Environmental Asset Creation & Game Design

Overview

During the last two weeks, I continued focusing on environmental asset creation in Blender and game design, with a renewed emphasis on overcoming creative roadblocks. Key goals included refining existing assets, exploring new techniques for diverse landscapes, and improving workflow efficiency.

Highlights & Progress

• Art & Visuals: Refined rocky cliff assets using a combination of non-grid-based geometry and detailed textures for a more organic appearance. Implemented procedural shorelines using Blender’s built-in add-ons like AutoTerrain. Began work on forest environments, experimenting with various tree styles, branch variations, and foliage types. Optimized grass rendering by implementing a more efficient approach to rotation angles and reducing shadow casting. Continued improving cobblestone textures and natural rock placement for varied terrain.
• System & Mechanics: Visioned a probability index system for enemy movesets based on player progress, including adjustments for randomness and strategic encounters. Focus remains on scaling bosses based on an arbitrary heuristic to ensure fair fights.
• Workflow Improvements: Made significant progress in addressing creative roadblocks by adopting new asset creation techniques and strategies. Optimized workflow through better organization, prioritization of tasks, and time management practices. Began researching new hardware options to further improve Blender performance and longevity.

Reflections

• What worked well: Procedural shorelines have added variety to the game’s environments while streamlining asset creation.
• What didn’t work well: Overcoming creative roadblocks required a mix of patience, experimentation, and persistence
• What surprised me: Adopting more efficient workflows has improved productivity and reduced stress
• What changed in terms of approach or mindset: Hardware upgrades will be essential for continued progress in both asset creation and performance optimization

Next Steps

• Blender: Finalize forest environments, including tree designs, foliage types, and varied terrain features. Further optimize grass rendering for improved performance and visual appeal. Implement procedural cave generation using AutoTerrain or alternative solutions.
• Echo: Revisit project manager app and broaden scope, prepare as first major release.

Generated by Echo by Watchlight Studio — distilled from full transcription.