Process
Research
Background & historical research-
sci-fi and literary inspirations
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contemporary forestry and logging practices
- indigenous history in northern california
- reached out to Nisenan tribe spokeswoman - was enthusiastic about the project but it’s still early for collaboration
- ecology of Sierra Nevada & the foothills
Games Research:
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social simulation games
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strategy games
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walking sims and character action games that foreground the player/character’s relationship to nature
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Alenda Y. Chang Playing Nature: Ecology in Video Games
Reference:
- Collecting references for electric vehicles and green tech - art direction etc
- vehicle design in general
Preproduction
Assets:-
Spent a lot of time iterating on the look of the characters - wanted at first to continue photogrammetry for everything but this project has really different demands than Fire Underground.
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Spent a lot of time iterating on trees and plants - learning how to set up trees and plants so that leaves appear properly lit and they are semi-efficient at scale.
Prototyping
I have been doing a series of prototypes to work out core game features.
- NPC coworkers who help you with tasks
- planning and executing work projects like building trails, clearing brush, limbing trees
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pathfinding
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animation
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system for queueing up and negating actions
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traversal of the landscape with the player character
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game of life type systems for plant growth