Update #3: Lots of Background Art!

Hey guys, it's been a busy two weeks! I've been hard at work on the game, and I've got quite a bit of new artwork to share with you. But first thing's first, you may notice a slight difference in the banner. After much deliberation, I've decided to change the title of the game. I was never fully satisfied with "Dyll's Quest For Funk." Having an apostrophe in the title seemed like it could eventually be problematic, and the name Dyll wasn't exactly interesting enough that it felt necessary to be in there. I thought about just calling it 'Quest For Funk' but a name that simple seems like it could eventually be a legal headache (especially with all of this candy nonsense going on right now). And so I finally settled on the title DJ Dyllusion: Quest For Funk. Let me know what you think about the new title in the comments section! I also went ahead and bought QuestForFunk.com so you can now access this blog from that address.

Anyways, without further ado... let's get to the new art!

This is the first building that you enter in the game. A lot of platformers have that flat look where you're standing on boxes directly in front of the camera, with a 100% straight view (original Mario or Sonic games for example). I wanted to go with a visual style with a bit more depth, like something that you'd see in a fighting game or beat 'em up. While the character is still limited to two-dimensional movement, the background gives the illusion that it takes place in a world with three dimensions.

When you're up on the streets, it's a wide open area with scrolling backgrounds and expansive landscapes. But once you go down into the sewers, the area becomes much more confined. The backgrounds down there become static and give you a sense that the character is in a tighter place.I really want to convey a sense of depth with my environments.

These backgrounds are actually composed of many small, individual pieces that are designed to be modular. Placing them in Unity has turned out to be a bit more time consuming than I originally figured it would, but by creating them in such a way it gives me a lot more freedom in my game design. I've toyed with the idea of creating more of a grid-based tile system to make placement easier. But again, I think the sense of scale that I'm currently using provides greater creative freedom than if I was working with tiles. So I'll stick with my current methods, at least for the prototype.

Here's a view of the skyline background. This is actually 4 images on top of one another, each able to scroll at its own speed. I went ahead and completely re-wrote my parallax script to not only be more efficient, but also to give me a bit more control over it from within Unity. I still have a slight issue with some of the layers fighting for Z-space, but I'm sure I'll figure that bug out before the next update. I also plan to add some clouds and stars up in the sky to break up that big dark area.

 

As you may have noticed up above, I finished Dyll's jogging animation! I've included the two sketched versions for comparison. I think I may need to adjust his head a bit in this animation to prevent it from looking so stiff, but I'm certainly happy enough with it for the prototype. This actually took me quite a bit of time, so I feel a slight sense of dread when I look at my list of animations that still need to be done. Hopefully the experience I gained from this one can help to speed up my process a bit. 

Lastly we have my favorite bit that I worked on recently - a city bus! This is simply there as an "invisible wall" on the left to prevent the character from going off the map, but I got a bit carried away and had too much fun with it. Eventually I'd like to start the game off with an animation of Dyll getting off the bus and walking into the level. And then maybe looping an animation of the bus driver opening and closing the door. To me, little things like that really push sprite based games over the edge, so I'd like to include as many subtle animations as I can in the backgrounds.

And that's pretty much it for now! I feel happy with what I've accomplished since the last update, but of course there's still tons of stuff to do! I'm hoping to have a somewhat polished and playable first level when I head off to GDC in a few weeks, so look forward to at least one more update before then. Until next time... Adios!

Update #2: Technical Progress!

It's been a little while since the last post. I think it's time to talk about the progress I've made on Dyll's Quest the past few weeks. To all of you who just like looking at pretty pictures, sorry to disappoint! You might want to skip this post since almost all of the recent progress has been on the coding side of things.

So here's what the prototype looks like in it's current state. None of those assets are finished, but it should give a pretty good representation of the direction for this game. I've recently added a lot of functionality into gameplay scripts. I added a HUD script that keeps track of various statistics. I coded a parallax background script that allows multiple background planes to scroll at different speeds when the player walks. I added functionality for Dyll's 'Get Down' move, which allows him to use his Funk powers on NPCs.

Speaking of NPCs, I've spent a lot of time coding enemy AI since the last update. The default Hobo enemy can patrol an area, idle, jump, die, chase the player and return to a home position. He's not all that intelligent yet, but as an artist first and a coder second, I'm pretty proud of what I've accomplished on him so far.

I've also implemented a basic pause menu, and fixed a subsequent bug that allowed the player to rocket jump while pressing the jump key on the pause screen. (It's a feature, not a bug!) A countdown timer is now also in place, and you'll be taken to a game over screen when time runs out. I've also created a ladder script so that climbable objects are now fully functional. Things are moving along pretty well.

On a side note, I also got the game listed on IndieDB, so go check that out. Marketing games isn't exactly my area of expertise, so hopefully that will lead to a bit of exposure:



I'm getting to a point where most of the basic gameplay elements are in place (at least for the prototype), so I can finally start concentrating on the art assets! That said, expect the next update to be a bit more visually appealing. Until next time... Adios!

3D Art - Fall 2013 / Winter 2014

Well I've been putting this off for a while, but I think it's time I made my post on the recent 3D work I've been doing. In addition to the various freelance jobs I've recently been involved in, I've been busy improving my 3D skills for my portfolio. Some of these projects are more finished than others, but here's the result of the past few months of work.

I actually just finished this one last night. I've always had an interest in motion art and experimental typography. You know, the kind of stuff you see in commercials with dramatic text scrolling and words flying all over the screen. And I've noticed a lot of VFX companies use a program called Cinema4D, so I decided to give it a try and make a short intro sequence of sorts. I found some really helpful tutorials and managed to make something kind of cool. I think it will fit nicely as the intro to the next demo reel I put together. (Apparently HD isn't supported in the embedded link, so watch it on Vimeo to see it in better quality.)

Steve Rakar - Title Logo from Steve Rakar on Vimeo.

Another spontaneous project that I completed last weekend was this render of a soup can. Most of my texture creation lately has been digitally painted and slightly more light-hearted. So I figured I'd put together something a bit more realistic. Not sure I quite captured the dark visuals that I was intending, but I like the results nonetheless.

Speaking of light-hearted texturing, here is a cartoony lighthouse I finished a few weeks ago. I based it on a real place in Alaska called the Salty Dawg. 

I finished this one a long time ago, so I had to double check to make sure I hadn't already posted it. This was originally a texture that I created for a pop machine in our senior studio game, Aliens in Eden. The original model was kind of bland but I liked the texture, so I decided to re-purpose it as a mockup marketing ad. This was back when I was studying a lot of rendering tutorials so I learned quite a bit about MentalRay while working on this one.

This is a tribute to my old car that I ended up leaving behind in Chicago (RIP ;_;) The previous car models that I had in my portfolio were way outdated (like 2nd semester of 3D classes outdated), so it was time for a replacement. I figured what better car to model than the first one I ever owned, so here is my now deceased Chevy Prizm.

And now to the less finished stuff. This is a character named Montez for an animation short I planned a while back. Here is some of the concept work I did for him nearly a year ago alongside a preliminary face render.

 

Still have some work to do to better capture his likeness. I had used ZBrush quite a bit before this, but this project was where I really got hands-on with the workflow and a bunch of the more advanced tools. I learned a lot about sub-tools and ZAppLink from this. I still haven't quite finished texturing his body and adding in all of the fine details, but hopefully I'll find some time to get back to this project soon.

Another ambitious project that I started this past Fall was re-creating my bedroom in Maya. So far I've managed to model all of the big pieces, but it still has a long way to go before it's at the level I'm looking for. I absolutely love UVing and texturing, but with the amount of small objects in my room... it's a liiittle bit time consuming. I'd very much like to have a finished, realistically-populated environment in my portfolio though, so I definitely plan to get back to this one when I've got some time.

 

 

And that pretty much concludes this update. I do have a bunch of really nice renders from the freelance job I'm currently working on, but I'm going to hold off on posting any of that until the job is complete. Anyways, thanks for checking out my update. I love getting feedback on my work, so don't be shy! Until next time... Adios!

Dyll's Quest - Dawn of the Development Blog

Hey guys! Welcome to the first blog post about my new game, Dyll's Quest for Funk. In this blog I will take you behind the scenes and share all sorts of neat little tidbits about the game development process.

Dyll's Quest for Funk is an idea I've had for a while now. I spent a few months nailing down the concept and writing out the design document. And recently I began to work on the prototype. This is my first time ever writing a blog about game development, and this is your first time ever reading a blog about my game. So it'll be a learning experience for all of us! I want to give you an interesting look behind the scenes as I develop Dyll's Quest, but at the same time I don't want to reveal too much information too early. So these first couple posts will be about finding that right balance.

I'll discuss the details of the gameplay a bit more in a future post. For now though, I'll give you a rundown of the basics. Dyll's Quest actually has two distinct gameplay styles: part 2D platformer, part twinstick shooter. Your progress in one portion of the game directly impacts the other half. You need to continuously build upon the momentum of the previous level to succeed in the next stage.

As I mentioned, I just recently started to really get working on the prototype, so the game is still in the very early stages. Most of the artwork and screenshots that I post now will likely look completely different by the time the game is finally released. Keeping that in mind, let's take a look at some pictures.

This is an early concept piece of the UI. Originally intended to be a sample mockup for my portfolio, this picture actually spawned the idea for the game. While I'm going for a rather over-the-top style with the art direction in this game, I want to make sure that things are also functional. Readability is an important aspect of a good UI, so some tweaking may still be in order. Some of the media player elements will likely remain for the final design, but there will need to be a few changes.

Still frame of the main character, Dyll. This was more for establishing proportions and a color palette, but this sprite may find it's way into the game in some form. Dyll is sort of a laid-back, hippy kind of fella. He runs a relatively unknown radio station, so I'm trying to convey the type of character that you'd imagine DJing  amateur radio in the middle of the night. He's quirky, he's funky, but he has a very optimistic outlook on life.

 

Dyll's jogging animation in progress. First I start with the sketch, then I fill in the base colors. Next comes the details and the shading.

Last, we have a screenshot of the prototype working in Unity. Beautiful, isn't it? I've managed to white-box the first level (or in this case, I guess blue-checker-box would be a more correct term). In addition we have the player character (in all his unfinished glory) running and jumping around the level for testing purposes. It may not look like much from this shot, but this is actually hours and hours of work that have laid down the foundations for the final game.

Well, that's about it for now. A lot of the basic functionality is actually done, so hopefully we'll see a lot of art posts in the near future. I will continue to update this blog as I make more progress on the game. I hope this was interesting to everyone. If you have any comments, questions, or suggestions, feel free to leave them below. Until next time... Adios!

Published Games and Motion Comics

I know I said my next post would be about my recent 3D work, but I just want to sneak this one in here before I get to that.

First off, The Amazing Jungle Rescue has been published on Indie City! It's not the most well known game distributor, but it's a great website and it's very easy to use. We're still exploring other distribution options as well, in order to get the game in the hands of as many people as possible. (If you're associated with such a game distribution platform and you're looking for family friendly puzzle games for your storefront, please don't hesitate to get in touch!) Anyways, we're excited that others can finally play our game, so please check it out at the link below or on our website: HyraxGames.com. The game is $3, and there is a free demo as well in case you want to try it out before you buy it.

In addition to that, I've also got another project to share. A mini motion comic! It was sort of a last minute Christmas present to my sister Michelle Rakar. Some of you may know this, some of you may not, but my sister and I have a long running series of sorts that we've been working on called The Nays. It's always been kind of a "for our own enjoyment only" type of personal project, but we've posted a few things about it online in the past. We started it over 10 years ago and recently we've been working to clean things up and actually make it presentable. Since we're pretty much rewriting the story from the very beginning, we've been toying with the idea of turning it into a real web comic. Whether or not we actually do that depends on how much free time we have, but we've always thought it would be cool to share these stories with everyone. To go along with that, I tried my hand at making a motion comic using a new program called Motion Artist. It's very crude and messy because I made it in 2 days using an unfamiliar program, but I thought it could pave the way to something kinda cool. Check it out at the link below:

The Nays Motion Comic: Volume 01 - Chapter 04 (Note that this is actually a glimpse of Chapter 4, so prepare to feel lost.)
As usual, thanks for reading. I promise my next post will be the one on 3D art that I mentioned. Adios!

2D Art - Fall 2013

Ugh, has it really been 2 months since my last post? (This isn't going to become the common theme of my blog, I swear!) This year is really flying by! I've just been so busy working on things that I keep forgetting to post them on here. Since I've got so many new things to share, get ready for a lengthy post!

The biggest news is that we finally finished our first project at Hyrax Games. The Amazing Jungle Rescue has finished testing and it's now ready to go. We're currently exploring various distribution options, so it should be available for download very shortly. Here's a promotional trailer. Don't forget to check out the website for more info!

The Amazing Jungle Rescue - Official Trailer from Hyrax Games on Vimeo.

In the meantime, I've continued working on improving my portfolio. I've been bouncing back and forth between 2D and 3D, so I think I'll separate those into two different posts. This one will focus on 2D and next week I'll share some of my recent 3D work.

First up is a sprite animation I did a while back. This is Shaw from a series that Michelle and I created called The Nays. I'd like to expand this into a lengthier pixel-animated scene with backgrounds and other characters, but it's not really one of my top priorities right now.

Another thing I've been working on is User Interfaces. I feel like I do UI-related work all the time, but for some reason that section on my portfolio was looking embarrassingly bare. So I decided it would be fun to make a mockup UI for a game concept that I created back in college called Freedom Disc Extreme. It's a medieval themed ultimate frisbee game that I'd love to turn into a reality someday if I ever had the technical know-how to make it work. So below is a sample of the UI that would appear in game, with a short animation explaining what everything is and how it would animate.

Freedom Disc Extreme - UI Mockup from Steve Rakar on Vimeo.

Recently I went on a reference pose downloading spree, adding about 200 new pictures to my collection. I've been trying to force myself to do some gesture drawings, since improving anatomy is always a good idea. This isn't the kind of thing I normally share with people, but if you like seeing unfinished work and ugly process sketches, then check it out! The bottom right one I'm planning to turn into a full-fledged painting, but it's still very far from completion right now so I won't even bother posting it just yet.

And lastly, here is some rough concept art from a new game project that I'm starting up. With the new Unity 4.3 update, I've become very interested in creating a 2D platformer in the engine. I've had a pretty cool idea brewing around in my head for a while now, but I won't go into too much of the details. Just know it's going to have a very Toe Jam & Earl vibe. This is the planned design for the main character.

And that pretty much sums up my 2D work for the past month or two. Stay tuned next week for a sample of my recent 3D art!

Improvement Month

Well, so much for posting on a regular basis. It's already been over a month since my first post! I kept thinking "Hey, I should post something... but I don't have enough new stuff to talk about." Well, I took care of that concern. This has been the most productive month I've had all year! I have so much new stuff to post that I think I might split it into 2 different posts.

A few weeks ago, I officially bought a new webhost. I had been using a free one for a long time, and it seemed to do the job alright. What I didn't know however was that because of the free host, my website had apparently been littered with obnoxious advertisements! (I have adblock so I had no idea) If you visited my website in the past and got bombarded with a flashing "Your virus scanning program is out of date" message, I apologize profusely (also shame on you for not telling me that my site was a giant billboard). Anyways, part of the new webhost process meant re-uploading everything. And as I was going through the files in my images folder, I had a revelation that I'm sure most fellow artists can relate to - I hate a lot of my old artwork! Some of the old stuff still had some potential, so I set out on a quest to fix up all of the art I was dissatisfied with. So for this first post, I'll be focusing on "improvement."

Comparison images are always fun, so let's look at some of the new pictures side by side with their old versions.

I learned a couple of new rendering techniques, so I decided to fix some old environments to give them a better mood. This was the spaceship bar from our senior project, Aliens in Eden.

This is an office in my UDK game, Corporate Ladder. Why I originally posted a UDK screenshot instead of an actual render, I have no idea. Still might need to fix the lighting a bit on this, but I think the room looks a lot better now.

This is the public bathroom in the same UDK game. I made the textures way back then but never got around to creating any of the actual assets. And now for my favorite...

I'm really proud of this one! I initially thought I'd make some quick, 15-minute tweaks and ended up spending a good 6 hours on this. Here's an image with the two of them overlayed on top of each other:

Crazy how much my digital painting skills have improved in the past year. Well I think that's a long enough second post. I've got a lot of new stuff I've been working on too, so hopefully I'll be able to share that very soon. Until next time!