Further Civilians

These are a few more "civilian" concepts done with different ideas behind each.

This is a night time girl in her dressing-gown being startled by the burglar or security guard when they chase the burglar. She would belong in one of the bedrooms which you are not normally allowed access too.

These two are simply two more character designs for women at the party.

To speed up this process I will now be doing further designs over one posed manikin drawing instead, especially for the male figures as their clothing types don't vary very much; usually just a suit with different details and tones on them. This entire process is due to be finished on the last week on November at the latest.

Past Concepts

This post is here simply to show a few ideas done a while ago that were never posted up on this blog in their first forms.

This is the initial idea of the "Bush" mechanic, showing how it would react when a player walks into it, and how it would continue to react if a player moves around when inside it. Text also explains that it can be seen by any other player be it another burglar or security guard, giving away your location; these must be used well.

This is the idea of a mechanic that hasn't been implemented yet as it requires a level of some sort first. It is very basic, using a decorational spot-light which will be aimed up the house to dramatically light it as seen in "To Catch A Thief". These lights however, will make it harder for a burglar to sneak across a roof, as he will be visible to anyone outside when he does so. The alcoves on the roof will act as cover for the burglar when up there as a suitable hiding spot, but to move around beyond them the player will have to take a gamble and be aware of his surroundings. 

Say hello to my little friend...

So we needed some sort of character test rig to attempt to use what we've learnt about anim sets and anim trees to get a custom character into the game. This is where Bob Box comes in. He is a simple platform on which to test animation and movement in the engine and to learn how to implement totally custom characters.

Bob Box rigged and posed in maya

I then imported him into UDK using the new FBX import. This worked just fine and is much more streamlined than previous methods. I then imported a very simple animation and linked it up in the anim set and skeletal mesh dialogue boxes and got it working on the character in the engine.

Bob Box in the engine

I tried to set it up so Bbo would be our player character, but initial attempts based on our method last year during the Sun City project didn't seem to work.

I will research this further. It may be the case that we are missing something that UDK requires to use as a character be that in the bones or in the code. Or it may be easier to use the UDK skeleton but give it a totally custom animation set. We shall see.

A Trip Wire test

Here is one of the mechanic tests that we did earlier but didn't get a chance to put up on the blog.

The Burglar will have the chance to set a trip wire to stop the guards chasing them. This idea was meant to be a fairly comical trap, so we decided to use the 'feign death' action (this is why I disabled it in the command list).

Anyway, here is a video showing it in action. Unfortunately it was before I set up the 3rd person camera.

Map and Environments 2

This the map of second floor of our villa. Unlike the first floor, this part of the house does not play representative role. Second floor includes master and guest single and double bedrooms, showers and sauna, reading room, gallery and possibly a painting studio. Sauna and showers are connected . While each of the rooms has it's separate entrance, there are also doors connecting them. This should provide freedom of movement in many directions. In sauna, there is possibility for the player to adjust the temperature of the room and lock the doors behind him to trap his opponent. Showers can be turned on and off to distract the guards.

Some parts of the house need deeper study, for example master bedroom. Iterations of layout and sketches of possible assets are necessary to achieve optimal form and functionality of the room. Bed in the centre creates another element of distraction and allows player to choose multiple routes of escape. Master bedroom has a connection with an opened balcony. There are four doors leading to the balcony. Player may include this option in his strategy of escape. There is also option to hide under the bed.

Guest rooms are going to be significally less decorated and have less sings of personalisation. However some elements of the environment should provide possibility do hide, escape, set a trap or distract the guard.