Sunday 28 February 2016

Robin Silcock

I am a Second Year Games Art and Design student at Norwich University of the Arts. I am looking to graduate as a 3D Artist with applicable skills in Maya, Mudbox, ZBrush and Photoshop. This blog documents my learning curves, and the curve-balls which form my journey.

Myself in 3 words? Honest, Busy and Dedicated.


www.robinsilcock.com



When navigating my blog;

  • Works in Progress - This section is a constantly running account of all my current projects - personal and for university. It will contain reference images and website links and sometimes less than coherent posts, so be prepared!
  • Finished Pieces - This is where you will find my more polished artwork.
  • Labels - I have tried to label every post, so that finding exactly what you want is easier for readers.

    Looking for help with Maya? Check out the posts tagged "Maya How-To's"

    My Latest Creation in Maya
    To watch my latest Turntable;

    http://youtu.be/xkMyyqdZopg


Friday 25 October 2013

Friday 5 July 2013

Brains Eden 48 Hour Game Jam Competition 2013







Our Brains Eden team was made up of;

- Stina Sheehy; GUI Designer and Graphic Artist
http://stinasheehy.carbonmade.com/

- Robin Silcock; Producer (of sorts), 3D Modeler and Texture Artist
http://www.robinsilcock.com

- Jess Magnus; 3D Modeler and Sound
http://jmagnusportfolio.blogspot.co.uk/

- Steven Taarland; Unity Coder, Scene Coder and Game Designer
http://staarlandgames.co.uk/home/

- Martin Scott; Unity Coder, GUI Coder and Designer


Game Icon




Below are some screens which Stina made for the game (the logo above is also her work);




To explain the game a little further, here are some 'help screens' we put into the game - so that when a player was playing the game, pop-up instructions wouldn't hinder gameplay.



The game is meant to speed up (as in more mountains, and a faster moving bloon) over time, but the code never quite worked properly. I have a feeling that it took too long for it to speed up so that it was so gradual it was hard to notice. Similarly, the lever meant to accelerate the bloon was too subtle.
In the demo we submitted the mountain goats didn't in fact reduce your health, it was only by hitting the mountains themselves that you lost health. Though by having your vision blocked by the goats, you were more likely to hit the mountains so unintentionally, they did cause a loss in health!

The last UI glitch (shall we call it) was that between plays of the game, the counter for the number of people saved did not re-set. I explained this on the day as representing the overall and combined effort of players at the Jam to save the stranded people.


We had originally wanted this black screen to appear when you pressed play, but we sadly ran out of time. It would have served as a little re-cap of what the UI meant to the players.


If we had had time (a term I am bound to use a lot more in this blog post) we wanted the first play through of the game to feature in-game instructions. Much like that seen in Bee Leader (examples below - screenshots from my own iPad)




And now some shots of the modeled 'hanging signs' we planned to have swing down onto screen, or appear hung from some clouds (also shown below) to give the player guidance in-game.






We also included this 'Concept' screen which explains a little of our thinking behind the design of the game;



And now onto some screenshots!



The starting screen has a  floating green balloon (bloon) on the screen, and the play button sways to encourage the player to click it.



A typical view in game - here you can see the balloon 'cock-pit' the UI symbols in the top left and the trusty handle for using your fuel and speeding up your journey. The yellow parachute on display is holding fuel.



Here you can see near the gas bottle a goat with a parachute (a little amount of imagination needed). If you hit a mountain goat, it will enter your bloon basket and you have to proceed to shake the phone/tablet to get him out!


 Here's a shot of the invasive mountain goat! And then some general shots of the game;





Robin Silcock

I am a Second Year Games Art and Design student at Norwich University of the Arts. After exploration of a number of roles in my first year, I am now looking to graduate as a 3D Artist with applicable skills in Maya, Mudbox, ZBrush and Photoshop. I understand that my skills in this field are not there yet - but I aim to achieve this goal through consistently working through the programs in my University and Personal Projects. I love to be busy - I have always had a lot of things on my plate since the age of 7 where I successfully balanced school with Ballet, Tap, Horse-Riding, French, Piano and Singing Lessons! In the same fashion, my university schedule is just as hectic and varied; I am a Peer Mentor to first year students, Student Rep for Second Year, and President of the Enterprise Society. Like I said, I love to be busy! I am a Games Hippie - so to speak - I believe that Games if designed and harnessed in the right way, will be able to help solve many of the global issues we have today - even if it starts off in a small way. Just look at the positive effects that Facebook and Twitter have already had... When navigating my blog;
  • Works in Progress - This section is a constantly running account of all my current projects - personal and for university. It will contain reference images and website links and sometimes less than coherent posts, so be prepared!
  • Finished Pieces - This is where you will find my more polished artwork. Looking for help with Maya? Check out the posts tagged "Maya How-To's"