Created by Team Entropy
weblink: https://store.steampowered.com/app/934850/Cyberdrome/
Cyberdrome is a fast paced, first person cyberpunk action game in which you use a high-tech sword and enhanced movement abilities to traverse dangerous environments and kill robots before they kill you. Rather than using guns, the player is only equipped with a sword that can be used to cut enemies in two as well as deflect enemy projectiles back at them. To make up for the lack of ranged attacks, our player has a variety of movement skills such as a forward dash, double jump and wall run. The player also can activate a focus mode which slows time, adds an aim assist with deflecting bullets, and highlights enemies to assist in high intensity moments.
The team started to make this game in early July 2018. We spent three weeks prototyping the gameplay ideas and explore technologies on different platforms. We went into full production mode in late August, changed the game concept from linear narrative action game to arcade style arena game in September, and finally finished the game in early December 2018.
For this project I was selected to be art lead for our capstone project Cyberdrome. My responsibilities included working with the other leads to develop and solve problems that arose during production. For instance, one huge problem we had to solve was determining whether to pivot from our original concept, which was a more linear based slashing FPS to an arena-based game. We discussed the pros and cons but made the decision to make the pivot as it would be more beneficial to our gameplay as one of our core pillars was fast-paced gameplay. Solving problems was one of the major priorities as a lead, but several of my other duties consisted of maintaining the various pipelines I was in charge of or was a part of (this included the art pipeline and the leads as well), I also worked with the other disciplines to maintain open dialogue between the artist and them so people knew what everyone was working on and if any problems or changes did need to be made, they could be made promptly.
Another major task I was responsible for was maintaining and providing documentation of art style. To do this, I worked with our Game Designer, the artists and other leads to shape the overall art style of the game. The Game Designer and I settled on an initial cyberpunk setting that had a heavy Japanese, Asian architectural and art style. To help provide inspiration and an idea as to what they game would look like for the artist I found references from numerous Asian cities like Seoul, Hong Kong, Tokyo, Osaka that captured the essence of what the Game Designer and I were looking for. I also provided references from other famous cyberpunk settings like Cyberpunk 2077, Ghost in the Shell, Blade Runner to show how other cyberpunk stories constructed their world and show the similarities between the various worlds. We also looked at Film Noir movies to try to get a lighting style that would work for the game as well. Blade Runner 2049 was an inspiration and pictures from the noealzii (https://www.instagram.com/noealzii/?hl=en) helped capture the idea of color through light as well.
Example of a reference sheet I put together to provide the artist what styles and influences we were looking for to be
screenshot from the game showing the environmental influences and styles from the game.
As lead I also provided artistic feedback and critique for the other artists to maintain the overall style of the game. Throughout the day I met with the artist individually to see the progress they were making and to make sure that the items fit the game style. I also answered any questions or tried to solve any problems the artists had and would look up any additional information for them. Additionally, as an group, the artist had a group critique every week (these critiques was also open to anyone else in the team as well), where we all looked at the progress of the tasks being worked on and made suggestions and asked questions. These group critiques were helpful as they allowed everyone to know what everyone else was working on and get other eyes onto the work that provided different ways to solve any problems that arose. As art lead I also wanted to have the artists be comfortable to voice their opinion and provide feedback, I felt it was necessary to provide a positive and focused work environment for the artist. It also prevented anyone from feeling isolated and letting any possible frustration or confusion as to what they needed to work on or what the style needed to be like.
I also supported the other artists in the creation of assets and other tasks that needed to be completed. While the other artist handled most of the environmental mod pieces, I helped the artist by working on props that would be used for the environments, which included: lanterns, the wooden railings, the electric signs, etc. This process included creating the High Res version of the models, unwrapping them and creating the texture maps as well. I also worked on creating a lot of the 2D graphics in the game like some of the achievements, the game logo and team logo as well. I tried to keep the graphics simple and clean so they could be easily read/seen as well as recognizable
One of the major artistic parts of the project that I was heavily involved in was the creation of the UI/HUD. Due to my design background I was interested in shaping the UI/HUD layout. I worked with another one of my artists as well as the programmers to design and layout the UI/HUD. For the UI HUD, we looked at other HUD layouts like the ones seen in Halo and other FPS. For the UI and menus, I wanted to keep the designs simple and clean, so we looked at and based the concept of the menu buttons off older computer screens (which included the scan lines). For the menus we wanted to reference older technology due to the cyberpunk genre having strong influence from 80s culture and technology, along with the idea that older technology is being re-purposed.
Initial layout of the HUD with detail lines, health and focus energy on the top left, Combo Wheel and info in the middle, and score information on the top right and the aim reticle in the middle.
When the initial designs and layouts were completed, the worked passed onto the other artist who then proceeded to create the final versions of the menus and HUD. I would check in throughout the sprint to provide further feedback, answer any questions, clear blockers and provide a critical eye when it came to the layouts. The HUD/UI/Menu layouts needed to be precise in the layout, so a second pair of eyes was needed to spot any small discrepancies.
HUD display after several iterations, the line work for was reduced down with the sides leading towards transparency, as well as a simplification of the aim reticle. These changes where implemented to make the HUD less busy but still display the necessary information for the player.
