Zodiac Attack! Commercial Progress

In class, we're elaborating on our Board Games that we created and we're going to put together a commercial to try and sell our game. The commercial is to last 15 seconds and grab the viewers attention.

Take these thumbnails with a grain of salt. They're more for myself to remind me of my thought process and less intended to look attractive:

Print and Play: Zodiac Attack!

After much hours of work and play testing... It's finally ready to hit the interwebs! Allow me to introduce...

    A strategy game that will leave your opponent seeing stars!

Game Manual

and...

Download the Printable game here!

Play Testing!

Kat and Dom playing my game ^

My game idea went through many different iterations and a lot of ideas were scrapped and redone. It was a long and painful process, but in the end, I'm happy with what came out.

This isn't the final design yet, and my game idea is still going through heavy balancing issues... but the main mechanics are down.

Things people thought of while playing (or ways they broke my game):

1. Sagittarius was OP. I had to scale him down.

2. Taurus broke the game majorly. He was OP.

3. The Sun didn't progress as fast, and the number of nodes were decreased.

4. The Star Clusters were unkillable at one point.

5. (this is a big one) There was no way to keep track of health points!

6. Game was too long. Board had to be shortened twice.

I've fixed the majority of these problems, but I'm sure with future playtests, I'll find more problems!

Decals

Working on some decals for my board game idea.

The visual theme is centered around the Zodiac and celestial ideas.

Zodiac Attack!

Upon playing childhood games such as "Sorry!" and Warcraft 3 (even though that one is on the computer...), I've decided to make two different versions of a Zodiac/ celestial themed Board game!

Concept Statement(s):
Zodiac Attack! A Strategy Racing game to be the first around the Sun!

or...

Zodiac Attack! A Tower Defense game that will leave your opponent seeing stars!

Theme:

1st Idea: Be the first to make a complete orbit around the sun while preventing your opponents from reaching theirs!

2nd Idea: Demolish your opponent's star while protecting your own!

The colors I intend to use are of the following...

And this is my overall Plan if you can read it...

Hexit Strategy Deconstruction

In class I played a game with a fellow colleague known as Hexit Strategy. It's a print and play game (although I'm sure you can buy it from somewhere as well...), and it was quite a good amount of fun!

The goal of the game was to occupy your opponent's base while leaving behind surprises for your opponent who was trying to occupy your base.

Things I've noticed about the game:
-Your own defenses and cards can be used against you if placed incorrectly.
-You have to sacrifice a lot to make progress.
-You can troll the hell out of your opponent with the Supernova card.
-The game's length depends on how far away you place your bases from each other.
-The game CAN take a very long time...
-Ships act more as pawns than anything else.
-You can even use your own units to trigger a trap.
-There are many different combos you can trigger.

-Chance is also pretty interesting with how it works in the game. It determines what 3 hexit cards you draw from the pile, but it also plays a part with what you land on when a card is facedown.
-Placing cards, and raising troops are essential if you want to capture your opponent's base.
-The game itself is an open spaced game, where the cards are hexagons and can be placed near each other on any edge.
-Attributes on the hexit cards play a role when moving, attacking, and defending only.
-Sometimes you can kill your own units with a Supernova.

I highly recommend this game to anyone who reads this!

A Door

Yep. A Door. It's my first actual model! This is it in Maya. I hope to post more pictures of it once I have it finished and mapped in UDK.

Getting the feel for 3D

My 3D classes have finally started, and I can't say how excited I am to finally be plunged into it. There is so much information to process, but it's the coolest thing in the world when you finally start making something. My classes are currently focusing on Modular design, in which the assets and models we create can be manipulated to create new forms that we can use to create levels.

These screen captures were done in Maya:

And as something a little extra... this one was done in Zbrush. It took around 45 minutes.

Freshman Work

Here is just a quick re-link to some of the *best* work I did in Freshman work:

http://wpaulsen.blogspot.com/2013/04/update.html
http://wpaulsen.blogspot.com/2013/03/more-sketchbook-work.html
http://wpaulsen.blogspot.com/2012/11/recent-stuff.html

This link is to my Chess set I made for 3D class. I really had fun with this assignment and I'm proud of what came out considering it was the first project I've ever sculpted:

http://wpaulsen.blogspot.com/2013/02/chess-set.html


It's interesting to see how much I've grown in my style and in my techniques that I use since Fresshie year. I hope to keep on improving!

Wrath of the Lich King Cinimatic Trailer

One of my favorite games of all time is without a doubt World of Warcraft. While I don't play the game anymore, their art direction still is enough to make me scream like a fangirl every time I see it.

One of my favorite expansions of all time is Wrath of the Lich King. I was at the midnight release of the expansion at a local gamestop and I remember them playing the Cinematic trailer before opening to make the moment all the more epic.

This trailer is my all time favorite trailer for any game ever. Why? Well, the visual for one is incredibly stunning. When I watch the trailer, my room feels just a little bit colder. I FEEL as though I'm witnessing the rise of the Lich King in person.

 But the most unique thing about this trailer has to do with the story that is being told from the Narrator (Arthas' father). Arthas' actions throughout the trailer end up mirroring what his father is narrating. It gives a nice effect of story, by showing Arthas' downfall by comparing him to what he should have been.

All in all, it's just a really well designed cinematic and I've watched it fifty times by now.

Portraits

These are relatively quick. About an hour to an hour and a half each.

...Update!

Osgoode Hall

Syndra Fanart!

Invented Room for Syndra:

Tigers!

More Sketchbook Work

Some more stuff from my sketchbook. I'm trying to learn watercolor!
All of these are animal studies. Some were done at Jungle Gardens near our school. Others (like the owl gestures and stuff) were done from photos. The skeletons were drawn from real skeletons in class.

I'm in love with the Cardinal!

And this Black Swan, I don't even-

Chess Set

I sculpted them with wire, tinfoil, and sculpey. Airbrush and acrylic was used for the paint. The pink spots are because I took the photos pre-touch up... eheheheh... But you get the idea! Here is the entire set...

And here are all the pieces themselves: