To provide further clarity of the project and to help keep a much clearer goal I have decided to compile all my ideas which I have approved from all aspects of the project.
Project Boiler Plate
The project is a technical showreel which will be presented in the form of a short playable demo set in the world of the Dishonored franchise, where the gameplay style will be fast paced first person stealth (similar to the predator sections in the Batman Arkham series) where you’re encouraged to take down multiple enemies by surprise and disappear back into the shadows.
I will be focusing on a slice of the game with a vertical slice from a potential level to align with my project goals.
The following software is what I will be using; Unreal Engine 4, 3ds Max, Houdini, ZBrush, Substance Designer, Substance Painter, and Photoshop.
What is it?
The focus will be on visual effects & high quality shader development, where the environment and gameplay will help further back this up. Ultimately it will be an experience in a sandbox environment to chain together the various gameplay systems and see what you can accomplish.
I am doing this in order to become even more proficient with visual effects/particle effects, and highly technical shaders – while also providing a showcase of my best artwork in the Dishonored style (stylised proportions, materials with realistic specular surfaces & stylised albedo features like a painting) complimented by the gameplay style as the player will be able to slow down when needed to take in the environment and the narrative.
The following features I aim to deliver:
- Custom high quality assets (meshes, textures, shaders, materials)
- Unique high quality environmental & gameplay-driven visual effects
- High quality lighting optimal for real time gameplay
- High quality material surfaces with an emphasis on sharp albedo & specular details
- Level design which makes good use of the limited space and introduces a nice element of environment layering and verticality
- Environment pipeline aimed at an AAA studio for efficiency & optimisation – such as using material blending, heavy prop re-use, material overrides etc
The Game
You will play as “The Outsider” – the one held responsible for all the bad things which happened in the previous titles. You were the one who chose specific persons of interest to give your mark and see what they would do with it, the neutral chaos.
You will arrive in Karnaca after the events of Dishonored 2 and Death of the Outsider in which you have been freed from your prison in the void, and you now use your rare connection to the void for mercenary work on the side (and has gained you a reputation amongst the authorities), and to clean up the mess you left behind and take away the marks you gave.
Narrative Context
You will arrive at an industrial district in Karnaca by boat, and you will need to work your way up from the port to the downtown shopping district which is currently booming in the time of crisis which is the plague.
You need to clean up the mess you left behind and find the man with the mark you gave him all those years ago and end him, and make a little coin while you’re at it.
The local fish are infected with this specific strain of the plague and the poor have no choice but to take their chances with it. The local shop owners are getting even richer as they sell the local imports and ointments to the elite and wealthy to protect against the plague, and the local industry is currently booming by extracting a chemical from the abundant plague growths which acts as a natural catalyst. Little do they care that the left over waste and fumes are just making more people sick, but in a time of growing demand and consumerism what do they care as they profit. The political climate is in a slow decline as a new ruler is being elected, and so the corporations have managed to hook their way in .
Environment & Level Design
You will be playing in a small sandbox-like environment which has two main focal areas; the industrial district & port (with the sea coming in), and the higher-up shop district. The shopping district will be a circle of shops with a central focal point (possibly a fountain or sculpture).
This area of Karnaca will be set in the afternoon on a warm sunny day with a slight overcast in spring, where there will be gusts of wind coming from the sea. The architecture will not vary too much from Dishonored 2 and Death of the Outsider too much in that it will stick to a mixture of Gothic, Victorian, and Edwardian styles for interiors, and Italian Renaissance for building exteriors.
The current year is ambiguous though the time period will be consistent with a mixture of late 1800s/early 1900s with technology consistent with steam powered technology in the first half of the 20th century.
In terms of level design I aim to provide a clear sense of environment layering with interior/exterior transitions to best extend the physical space into playable space. I also will be thinking heavily about level verticality to provide the most appropriate playable space for the gameplay.
Where Now?
My next aims are to put together existing reference and moodboards for colour palettes, lighting, and the environment. As well as that I also aim to do a basic level design plan as a starting point for the level flow which I aim to tweak as I play-test and bring in more art to accommodate the design.
Once I have the level designed and cut it down to the playable section inside a reasonable scope I will develop an asset list of what I will require from a higher level perspective which will consist of props, modular pieces, decals, materials, textures (tiling & trims), environmental VFX & shaders, and any set pieces/hero assets.
Technical Showcase: Dishonored 