The making of
MĂ?TH An Immersive, Mystical, First Person Maze Game
all work created by Laura Bretman
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The Concept.........................................................................8 Main Character Design..............................................20 Typeface Tests & App Logo Design............28 Teaser Trailers......................................................................32
Contents
Inspiration & Influences..............................................4
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Inspiration & Influences 4
Drawing inspiration from both films and games that shaped my childhood as well as my later life, I found there were many useful influences I could use to find the right aesthetic for my game.
Above: still from Jim Henson’s “Labyrinth” 1986 Left: promo photo from Guillermo Del Toro’s “Pan’s Labyrinth” 2006
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Above: still from “Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire” 2005
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Left: still from “Alice in Wonderland“ 1951
Inspiration From Games Above: Monument Valley Top Right: Darklings Right: Limbo
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The Concept 8
The first step in creating a game is the concept - this is where I began. I didn’t have a preconditioned idea of what I wanted my game to be, probably because my original Final Major Project idea was an illustrated book, however I did have a few rough ideas for different genre possibilities that would allow me to come up with a relevant and unique concept.
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I quickly decided that I would like to develop the idea of calling the game “Mith� and basing it around a maze/puzzle game of some kind. I definitely aim to use personal influences from the films and games that inspire me, and hopefully people will recognise that in the style and be drawn to it. An integral part of creating this game will be coherency between all aspects of the game; both in style and theme. Trying to visualise what I imagined was a difficult task in this case, as the functionality of designing a game was something I have little experience in - because of this I wanted to start in the most basic way, with sketches and notes explaining what things might look like and how they might work.
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This Page: Developing how the maze levels will function together in 3D space
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Page Across: First experiment in Cinema 4D using an extruded maze pattern
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This Page: developing ideas
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Page Across: mock ups of app homepage ideas
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In terms of functionality, I had originally aimed to create 5-10 different levels but it was suggested to me that for the purpose of this project I demonstrate how only three will look (aiming to make each one unique). It would take me far too long to create each maze pattern myself and so I began using “mazegenerator.net� which allows you to create mazes using square, hexagonal, circular or triangular units with varying levels of difficulty. After saving these images I was able to convert them into paths suitable for extruding in Cinema 4D - I found this to be the simplest and most effective way of making mazes, using textures and lighting to make them look more realistic.
Across: first full design of a maze level
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An Overview of The Concept
You play as Lux, who is ideally a genderless character with no obvious age, representing the inner psyche. Due to having such a wild imagination and being a little obsessed with stories of Labyrinth’s and Mazes - Lux has become lost inside “his” own subconscious (I have struggled to find a way to phrase this without using gendered words, meaning the character may become male) and has to solve “his” way through the mazes to “wake up” or “find the light” (the light will be a smaller orb of light at the center of each maze) Lux “himself” is made of light, a manifestation of the purity of the inner psyche -almost childlike and innocent. The maze “orb” featured in the mock up home screens will feature as
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a “world” for the levels to function in. This “world, both aesthetically and metaphorically is supposed to represent the mind. The levels will unfold from inside the orb and as you solve each one you will return to the home screen to see the light from inside the orb growing stronger. The main selling point of this game is that I wanted it to be extremely immersive, ideally using a first person character view. Because of this, the player will feel as if they are solving the mazes & hopefully creating a feeling of disorientation. After thinking about the functionality of the game I think it might be more practical to feature the option of both first and third person view, as well as an aerial view of
the maze which the player can use if they begin to get stuck in solving the level. The maze itself will be quite dark, but as Lux moves through in the right direction, the path will begin to glow (this part of the functionality is still being developed). Navigating the maze will either be done using a directional pad on screen or simply with directional swipes. There is a time limit on each maze because Lux’s light will fade. Lux uses the remaining light “he” has to help solve the mazes - a bar will be displayed on screen to show how much Lux has left. This light will recharge over time once used up, but quite slowly.
The light can be used for “hints” or “cheats” which will show which way to go, as well as this the light will be used to fight enemies. The enemies will be representatives of shadows or “nightmares” - trying to stop Lux from solving the mazes and returning to the waking world. Lux can shoot balls of light at the enemies to send them away but if they reach you before this, they will take a large percentage of the light Lux has, and you will need to wait for it to recharge. There will be screens to show Lux advancing through one maze (the orb will raise him up to the light), failing a maze (he will fall into darkness and fade) and a final one in which you see Lux awaken.
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Main Character Design 20
ABOVE: first set of rough character designs
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Developing a characters design in both Photoshop and Illustrator, simplifying as much as possible to create the right kind of aesthetic. It was clear that both of these designs are far too complicated for a functioning app game character, as well as not translating well to the 3D maze designs I had been working on. 22
I realised that to create a coherent look to my game, I would probably need to stick to one software (post production photoshop not included). I had no experience in creating characters using Cinema 4D and had to start from the bottom, using simple polygons to build up a structure close enough to what I wanted.
Because of the themes I’ve decided to use, I began researching names related to; awakening, the subconscious, light/ darkness and memory. Many of these words were Latin in origin, making them slightly more recognisable to English speaking people (lux/ lumos/light for example).
The name “Lux” seemed to be a favourite amongst people I asked, the latin word for “light”, which I think fits in well with the themes. This also was a settling point in the use of two contrasting textures for my game - dark, mossy stone and bright, white light (the working maze example a few pages back is already 23
Above is the first character I created in Cinema 4D - it was obvious from the very beginning that clothing would not be an option for this character, as the flowing fabric look I wanted probably wouldn’t be achievable or at the very least would take a long time to render. I began working with simple polygons and developed a few different ideas - the designs on the page over show the development process. I used the bottom right image to show to my family, friends and peers to ask their
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opinion on which character was best. Almost everyone said they liked the look of the third character, I believe this is because it was more fluid and had a slightly more child like appearance. This was the design I chose to further develop. I’m still not sure if or how I’m going to animate the character to move around the maze (e.g will he walk or float?) but I thought it might be useful to have a oneobject sculpted version of the character as well as one made from simple polygons.
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This Page: test renders of a sculpted Lux character Page Across: finished sculpted Lux character under blue ambient light
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Typeface Tests & App Logo Design 28
Using feedback as well as my own instinct, I decided to go with the use of #1; “EryxFreeForm� for the title and header sections and will either continue that use through smaller pieces of text
or will incorporate the use of Faraco Hand or Raleway (this is my standard goto font for body text as it is a clear, thin bodied sans-serif font) for smaller pieces of text and on-screen instructions. 29
Above: working ideas
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Across: final chosen app logo design:
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Teaser Trailers
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For the teaser trailers, the main purpose is to peak people’s interest and create an atmosphere which gives people an idea of how the game will look and feel. The first teaser trailer, screen-shots of which can be seen on the previous page, was not very effective. It appears this was due to some unprofessional editing tactics, lack of content and too much description provided in captions. For the second teaser trailer, I focussed more on creating the atmosphere, using alternate angles of the character as well as character movement and some sound effects which I created myself using an online music softtware called AudioSauna which allows you to mix synth tracks and save files.
Previous Page: screen-shots from the first teaser trailer mockup https://vimeo.com/161067357 Across: screen-shots from the second edit teaser trailer https://vimeo.com/161215343
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