playtest.

 

 

Edited May 29, 2019 by ItzOmega

[ItzOmega]

 

On monday we did our first playtest with some people that came to our school! They really liked the game and we had some really good feedback.

 

 

We have also done a lot of progress in the game. These are some of the most important things:

Custom player hands are finished and fully implemented

 

Automatic pistol and Revolver are also texturized

 

Church is also in the final process. In this module we tested most of the main Materials and shaders, so by the time we have all the other buildings and sets created it’s going to be a lot easier to implement everything.

 

We also created a Silo to give more variety to the Town

 

And a team photo so you can see us

 

Robots are still in progress. We will try to show them when we have good renders.

Edited May 30, 2019 by ItzOmega

[ItzOmega]

 

All the main buildings from the Town level are already finished and everything has a much better look now! At this moment we are working on smaller assets to create as many variety for the set dress as possible.

 

We have also finished the main bar from the Saloon level.

 

More soon!