KevDev Blog: Cull the Swarm!

Cull the swarm is the latest game I have been working on for the last few months. I've had the opportunity to work with about the same team I worked with on That's MY Zombie!

This time I was on the role of Lead Artist! With this being possibly my last time taking game Design Workshop at UCF, I wanted to make sure to make a solid portfolio piece and I will be documenting my work and thoughts on this project.

Week1: Concept and planning

For Cull the Swarm, we decided on a 1950's retro-future art style to set ourselves apart from more contemporary bullet hell styles. Lots of round shapes, high color, and exaggerated features are important to achieving this style. As art lead I made sure to maintain constant communication with the art team and keep a close eye on art assets to make sure they stay stylistically consistent.

Initially, we were going to make the game partially in 2d. But after some thought, we decided to better keep visual consistency and make everything in 3d.

The final Design we settled on for the protagonist is based on the Douglas A-4 Skyhawk crossed over with Macross and 50s-60s anime mecha.

Week2: Prototype

I got to working on weapon types and loadout icons. Nothing that would go in the prototype build though.

Week3: Some Menu Assets

Early Mock-up for level select

Animation for a title screen (wasn't included unfortunately)

Week4: Jungle Level

First steps of creating the Jungle level.

Trees were made by Michael in Speedtree, used them to create the level.

Adjusting the amount of Fog.

Final Design of the Jungle.

Week 5 : City Level Assets

I designed the buildings for the city level and modeled one of the buildings. Michael then modeled and textured the rest of the buildings. Used 1950s retro future design for inspiration.

Week 6 : Cave Level

Cave level and waterfall designed fully in unity. Textures designed in Photoshop.

Week 7: Enemy Concepts

Week 8: Vertical Slice

Working on more UI and loadout assets.

Sketches for the loadout icons that will be included in a later build.

Week 9: More UI assets.

FIrst draft of the loudout icons, made simply to convey exactly the information needed. Flyswatter and volt gun icons could use some work. Some color and comical effect will be added for later builds of the game.

Week 10: Weapons (Cut from game)

We were planning on having the ship's weapons be visible on the model, complete with a full model viewer of the ship in a garage scene, but It was unfortunately cut.

Week 11: Moon Level and Character Portraits

I enjoyed making the moon level with the terrain editor. With enough time, its even possible to accurately re-create some of the named craters on the moon!

Characters

To continue with the 1950s design we decided on, I mixed in 1950s comic style with my own cartoon style to come up with the character portraits. (Character descriptions by Jake)

In order: Roger, Martha, Col. Cunningham, Chad Trey-Blake, Stamper.

Week 12: Cleaning up UI and

menu assets.

Went back to pretty up our Loadout Icons to better match the theme.

Icons

Hud Borders

To help with the conveyance issues we ran into ealier, I decided making the hud change color to match the health of the ship would help fix that problem.