TERRAPOINT

Terrapoint is an adventure-puzzle VR game created by a team of four in SIAT’s Immersive Environment course. My role in the team was to design characters, assets, and environments. I also took part in modeling, animating, and texturing 3D characters and assets from scratch through iterations. The objective of this project was to demonstrate our skills in 3D modeling, user experience, environment design, and working as a team.

Character & Asset Designing

During the early development, I sketched out several different designs for the characters and assets through iterations. The challenge here was making sure that the designs were all consistent with each other so that they won't look out of place in the game, and it took me a few iterations to get it right for them.

3D Modeling

Next, I incorporated those designs and modeled them from scratch in Maya, by using the sketches as references for proportions. I also had to make sure that the models were created in low-polygons, as it helps make the game run smoother and easier to modify at the same time.

Texturing

To prepare the models for texturing, I properly UV mapped them in Maya, in order for the texture to be applied seamlessly. Then, I imported the models into Substance Painter for advanced texturing.

3D Animating

Since the player has to interact with the characters in the game, animations are needed for them to respond to the interactions. In this stage, I rigged the characters with humanIK and animated multiple actions for each character, such as standing up, walking cycle, and picking up objects.

Environment Design

On the other hand, I’ve designed and created game environments in Unity, such as the subway level and the interior of the train through iterations. During the process, I encountered numerous challenges and problems, such as having the size of some areas of the subway wrong. For example, I realized the platform that I made was too wide, or the hallway was too narrow, which would create a hindrance to the game experience and ruin the immersion as it wouldn’t be realistic. Therefore, I consulted with my teammates and researched what a real subway would look like in person and on the internet. Through several iterations, I managed to fix the issues that I encountered and also created a much more realistic-looking subway.

Graphic Design

To make the assets more connected with each other, I’ve designed a few brandings, such as the “ECO-TP” that serves as the “evil corporate” in the game, by creating a color palette, typography, and logo for it.

Exhibition Concept Art

In our course, each of our projects has to present at an exhibition on campus, and we were allowed to decorate our “booth” that provides a more immersive experience for the participants. One of my roles was to design our “Booth” and scenarios through a series of concept art.

Takeaways

Overall, I successfully met the objective of demonstrating my skills in 3D modeling, animating, environment, character, graphic design, and working as a team. However, we had to make unfortunate changes to our game and the way how we presented it due to the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic. In which we had to switch our gameplay from VR to the traditional mouse and keyboard controls, and our exhibition was also canceled.

Although the pandemic affected our project drastically, we were still able to create exceptional work, and we received an “A+” grade for the project.

From this project, I realized that communication and orientation in a team are incredibly important. As we passed materials such as 3D models, sound effects, or texture files to each other all the time, we had to make sure that everyone was on the same page.

Moving forward from this project, my technical skills with Maya and Unity had improved drastically after I spent numerous hours on the project. Moreover, I learned how to collaborate with other teammates much more effectively.