Re_Ball

Production Cycle: 8 Months (2 semesters, 1st semester pre-production, 2nd semester full production)

My Role: Lead Artist

My Contribution:

• Look Development
• Art Direction and critiques
• Art Document Management (pipeline documentation, art asset list, art style document, delta reports)
• Pipeline Management (working with the engineer to ensure that all art is imported into the game properly and looks correct in engine)
• All Environment Art (Panels and panel textures, skybox and background art, markers)
• Particle Effects

Pre-Production team structure: 4 team members

• Producer
• Lead Designer
• Lead Programmer
• Lead Artist

Full-Production team structure: 7 team members

• Producer/Designer
• Lead Designer
• Lead Programmer
• Lead Artist
• Animator/Artist
• Artist (focused on characters and weapons)
• Designer/Audio Lead
  

Game Synopsis:

Re_Ball is a first-person shooter/platformer inspired by the arcade classic Break-Out. The environment in Re_Ball is made entirely of destructible panels with certain "special panels" that have various effects that are unleashed when the panel is hit or destroyed(Such as bomb panels which cause explosions of various sizes depending on the power of the ball which hit them). Re_Ball also possesses a wall walking mechanic where players can shift their gravity to any surface simply by creating contact with that surface while in the air.

The game has both single and multi-player modes, in multi-player the the goal is to be the last one standing(a player is dead when they fall out of the level). So you must use your platforming skills to survive while trying to destroy the panels around your enemies. In single player mode the goal is to simply reach the end point in each level, there are achievements for beating the level quickly and for various actions the player takes while playing.

My Take:

As Lead artist I had to come up with an art style that would fit our mechanics and still look good. We decided to base the game inside a computer program as it seemed the most logical setting for our mechanics and I decided loosely on a Tron based art style for the game. This was a challenge since I had never done art of this sort of style before and I went through a lot of textures and look development before I found something I was happy with.

This is the first project I've worked on as a lead where I actually have multiple artists I have to look after and provide direction to and I think its really helped me develop not only my critiquing ability but also my leadership and teamwork as well. Since we have a very specific style were going for the new artists needed a lot of direction in order to create assets that really fit into our art style.

Re_Ball has also taught me a lot of just how vital teamwork and communication between artists and designers can be. Since much of the art in Re_Ball is directly tied to gameplay it really needs to not only look good but enhance the players ability to discern what's going on and really enhance the gameplay, as well. The regular panels for instance, have 5 health and the textures for each of those health states needed to be easily discernable while also showing a progression from healthy to heavily damaged, and it took a lot of effort to come up with a texture set that provided all that while still looking good at the same time.

Credits:

Producer/Design: Brenton Woodrow

Lead Design: Scot Gaylord

Lead Artist: Justin Kimball

Lead Programmer: Andrew Start

Design/Audio: Joe Kozachek

Lead Animator/Artist: Ryan Mcsweeney

Artist: Jon Richard