Author Topic: Live Background Development Series! (SPOILERS)  (Read 12574 times)

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Lambonius

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Live Background Development Series! (SPOILERS)
« on: February 08, 2013, 05:03:47 PM »
Hello Lonarian Guards!   8)

Jason (aka Lambonius) here, introducing the first of our elite backer behind the scenes development series!  In this thread, I will be designing and posting WIPs of the next background on my To Do List.  This scene is from the Grass Plains region of the Krasna Valley, an area that has been as yet unseen in the current demos, but will feature prominently in the full game.  This area of the game world has pretty much been my baby, and with input from Steve (Blackthorne) and Jeremy (Jerminator,) I've been designing, sketching, and painting it for the past several months (with breaks here and there to work on other, more pressing areas.)

The sketch attached below is an early concept for an abandoned homestead, one of several small architectural features that dot the plains.  A number of design changes have been made to the overall area since this sketch was made, and as such, I will be redrawing a new version from scratch to incorporate those changes.  I expect to post the new version later tonight, once I get a chance to sit down and flesh it out.

We'd like to invite you elite Lonarian Guards to offer any feedback you like--critiques, suggestions for content additions, etc., and just in general to be a part of the process of conversation that happens around the design of any given background in our game.  Don't be shy; I'm open to anything you have to say, both positive and negative, and would love to be able to incorporate some of your ideas in the screen, provided they still fit with what we have in mind for the scene.  :)  It's all for the purposes of creating a more interesting and attractive gaming experience!

We hope to make this a recurring series, with work from our other artists appearing in the future.  So check back often!  :)
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Re: Live Background Development Series! (SPOILERS)
« Reply #1 on: February 08, 2013, 05:09:29 PM »
Hey - Bt here.

So, to add - the grasslands are on the Western side of the Valley of Krasna - they're bordered on the West by the Great River Silmahwyn, and on the east by the North Woods (The 99 Acre Woods) and the Volksville River - Both the Volksville river and The Silmahwyn empty into the sea at the Port City of Tyr, in the South.  Running through the grasslands is The King's Road - the great road that runs from Tyr to the Castle in the North, Koniglist - which is where the King of Lonaria lives.

The grasslands have many little pockets of life - this, however, is an old abandonded home.  You'll discover what this place means to the characters in the game - and how it may hold the key to something you need.

As Jason said - he's developed this area and worked on it based on my writing for QFI and Jerm's Art Direction... it's been a really amazing collaboration, and we've been working on it for months!

I hope you enjoy watching this background come to life!


Bt
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janx

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Re: Live Background Development Series! (SPOILERS)
« Reply #2 on: February 08, 2013, 07:22:11 PM »
I am enjoying watching this game come to life.

Up til now, my pre-game activities included a demo (possibly), read a good review, read a poor review then an agonising wait til pay day.

Now the IQ team is bringing the game into my life each and every day, and that to me, an average punter at home, is pretty neat.

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Re: Live Background Development Series! (SPOILERS)
« Reply #3 on: February 08, 2013, 08:11:39 PM »
Oh my God SPOILERS :o
 ;D
It's great to be able and see sketches like the one above,give feedback and make suggestions!
I really love the concept of this sketch  :)
I understand that the QFI world is quite big.
When we see more pictures in the future,could there be some sort of a map or something ,positioning the spot that what we're looking to takes place ?

Lambonius

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Re: Live Background Development Series! (SPOILERS)
« Reply #4 on: February 08, 2013, 08:14:32 PM »
Oh my God SPOILERS :o
 ;D
It's great to be able and see sketches like the one above,give feedback and make suggestions!
I really love the concept of this sketch  :)
I understand that the QFI world is quite big.
When we see more pictures in the future,could there be some sort of a map or something ,positioning the spot that what we're looking to takes place ?

I'm sure that we CAN do that.  :)  However, we'll have to come up with a way to show you its position on the map without also giving away too much of the game world.  Problem with this one is that it's located right in the middle of an area with a bunch of finished backgrounds on all sides.  So, it'd be hard to show you its position without also revealing all of those.  Really though, if you ask Blackthorne nicely enough, anything can happen!  ;)
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Lambonius

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Re: Live Background Development Series! (SPOILERS)
« Reply #5 on: February 09, 2013, 02:09:00 AM »
And here's the new sketch.  It may take a bit of eye adjustment to get used to viewing black and white sketches at 320x240 resolution, but as you can see, there are quite a few new details here.  :)

I'll take a moment to explain a few of the non-spoilery additions.  ;)  The main plot important elements of the scene were the homestead itself and the two graves, so those have been left in roughly the same positions as before.  I made a few alterations to the scale of those elements, mainly because the early concept was not drawn to scale with Roehm's 100% sized sprite.  The other changes made to the screen were done essentially to fit this thing geographically into the new landscape that has since been designed around it.  The main change of note is the addition of craggy mountainous landscape to the opposite side of the river gorge.  It is plot significant that the gorge is impassable to the west of the plains, so the landscape on that side of the river needed to look appropriately treacherous.  I also wanted to make the distant scenery a bit grander (I hate to use the word epic) and more visually striking.  If you have a keen eye, you may notice some other architectural details in the far distance.  These details are all related to other screens in the plains area that you can explore with Roehm.  I won't go into specifics, but they will come into a bit more focus once I start painting this damn thing.  Consider it another little sneak peak!  ;)

As always, feedback is welcome.  Hope you guys dig it!  :)
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Re: Live Background Development Series! (SPOILERS)
« Reply #6 on: February 09, 2013, 12:51:50 PM »
After seeing that pic I feel the urge to jump the gorge to see what's on the other side.
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Re: Live Background Development Series! (SPOILERS)
« Reply #7 on: February 09, 2013, 12:55:47 PM »
Very cool stuff Lamb.  :D

I'd say the B&W sketch is a definite step up from the earlier one. Even though it has a bit less 'stuff' in it, what it does have seems a bit more focused and draws you to (what I assume are) the main elements of the scene. Nice work.


Lambonius

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Re: Live Background Development Series! (SPOILERS)
« Reply #8 on: February 09, 2013, 01:55:23 PM »
Very cool stuff Lamb.  :D

I'd say the B&W sketch is a definite step up from the earlier one. Even though it has a bit less 'stuff' in it, what it does have seems a bit more focused and draws you to (what I assume are) the main elements of the scene. Nice work.

Yeah, good point!  Love me some design economy.  ;)  And thanks!

Actually, in practice, I can tell you that all the additional background scenery will be much more time consuming even with the lack of other fore and mid-ground objects.  It'll be more interesting though, definitely.  I always want to include distant scenery that feels interesting and intriguing enough to spur the player's imagination.  Some of the best Sierra games always had those "damn, I want to go check THAT place out" kind of details.  The little mountain village in the scene where Graham is being carried to the roc's nest in KQ5 always comes to mind.
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Re: Live Background Development Series! (SPOILERS)
« Reply #9 on: February 09, 2013, 06:13:46 PM »
After seeing that pic I feel the urge to jump the gorge to see what's on the other side.

Same here, I loved the background so much I had to look away to actually see the house.

So Jason, how do you see this area being abandoned? Has it been 5 years, 10 or even 50?

Lambonius

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Re: Live Background Development Series! (SPOILERS)
« Reply #10 on: February 09, 2013, 06:19:52 PM »
So Jason, how do you see this area being abandoned? Has it been 5 years, 10 or even 50?

That's a good question.  Steve actually wrote a bit of side plot around this particular homestead, so I'm sure he's got a specific idea in mind, but I'm not sure exactly what that is.  :)  The initial idea for an abandoned homestead came from a bunch of sketches of different possible plains "setpieces" that I did in the early concept phase for the area.  He picked a few things from that batch that he liked, and had some other ideas already in place, and started reworking the plot and writing to fit the locations we had selected.  I'll leave it up to him whether or not he wants to reveal any of that backstory.  :)

For my part, I always imagined it being something that had been abandoned and collapsed for some time, probably closer to the 50 year mark, or even longer.  Certainly not a recent abandonment by any means.
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Re: Live Background Development Series! (SPOILERS)
« Reply #11 on: February 09, 2013, 06:40:24 PM »
Steve actually wrote a bit of side plot around this particular homestead

OK, now I am looking at that photo with an adventure gamers mindset. What things will be hiding in there, where could they be hidden, and what logic defying puzzle will I need to solve in order to get set item? :P

I should properly go back to just enjoying the pretty picture :)

Lambonius

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Re: Live Background Development Series! (SPOILERS)
« Reply #12 on: February 09, 2013, 08:29:33 PM »
Steve actually wrote a bit of side plot around this particular homestead

OK, now I am looking at that photo with an adventure gamers mindset. What things will be hiding in there, where could they be hidden, and what logic defying puzzle will I need to solve in order to get set item? :P

I should properly go back to just enjoying the pretty picture :)

Haha...you know, I think most of us keep that kind of thing in mind when designing these screens.  One of the "tricks" to background design is figuring out how to make an attractive image that also has certain functionality to it.  For example, a good background should not-so-subtly clue the player in to the available screen exits, and should (more subtly) visually point the player to important elements and interactive locations within the scene itself.

With this one, the exits are south, east, and northeast (following the path of the cliff behind the back of the house.)
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Re: Live Background Development Series! (SPOILERS)
« Reply #13 on: February 10, 2013, 01:06:43 AM »
After seeing that pic I feel the urge to jump the gorge to see what's on the other side.

See those tombstones? That's what happens if you try to jump the gorge!
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Re: Live Background Development Series! (SPOILERS)
« Reply #14 on: February 10, 2013, 02:22:25 AM »
On the good side, that's another opportunity for sardonic epitaphs!
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