Village Environment

•

Village Environment
Entering the world of the Fantasy style

The idea for this project was to produce a game environment based on the style used in RPG games. It is based within a fantasy world so that i had the freedom the do what I wished the with architecture, technology and the world the level is basedwithin. The environment itself is a small village in whichthe population relies upon alternative energy to power everything.The energy sources that are used are water and wind. I feel this aspect makes the environment a lot more interesting and adds a lot character.

The environment is full of interesting little shops, cathedral styled building, a pub, an innand various other buildings you would expect a RPG game environmentto have. The environment was always to have a fair amount of colour within itso that is a lot more interesting to look at. This shall be providedby a number of banners, flags, foliage, colourful little market stallas well as some colourful aspects that the buildings themselves.

The village itself is built within a large valleyshaped landscape. It is on the edge of a large ravine with asheer cliff face just outside the village. The village has mountainous terrain behind it of which shall is host to a number ofthe turbines of the environment. The mountains shall extend around the theside of the village, on this mountain there is an observatory.The player can go to the observatory using a mountainpath. Out side of the village there is a bridge of which isused to connect the village to the opposite side of the ravine.

The environment is built within the UDK
Assets modelled in 3dsmax
Textured in photoshop

Below is some research that I collected to generate idea and use as inspiration.

The Above image was to gain a greater understanding of the shape and structure of my environments I would like to create.

The above image is not my work it is purely for inspiration

The Above image was to gain a greater understanding of the streets and layout fir the environments I would like to create.

The above image is not my work it is purely for inspiration

To also help generate idea I played through a number of games of the same style I was working towards.
These game were:

Fable1
Fable2
Final Fantasy 7
Final Fantasy 8
Final Fantasy 9

Final Fantasy 9 was the greatest influence really, it has always been a game i really enjoyed and the style really applied to my project. I gained a lot of ideas from playing it and above are some of the screen shots i took while playing through the game.

Below Are a Selection of Concepts I did during the pre-production of my environment. They vary from buildings, assets and layouts. The concepts are all of a practical nature so that they could be used to model them realistically.

This is an overall layout of the environments. This was used to make sure all the buildings were placed in the correct location. This was a very early concept and the idea was changed later on as a number of extra buildings were placed into the level.

The numbers correspond with different concepts.

This is one of my favourite shops inthe environment. It features my wind turbine you shall see within mylater concepts. This turbine is placed on the roof to supply power tothe building and I think they look rather effective. This buildingsallows you to look into the window at some of the products on sale asdo all the shops in the village. This is placed on the shopper rowwithin the level and is my favourite part of the environment as youare able to walk past all the shops and see all the stuff theysell in the shop windows.

I think this is a really cool shop andhas a very interesting window display. It features a secondfloor extension which I think is rather interesting.

This is the concept of my churchbuilding. This is a large building at the back of the villagesquare and i on of the few buildings that are not of the samearchitectural style as the rest of the village. This shall feature alarge stain glass window and a large dome shaped spire on the roof.It will be the biggest building in the village and I feel it willlook very effective in contrast to the rest of the buildings.

This is a design for the front gate. It features a large clock face upon it and shall be used for both the entrance to the village and as a bridge from one side of the village to another viaa path on top of it.

Above is a concept of one of my windturbines. This one is designed to be used on multiple buildingsplaced on the roofs as a buildings power source. They looksrather jaunty and crude but I think they look rather effective. You can see how they are attached to buildings and the scaleof them in the earlier concepts featuring some buildings.

The lamps are designed to be windpowered. These lamps are to be placed around the level as a lightsource at night. The large ones shall be around the centre square andthe wall attached ones shall be placed on buildings. The flag pole inthe centre is to be attached to the lights to again add another element of movement and colour to theenvironment.

This is a concept for my centre statue.It stands in the centre square as the main focus point. Its posed in a kneeling position leaning on his sword. It shall represent a fallen defender/ a town hero. Iis made in 3dsmax and then texturing in Mudbox as thisshall be quicker and will not show the seem as it would in Photoshopwhen applying a all over stone texture.

To speed up the process i posed it vertex by vertex instead of skinning it. This just seemed to be a more viable option as it was a lot quicker.

The above to images are a quick block-out of the environment. I did this to better illustrate my plans for the level. You will notice that my final outcome has changed from this first block out. This was mainly because after the level was constructed i felt that aspects needed to be changed and more buildings needed to be added.