This week was spent planning deadlines and dividing responsibilities between people. Since I’m working on asset creation, I can’t actively participate in development at this stage, but I tried to contribute to the overall visual of the game.

Eric and Jeremy, respectively, were primarily responsible for concept art and overall level design, but I also tried to help with reference and research. My main suggestion was to mix the aesthetics already outlined in the plan with unusual architectural styles, such as the use of ancient Greek-style columns or elements of Soviet constructivism. I thought adding something similar in this style would be a good way to emphasize the dream narrative, given the space felt rather unnatural.

Eric and I started creating mood boards. One of them, the final version I created, is attached above.

Eric leaned more toward using ancient Greek architecture, specifically the Basilica Cistern in Turkey, which I suggested, and also provided his own research, for later concept arts. I then explored other ideas, such as making a roof that referenced one of the indoor water parks in Moscow, and also tried to maintain a balance between the vaporwace core suggested in GDD and our personal ideas.

I also started learning Substance Painter and Substance Designer as additional software because I wanted to create high-quality textures myself. My goal was to learn how to mix the PBR pipeline with stylistic shaders, and I started taking an additional course to explore this topic.

I’ve started to worry that we’re all lagging behind at the start of development if being honest, and my personal problem is the desire to expand the scope of my work, requiring me to learn new software or develop minor differences from the GDD, which requires additional research. I understand that the consequences will most likely affect my work scope, and I want to try to overcome this, since my priority for this course is improving my visualization skills and it requires experementation.