Graveyards and Gardens

Well hello again.  Sorry for the long wait, it's been a crazy month (as always).  You're probably itching to know what's been new, so here's what I got for ya: (keep in mind all of the photo's have not been altered.  It's all in game screen caps, the only thing I added was the Skyride logo.)

So I wanted to start from the beginning and get the feel of the game set up the best I could.  I drew inspiration from games like the new Tomb Raider game which has GREAT production design.  All these really pretty sections of the game you see as you go through the level.  So I did my best to try to capture that kind of feel: (really, if you haven't played the game, go rent it. It's masterful.)

Tomb Raider:

City of Rain:

In the story, someone dies (I don't want to give away who) and the main character takes their body up on a hill that overlooks Rain.  This is the spot where he buries that body:

Notice how I'm not trying to give away where the location is. :-p

Also somewhere on the hill is a cemetery I've been working on.  It's still a work in progress but I'll show you a sneak peak of what it looks like at night:

I've just started today on it, so give it another week and I should be done.  I'm slowly working my way back to the city.
1. Because these small area's are super important and need to get done
and
2. Because I have SO many more buildings to texture and I don't want to do them. (^_^)

If pictures aren't your thing, you can always watch this gameplay video of the intro and park area I had made a few days ago.  Bonus is the music track will be in the game and has been composed by my talented composer L.A.Z.

The park you will see is actually inside of the city and is about 75% done.  I have to add a few more special spots here and there but you'll get the idea.  It's suppose to look abandoned and forgotten with overgrowing trees.  Watch it in HD for great detail.  

Enjoy:

Well, that's all I got for now.  If you like what you see, I'd love to hear about it.  Or even if you don't.  Also, I'm currently looking for someone who'd be interested in character design/animation/implementation.  If you or someone you know would like to work on this video game with me, shoot me a email at: will@skyridestudios.com and we'll talk.  Thanks a lot.  Later, Screen Slavers.

One step forward, six steps back

Sooooooo, I know I promised that I'd have buildings made to show by the end of the week but I ran into a small problem....

As I was learning more tips and tricks to CryEngine 3 it dawned on me that I also need to learn a 3D program like Maya or 3D Studio Max so that I can build these custom buildings and place them inside my level.  "Nothing too bad, I'll just download it and install it." I thought to myself.

As I did, my computer stopped me and long story short, I didn't have enough hard drive space on my windows partition to do so.  "No biggy, I'll just quickly resize my partition."  I again thought to myself. One page of online research lead to a day and at the end of the day I was stuck with one option left....  make a image copy of my windows and everything on it, back it up to a hard drive, delete and resize my partition.  I did so, but then the backup wouldn't load back up.... I understand the irony.

So, to summarize three days later, I have a fresh install of windows and all my programs, but my levels in CryEngine and everything on the old back up are long gone and never returning. **along with all my still photos from my old computer (-_-) **

So instead of having new things added to my level (which was too small anyways) I've made a newer/better/bigger level of the same thing and today have managed to add trees, veg, etc.  Tonight I will add in the river and waterfall back in and be on my way to exactly where I was a week ago.  Yay.

However, since I have learned more in my time watching tutorials, I've decided to play around a little with Depth of Field, blur, sizes and flares.  Here are a few screen shots:

Even though I'm super mad about the backtrack, I'm sure in the long run this was meant to be.  Enjoy and I'll see you in about a week.