3D ART/ ANIMATION/GAME DEMO /PERSONAL PROJECT/wip

I have long had an interest in memory and the traces it leaves within objects. Unlike sculptures and installations, games are simulacra and symbols that refer to truth. Like Baudrillard said, “simulacra is the truth which consoles that there is none.” Driven by my interest, I decided to create a game on virtual materiality with fictional memories in mind.

Visuals: I try to explore different visual styles. There are two main parts, the scenes from falling into the dreamlike space and the scenes from the past.  Scenes from the past are darker in tone with similar shaders. But for the falling scene, I used a lighter tone, a candy like color, and fewer polygons.The expressionless characters are inspired by contemporary Nigerian artist Ameh Egwuh. I thought this style resonates  with the despair of mundane moment in narrative.

Narrative: The narrative is inspired by Georges Perec’s book Life: A User's Manual. I started by writing an adventurous story where, to find their missing grandma, the protagonist enters dream-like memory spaces belonging to objects. In these spaces, each object tells a story about its owners through time. These owners all lived in the same building in Guangzhou, China, where people from different regions, classes, and occupations mingle. A mix of simple, silent, crazy, tortured, miserable, materialistic stories tell of the conditions of life in Guangzhou. As the protagonist proceeds on their journey of seeking, they surprisingly find they once also lived in the same building. In the first story, the protagonist learns the life story of a woman who owns a ring of keys. She’s a materialistic woman, but has been desperately seeking an actual home her entire life.

Music: This piece of lo-fi music, Rainy Night Time, was recorded on a rainy night in my room. I also did part of the vocals, and it was made on FL studio. The sense of homeliness, familiarity and sentimentality that it exudes is perfect for this project. 

Mechanics: I still have not figured out a suitable mechanics and core loop.  For the first story, woman who owns a chain of keys. I made a virtual key cutting machine and a portal demo. Both demos were made to test out what is achievable.

Mechanics For Key Cutting Machine mechanics.  

1. The player stands in front of a key cutting machine. Two camera windows are shown.

2.     Click Left Mouse Button to slide two keys in the key cutter.

3.     Use arrow keys to adjust the machine bed position to align keys.

4.     'Q' & 'E' cut with adjustable depth

5.     Press 'C' to change keys 

Technically:

The key cutting machine uses the Marching Cubes algorithm created by Paul Bourke. It uses a black and white image of the target key used as the input for the primary 3d model. It also utilizes vertices and scalar values to define voxels, while the act of cutting involves changing these scalar values into instructions for the drill.

Mechanics For Portal mechanics.

1.     Use 'W', 'A', 'S' and 'D' to move the camera around and fly in the scenes.

2.     Players can walk from scene1 to scene2.