PANDORA'S PAINTING
Pre-production, Surfacing and Unreal TD
Final Major Project and Dissertation
Bournemouth University
Pandora’s Painting is a visual narrative game set in 1932 and inspired by cosmic horror and Greek mythology. The game prologue follows Hope, who enters her late mother’s study, finding confusing notes, items, and a painting in which she falls into. This painting leads her to discover an unnerving unfamiliar world, containing unknown organisms and giant creature sculptures. Within she finds a golden box, which she has an unstoppable desire to open, continuing the family curse of having a burning treacherous curiosity, and opening Pandora’s box. The box reveals long stairs that lead into the darkness below and Hope, helplessly foredoomed, decides to descend.
Pandora's Painting
SURFACING TD
While i did some modelling and Unreal Engine integration, my main role was doing all of the surfacing for the game. Since there are two environment and a lot of assets, a lot of them were done procedurally. The materials were highly detailed, using displacement when necessary in order to keep the polycount of the assets relatively low.
A comparison of one of the environments without and with my surfacing contribution.
PROCEDURAL MATERIALS
I made a lot of procedural materials using Substance Designer and Unreal Engine.
Procedural rug material
Paper Generator
Procedural alien rock material
EXAMPLES OF PROCEDURAL MATERIALS
EXAMPLES OF MATERIALS ON ASSETS
PROCEDURAL SLIMY ROCK
PROCEDURAL SLIME PLACEMENT
GREEK TEMPLE PEDIMENT
GREEK ENGRAVING
PRE-PRODUCTION
The game starts in the attic of a Victorian house which has been inherited for a few generations. The attic is also the space Hope’s late mother, repurposed to use as a study, obsessively investigating the world of the painting.
Concept Art
The floor layout was designed using the golden ratio, like a lot of other elements of the attic, to reinforce the coherent design language of the environment (and to symbolize the theme of spirals and the cyclical curse). I also considered level design to guide the player, so they inevitably reach the most important part of the attic, the painting.
Attic floor plans and designs
Stained-glass designs and family diagram drawing