Enduring Fragments DARE’ 06 update

Excellent stuff buddy!
Really loving the second character, can just imagine him with a real old school posh english accent!

(Nice little initals logo too!)

Good work :) looks well.

Dave

Oz here, static mesh guy, heres just a few low poly models that make appearances in the game.

http://img444.imageshack.us/img444/3821/group1bf7.jpg

http://img242.imageshack.us/img242/8418/group2xr5.jpg

http://img403.imageshack.us/img403/9180/group3ds8.jpg

http://img242.imageshack.us/img242/744/group4yl8.jpg

Any C’s & C’s always welcome.

Explosive diarrhea was a big killer in those days…..

….also…..The Rusty Salmon???? :P

We put that in just to spite Aaron (the epitath i mean).

The rusty salmon was my creation unfortunately. No one could think of a name for the pub so i, jokingly said the rusty salmon and everyone liked it so we went with it.

Those models look really good!

Keep working hard – there is a shiny new penny in it for you if you do

Excellent work guys, been really looking forward too seeing how things were going for you for awhile. :D

Once that it the only thing thats “flowing” if you know what I mean…….

great work, guys – shaping up nicely.

What’s the story with Rule of Thumb, the Northern Irish team? Haven’t heard anything from them… Be nice to get an update on how they are getting on

The latter is indeed what I meant……. :P

Trust u to come up with that Dave.

Alrite lads congrats on the work its very impressive im really looking forward to seeing the final product and how the results go best of look ill be keeping in touch with ye when ye get back aaron and ozz models looking very nice indeed well impressed

Im gonna have to stop this right now chris, theres only 1 z in Oz. Ud think after knowin me for 3 years that ud be able to spell my name.

Hey Ozz…cut Chris some slack.

Dont get me started on u, no optical. :lol:

Hi, Brian Lelas here, I’m level designer / script writer for Enduring Fragments. Here are a few shots of recently made locations. I’d like to add that these are still unfinished and subject to change.

Graveyard

http://img386.imageshack.us/img386/5302/graveyardoi9.jpg

Victoria Street

http://img100.imageshack.us/img100/7947/street01po1.jpg

OverLook of Street from Inside Building

http://img222.imageshack.us/img222/7475/victim01xv3.jpg

I’ll post some more images when I get some time!

They’re looking really good! I love how it looks so spooky!

It’s great to see some screenshots from a game that actually has a bit of atmosphere rather than simply some utterly stunning visuals of whatever current tech is all the rage in the unreal engine or whatever. I’ve gotten very jaded lately of the “same guns, same levels, same gameplay, new improved graphics” style of presentation that is omnipresent, and this stuff is really fulfilling change.

Good work, keep it up.

Dave

ps I’ve changed the images to links to keep the page shape not too wide. hope tihs is ok.

are they in game screengrabs? nice fog effect, what process did you use to create it?? are you guys using the instinct engine for your project?

Fantastic atmosphere!

are they in game screengrabs? nice fog effect, what process did you use to create it?? are you guys using the instinct engine for your project?[/quote:a95d3e9040]Richard, they’re doing a mod in Unreal 2.5

Yeah they are all screen grabs. Unreal all the way. The fog is an unreal effect, just needs tweaking where-ever u want to change the size, colour etc. Brian can go into it into more detail.

Yes these are all in-game graphics. And to be honest, they aren’t in a particularly good resolution so the anti-aliasing should be nicer when you’re playing it.

We’re using Unreal 2.5 for the game. The fog was made using Unreal’s built-in emitter system. It’s pretty handy. It’s pretty much sprites, but handled in a different way.

Thanks for all the encouraging comments guys. We’re having a tough time over here hours-wise but it’s paying off when we hear good stuff like that. Hoping to have some more shots to put up soon. Working on a variety of areas at any one time so they should all be coming together nicely very soon.

If you have any more questions, feel free to ask away.

:)

I’ve seen the picture before it needs to be undead-ified and lets just say it won’t need much work

“Work on the corpse” eh, that might be taken wrong by some people.

“Work on the corpse” eh, that might be taken wrong by some people.[/quote:b0a9860363]

Considering its BronX we’re talking about I figure they’d be pretty much on the money

Give Aaron a few WKD’s and he’d hop on anything…….

Yes these are all in-game graphics. And to be honest, they aren’t in a particularly good resolution so the anti-aliasing should be nicer when you’re playing it.

We’re using Unreal 2.5 for the game. The fog was made using Unreal’s built-in emitter system. It’s pretty handy. It’s pretty much sprites, but handled in a different way.

Thanks for all the encouraging comments guys. We’re having a tough time over here hours-wise but it’s paying off when we hear good stuff like that. Hoping to have some more shots to put up soon. Working on a variety of areas at any one time so they should all be coming together nicely very soon.

If you have any more questions, feel free to ask away.

:)[/quote:4924bd1a42]

thanks tony.

Whats unreal 2.5 like to work with? did it carry a heavy price tag or was it licensed for you guys?

I remember this time well last year in the dare camp, i think we were actually at the games festival show casing our game to the public which was a real buzz. Wait till the last 2 days before your presentation, you will then know what tough is, hours-wise!! we tried to get 24 hour access to the labs if i remember correctly for the last week before the presentation, but i think we only got the last two days!

Yeah our game is a mod so we don’t need to pay for the engine. Yay!

We’re pretty sure that the 24hour access is the same this year actually, just the last few days.

Unreal is great to work with for the most part. I’m building the level geometry in the engine itself and that is actually not as hard as you’d think. It takes a bit of practice to get some nice stuff working but it looks beautiful with Unreal’s lights. You could technically build everything in Max and export it in, but you can do more on screen if you go by Unreal’s geometry so it’s a fair trade. In those shots, just about everything in them would be from the engine aside from the curtains, the trees, the windows and the lamp-posts.

It’s really hot in our lab. Which doesn’t help.

It’s really hot in our lab.[/quote:850c1fcdb0]

Thats just me. :lol:

After contacting Epic directly we decided to go with a mod development. This means that we are acting under the same restrictions as any other user of Unreal Tournament 2004 as regards licencing.

In many ways Unreal 2.5 is a great engine to work with. We do not need to worry about tool development in most areas, and it can accomodate almost any visual assets we care to create.

We had hoped that Unreal tournament 2007(Unreal 3) would have been released before the competition, but that did not occur. As a result we can’t produce to a next gen standard. That is not necessarily a bad thing, we simply wouldn’t have the time to take advantage of those features consistently in all areas over a 10 week period.

As for lab access, we will have 24 hour access for a short time at the very end of the competition, but we won’t be participating in any showcases other than the competitions own.

Hours wise we’re already on 9 to 9 in the labs followed by futher work on our own machines/refill pads and whiteboards back at home. Occasionally we eat and sleep too, but I’m not encouraging such blatant self indulgences (JOKE! my cattle prod ran out of batteries by mid week 2)

Xero is the resident pimp in here

It’s really hot in our lab.[/quote:fb028ba583]

Jebus…what are you guys doing in there…….

……on second thoughts….I don’t want to know….

Its honestly about 35 degrees in here. Its like working inside a PC with no fan.

Xero is the resident pimp in here[/quote:265ce26137]

..but the goldfish in his platform shoes didn’t make it through the heat wave

:cry: RIP Nemo, Flipper, Sharkey and George :cry:

looks like the heats getting to you guys now! :lol:

whats your plans for after dare?

sleep, and then a holiday

Plans after Dare are to have no plans at all.

I would love to be an artist, be it character or environment although i am leaning alot more towards environment. Hopefully this can be a stepping stone to get myself that much closer to a company of some sort.

Oh we were being serious?

Masters in Digital Games Theory & Design at Brunel, London, hopefully combined with some sort of industry placement. Been talking to some folks up here and it seems to be on track.

Well if we were meant to answer seriously then I reckon I’ll be either goign for games work or something to do with writing. Dare has been a bit of an eye opener in many ways.

Is there anything to be said for level design jobs?

Dare is a great ice breaker industry wise we’ve been told but I dont think its something we’ll be able to trade on for longer than a month or two if that makes sense. [/quote:75130dfa3c]

Dare is something that is excellent for you to put on your CV and even better, its something to talk about in your interveiw, but yeah, once you’ve gone through that and signed that bit of paper and started that new job, Dare is gone, but in a good way, because will have served its purpose.

Masters in Digital Games Theory & Design at Brunel, London, hopefully combined with some sort of industry placement. Been talking to some folks up here and it seems to be on track.[/quote:3c733d366f]
Not Abertay nifty?

Abertay don’t do a masters in the field I focus on. Unfortunately, cos I really like this place.

I’ll be in Brunel because of the content and the people teaching it. The location is also more conducive to me eating that year (I have family and friends nearby if things get tight)

I do believe I need to examine the course content in Abertay so. I assume the one in Brunel isn’t as broad?

If I remember our last chat correctly I think you’ll be fine here. I fall through the cracks as I’m neother 3D artist nor programmer

Hey lads! Shaneo here,
Just gotta say that your stuff looks amazing, really nice to see it coming together. Cant believe its the same game that was pitched in class last September! Anyways best of luck and give em hell.

P.S Oz im glad to hear you got that “rash” sorted out, no worries mate it happens to the best of us. LOL

I must admit, i really do like your logo :)

Models like quiet nice too.

Did he die of profuse bleeding of the armpit? :P

Both logos rock….the AJC one is best though!

I want to work on the Enduring Fragment game!

Come one, come all to work for us, were super fun, plus we have cool logos.

You guys should win for your logos alone…..

hehe cheers omen, which one the EF one or the little ajc one?[/quote:6bfd4a2cda]
The EF one, the design in the circle.

You guys should win for your logos alone…..[/quote:9fe8f6b9a2]

I agree but alas there is no “Best Logo” award.

Seeing as I just joined I’ll just say well done lads and the game looks to be kicking some serious ass!

Alan

(The Mayo bogger across the hall from ye)

lookin good guys… keep it up :D

(the Derry eejit across from ye’s)

To all on the Enduring Fragment Project, great work.. I like the screengrab.. the players have nice poses… and the floathing guy makes the scene look interesting… best of luck…

Looks excellent! Really like that image.

However…I have one tiny little critique to make. It’s just that the walls are all lovely and dark and dirty looking, but the ground looks very bright and clean, and they don’t really blend in well with eachother, most noticeable where the walls meet the ground.
It is only a small thing though. The image has a really great atmosphere to it too.

Yep, completely understand that you guys are under severe pressure at the moment.
Sure get OzZ to do it, he is probably up to nothing anyways…. :P

Listen here you, i………………………………

Oh wait, yeah i suppose ill do it then. :lol:

Halo again, just a little update, im doin some other stuff now so i thought id post a quick pic of the map that we will be using for the game. The idea was a 2d map with the areas we need to be explored done in 3d, hope u like.

http://img54.imageshack.us/img54/1421/mapei8.jpg

Xero, no credit for the person who actually put the map together no?

Although you did make it really

Very nice! :) Kinda hard to read the text on the book though…..

Get some glasses Dave :shock: :shock:

Seriously though, can u not read it, everyone else thought it was legible.

Very nice! :) Kinda hard to read the text on the book though…..[/quote:7741943575]Dave’s right – you need to bring up the contrast on the book and turn it down a little for the background. Not only would this make the text on the book easier to read, but would also help strengthen the composition by directing a viewer’s eyes to what’s most important in the image – the title of the game

Well in the beginning we had tried several different colours to contrast the title of book against the cover itself, but due to the fact that we wanted to highlight the “After”, we found that the title overshadowed the “After”, which does in fact tell the reader that the game is about a ghost.

So with the help of one of our mentors, (fraser, a bloody genius), we went with more of a worn down approach to the title to highlight the “after”.

We think that the writing on the book fits well with the theme and setting as well as tone and mood of the game. There was a lot of discussion over the promo stuff and the book itself was one of the main articles of view in these discussions.

We chose all of these details for a reason and even got some people from other teams to have a look and critique it. Nobody has expressed concern regarding the font, the colour or the positioning of the type in any parts of the poster, so we went with it and stand by it.

It might also be worth noting that Fraser MacLean had a large input on this, and if you see this guy in action, you seriously wouldn’t doubt him.

Aaron and Oz put a lot into it and I think it looks pretty damn good.

well, I would have to disagree with him on this one!

It looks pretty good, don’t get me wrong – but that doesn’t mean it can’t be improved.

There is so much stuff in the picture, and so many secondary (photos) and tertiary objects (the carpet) that stand out MORE than the book, and particularly more than the book’s title. This is partly to do with composition (the placement of the book), and partly to do with the use of colour

Anyways, as I’ve said to you guys all along this is your project so go with your gut. I’ll see you over there on Wednesday evening. if any of you are free for a jar, get John to drop me a text or IM

We’re taking another look at it anyway, you’ll see the result when you arrive!

Look forward to seeing you over here

I will stick to my guns on this also. ;)
The font style, combined with the color makes it very difficult to notice. Also the positioning of the book towards the top of the image hampers it I feel. The first thing you should notice on the poster, like Tony said, should be the book with the title clearly visible.
Right now, my eyes are immediately drawn to the photo of the dead guy.

If changing the font or color is not an option, then I would experiment with some other methods to try and draw the viewers eye to the book. Maybe add a kind of shadow border around the edges of the image, like those vintage movies, which would also fit the time period the game is based in.

If you are going to do this however, you might need to change the coloring and grain of the image so that it works properly.

Just saw the new poster. It is an improvement, but I still don’t think the title, with the red “After” works for me. Again, that could be just personal taste though.[/quote:e5fa2cb4d4]Naw, it’s not – I agree with you.

two suggestions:
– tone down the marbling on the book cover itself; this might give more contrast with the cursive script int he foreground (although I think cursive script is hard to read at a glance (which is also working against you, but th period detail is spot on here) unless it’s a large size anyway)

– trim the left and right edges of the poster and top and bottom to bring the photos and book closer to the foreground and in more focus. This will squarely focus the viewer’s eye on the main content and not the ‘noise’ along the sides