Tejas Reddy | Passage of Time | Rookies Game Dev Entry 2024

Passage of Time

Initial Concept:

With this project I wanted to explore designing the same space/level under varying environmental and lighting conditions while still keeping true to a narrative theme that connects each scene. The initial concept was to hence, design a still or vignette of an inhabited area at a time when it flourished with flora and fauna and then break down the same space hundreds of years later after having been exposed to the elements and world changing events - an almost post apocalyptic theme.

Narrative:

Deciding on an overall narrative to connect the scenes became the first task and while I knew I wanted a timeskip from a scene full of life to an essentially barren scene, I needed to tell a story with this space. I decided on the story of a scholarly civilization secluded from the rest of the world and practically one with nature, making scientific discoveries ahead of its time. This base concept gave me avenues to explore why such a civilization fell to ruin. Whether it was war or overutilization of resources, it seemed plausible that such a civilization would succumb to any manner of tragic incidents as time moved forward and other nations or populations would interact with them. This led to the basic idea of the broken down post timeskip scene I wanted; the deserted ruins of a once great civilization.

Interior:

Focusing on the pre timeskip scene first, I knew this space needed to be filled with a natural landscape and plenty of flora but also a few well designed structures to indicate the civilization’s influence in the scene. To that end, I decided to create the centerpiece of the scene first - a rotunda like structure at the edge of a cliff face that acted as an open study area for the scholar inhabiting it.

When designing the interior I wanted to continue to keep a cohesive narrative for the person using this space and to that end created little pockets of scenes to help add to their story. Each pocket conveys its own aspect of the character’s personality and overall nature from the general clutter and books strewn around showing their messiness to the lounge pillows and artwork portraying their more relaxed and artistic side. All of this, contrasting with the more rigid study elements, I felt gave a more complete picture of the person who used this space.

Exterior:

Designing the outer environment was in some ways much more straightforward than the interior at least when it came to laying out the space itself. Since I was already working with the rotunda as the central focus of the piece, filling in the space around it was just a matter of keeping a balance between the chaos of the lively environment and a minimalistic approach to the amount of buildings or architecture these scholars would construct. At the same time, I did still want to keep a sense of scale and grandeur to the scene which led me to place the statue and cathedral like structure in the background.

Color Theory & Lighting:

While the layout of the space was relatively simple, when initially lighting the space I ran into the problem of the environment feeling very muted under the typical skybox setup with a directional light acting as the sun. I needed to find a way to really make the colors pop and landed on the concept of complementary colors in color theory.

Complementary colors are colors that are directly opposite each other in the color wheel. When combined together they tend to cancel each other out. However, when placed side by side, they create the strongest contrast between these colors. Artists like Maxfield Parrish who stuck to a limited color wheel of 3 to 4 colors used this idea extensively in order to create vibrant spaces in their work and I realized I could achieve a similar effect.

By using a tinted skylight and exponential height fog, I was able to bring a mix of purples to the scene to contrast the harsh golden orange tones from the directional light of the sun. I also added a post process volume to add bloom and increase the scale of contrast with the shadows, which intensified the colors that much more in order to mimic the same vibrant contrast seen in these paintings.

                                                                  Daybreak - Maxfield Parrish

The reason for focusing on a more painted aesthetic for this scene was to really capitalize on the idyllic aspect of this point in time when compared to the post timeskip scene. I felt that it would give a much harsher shift in perspective to the viewer to really drive home the extent of the change between the two scenes.

While the lighting was the main element in bringing this theme together, I also added 2D planes of painted clouds and 2D bird particle emitters to the scene to compliment the painted effect.

Post Timeskip:

With the post timeskip scene, the majority of the work was breaking down the assets that I put together in the previous scene but still keeping them cohesive enough for the viewer to know it is the same picture just decades later.

Since the main theme of this scene was more an absence of life than the existence of one, the problem I found myself faced with was how to make a seemingly barren area interesting enough for a player to want to explore. The answer I came up with actually arose while I was breaking down the structures of the buildings, especially the cathedral. I realized that I could introduce verticality to the explorable space for the player by breaking down the pillars and walls in such a way that they would look reasonably traversable in a platformer setting. Walls could be half broken to create stair and platform like structures for players to jump between and pillars could be angled to act as ramps.

From a lighting perspective I moved away from the painted feeling of the previous scene, instead opting for a much harsher light and removing the 2D cloud planes for a plane of an eclipsed sun with a skybox that contained a loop of rapidly shifting clouds to represent a world in turmoil.

                                            FINAL RESULTS:

                                                     Before:

                                                     After:

                                                  Interior:

Asset Credits:

Props and various assets were sourced from the following asset packs in the Unreal Marketplace: 

Frog - Library Asset Pack

Velarion - Matte Painting Skybox Pack VI

archafizov - Modular Ancient Ruins Pack

StylArts -  Stylized Paradise Gardens Pack

Epic Games - Paragon Agora and Monolith Pack

Joana Marques - Research Office Props Steampunk Pack

PolyArt Studio - Stylized Castle Environment Pack

ShawychodonosoR - Stylized Ruins Pack

Audio Credits:

Depths of the Illusive OST - Kuro Games

Lost Palace in a Desert - Martia's Muses