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A First-Person bow shooter game set against the backdrop of a fictional region based in the Himalayas

This game was created with Unreal Engine 5 by a team of 23 Students over the course of 4 Months.

ROLES AND RESPONSIBILITIES

Art Director

Tools and Pipeline, Character Creation, Visual Effects, Art Direction, Trailer and Marketing

DYNAMIC MATERIALS
& VISUAL EFFECTS

SCORCH

To convey danger zones and the scorching effects of the sun I made this prefab involving a deferred decal and Niagara system. The decal itself was made procedurally using noise and niagara embers system is emitted from the area of the decal, thus if the decal is scaled or rotated the Niagara system would still follow the decal as emission source thus making for a highly reusable asset.

In-Game usage:

PROCEDURAL SCORCH MATERIAL

We wanted certain terrain to be aggressively damaged by the sun so I created a procedural scorch material that can be used by any terrain mesh or any other mesh as needed. It consists of parameterized textures which can lerp to another texture or a flat-emissive color. In this case we used a bright orangish flat emissive to convey scorching. The lerp or blend value can also be animated over time for additional effects as needed.

PROCEDURAL MOSS

The same material is tweaked to create this Moss Growth effect.

ARROW REVEAL

Since we have unlimited arrows in the game I wanted to create an effect that would justify the same in a cool manner. For this I made a material function that uses a Bounding Box UV Node. This allows for creating vertically maskable UVs for any mesh, in this case the arrow. We then use a math based mask to scroll the opacity of the material vertically and animate the same based on the pull of the arrow and desired timing.

Additionally I added an emissive mask with a slight offset using the same math based mask values.

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Bounding Box UVW

Effect In-Game:

"SUN-KISSED" ENEMY MATERIAL

For the enemies in our game we wanted a way to convey their "Sun Curse" as well as make their visibility apparent in both bright light and dark shadows. For this I created additional emissive masks to add onto the existing textures, The emissive intensity for the mask was parameterized so that it can be animated increasing/decreasing based on whether the enemies were in the sun or in the shadows.

TOOLS & PIPELINES

Himalayan Mountain Ranges

For the background mountain ranges of the Himalayas in the game I used publicly available real-satellite elevation and image data USGS SRTM (Shuttle Radar Topography Mission).

Aerial Topography Imagery

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SRTM Void Filled Elevation

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The Harsh edges of the ranged were split into a separate mesh and masked to decrease use of transparent textures while still being able to mask the edges seamlessly.

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Spline Based Flags

Since our game is based in fictional Himalayan and Tibetan regions we wanted to add prayer flags to make that influence very apparent. To achieve that I made a spline mesh tool which allows the environment artist to create and shape these flags easily for any length.

Additionally I added a noise based displacement on the flags to give them a subtle moving/waving effect. This was necessary to convey wind but in an optimized non-simulated way for a large amount of flags.

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In-Game usage:

CHARACTERS & RIGGING

I took on the responsibility of creating the Player Character Dawa and Our Game's Boss Dragon Asurya.

Asurya flying In-Game:

Asurya Model and VFX: Adhyan Mall

For the High Poly Sculpt I used Zbrush

ZBrush Document.jpg

I used Blender for the retopo and rigging

Asurya is a Giant Sized Dragon with most of the attacks being through his head, therefore I had to make a facial Rig that would allow the animators to have control over his facial expressions and eye movements.

For the game we ended up using spline based animation paths for the spine bones with the addition of layered hand and leg animations. Regardless I made a control rig for the entire body of the dragon as per initial design.

ART DIRECTION

The enemies in this game are based on the popular types of animals and critters found in the Himalayas. This includes Mountain Toads, Pangolin and Bombardier Beetles. I had to decide on shape languages gas well as keep them enemies cohesive with the sun-kissed curse theme.

The enemies in this game were not inherently evil but merely innocent creature aggravated by the Sun's influence and mutation. To convey that balance between good and evil I had to design them in a way that shows them as both aggressive and in suffering.

Model: Evie Yao, Design & Presentation: Adhyan Mall

Model: Evie Yao, Design & Presentation: Adhyan Mall

Model: Evie Yao, Design & Presentation: Adhyan Mall

Model: Danni Liang, Design & Presentation: Adhyan Mall

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Me badly drawing some cool bows

The bow is the main weapon of the character and also a generational heirloom representing a fictional deity. For the design I chose a Brass Dragon since various deities in the Himalayan region are represented through Brass Idols in Shrines. The bow's head was also supposed to be used as a melee hammer style weapon.

I chose the dragon symbolism to represent "fighting fire with fire" since (Spoiler Alert) the game ends in a futile efforts by the protagonist revealing that killing the dragon Asurya only further angered the sun gods and created more suns in the world.

Model: Danni Liang, Design & Presentation: Adhyan Mall

For the environment we looked at Nepalese villages and Tibetan Monasteries as well as Himalayan Cave systems.

This gave us access to bright and colorful themes and iconography but we had to create our own fictional versions of the same in order to be sensitive to the cultural beliefs in these regions.

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I also established an overall cinematic post-process effect to represent the High Heat environment but keeping in mind the saturated regional colors we have access to through these themes.

In addition, the two overall verbs I had for all of these maps were "Scorched" and "Chaotically Abandoned"

The Village
Based on Traditional Mountain Villages of Nepal

The Caves
Based on Himalayan Cave systems

The Temple
Based on Tibetan Monastery grounds

The player character of this game named Dawa is of Himalayan origin which gave me access to very interesting ornaments as well as traditional textiles. The character is supposed to be seen mostly in first-person thus the overall design efforts were put more into the hands of the character. She has Henna tattoos and nail paints that add to the story-telling and personality.

For the face of the character I looked at Sino-Tibetan and Indo-Aryan ethnicities of the Himalayan region and used them as a reference. For the Dress design I wanted to keep it traditional but also allowing for tact, dexterity and protection from heat.

Model: Adhyan Mall, Design & Presentation: Adhyan Mall

TEAM

I'd like to give special thanks to my amazing art team for being very talented individuals that helped create this world!

Deann Couwenhaven
Environment, Modular Kits, Props
Zhuo Dai
UI, Trailer, Opening Sequence
Danni Liang
Abyssal Enemy, Bow, Pickup VFX
Evie Yao
Toad, Pangolin Enemies, Pickup Props
Yuchen Zhu
Foliage, Rocks

I'd also like to praise my lead Game Designer for her insights and efforts towards the theme!

Emily Zhang
Game Designer

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