Sprint 5 Recap

 Sprint 5 went well very smoothly. It was by our far our most stress free sprint yet, with the majority of the team being on track. As always, the majority of my time was spent on modeling, in fact; besides the singular particle I did, this is the first time since Sprint 1 where I didn't do anything else but modeling.

The first thing I tackled this sprint was resolving a issue with the clairvoyance item model. The compass was originally a single modeler, as I assumed it would be static in design, and instead simply rotate towards the indicated area. After speaking with the programmer, they indicated they needed part of the mesh to be static, while the needle would rotate. This was different then what the designer had asked for, but in theory should accomplish the same goal, so I redid the compass to be two separate objects.



This was done first, so that the programmer would have the entirety of the sprint in order to animate the compass, if they chose to do it during this sprint.

Another protopye was requested by the designer as well, specifically regarding a new type of wall. This was going to make up a entirely new maze, and should of been 1x1 in scale. Meaning this singular modular component would be the only one needed. Below is the prototype for that modular piece. Any guesses on what the theme could be?


If you guessed a corn maze, your right! This was pretty fun to make, and as you can tell by the UV map, it is also insanely optimized. Not only do all the the stalks of corn share a UV map, but a lot of the shucks on the individual stalks also do. This means that Alexander, who is primarily in charge of texturing, will have a ton of real estate to make high resolution textures.

Next up was a relatively basic prop. I pitched the idea of having some models dot the maze, as currently it is rather bland, especially when it comes to geometry. The producer and designer gave me the go ahead, so I started with something basic, as we can easily paste it throughout the levels.


The rock prop may seem simple in design, but it already has more geometry then the entirety of the modular maze pieces put together. The idea is that this should give our levels a bit more variety. I only made two UV shells, as a big pet peeve of mine is seeing UV lines in textures of such basic and small items. Because the texture it self is rather bland, the slight stretching from the minimal shells will not be noticeable. 

Another project I did specifically for the programmers was the modular breakable wall. 



It is difficult to tell from the photo on exactly how this is breakable, but the 4x4 grid is made up of individual cubes, not cuts. This means that they can be separated individually and have their own trajectory and velocity. Basically the player can blow the wall up and a rather dynamic fashion. The UVs are also very optimized, with the individual cubes sharing a map. I have already received some feedback on changes that need to be conducted from the programmers. As I am writing, during Sprint 6, these changes have been implemented, and this modular component is fully functioning.

The one thing I did besides modeling this sprint was a particle effect:


This is the wall break particle, which is intended for the model above. Specifically the hedge variant, hence the arbor coloration. This was fun to make, and is actually the longest of the non-looping particles. I think it will give the player some satisfaction to see it as they break a wall.

Finally, the major thing I worked on was redoing and improving the Mazekeeper.


 He more accurately represents the concept art I was given to work with, and also looks far more hostile. The increase in hostility is pretty solely caused by the new eyebrows, which gives him quite a menacing look, and clearly indicates to the player that he is indeed a threat.

This concludes the majority of my work for Sprint 5. Things went very well, and I'm excited to hear I'll be in charge of texturing the Mazekeeper for Sprint 6. We are wrapping up production, and currently still on task.


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