A group of Second Year De Montfort University students studying Game Art Design.
This blog is to document our participation in the 'Off The Map' competition from Game City, Crytek and The British Library.


Make It Useful and Good - Concepting Our Level

Just after research and creating moodboards concepting was the next step on our level creation pipeline. It was undoubtedly one of the most important steps because we were brainstorming and getting our ideas out of our heads, which meant that we were deciding on how the level was going to look like. Additionally, at this early stage concept drawing allowed us to clearly present to our tutors what was on our minds without needless vague verbal descriptions. One picture is truly worth a thousand words.

From the very beginning we knew that capturing the right mood and atmosphere was going to be challenging, so we spent reasonable amount of time focusing just on that one aspect in our concepts.


As you can see on the pictures below we were considering whether we want to have snow/rain/mist in our level.





One of the most crucial themes in the 'The mask of red death' story ware different coloured rooms. So, we also focused on creating a range of interior concepts.


Apart from being concentrated on the general atmosphere of concepts, we also focused on some specific aspects of our project, such as modular pieces of walls and gates. Therefore, we came up with a range of possible ideas, so that then we could choose the final one from a variety of options.




Concepting wasn't only a pre-modelling stage, but it lasted throughout the entire process of the level creation. Some of the concepts for smaller assets were designed as we went through the project.


Beside of drawing from scratch, we used photo bashing and we were drawing over simple 3D models to make the process of concepting quicker and more efficient.


 Even though concepts weren't the final outcome and they won't be something visible to the player, it was a crucial part of the project. I'm glad we spent such a significant amount of time on this process as it allowed us to communicate our ideas better and helped us to prevent many mistakes and misunderstandings.

-Karol

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