prison simulator – Ryan Green Arts

Prison Simulator: Age Rating

December 24, 2016

Since the game that we are creating is a Prison Simulator the age rating category that we selected this for was the 35+ and there are a couple reasons for this. The first is that we decided to make this game a 2D side scroller it doesn’t appeal so much tot he younger audience as they have been brought up in the new intense visual games whereas 35+ feel nostalgic with these games. The second reason is due to it being set within a prison it means that this is a harsh but realistic environment that contains violence and drugs. These are not good influences on the younger audience.

I feel like this was the correct category for this game however if the setting was different it could possibly be within another category as the art style shows bright, vibrant colours which relate to a younger audience.

Prison Simulator: More Props

December 24, 2016

Looking at my to-do list I began to draw a variety of different props that would fill each different room. I first started by focusing on just one wing so that the amount of props that I had to create was a reasonable amount. Some of the props I will be using the concepts I created such as the Medical bed whereas others I had to recreate, such as the chemistry set. These pictures show a variety of props from different rooms such as the staff room, the cell, the med bay, and the electrical room. Each prop is made so that it looks like it belongs in that room. For example, the generator I used a reference picture from the internet for the shape so that It appeared heavy and very mechanical making it stand out if not in the right room. For the generator, I didn’t want it to just be plain and gray therefore I decided to add some greens and browns. The reason I added the browns was so that it could give the illusion of rust and that these generators have been here for many years. The green was because of sewer pipes and I thought this would be a good signifier of the pipes that contains fluids. The reason hat I created two versions of the x-ray machine is because it can be turned on and off. One image shows the on mode which contains a light which shines down onto the player

Reflecting on this I feel like I am slowly progressing with these props however due to the lack of detail I am unsure how they will look in the final product. Since it is a 2d game we are restricted on the amount of detail so I will just have to see how it pans out and if I will have to recreate some of the props. I also gave some of the props a 2.5D feel so that perspective could be used within our game and it also allows me to give more detail to the prop.

Prison Game: 2D Side Scroller

December 6, 2016

Recently our group had decided to change the game to a 2D side scroller as we thought it would be more unique also make the project more manageable as there is only three people within the group. This means that I will have to redesign some of the props that I have already created, however, this shouldn’t take too long.

As well as this it also means that we will have to redesign our layout as the player will not be able to maneuver the same way as before. IF we keep the same prison layout it would mean that the player has to walk around the outside of each room so that they can make their way around the map.

This affected each group member in a different way. The person in charge of character design now had to create fewer sides as well as fewer animations. I would have to only create 2D objects. Finally, the person in charge of level design would now have to make the levels appear from the side, technically only showing half of the room.

Due to the fact that this is now a 2D side scroller it meant that no work had t be done in a program such as Sketchup or 3DS Max. Instead, the concepts themselves could be used for the final product.

Research would now be done on existing 2D side scroller on how they optimize their game utilizing as many features as possible within a 2D space.

Prison Game: Padlet

December 6, 2016

For our group project, we decided to use a website called Padlet where we could all add the research that we have done as well as our to-do lists. It would also allow us to easily edit work and then reupload it so that someone else can then work on it.

Prison Game: HUD

November 28, 2016

for the game, we decided that we wanted to have a visible HUD that would display things such as a progression bar, a health bar, a stamina bar, and an equip slot. I created multiple different layouts that were simple and showed these statistics in different ways and at different parts of the screen. We didn’t know if we wanted to have a mini map or not so I included one on a few of the layouts but not all.

All of the members in my group will then take these different layouts and start to design them while also working on our each individual tasks.

Prison Simulator to-do list: Prop and Object Design

November 23, 2016

Research:

Terraria, Megaman 0, Maple Story, Rayman, Mario, Sonic, Azure Striker GUNVOLT

Props:
– Prison Cell (bed, toilet)
– Medical Bay (robot arms, Med pod, x-ray machine, chemistry set)
– Staff room (Coffee/ Vending Machine)
– Electrical (generator)
– Storage (boxes)
– Common Room (Television, table, chair)
– Warden (computer, desk, cabinet)
– Library (books)
– Kitchen (cooker, knives)
– Dining Hall( trash can, dining table, cans)
– Strip Room (contraband, scanning drones)
– Chapel (candles, organs)

– laundry (washine machine)

– Visiting area (phone)

Prison Simulator: Med Bay Props

November 21, 2016

With the sketches that I had created showing various different designs for common props that would be seen in the medical bay, I then decided to take these into photoshop and recreate them, smoothing them out and adding color. By doing this it allowed me to see which designs would work better. With all the props I used a variety of shades of gray as this is a very clean yet futuristic looking color that still adds depth to the prop.

In reflection to this, I can definitely see which designs work better however with some of them such as the med pod the choice was already made before color was added just due to the sketch. If I were to go back and design more of these props I may use pareidolia but it may not have a positive effect on my designs as these props have a unique shape that needs to be clearly visible. I will try to use this in the future props that I design to see if it will work.

Prison Simulator: Sc-Fi Prison Research

November 16, 2016

Before advancing anymore with the concepts that I am creating I want to look more at the work created by other people and what they have done to give a prison a sci-fi feel. This way I can draw inspiration from them and improve upon my concepts. As well As this I also looked at how this has been done in movies.

Guardians Of the Galaxy

In the popular movie Guardians Of the Galaxy, there is a scene where all of the characters in the prison. This prison is actually a giant structure within space controlled by the humans and contains lots of different species as the prisoners. This already has a huge similarity to the idea of our prison which is more reason for me to look into how this has been designed. The first thing that I can tell when I look is that the structure actually appears modern rather than futuristic. This is because usually, sci-fi concepts have a white, clean look, whereas this goes for the ‘garage’ look have rusty parts that don’t appear to be maintained by the crew which reflects on the atmosphere of the prison and how little the people that work there care about the inmates. Another thing that I noticed about the design of this prison is that appears to be very compact. Real prisons tend to have different wings with only a couple of floors whereas the main prison scene from this movie shows a small, rounded room that has at least 10 floors of prison cells. This makes me think that the structure of the prison within our game needs to follow this process, which will benefit us since it is a 2D side scroller as it will allow the player to jump onto more platforms to go upwards. Finally, the last influential piece from this prison was actually the guards rather than the prison design. The prison mostly uses humans so that they have the most control, but for more intense situations such as prison riots would be controlled with robot guards. This gives me lots of influence on what our group can do for the bosses of our game, using different species and robots for the bosses, getting harder as the player progresses.

Guardians-Of-The-Galaxy-movie-prison-sequence

Chronicles of Riddick

Looking at another movie, The Chronicles of Riddick, a lot of the movie is set within a prison built in the underground of an extremely dangerous planet. IN my opinion, this seems to be done so that the prisoners do not try to escape as they will die instantly on the planet’s surface. Typically when you think of a sci-fi prison you think of it being in space, but the idea of it being on a dangerous planet gives me inspiration on what we can do for the surrounding environment. This is something I do need to take into consideration as there will need to be a background environment when there are things such as windows. Even though this is a sci-fi movie the technology seems to be primitive. No immediate indicators that this is futuristic such as lasers, or fancy computer screens. Instead just typical barred cells. This shows a lot about the society of this movie universe as it shows that the prisoners are considered unimportant as money has not gone in to how they live and to making sure that they remain a prisoner. The design is the prison has a similarity to that of guardians of the galaxy as the prison is just a pit dug into the ground with a wrap around staircase leading from the top to the bottom. Of every inch of this put, a hole has been dug into the wall to create a cell, making the prison feel compact and immovable. This feels like it is purposely done to intimidate the prisoners and make them believe that there is no way of escaping.

Halo 2

In the second addition to the halo franchise, there is a particular level where you are storing a covenant base in an attempt to save the planet and destroy the halo ring. Within this level, there is a part where the player passes through what appears to be the prison segment of the base. This simply consists of one large corridor with cells running all the way down it. Just looking at this it is what I expect to see when I hear the phrase Sci-fi Prison. the cells are small and compact so that there can be more cells for more prisoners. The design has lots of curves and a simple design which looks clean and gives it that futuristic feel. However, the main inspiration that I can get from this design is the colour scheme. The main colour of the covenant is purple so this can be seen plastered all other the cells. Finally, instead of bars, the cells have a laser field which is a common technique used to make it appear sci-fi, however, this doesn’t really give me any inspiration as I feel like this is too common of a technique used.

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Prison Design: Medical Robot Arm

November 15, 2016

For this task, I wanted to create pieces of futuristic technology that would be in the medical bay of the prison. I started off by creating a list that had all the possible objects that would be in this medical bay, futuristic or not

I used inspiration from red dwarf and iron man where there are robots that are just a multi-tool arm. I started off by drawing lots of different designs for this, inspired by things such as lamps, the death probes from Star Wars, and microphone stands.

After this was done I then proceeded to develop two of the designs further, creating alternate versions. One of the best things I liked about the first designs was that the main cable that powers the arm is visible, therefore I decided to wrap it around the arm leading up to the grabber.

In reflection to this, I feel like these designs are good however a lot of them are very similar. Never the less they all bring different shapes into the design which allowed me to even combine some of them when developing the designs further.

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Prison Wing Concept

November 8, 2016

After we had finished the layout for our prison I then began to create concepts from one of the wings. The wing that I was creating concepts for contained rooms such as the med bay and the staff room rather than the cells themselves. The reason that I chose to do concepts of this was because I had already created a concept for the cells.

I did this by first creating the shape of the entire wing and outlining the rooms in SketchUp. I added the basics so that it was visible what each room was meant to be. For example, the staff room had chairs, a television, and a coffee machine. Once done I took screenshots of every room which I then used in photoshop to create the final concepts.

For the medical bay, I wanted to use colours which were associated with that of a hospital. Typically this is the colour red as it is the colour of blood and the logo. However, in past experiences, I have noticed that the main colour is actually blue as it looks clean and healthy. Therefore I decided to use this for the beds and for some of the furniture.

IN the staff room I opted for more wood like colours. It occurred to me that the chairs and tables would most likely be plastic however the colour would blend into much with the walls and not stand out, therefore I opted for the wood look. The sofa I made the typical red colour so that it looks cheap as they wouldn’t be fancy furniture within a prison. Finally, the vending machines were bright red and bright blue. This is so that they stand out as usually vending machines would be in public places and need to be visible from a distance. Therefore it looks as if these vending machines are second hand rather than specifically made for prisons.

The storage room was the same case as the shelving units would typically be grey but the colours would run into each other and it would be hard to tell where they began and ended, therefore I went fro the wood look. For the boxes, I went with a light orange/brown so they looked like cheap cardboard that had been damaged over time from things such as water.