The Style

[MiNTO56]

Hello

For the UPCP project the team will be working on a DM map for (most likely) the Unreal Engine 3 (UDK).

However we need a style for the map so if you have any suggestions post them below please. The style could be anything and if you have any sketches to help get the idea across then please post them below.

At some point this weak or next the best ideas will be taken to a poll to be voted on.

Thanks

[Purplepaint]

I was thinking maybe a jack the ripper-esq style mixing Gothic and Victorian/dreary London. By this i mean tight and winding corridors (maybe a bit more cartoony in reference rather then realistic.

Will post some images shortly.

Enviro Examples:

Example 1 (http://www.thetravelmap.net/images/jack-the-ripper1.jpg)

Example 2 (http://www.users.globalnet.co.uk/~minmin/slum.JPG)

Gothic Church Example (http://www.eastlanddisaster.org/stmaryofczestochowa1916.jpg)

Alley Example (http://www.magickalmind.com/dorian/ripperwalk.jpg)

Also, if you havent seen the movie "from hell" then you might have a little more trouble trying to invision what i am :P

Of course the weapons would suit the timeline, knives, rifles etc..... maybe some sort of throwing top hat :)

[Tyler]

Medieval Rodent Wars :D

Two teams would be Rats vs. Mice, but each team has a few different types (Tank, Healer, DPS and Ranged DPS).

That would allow for some cool magical / medieval weaponry, while giving them to cartoon-ish rodent characters living in some medieval english town. Fighting in the streets.

Would allow for a nice semi real-semi tf2 shading style, perhaps somewhere in the middle. But with some interesting architecture, and some fun characters too.

[DKK]

Steampunk Victorian London.

Victorian London, It's the 19th century, the era that heralded unbridled technological advancements, and for better or worse ushered in the 20th century. The inventions of the 19th century range from batteries, to revolvers, to the oil industry and the Diesel combustion engine. It's a world before mass transit, a world before Traffic and stop lights, Where people traveled by foot down unlit alleyways. The city is foggy, and streets of cobble are lit by lamps that run on gas.

Example (http://www.ourwardfamily.com/1800s/A_London_Street_-_Petticoat_lane_1.JPG)
Example (http://viewfinder.english-heritage.org.uk/gallery/450/cc9/cc97_01681.jpg)
Example (http://photos3.flickr.com/6301376_f179b70ece.jpg)
Example (http://handley.org.uk/images/richmond/lores/P1010382.jpg)
Example (http://www.lcc.org.uk/images//web_hawksmoor1.jpg)


Steam Punk, It's a science fiction sub genre that brings all of todays technologies to pre-microprocessing worlds, through the power of steam! Steam punk is characterized by heavy use of materials like wood, brass, copper, and heavy use of tubing, valves, and meters.

Anything is possible with steampunk;
Laptops (http://www.wired.com/images/slideshow/2007/06/gallery_steampunk/steampunkLaptop2.jpg)
Ironman (http://www.instablogsimages.com/images/2010/10/12/iron-man-steam-punk_eiBMh_1822.jpg)
Electric Lincoln (http://geekadelphia.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/02/steam_punk_abe_lincoln.jpg)
Guitars (http://www.designtavern.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/01/steampunk-guitar-11.jpg)

[DKK]

PurplePaint, have you Read the From Hell comic book? It's orders of magnitude better than the flick.


Medieval Rodent Wars :D


But we already decided we weren't doing any character work, and no modding, Just an environment.

[Purplepaint]

No i haven't where would i get my hands on one :) im very interested

[Tyler]

But we already decided we weren't doing any character work, and no modding, Just an environment.

Must of missed that, surely that must mean all the character artists who were interested now have nothing to do?

Anyway, just my '2 cents'. I won't be able to help out with this anymore anyway.

[DKK]

There were practically no specific characacter guys interested, and theres already mini Dom war, and Dom War coming up.

[MiNTO56]

If any one wants to do character work I don't see why a separate project cant be started that takes the same style and engine. If any one likes this idea please pm me and if there is enough people interested in doing a separate character based project I can see what I can do to get one started.

Please pm me about no need to make a post

[divi]

why an extra project? if someone wants to they could certainly do a model that replaces the default player model or something. that way brandon also has some rigging to do :D

[DKK]

Yeah don't bother starting a separate project, Lets just worry about getting an environment done, If we actually succeed then we can think about taking it farther, But leave characters out Until Dom War is done.

[DKK]

Lovecraft Takeover.

1920s America, A society trying to forget the war, parties fueled by bootlegged booze, Small town america. A world of architecture from the civil war, colonial buildings.
http://www.longislandphotoblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2007/11/old-colonial-house-1660.jpg
http://www.salemweb.com/guide/arch/images/cbhouse.jpg

Lovecraft,The elder gods of the Lovecraft mythos are invading the town, the KKK have performed a dark ritual, and an elder god is being summoned. In the center of the map theres some kind of evil circle of candles and runes and blood and stuff in the center of which a portal has opened up from which a a writhing mass of tentacles, and eyeballs, and freaky shit is emerging. There are glowing runes carved into walls, and buildings have Horrible growths hanging from them.

[Tyler]

How about just taking an exsisting IP, changing the art style, or keeping it the same, but making it into a DM map?

I can think of a few settings that could work well, which would limit the amount of planning required.

Lord of the Rings
Star Wars
Avatar
Battlestar

Hell even things like Harry Potter, or (as i mentioned before) Bug's Life, which have interesting settings.

[ZacD]

I'd rather do a piece that tells a story instead of something that's just a cool look.

[ErichWK]

I'd rather do a piece that tells a story instead of something that's just a cool look.

ZacD said it best. Come on! We are Polycount! We can come up with a pretty rad idea that when people see it, they will be like "Well, this is just plain awesome in every way".

[DKK]

Ok, so do you two have any suggestions in particular?

[ZacD]

Remaking part of a fable, fairy tale, or short story?

[DKK]

I said in particular, Which story? It has to be one we can tell with just the environment, a lot of fables involve characters more so than settings. And we need to be careful about making a DM map and not a diorama.

[Purplepaint]

I said in particular, Which story? It has to be one we can tell with just the environment, a lot of fables involve characters more so than settings. And we need to be careful about making a DM map and not a diorama.

This is true.

[ZacD]

Okay I'm out of ideas, lets just make it a crack house.

[DKK]

ok, you start on bloody underwear, I'll start on bloody shag carpet. we need a volumetric smoke effect, some burn decals, a couch asset with no cushions, holes in it, and one chunk of the back sawed off. and we need some plywood textures for boarding up the windows.

[ZacD]

and we need a dozen different types of crack pipes and broken coffee tables.


WE SHOULD DO A SPANIARDS VS AZTEC THEME~

[ErichWK]

What if the Deathmatch level is like 4 players vs something.. the theme being something like the Show The Prisoner. So all cool 60s style with lots of color and the 4 players fight off the giant white ball thing thats SUPER over powerful and creepy and absurd.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I6Ffr1U7KMY

Absurdity is always fun

[DKK]

That might be damn neat.

Road to Eldorado, Imagine for a second that the Spanish empire finds the lost city of gold. El Dorado is located down the amazon river through a secret passage, The city of gold has docks built to harbor small ships, a Spanish galleon is parked sideways along side several docks, the crew has disembarked there's skeletons of conquistadors along the road which leads up to a Temple of gold, GOLD!

Galleon (http://www.cornwallmodelboats.co.uk/acatalog/14004_4.jpg)
Statue (http://www.ralphmag.org/1/aztec-temple318x480.gif)
Temple (http://www.tomswift.info/homepage/cgold4.jpg)

all cool 60s style with lots of color

I like that.

60s Spy Base, Spy fiction like the James Bond Series led to popular film and television franchises about espionage. The Reds had lost their menace, and the new popular villains were clandestine organizations and wealthy businessmen with a penchant for nuclear devices, and a dislike of... well most everything. The wits of a spy had to be as sharp as the knifes in their shoes, and the clothes on their back. Everything that wasn't a weapon probably concealed one.


computers (http://www.starringthecomputer.com/snapshots/the_man_from_uncle_sage_2.jpg)
Clandestine (http://www.bleedingcool.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/11/prisoner02.jpg)

[telmac]

Im loving the steampunk idea. Assuming that once we're done with the dm map (if thats what we do) there will be ots of assets left over that can be used in another game. It also lends very well to many different game styles.

[Tyler]

Eldorado get's my vote. Armoured Conquistafor Skeletons and Gold Temples are just... win :P

[ErichWK]

Another doable idea, is a ridiculous and over the top/creepy toy factory. But like. Willy Wonka level of radness. We can make multi chambered factory all different themes. Let's us try out a bunch of cool ideas and really let us go all out with different color palletes and themes.

[Purplepaint]

Another doable idea, is a ridiculous and over the top/creepy toy factory. But like. Willy Wonka level of radness. We can make multi chambered factory all different themes. Let's us try out a bunch of cool ideas and really let us go all out with different color palletes and themes.

I really like the idea of this, all the different colors / themes would be cool and would be very helpful in learning.

But i still do like the normal Victorian and Steam punk Victorian ideas as well.

[jimmypopali]

I'm liking the steampunk idea.

[NoctyQ]

Just like to hop in and say that I'm cool with almost all the ideas, eventhough i got some favourites.. Toy factory and steampunk!
Don't really get why it's so important that the map a DM but that's someone else decision i guess.

[ErichWK]

I think we decided on a DM map because a lot of our character artists are working on Dominance War and coding and animating can be tricky, considering we are an art based community..so why not do what we do best? Bad ass environments. That's why I said the willy wonka style toy factory, cause we can do so many themese in one building. And just go all out

[NoctyQ]

Seems reasonable! :)
I'm happy as long as we'll do it.. :shifty:
Could anyone summaries why the last collaboration died?

Another cool thing would be to just make a small snow environment as a warm up or to check that we will be able to pull it of.
#1 - German bomber which has crashed on the ice of some lake.. Fog, snow storm or something?
(http://dl.dropbox.com/u/15123461/bomber_on_lake.jpg)http://dl.dropbox.com/u/15123461/bomberonlake.jpg

#2 - Another idea that get's me hard is probably to just try to tell a story through an environment, some kind of a more artsy direction like maybe walking around on the scene of a suicide, or or: someone who's gone crazy and killed someone and you get to walk around and look at the environment, the killer might have gone ahead and cut up the body and put it in bin bags, maybe he's out and buring parts of the victim, what's the prolog? who's the killer? Who's the victim? Has he done it before? etc etc. Details details.

#3 - A blink in history: Pretty much the same as above but you'll get to walk around in an environment that has had a big impact on history and our world in general. Something that we all can agree on has had a huge impact on us all.
Think 9/11 but something else.

I like the idea of provoking and just in general make people... think :poly122:.

Edit: I hope it's okay if I'll go ahead and create a new topic so we can monitor the interest rate.

[DKK]

The idea was to challenge ourselves to create something playable that could stand up to more realistic scrutiny, rather than just a pretty environment diorama. We wanted something that was large enough for more than a couple people to tackle, but small enough that we could finish in a reasonable time frame. Ultimately the goal of any game level is to both engage and engross the player, and thats what we should be looking to do, create a fun level, and tell a story.

[NoctyQ]

I can agree to that #1 doesn't really fit the purpose but i don't really see why #2 and #3 shouldn't. We might have different views of playable, or diorama.
But if DM is etched in stone then I guess your correct.

Added a new topic. Sleepy now.

[telmac]

One thing that no one has mentioned in here is the actual visual style. It seems that its sort of assumed that we will be going with the "lets get this is photo realistic as possible" look, but there is no reason to assume that. While i doubt anyone wants to go with cell shading (though if we could pull it off well, that would be epic), theres is no reason why we cant go with something like the one from the disney-ish header (http://www.justinkenneallyart.com/SquareBeauty3.jpg); a stylized, sharp, angry look; or with slow droopy lines, like Dr Seuss illustrations. it doesnt matter much to me what it ends up being, but we do need to take this into account.

[MiNTO56]

Its been set in stone that the project will do a DM map. We still need a style and a theme for the map however.

I think a Victorian theme would be a great idea for a level with telmac suggestion of a disney-ish style would look great.

However its style up for discussion so post a style and a theme you would think would be great for a DM map.

[Purplepaint]

Its been set in stone that the project will do a DM map. We still need a style and a theme for the map however.

I think a Victorian theme would be a great idea for a level with telmac suggestion of a disney-ish style would look great.

However its style up for discussion so post a style and a theme you would think would be great for a DM map.


I also agree to the square soft / disney (kingdom hearts style) especially if we go somewhere near that squaresoft town posted here some time ago (which is just a master piece). I think that theme would work well and could be diverese enough for everyone working on it to enjoy.

[fearian]

'cmon guys you all know we all just want to copy Brink. ;P

[Purplepaint]

'cmon guys you all know we all just want to copy Brink. ;P

nuhuh!

[telmac]

It feels like everyone is moving towards the victorian disney style. Im not sure if its time yet, but at some point we should say "speak now or forever hold you peace" and start collecting names.

[DKK]

Relax, I believe the plan is to throw up a new thread with a Poll in it, at the end of this week.

[Purplepaint]

Relax, I believe the plan is to throw up a new thread with a Poll in it, at the end of this week.

Agreed to the relax, last time we rushed heads in, while we did get a few assets and other things done, it ultimately failed because of this exact reason .. This time it would be good to slow down and plan everything out pre hand.

[MiNTO56]

Relax, I believe the plan is to throw up a new thread with a Poll in it, at the end of this week.

That's the plan that's set in stone

[telmac]

Though, if we are planning things out, theres no reason why we cant start a "lets get going on some general map design + asset list kinda stuff" thread...

[Purplepaint]

Though, if we are planning things out, theres no reason why we cant start a "lets get going on some general map design + asset list kinda stuff" thread...


We haven't had a vote on the theme/style yet, so this would be pointless right now. Hence the style vote coming soon.

[Vinterdragen]

I like the idea of a Steampunk style... lot of gizmos and stylized clothes, the invention touch also could bring nice gameplay, characters and assets...

[willy-wilson]

steampunk gets my vote

[SaferDan]

The last one failed just because there was no leader as such :)

i like the steam punk idea but a victorian style mixed with Disney could be epic!

[Purplepaint]

The last one failed just because there was no leader as such :)

/agreed

[ZacD]

should we split it into small teams with 1 lead each?

[SaferDan]

Yeah that sounds like a plan, you would then need someone to lead the leads. I think for it to work you really do need one person to just be like this is good, this is bad.

[ZacD]

Oh, I had another idea, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biosphere_2 but on the moon or a radioactive earth or something.

[SaferDan]

a biosphere could be epic!

[Acumen]

About time to get the voting going. People are drifting away already - concerning the leader lead lead idea ;)
I don't wanna be too negative about it, but somehow the overwhelming vibe/atmosphere in the starting phase, this time is not too well at this point right now.
I get the feeling that people are rather hesitant with entering and/or adding ideas.
Hope this will change, once the voting is up :)

[ErichWK]

I just one upped you, Zac. http://28.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_l83ey3ZwEh1qaex5co1_400.jpg

[MiNTO56]

Hey oh guys ill be starting the voting poll tomorrow!

[Hammed Al-Tamimi]

Nice to see we are finally progressing. Can't wait to start!