2D/3D Story Development
Story Overview
For this assignment i am using one page to describe my process and idea development for my digital story.
The overall design of my digital story will be created within a 3D form of software such as Unity or Unreal engine. I have chosen these two in paticular to help better my knwoledge within my own degree while developing my environmental story i intend to make.
I have used several other pieces of software in the aid of my development for this story, However due to the scope of my story i will be using mostly found assets which will be referenced at the bottom of the page in a list of what they are and where i have found such assets.
Initial Research & Idea Generation
Concept 1
For my environmental story i have approached several other stories in which where not used for my final decision however did help steer me in to which one i would finally decide to use.
The original concept of a digital story i had in mind was to make a form of book or comic depicting two characters and their relatioship together and how it would have ended between them. However this concept i would find much better to fit a short novel or a book rather than a comic with digital illustrations.
The image to the right was the planing i had behind this concept before i had started moving on to a new one, I have been using a suite of programs called Zenkit (Axonic Informationssysteme GmbH, 2016) to allow me to plan these assignments out better and easier with a visual representation of how i would plan to approach different aspects of it going in to each detail of the Story itself, What assets would be required and what media it would be done in. This approach for my assignment i did not feel would be viable to provide a higher grade as it would have limited or no digital assets such as drawings and sketches. After this i would consider other options.
Concept 2
Like my first concept the second was designed in the same software allowing me to separate things and plan them out better. This second concept was more thinking about what I could do within a 3D environment being an interactive story or environmental. I favoured this one as an interactive story allowing the main character to be controllable unveiling parts of the story as the player/reader of this story as well as be apart of it.
This story would involve the reader/player taking part as a soldier or traveller patrolling or adventuring through an old woodland at night, finding something that has been lost to time. The creation they would find would be an old robot I have designed myself in the past years during my university degree. To make up the environment I would have to use found assets primarily to flesh out a 3D atmosphere as well as have a atmospheric region for the right feeling for the story. I didn’t develop concept 1 and 2 fully however it helped me lead into the third concept which I feel would be good for my degree and the route I want to look at exploring in after university.
Concept 3
My Third and Final concept i started exploring with was only focused on environmental story; later on i have started cosnidering this a more interesting project if i took it as interactable story. This concept i have planned has had more work and depth put in to it, along with more inspiration from other existing things such as, Falling Skies (Rodat et al., 2011) aswell as Netflix series, Lost In Space (Allen, Sazama and Burk Sharpless, 2018). Both of these inspirations have one key thing in common being Alien Robotic creatures killing humanity in very different reasons and ways. However i would look to these as my major inspiration for my story.
This environmental story would have a key focus on what the alien robots would be doing to those humans they find and how the surviving humans might be living to survive.
However if i were to do this as an interactable story, it wouldnt be so much of an animation as it would be, explore the areas and find out what has happened to the survivors of that area and see if there are any clues to where they have gone or if they survived. This will give the reader an immersive feel into the story and i would employee some game design techniques like bread crumbing or Light trails to help guide the player. I belive this would be more achiveable and more interesting thant doing my assignment as a environmental design video, it will give me the opportunity to use a combination of 2D and 3D Design elements and use my own assets more easily.
Story Overview
For my concept three, the main idea behind the story itself has been inspired by the two TV series which has helped me plan the design for the environment and help understand what story it is that i want to actually portray. The setting for this story would be modern day Earth, and i shall be trying to aim for a semi realistic or stylized art form to go along with it
This has allowed me to come up with a form of apocalyptic event which involves the invasion of an alien robot species which has been sent top inhabit a nmew planet, this time being earth. However they were met with a resistance of people who were trying to defend their own planet.
Originally i was going to do it as a environmental story telling using mostly camera work and some animation sequences to tell the story of what has happened in a safe zone of the characters in the scene. However i have been considering changing this to the interactive story as i feel like i can learn more and portray the story better through this meansrat rather than using camera work and a single scene to do it.
The story is heavily inspired from the two TV Series, and is following their base concepts as a alien invasion with robotics as its main focus and invasion force. Ill be focusing alot more on the story of how the people in the post apocalypse environment are surviving and what they are doing to try and fight back against the hostile invasion.
The two ways i have considerd doing this story have some similarities and some differences from one another. For my environmental design i mostly wanted to keep it in a contained scene using camera work and the animations and environment itself to portray the story however i dont feel overly confident doing this anymore. The scene would have been designed with being in a form of warehouse, like an distribution center that has been repourposed into a safe house for people to come together, restock and rest. This safe house would be captured with a camera before the robots came and found it and later again afterward. The animation and camera pan of after the robots finding it would have cardboard boxes scattered across the scene as they destroyed the distribution center, blood stains on the walls of people being shot, a broken wall and glass where the robots have entered the safe house. I would have to use alot of found assets to make this possible and alot of animation im not overly strong with yet. This is why i started considering my next idea of the interactive story rather than encironmental scene.
Character Overview
This story concept doesn’t have much in terms of characters or character story as such. This is due to the consumer of the story being the main character within this narrative. The reader/player of my interactive story will be going through the environments of the survivors paths and where they have been and will examining the areas looking for clues to where people may have been seeking refuge. Some items will be collectible and will lead to hidden passages in the story only acsessible by finding certain objects and notes.
The other characters in this narrative are presumed dead unless the player/reader can find where they are holding up against the invasive alien species. The player might run in to deceased people, of which this might help the player/reader to locate the hidden passages but also continue on the story getting a full feel for how people are surviving within the now apocalyptic world. Because of this I haven’t developed any major scripts the player might encounter as I am still debating on what objects the player will be interacting with as well as what environmental pieces they might encounter. If I were continuing with a more streamline book story such as my first concept I would have more involvement with scripts and brief pieces of the story on which the reader would be engrossed with.
Flow of Story/Game
The flow of the story is as follows on the image to the right. I have added more notes to it than i needed as such because i found it a valuable and easy way to help myself visualize my concept of the game and how it will be progressing. Including the main menus itself and what they contain. These arn’t exactly story aspects however they can lead to a more understandable and easier time for a new person to pick up this story game.
The main story will follow as soon as the player presses the play button. Giving them a prologue to the background of the story and what they can be expecting, There will be an option to skip the prologue leading the player/reader straight into the world map from where they will begin reading and experiencing the story itself.
The game starts with the prologue leading in to the world map where the player will be met with an interface they interact with to help tell the story and travel between different chapters and side passages.
Sketches of Illustrations
These three sketches are concept ideas of what the map and scenes will be looking like. The first one the player will be met with is the map and how they interact with it. Ill be looking to do glowing buttons to identify each readable segment depending how far they are in the story and where they will be going to next.
The map i have drafted as a concept is a segment of the full map, where the bottom road indicated it will be progressing however for this assignment i have chosen to cut it down and make it more achievable within the timeframe given for the deadline, this will help me focus on the chapters and the writing more than trying to get multiple scenes at a lesser quality produced. i felt this was the best way for me to get some higher quality content done for this story as it is something i personally have some interest into as a hobby of lore writing as well as the topic of sci fi as well as post apocalyptic universe I’m looking to explore as a writer.
Chapter One would be associated within a warehouse which would be follwong a modern day form of distribution center warehouse but much smaller. The concept around this chapter would be survivors seeking refuge in a warehouse looking for the safest place and easy to hold considering their oponents were very strong from another world with technology above their own. They would go on to make a settlement in a warehouse as it seemed safe and defendable within this warehouse with a perimiter wall around the enterance. However this wouldnt go as to plan as the alien robots would breach two walls and a glass window from above. As the survivors held against the robots they might have left a few clues to where other survivors mgiht be located throughout the rest of the chapters of the story.
The warehouse would be the first chapter in the story the reader/player would come across and might give some hope to other people surviving or holding a form of refuge against the unknown threat.
The blue and green represent where the reader / player starts and ends this chapter ideally. Red is mostly connotation for myself within development as do some other indicators.
Chapter Two leads on into holding out within a environment based within a hotel location. It would be based in a lobby and smaller than chapter one, it might offer less insight to the story opposed to chapter one, however would progress onward to other side chapters and the next location of chapter three which i will not be covering within my assignment to meet a reasonable deadline and experience within the given timeframe.
This chapter would be focused soley on the interior of the hotel lobby as other survivors are looking to seek refuge in a secure shelter however the reason would be unknown untill the reader/player find out within the level as to why they are no longer there. The player would expect to find withing this area of the story.
Chapter Two leads on into holding out within a environment based within a hotel location. It would be based in a lobby and smaller than chapter one, it might offer less insight to the story opposed to chapter one, however would progress onward to other side chapters and the next location of chapter three which i will not be covering within my assignment to meet a reasonable deadline and experience within the given timeframe.
This chapter would be focused soley on the interior of the hotel lobby as other survivors are looking to seek refuge in a secure shelter however the reason would be unknown untill the reader/player find out within the level as to why they are no longer there. The player would expect to find withing this area of the story.
There are some side story passages the player can find through certain notes or collectibles however i have not planned these within my sketches yet. I will be looking do include atleast two for my final assignment to go between chapter one and chapter two.
Asset List
I’m undecided on the exact assets I need for my story so far however I have decided that I will be making some of my own assets for my digital story. This will include some of the 3D assets as well as my 2D UI stuff for the map, buttons, menus, as well as the side rooms that are optional story elements.
Aswell as using my own assets i will be needing to find some assets from the unreal market place. Assets i will need to find will involve some of the environmental pieces.
Assets i will be looking to find,
Tents, Suitcases, Fencing, Leaves, , and possibly bricks, I might design my own brick, Corpses and crates.
Currently I have not searched for the assets I need yet and do not have a means of showing them in my development proposal at this stage.
assets I will be looking to make myself will consist of the warehouse, shelving, the hotel building for chapter 2, The overall map design allowing the player to follow along with the story, as well as the side rooms I will be looking to design in 2D as a interactive UI potentially like a visual Novel. The combination of all these assets will go in to creating the environment and the UI elements the player will be able to interact with and experience throughout the story. I feel like creating my own assets is important as I can always learn new and more techniques and how to design environments better to fit the narrative, as well as create a new type of universe map to give my story its own sense of feel and allow it to flow in a way that makes sense for the concept I’m doing with it. Using some found assets will help me create a better feeling for this too within my given deadline.
Project Planning
For my planning of this module i have been using the Zenkit suite of programs to help plan my work through a form of detailed mind map along with a project management section. (Axonic Informationssysteme GmbH, 2016) These have helped me organise my workflow and allow me to understand what parts of my story i need to be working on and how i will be going about them. As well as explore other concepts for my assignment previously mentioned at the top of my submission page.
Reference list
a-z based on author
Allen, I., Sazama, M. and Burk Sharpless (2018) Lost in Space. IMDb. Available online: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt5232792/. [Accessed 14 Nov. 2022].
Axonic Informationssysteme GmbH (2016) Zenkit Suite. Zenkit. Available online: https://zenkit.com/en/ [Accessed 14 Nov. 2022].
Rodat, R., Wyle, N., Roy, D. and Knight, M. (2011) Falling Skies. IMDb. Available online: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1462059/ [Accessed 14 Nov. 2022].