317AAD Final Major Project

Project summary

For this project I wanted to create an evironment from a story I have been working on for a while. I decided on what would be the final hub area in my narrative for my game concept.

“The base of yggdrasil”

Original concept

The story follows the childhood of the protagonist Ark, a young boy who lives in a small cottage with his adoptive mother (Faith) on the outskirts of a small village. (Starting time period: medieval) The story starts with a lone knight/soldier fighting an army of “cultists”, the knight/soldier pushes though the enemy ranks (this would act as the games tutorial for basic combat/movement), after this Ark awakes from his “dream” (the battle mentioned above) Ark’s mother (Faith) soon call for him to get ready for the day’s work.

“Normal day” *times are used just to given a rough idea on how time passes* Faith and Ark go into the village every day at 6am to help the villagers, Faith ‘Blesses’ the land and tools for the farmers and works, while Ark does the heavy lifting and other odds and ends (side quests). By 10am Ark collect food and other supplies from the village leader to take home, by 12am Faith and Ark have eaten breakfast and at 1pm Faith begin Arks daily training (sword, bow and other combat skills, more in-depth tutorial). At 3pm, Faith leaves Ark at home as she goes to take care of business (Ark does not know where she goes in this period of time) Ark cleans/fixes the Cottage during this, around 4:30pm Faith returns home and they have dinner by 5:25pm, by 6pm everything from dinner is cleaned up, Ark practices his swordsmanship till 7pm then takes a bath and has a snack before going to bed at 9pm ready for the next day.

Witch hunts are very prevalent in the area ever since the “new order” came into the country and preaching words of the twin gods, ‘the true and only gods of this world’ anyone whom disagreed with this order’s actions would be labelled a heretic or even declared a witch. One day, the “new order” reached the small village, Faith leaves Ark at the cottage while she goes into the village, Ark starts to worry due Faith being gone for hours then his worst fear is realised when a villager (that Ark helped before) tells him that the order declared Faith was a witch and was to be burnt at the stake by sunset, Ark grads the family sword and charges into the village fighting members of the order all the way though to the centre square.

The square was enveloped in the orange glow of the touches ready to be thrown onto the pyre which Faith was tied to post in. As soon as Ark tried to rush towards Faith two men grabbed and stopped him bring him to his knees. The leader of the order steps forward and stated that Faith was guilty of acts of witchery and would now be executed. As the flame grew on the pyre and started to burn Faith, Ark struggled to break free to save his mother. Ark does break free charges the pyre, cuts Faith free of her restraints and rushes toward their home with Faith on his back. When they reach their home Ark tries to treat Faiths wounds but it was too late to save her. In her dying words Faith tells Ark to head into the mountains and find the temple were the answers lay hidden away. Before setting off to find the temple Ark dug Faith a grave a buried her, as Ark stood there to morn an orange light came from the grave and envelops Ark. He then gains the ability to use fire based magic (it’s symbolic and ironic) and the knowledge of his mothers past (In PowerPoint).Armed with this new knowledge and abilities, Ark head towards the temple.

Along the way Ark meets a mysterious girl, she introduces herself as Alice Cheshire. Alice claims that she was a friend of Faith’s and offers to accompany Ark to the temple, Ark accepts her offer and together they head to the temple. On their journey they run into more followers of the new order, help people and fight for people’s freedom (side mission/quests) Before they can reach their destination, the two are ambushed by the order Alice is kidnapped to be used as a sacrifice to the gods, beaten and bruised as he is Ark still attempts to rescue Alice, His search leads him to the same temple they were looking for. Without any thought or hesitation Ark once again charges into the order’s ranks and pushes though them into the main chamber of the temple. Ark finds himself brought to his knees yet again by the Order, Ark refuses to see another person he cares about killed in front of him, As Ark Struggles to get loss the ritual comes to an end and Just as Alice is about to be sacrificed two menacing figures emerge from the temple main hall. The figures appear to be the “twin gods” that the order followed, but the figures were not the gods, they were in fact the twin demons, unstable beings created from the hatred within the twin gods (details in PowerPoint) the order starts to worship the demons believing they are the gods that lower members of the order have been searching for. Alice notices that something is wrong and shouts that they weren’t the twin gods, the demons lash out at the order and Alice sending them across the hall, the guards holding Ark were knocked back by the attack. Ark court Alice before hitting a wall. Alice had taken the brunt of their attack and was badly wounded. Alice then told Ark the truth about the demons before him, as Ark went to lay Alice down she was enveloped in a blue glow, the light then enveloped Ark in much the same way as his mother’s grave, Ark gains the ability to use ice based magic (because irony). As Ark lay the motionless body of Alice down the demons charged at him, Ark quickly grabbed his mother’s sword and swung at the demons, they both jumped back. In sink the demons taunt Ark “Think you can defeat us? With just a beaten up sword and second rate magic” Ark just shrugs off the taunts as he stands up ready to fight.

[A battle happens]

As Ark swung his sword for a final strike, the demons knocked him back throwing him to the other side of the hall and breaking his sword in half. Just then the demons started to lose control of their power. Ark struggled back onto his feet and flung himself as the demons, just as he landed a blow, a mass of light swallowed Ark then Enveloped the world and all of existence too. This was the End and beginning of all things.

Ark awakes in a black and white void, overcome by the pain of losing everything he knew and everyone he cared about, Ark sat there in defeat, there was nothing as far as the eye could see. Ark had given up, there was nothing for him to do, there was nothing he could do, nothing but just sit there. Time pasted, Ark just sat there without moving an inch, he didn’t feel pain or hunger, he didn’t even know how much time had passed. Then a girl approached Ark from out of nowhere, due to arks lake of energy he didn’t bothered to stand up, she tried talking to Ark but he wouldn’t respond, then suddenly someone kicked Ark in the back, Ark fly forward onto his face (comedic effect) Ark sits up to find a figure of a man stood in front of the girl, As Ark asked who he was the man smiled and said “you just going sit there and mope? Come on you’ve got better things to do” just as Ark was about to respond his vision blurred and faded to black.

Ark jerked awake to find himself sat on a patch of grass next to a pond, ark finds his mothers sword sat next to him (still in pieces) [he keeps this sword with him] Ark lies back down, looking up he notices he is laying in front of a tree, then he notices a girl tied to the tree with what looks to be red rope. Ark looked at the girl in confusion, the girl asked Ark for help getting down, Ark couldn’t budge the rope, she then told Ark about the scissors of fate that would be needed to cut the threads of fate that she was tied with (as only those scissors can cut though fate). Ark searched the area for the scissors, after finding the scissors Ark cut the threads, setting the girl free. The girl introduces herself as Skuld the youngest sister of fate. Ark in disbelief asked how the world was after the destruction of the twin demons, Skuld told him that the world and all of existence had been jumbled up with fate and time, As Skuld finished explaining she pointed to the edge of the pond, as she did this the mist/fog cleared to reviled a distorted world of buildings, vehicles and different naturel areas all merged into each other. Ark fell to his knees in sheer disbelief, Ark asked about the fate of the people he once knew, Skuld couldn’t say, her reasons were that her to sisters were trapped the same way she was and in order to know what happened to the people Ark knew, Ark would have to go and save them. Ark accepted to save Skuld’s sisters, before Ark set off to save the sisters of fate Skuld gave him new clothes and the scissors of fate which had been turned into twin swords one blade being white, the other black. Ark asked was he would need swords for, Skuld explained that even though people aren’t in this distorted world, but there were remnants of what were once people, these ‘fragments’ would be hostile to anyone they come across, Ark understood what Skuld was warning him about and gladly took the swords Skuld gave him.

Then Ark made his way to were one of Skuld’s sisters were, fought though hordes of ‘Fragments’ and made it to where Skuld’s older sister Verdandi was trapped, it was another bundle of the red treads of fate just like how Skuld was trapped. As walked towards Verdandi a big fragment fell in his path stopping him (boss fight) Once Ark had defeated the fragment [Gained lighting magic], he then set Verdandi free with the twin swords. Ark was about to introduce himself when Verdandi interrupted him and said she already knew since she was the sister of fate that presided over the present but since the destruction of the twin demons her powers are limited to the present events connected to the only human (Ark) in the distorted world and her two sisters. As the two of them made their way back to Skuld, Ark noticed that the fragments were acting as if they were following orders but paid little attention to it.

When Ark and Verdandi returned to the pond, Skuld was waiting to greet them back (at this point Skuld and Verdandi can give side quests).

Ark then is really to free Urd the oldest of the three sisters, he fought though hordes of ‘Fragments’ yet again until he reached where Urd was trapped and yet again fights a big fragment (boss fight) [Gained wind magic] once Ark defeated the fragment, it spoke in a language unfamiliar to Ark. Ark set Urd free, she immediately told Ark they had to hurry back, what the Fragment had said in the strange langrage was that its task had been complete meaning that it only had to stall for time, realising that could mean Skuld and Verdandi were in trouble the two raced to the pond. Once they returned to the pond, Ark and Urd found that everything was fine there, there wasn’t any one attacking, Skuld were confused by their hasty return but then Verdandi filled her in as Ark and Urd court their breath.

After the group had time to composed themselves, the group discussed the fragments and came to agree that they seem to be following orders. The sisters asked Ark to defeat groups of fragments as an experiment.

Ark discovered that the fragments were mostly gathered in one location, its appeared to be the temple in the mountain from his world. Ark returned to the pond and informed the sisters. From there the sisters could sense a god like presents coming from the temples location, the sisters told are that’s most like where the twin gods are located. Ark gears up for what could be the final fight, the sisters help him as much as they can but they could not go with him.

Ark fights his way into the temple and makes his way to the main hall, standing in the centre of the hall was what appeared to be Alice, as Ark approached ‘Alice’ she turned and started attacking him, Ark tries to talk her out of fighting but in the end Ark had to fight her. After Ark defeated ‘Alice’ she turned out to be a fragment of Alice, but this fragment was different from the others, the fragment Alice started to talk to Ark, she told him the truth behind ‘Alice’ and the fate of the ‘Ark’ but ’Alice’ didn’t respond when Ark tried to ask what she meant then she faded away.

Certain that the twin gods knew the ‘truth’ Ark walked towards the back of the temples hall, there Ark found that what looks like a wall was, in fact a door, Ark Pushes the door wide open and he is then enveloped by a bright light, when Ark opens his eyes he finds himself in a void not that different from before. However, this time there was a path in front of Ark for him to follow. As Ark walked down the path the void got darker and darker, until Ark reached a small stone door lit by two flame touches, as Ark went to open the door he was sent fly backwards by an unseen force, As Ark gets back on his feet, two figures emerge from the door, there figures are blurred silhouettes of two people (both the same size, just one being white the other black) the silhouettes talk Ark that what lay behind the door was in fact the twin gods, before Ark could reply the silhouettes told him that in order for him to enter he must first defeat them. As Ark accepted the challenge the blur around the figures disappeared to show the figures, both figures look like Ark (one being completely white the other completely black)

[Boss Fight]

After the hard fought battle had ended, the two figures stated that Ark had passed the test, the two figures soon started to fade, Ark was then enveloped by a quick burst of light (Ark had absorbed the two figures) Ark then muttered “oh, I see now” Ark had realised that to two figures represented his light and dark halves (because its symbolic).

Ark walked up to the door and was finally able to open it, behind the door Ark finds two small children (the twin gods) sleeping huddled up together in another void. Ark was surprised that twin gods were just children but he understood what this meant, for gods time passes differently than it would for humans, as the gods appear as small children that represents that the world itself was quite young in complacent to the gods. The twin god’s innocents and naivety lead to their actions when the humans did evil acts against each other, the god’s resentment and pain towards the actions of the humans lead to them losing a portion of their power and the creation of the twin demons. Ark woke the sleeping gods. They were shy and unsure at first (due to the world’s collapse the gods didn’t know what was happening) but they soon realised what had happened and understood that it was mostly their own fault.

Ark took the twin gods to the pond to talk with the sisters of fate, the five of them talked while Ark sat by the pond thinking over the thinks that had happened to him. Then the five of them walked over to Ark, he was a bit confused. Skuld then told Ark that they had found the location of the world, Ark jumped to his feet in surprise; Ark thought the world had been destroyed and asked how it could be that the world was still okay. One of the twin gods spoke up and told Ark that the world was saved before the destruction that the twin demons would have created following their own destruction. The other twin god followed that explanation up with just before the destruction of the twin demons some force beyond the twins and sisters’ sight, Ark asked how that would be possible for something to be so strong and mysterious that not even the fates or gods could understand it. As Ark asked that Urd spoke and told him that they weren’t able to ALONE but with their powers combined their finally were able to understand/find this unseen force and also find the world. Verdandi then told Ark that the world had been safely sealed away and was currently frozen in time, Ark asked where it was sealed, and then they all pointed to Ark.

The twin gods told Ark that within him was an infinite space; they further told him the Faith had a vision of Ark, She had known what the future held for Ark, hence the reason she gave him the name “Ark”. The twin gods continued and stated that even though the world was sealed it would last long without the attention of the twin gods, Ark agreed to have the twin gods join the world that was sealed inside, but then Skuld told Ark what that would mean for him, it would mean his life would reach out beyond infinity. Ark understood this and accepted the twin gods into himself, the world inside him started to turn again as a sun and moon appeared inside the space.

Ark then started to walk away from the pound Skuld asked where he was going, Ark turned around and said “you’d know more than anyone where I’m going” and he continued walking “from ends there are beginnings but it’s time to see what lays beyond infinity” Ark said as left the distorted world.

The full narrative may still be a Work in process, however the “The base of yggdrasil” is the final section and is what I plan to model for this project, This location will act as the final hub area in my narrative.

Reference images

New Rough concept pieces

Model drafts

After a lot of tests in blender I realized that the base model for the tree wouldn’t work for sculpting the way it was, so I went back to Maya to try again to make a suitable model.

These models still didn’t quite work for me, that and I messed up the sympatry so I had to start again. Though it really didn’t take me long to make a model I was happy with to sculpt on.

New base model for the tree base (Yggdrasil)

Experimenting with sculpting in blender

At this point in the project I realized that the way I’m sculpting in blender isn’t in the style I’m aiming for, noting this I want to move forward with researching methods to meet the style I want.

Important project update

13/02/2021

I have had a vaccine and for this week I have been under the weather and unable to work on this project.

After experementing with diferent shapes in order to create my tree, I soon reached a shape I liked. I’m still new to sculpting in maya, but I look forward to working with it in the future.

While developing the tree model I came up with an idea.

“Ark struggled back onto his feet and flung himself as the demons, just as he landed a blow, a mass of light swallowed Ark then Enveloped the world and all of existence too. This was the End and beginning of all things.”

In this moment in the narrative, the final strike would also slice yggrasil as well, cuasing the tree to be cut down.

Similar to the finishers in kingdom hearts 2

Project Frozen

Due to mental health and a family emergency

Project resumed

24/05/2021

Resumming this project has been a dounting task. so, to ease myself back into the project, I decieded to create a quick build of my overall concept using a version of the tree I had previously created before the pause in the project.

In this version of my concept I decided to forgo the waterfall I had previously included in my sketches, as this was an addtion that I am not full satisfied with, as in the orginal design from 2017 did not include such a waterfall. However, it may return in future iterations, due to it possably adding more interest in the scene.

My plan moving forward, I need to fully settle on a style for my design. Currently I’m torn between a simple stylised design or a more realistic one. There are pros and cons to either of these styles for my project, I’m aware of how long both of them could take me and as organic models aren’t my strong suit, it maybe beneficial to use photogrammetry to create my scene. On the other hand, I really like the idea of working on a more stylised design in my models, as it could work in my favour with my limited skills in organic modelling. since a “mistake” could also give my models more character.

These are the things I’ve been thinking about, even through the pause.

01/06/2021

I realised that, to anyone other than myself, the scale of the island wasn’t very clear. But after placing some place holder objects, I hope that it becomes more clear as to the size of the area.

Road Block

04/06/2021

Due to fault in my GPU

This fault has rendered my computer unusable. I will be Looking into repairs and alternative solutions.

21/06/2021

After having my GPU inspected and fan replaced, it’s errors still persist, making this GPU completely unusable. But thanks to a friend, I’ll be lent a spare GPU in the near future, It wont be as strong but it’ll get the job done… fingers crossed.

22/06/2021

The lent GPU is up and running! although it isn’t as powerful but it’ll get the job done.
In fact, to test that the GPU, I ran a little test, by importing my work so far into Unreal 4.

By doing this, I can confirm a few things. That being the GPU will work, there are some rescaling to be done and some of the UVs are unfinished. Moving forward I want to add some more details to the models… however I am aware of my deadline, I lost a lot of time, which I have to make up for.

Style and Detailing

29/06/2021

With the project resumed, I started by adding deatil to the blockout door. This process flow by, this was in part thanks to the style I now had in mind.

Following all the previous event, I really had to rearrange my workflow, opting to working in a style similar to “Human Fall Flat” a low-poly stylized physics based puzzle game.

Failed models

In my orginal idea for this evrionment I wanted to include cast iron garden table and chairs. Since the location was narrativly outside of regular space time, the time period items would of course clash.

I soon started modelling. however, I soon started to have technical problems in maya, where simple processes started to take longer and longer.

After moving the model into a new file, the problem went away, for the time being.

As I ketp modeling, I came to realise that these models didnt fit into the scene visually. I was going for a more low-poly style and no matter how I looked at it these models clashed far to much for the existing scene.

So, in the end i scraped them for now and moved on to other props.