![\"SS](\"http:\/\/www.joshuarosenstock.com\/teaching\/IMGD3500_A14\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/09\/SS-Floorplan.png\")
<\/a><\/p>\nPretty sure that a real toilet pipe wouldn’t go straight down into an empty room like that, but hey, it’s a game. After the initial layout was done, I put in some basic coloring.<\/p>\n
Though this initial coloring isn’t all that bad, I feel it was a touch unfocused, with spots of color thrown in a little too haphazardly. I wanted to differentiate the rooms by color but got a little too extreme with the variation. As such, I’ve revised something a bit more conservative. I break down the new color palette in the image below.<\/p>\n Here’s a collage of reference images I collected. There’s a few pieces of generic sewer art, some from video game levels (Ratchet & Clank, Crash Bandicoot), and some more specific details, such as pipes, steel plating, and grates.<\/p>\n Next up are a few concept sketches for some of the modular elements, as well as the boss object.<\/p>\n I started with a simple large sewer pipe wall that would act as a basic building block for the level. Ill-aligned plate metal covers the curved part, while the flat floor will probably be some kind of concrete. I’ve also considered having pipes lining the walls as a way to break up the monotony.<\/p>\n Next is a smaller tunnel section which acts as a clear break between different rooms. It’s a much smaller and shorter pipe that will probably have a darker coloring. I also include a grate wall surrounded by stonework, to act as boundary the player cannot cross.<\/p>\n Lastly, I threw in a catwalk for good measure, as there’ll be a couple of them to bridge gaps.<\/p>\n At this stage, I’m still hesitant to commit to a direction for the boss object. I considered having him just as a standalone mutated fish, without any metal housing or weapons. If I take this path, I’d have to decide whether he’s just a 2D sprite or a fully fleshed 3D model.<\/p>\n (By the way, I’m going for a Paper Mario-esque style, meaning most characters are 2D sprites. Sometimes the convention is broken for boss characters, who may appear as 3D models for dramatic effect.)<\/p>\n If given a metal housing, it’d definitely be more optimal to model it in 3D. I want to make a quirky, scrapped-together hunk of machinery, with pipes, pistons, and weaponry flailing off it in random directions. A tank in the center would show the shriveled up fish, kept alive only by the ridiculous contraption built around him.<\/p>\n After sketching a concept for a laser, it’s shape accidentally reminded me of a hairdryer. This brought up the idea of designing his weapons as if they were scrapped together from bathroom accessories that somehow made their way down the drain.<\/p>\n In this case, the machine gun is<\/em> admittedly a bit overkill, but in a universe where toilet drains are direct vertical pipes into a dead-end room, and goldfish can manage to survive in such an environment and foster that much hate and revenge, I don’t think it’d be too out of whack for military-grade weaponry to end up in the sewer somehow.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" First off, I drew a basic level layout on graph paper. Since I’m going for more of a sidescroller perspective, I showed the map from the side, rather than from the top. Pretty sure that a real toilet pipe wouldn’t go straight down into an empty room like that, but hey, it’s a game. After … Continue reading Sour Sewer: Pre-Production<\/span> <\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n