Where it took place
The type of firework that got stuck in his neck
When I was younger, my brother and I were at our local soccer club celebrating the new year with family. We were playing outside with our nephews, who still had some leftover firework from the day before. My brother was crouching down when one of our nephews tried to scare him by throwing a small piece of firework over his head. Instead of going over him, the firework landed in his neck and got stuck in his hoodie. The firework went off, and my brother started screaming. I stood further down the hill we were on and could only watch as my brother was, in my mind, burning to death.
Eventually, the firework burned up. We rushed inside to find help and immediately went to the hospital. My brother had 3rd-degree burns in his neck and 2nd-degree burns on his hands from trying to get the firework out. Luckily, the only thing that's leftover from the accident, is a scar in his neck. On the way to the hospital, my brother joked about not being able to play videogames with his hands. That's when I finally started to feel a bit more relieved because up until that point, I was still afraid that he would die from his wounds.
Where it took place
The type of firework that got stuck in his neck
The first thing I did for this project was defining the story by writing down what I could remember about the accident and looking at what things stood out to me as interesting or important to the narrative. This resulted in a list of things that I wanted to incorporate in the design of the environment.
List of key elements:
- A brotherly bond
- Helplessness/Powerlessness
- Fire/Firework
- Looking up to the danger / feeling small
In addition to the list, I wrote a logline to summarize what the environment should aim to be:
"An environment in which the player experiences helplessness and/or experiences someone else suffering (this could be abstract)".
Idea #1
Using this list, I tried coming up with an interesting environment that incorporates the elements of the list. The first thing I came up with involved having the player locked in a room with someone dying on the floor and a potion to save them just outside the player's reach.
I liked the idea of having the theme/setting be in some sort of dungeon/temple, but I didn't like the rest of this idea.
Having someone in agony on the floor was way too in-your-face for me and I really didn't want the player to be able to physically interact with the victim (just like I couldn't get to my brother during the accident).
Idea #2
This gave me a new idea though, which I decided to create a blockout for. Doing this allowed me to experience the mood of the environment and allowed me to play around with things like lighting and composition.
I then made an orthographic screenshot of the environment and started defining the content of the scene. I used different colours to mark each element and their description.
Orthographic Concept Information
Composition & Lighting
Setting for the environment:
The player has just entered a room inside a temple that shows a staircase leading up to a closed gate. Behind this gate, a great fire rages and shouts for help can be heard. The player can stand on a pressure plate that's located in the middle of the room to open the gate, but will never be able to make it to the gate in time before it heavily slams shut. The player should feel as powerless as possible. The room also contains 2 statues that represent 2 brothers and are shaped like firework rockets.
Once I defined the environment and its contents, I made the following asset list:
1 - Pressure Plate
An old temple-like pressure plate that animates when the players stands on it. (should have a sound effect to accompany the animation)
3 - Barred Metal Gate
A heavy metal gate that can slowly be opened when using the pressure plate. The most important thing about this asset, is that it should never be possible for the player to reach the gate before it closes. It should heavily slam shut each time the player tries to run for it. (the sound effects for this asset should really be able to sell the slam animation and should give the player a bone-chilling feeling)
2 - Firework Statue
This is in my opinion the most valuable asset for the environment. The statue should be an abstract representation of a firework rocket with ancient drawings on them that further visualize key elements from the accident. There will be 2 in the room to symbolize brotherhood.
Additional Assets:
- Fire particles
- Stairs leading up to the gate
- An archway for the gate
Additional Audio:
- Ambience (Dungeon Atmosphere)
- Fire sound effect
- Muffled cries for help
- Footsteps (of the player)
After defining a list of assets, I was ready to start producing them. To create the 3D assets, I used the following pipeline:
Maya (Modelling&UV-mapping) > ZBrush (Sculpting Normal Maps) > Substance Painter (Painting textures) > Unity (Implementing into the scene)
Using this pipeline was very educational, as I had never used ZBrush or Substance Painter before this assignment and was a novice at Maya.
I got better at UV-mapping in Maya, learned how to sculpt in ZBrush and learned how to use smart masks in Substance Painter!
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Gate opening/closing animation
Animation Curve (opening animation)
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