My name is Travis Kunze, I am the Lead Programmer, as well Manager for Weeping Studios. We’re currently working on a game that’s running on the Unity3D engine, we currently refer to the game as Project A51, although the title has not yet been officially selected. This is a snippet about the project from one of the first blog posts on our website.
Since this post a few details have changed, like for one the game will not take place in Area 51 specifically, but in a a Area 51 like facility, same basic purpose with a few interesting twists that we’re working on.
One of our 3D artists is currently working on the facility building itself using 3DS MAX. Some screenshots of the WIP on the building.
I like the idea of using Area 51 in the game, but I’m really worried that the only thing that your project and the actual Area 51 will have in common is the name.
I’d really like to see some good story background in your project, something based on the actual facts - not just a plain FPS shooter placed between 4 fences.
good luck.
Hey thanks for the comment. Just wanted to reply to let you know we are actually very focused on the story for the game. We actually have no immediate plan for a multiplayer mode at all, our focus is in two areas, level/gameplay development, and story development. We really want the story to catch people’s attention. We actually have a member of the teams who’s job is specifically to focus on story development, which includes writing and research.
The reason we chose not to do Area 51 specially and just a area with a similar concept is due to the fact that we don’t want to be creatively limited to just what Area 51 supposedly handles. We wanted to be completely open without people being able to go “hey area 52 doesn’t handle that.” Our goal as a company is to be creative and bring a new realm to entertainment in general. None of us our limited to the any typical thinking patterns most industry professionals would have. We’re all new to this, and want to make an impact.’
Dont make the mistake of modeling out the scene as one asset. This is very ineffective. Instead, make modular segments you can snap together end to end. Your current way of modeling things will be bad due to poly count, lighting on some poly faces, no ability to edit or change the level layout quickly, etc
This is the latest blog post where we discuss about balancing out between the gameplay and the story of the game, and using Natural Selection 2 by Unknown Worlds as a good example of ingame balance.
To further reply to hellraizerhhh, I talked to our 3D artist, because to be completely honest I’m just a level designer and programmer, 3D art is not my area of expertise at all, he said he has every intent of splitting up the building into multiple parts that can be snapped together later on, that for now its just one piece for ease of building it.
It may get cut together later on, but due to the way its modeled, cutting it later will cause it to not be truely modular. You have to be quite precise with your module dimensions to make things snap correctly to any other piece.
Some tutorials below. You can find tons more information on how to do things correctly. If done right once, any noobie can put together a level in no time since there is no guess work.
Makes sense, again ill pass the info on to the 3D artist so he can look into it, and make changes he needs to make. Thanks for the information! We’re all fairly new to this, mostly have experimented on game design for years, this is our first major project, so we do appreciate the advice.
Thanks Xtremepman! We’re still working on a lot of the story development, which is of course going to be a lot of work. This is the main thing holding us back from having more to show, and moving in the game more.
Also, next weeks blog post will focus on the textures, before and after and the method used to get those texture looks. It will be Conor’s first blog post, so keep your eyes open!
Hey everyone, this week Conor took a crack at the weekly blog post and we have a overview of how he did some of the texture work for the games we’re working on!
Hey everyone, sorry for the lack of updates beside the weekly round ups, it’s been a busy last few weeks as I recently moved to another city, a new house, new roommates. Here is this weeks weekly round up, with a new piece of character concept art and an update on where we are!
I would love to hear more about this game I think this game is going to make it
Defiantly just make sure you keep up the good work and don’t stop to make another game if
you have a new idea of a game just add it to your game your building now…
Good Luck!
Hi Gideon, thank you for the compliments. We are very dedicated and focused on this one project at the moment, the last several weeks for me personally have been busy and not allowed for a whole lot of studio focus, but I am getting back on top of things today and through out this week, and we will hopefully have a nice update ready at the end of the week for everyone.
