It’s been a while since our last post, and some news are long overdue. In the past few months we’ve been on working on a lot of improvements in the game, and we’d like to tell us a bit about that, and also announce a few major changes that we’re very happy to see coming to fruition!

As we’ve already said many times in our Facebook discussion group and in social media in general, we’re focusing hard on our Steam version. We got greenlit in 2014, and our Steam launch depends only on ourselves, and this year we’ve made it our top priority to prepare the game to get there. We’re going to launch on Steam Early Access first, in a probably-soon date that we still haven’t decided – but, when we do, you’ll be the first to know!

About the changes: First, Unity 5

Probably the biggest reason we’ve been so quiet in the last months is that we decided to update the game’s engine from Unity 4 to Unity 5.

We thought that it wouldn’t be such a big deal at first, since the compatibility between both engines is very big, but that ended up taking a few months of development. We had to change all of our shaders, materials, lightmaps, etc, and also do a lot of bugfixing. But other than that, the biggest thing is that we took the opportunity to optimize the game A LOT.

Graphics optimization a long time needed

In the last updates we introduced a lot of new features and didn’t have the time to properly  optimize everything, so a lot of stuff needed some re-checking. Unity 5 also comes with some cool new features that help optimization, so we worked hard to make the game run on 60 fps on Unity 5 on most PCs. We’re still gonna have to test that with some people before launch, but we sure have come a long way.

So, if you haven’t been able to play for a while because the game was running too slow on your PC, don’t worry: we know what you mean and we are working on it.

Game interface in full HD

I don’t know if any of you noticed, but our current main menu UI is full HD (1080p) while the in-game one isn’t. The in-game interface is also not localized, being always on english. On top of that, we discovered that the user interface was a big bottleneck in the optimization, so it was the best time to fix all  of those problems for once.

In the next update we’ll release a new UI (which looks a lot like the old one except for a few changes) but that is much lighter, in Full HD and using a new technology, now ready to be translated to other languages. Yay!

Lots of new visual effects!

New engine and new shaders means that we also had to remake a lot of the particle effects in the game….So, as you can imagine, we also took the time to change a lot of them! Some of the effects were really old and could look better, and we’re gonna be on Steam soon, so we gotta step up!

New environment art: BigRigs

This one we already spoiled a bit on social media, but the BigRigs collectors map got a big overhaul. It is the first of the maps to get environment art in the new style we’re working on, and it is a major improvement from the other ones.

For those interested in more technical aspects, on the Steam version we will have some features that make the game look much better and “next-gen”: real-time lighting, normal maps, occlusion maps, SSAO, etc.

An important thing about the new environment art is that we made it with a lot of future improvements in mind. The fact that we never got to fully determine a background story for the game was always holding us back in terms of art. So, in the process of making this map, we decided it was time to take a few steps back. This is not only the beginning of a new art style we’re developing, but also the start of a lore, coming to life inside the game.

The tutorial map will be the next one to get a facelift. We think it is super important that the first time players join the game leaves a good impression, so we’re starting from there. As soon as we finish it, we will start with another map.  Maybe you guys can tell us your favorite? Tell us in the comments!

So yes, we now have a BACKGROUND STORY for the game, and we’re starting to add it little by little.

Yes! That’s right. It was a feedback from many many players that they missed some kind of plot behind the robots fighting, and that they wanted to know what was the background story behind the game. Who created Dummy, the bot? Why do they fight? Why is there a chicken robot? Who’s the damned scientist?!

We finally took the time and sought help to fix this problem. We brought to our rescue someone who understands a lot more about narrative and stories than ourselves, and asked them to help us organize our ideas. Turns out we already had a lot of good ideas, a lot of things more or less decided, but we needed help putting them together and connecting the dots. We finally did it, and we hope we can share it with you guys soon!

The first thing you’re gonna see: Team identities!

The first thing that we’re gonna introduce are the team’s names and logos. Until now, when playing a team game mode (Team Deathmatch and Collectors Mode) the players would be assigned to the teams Electrify and Overclock. This was just a placeholder we created using the power-ups names loooong ago, and we thought it was lame but also a bit funny.

Now, our Dummies will fight on either Team Matrix or Vertex4, the two potencies battling for supremacy in the dummy-arenas-universe. The teams are sponsored by two rival super-corporations that are trying to take control of all things Dummy-related. I won’t give a lot of details just yet, you will discover more in time!

And the biggest change of all, coming with the Steam version: we’re gonna change the name of the game.

That’s exactly what you heard. In Steam, Project Tilt won’t be called “Project Tilt” anymore. We’re gonna give it a new name, that we have finally decided after a LONG, VERY LONG time, and we’re very happy about.

We know this may come as a surprise for many of you, and that some will certainly be disappointed to see the game they like and have been playing for a while change names all of a sudden. It’s not ideal to change a game’s name after we’ve built a community around it, but we feel it’s needed.

Project Tilt was called that way as a “project” name – a placeholder to be used during the development. But, since we wanted to release it early and have people playing it from the start, we used that name until we got the final one. It took us two years to decide on a new name, and now is the perfect opportunity to change it.

A new beginning!

Project Tilt was always meant to come to Steam, and we also have plans for Playstation 4. We’re gonna enter a new phase now that we’re getting close to our goal, and we wanna do that with a new name, new logo, new art, and a background story to link it all together. Actually, the reason we were able to find a final name is because we could bring all the pieces together like this. For us, this is like a rebirth for Project Tilt and we’re gonna make it a lot better. 

So stay tuned, we will announce the new name and show some more cool stuff soon!

And don’t worry, if you don’t like anything we’re doing (not just the name, anything) feel free to tell us. We accept criticism and feedback, we love to read it and we reply to everything.

To end this all, we’d like to thank you for being with us in this journey! Seeing the players reaction to our game is our biggest accomplishment and is what keeps us moving forward. You guys are the best!

SEE YOU IN-GAME!

Já faz algum tempo desde o nosso último post, e já está mais do que na hora de darmos algumas notícias da nossa parte!  Nos últimos meses ficamos mais quietinhos, mas trabalhando em muitas melhorias para o jogo, e queríamos contar para vocês um pouco sobre o que fizemos. Além disso, e super importante, precisamos anunciar algumas mudanças grandes que vão acontecer no jogo em breve e que estamos SUPER FELIZES de ver virarem realidade!

Como já dissemos muitas vezes no nosos grupo de facebook e nas mídias sociais em geral: estivemos super focados na nova versão de Steam. Nós passamos no Steam Greenlight em 2014, e o lançamento nessa nova plataforma depende somente de nós. Por isso, esse ano nós fizemos disso a nossa prioridade número 1: preparar o jogo para lançar lá. Primeiro nós vamos para o Steam Early Access (Acesso Antecipado), em uma data provavelmente-próxima que ainda não decidimos – mas que vocês vão ser os primeiros a saber!

Sobre as mudanças: Primeiro, Unity 5

Provavelmente, o maior motivo pelo qual ficamos tão calados e sem novidades nos últimos meses é porque decidimos atualizar a engine do jogo, da Unity4 para a Unity5.

Nós achamos que essa seria uma mudança fácil, rapidinha, já que a compatibilidade entre as engines é realmente muito grande, mas uma coisa leva a outra e acabamos refazendo muito mais coisa do que imaginávamos – e lá se foram alguns meses de desenvolvimento. Nós tivemos que mudar todos os materiais, shaders, lightmaps e etc do jogo, além de fazer muito bugfixing. Mas a questão é que toda essa mudança nos deu a oportunidade de melhorar o jogo de maneiras que não podíamos antes. Por isso, aproveitamos para trabalhar MUITO na otimização gráfica do jogo.

Otimização gráfica, já não era sem tempo!

Nos últimos updates que fizemos, adicionamos uma série de features sem ter muito tempo para otimizar tudo. Então, um monte de coisa precisava ser checada para descobrir o que estava deixando o jogo mais pesado. Uma boa notícia é que a Unity5 veio com algumas features muito boas para otimização, então trabalhamos duro para fazer o jogo rodar em 60 fps em um grande número de PCs. Obviamente ainda precisamos testar isso com outros jogadores antes de lançar, mas com certeza já melhoramos  muito.

Então, basicamente, se você não tem conseguido jogar porque o jogo está muito lento no seu PC, não se preocupe: nós sabemos o que você quer dizer e já estamos trabalhando nisso!

Interface do jogo em full HD

Não sei se algum de vocês já reparou nisso, mas atualmente a interface no main menu é em HD (1080p), enquanto a dentro do jogo não é (é só 720p). A interface in-game também não é localizada, ou seja, é sempre em inglês não importa sua configuração de línguas, e além disso descobrimos que ela era um super gargalo na otimização do jogo. Então, a melhor opção era resolver todos esses problemas de uma vez.

No próximo update (para a versão de web, ainda) nós vamos lançar uma nova interface, que se parece muito com a atual exceto por algumas pequenas mudanças, mas que é muito mais leve, em full HD, e usando uma tecnologia nova. Ela ainda não vai estar localizada, mas vai ser pronta para ser traduzida para outras línguas no futuro. Yay!!

Um monte de novos efeitos!!

Nova engine e novos shaders significa que nós também tivemos que refazer uma penca de efeitos e partículas no jogo… Então, como você pode imaginar, nós também aproveitamos para deixar eles bem melhores. Alguns eram muito antigos e poderiam ter uma cara melhor, e agora estamos indo para o Steam: temos que fazer bonito! Esse do GIF é o novo efeito de Disarm, só um exemplo. No próximo update vocês vão ver mais!

Nova arte de cenário: BigRigs

Esse aqui nós já andamos dando alguns spoilers nas nossas mídias sociais. O mapa BigRigs recebeu uma super reforma. Ele foi o primeiro mapa que escolhemos para fazer a arte, nesse novo estilo em que estamos trabalhando, e é uma graaaande diferença para os outros mapas.

Para quem se interessa por aspectos mais técnicos, na versão de Steam nós vamos ter algumas coisas extras que vão deixar o jogo mais bonito e com mais cara de “next-gen”: real-time lighting, normal maps, occlusion maps, SSAO, etc.

Uma coisa importante também sobre esse novo cenário é que o fizemos já pensando em uma série de melhorias futuras. O fato de nós nunca termos conseguido definir uma história para o jogo sempre foi uma pedra no nosso sapato, sempre nos segurando quando precisávamos criar arte nova. Então, para criar esse aqui, resolvemos dar alguns passos para trás antes de andar para a frente. Esse mapa é o começo não só de um novo estilo artístico que estamos desenvolvendo, mas também o começo de uma história sendo inserida pouco a pouco e ganhando vida dentro do jogo.

O próximo mapa em que vamos trabalhar é o Tutorial. Para nós, a primeira experiência que o jogador tem ao entrar no jogo é SUPER importante, e queremos causar uma boa impressão. Por isso, vamos começar com esse, e assim que terminarmos vamos escolher um outro para trabalhar. Quem sabe vocês não nos ajudam a decidir esse próximo mapa? Qual o preferido de vocês? Digam nos comentários!

SIM, agora temos uma HISTÓRIA para o jogo, e vamos adicionar elementos dela pouco a pouco.

Isso mesmo! Esse foi um comentário que recebemos muitas vezes, de que os jogadores sentem falta de algum tipo de história por trás da luta entre os robôs, e de que eles queriam entender o porquê do jogo ser assim. Quem criou os Dummies, os robôs?! Por que eles lutam? Por que tem uma galinha robô? Quem raios é o tal do cientista?!

Finalmente tiramos um tempo e procuramos ajuda para resolver esse problema. Trouxemos a bordo o Arthur Protásio, um cara que entende muito mais de histórias e narrativas do que nós, e pedimos para ele conversar conosco para ajudar a organizar nossas ideias. Acabou que nós já tínhamos um monte de boas ideias, e muita coisa já mais ou menos definidas, mas nós precisávamos de uma ajuda para juntar tudo e ligar os pontos. Finalmente nós conseguimos, e estamos muito felizes de poder começar a mostrar isso tudo para vocês!

A primeira coisa que vocês vão ver: Logos dos Times!

A primeira coisa relacionada à história que vamos adicionar são os nomes e logos dos times. Até agora, quando você jogava um modo de times (Team Deathmatch ou Collectors), or jogadores eram colocados nos times Electrify ou Overclock. Esses, como vocês sabem, são só nomes de dois powerups que por acaso eram azul/vermelho, hahahaha… Esse foi só um teste que fizemos há muito tempo, e que achávamos tosquinho, mas  engraçadinho também.

Mas agora é hora de mudar, e os Dummies vão lutar no Team Matrix ou no Vertex4, duas potências que lutam pela supremacia no mundo das arenas de dummies. Os times são patrocinados por duas super corporações rivais, que tentam controlar tudo que é relacionado às batalhas nas arenas. Não vou dar muitos detalhes ainda, mas vocês vão descobrir a tempo!

E a maior mudança de todas, chegando com a versão de Steam: nós vamos mudar o nome do jogo.

Isso, exatamente o que você ouviu. Em breve, com o lançamento no Steam, Project Tilt não vai mais se chamar “Project Tilt”. Nós vamos dar um novo nome ao jogo, que nós finalmente decidimos depois de MUITO, MUITO tempo. E estamos MUITO FELIZES com o resultado!

Eu sei que isso vai ser uma grande surpresa para muitos vocês, e alguns podem ficar decepcionados de ver o jogo que eles gostam e que têm jogado há muito tempo, de repente mudar de nome. Não é o ideal trocar o nome de um jogo depois que já se tem uma comunidade de jogadores, mas nós sentimos que isso é necessário.

Project Tilt sempre se chamou desse jeito como um “nome de projeto” – ou seja, um nome temporário para ser usado durante o desenvolvimento pela equipe no projeto. Mas, como nós deixamos ele disponível na web desde muito cedo, nós tivemos que usar esse nome enquanto não tínhamos o final. Demorou mais de dois anos para decidirmos o nome novo, e para termos uma boa oportunidade de mudar, mas agora a hora chegou.

É um novo mundo de aventuras, e o perigo é bem maior

Nosso objetivo sempre foi levar o Project Tilt ao Steam, e também temos planos futuros para Playstation4, e finalmente estamos chegando lá depois uma loooonga jornada. Nós vamos começar uma nova fase agora em que estamos chegando mais e mais perto do nosso objetivo, e vamos começar essa fase com um novo nome, novo logo, nova arte, e uma história que conecta tudo isso. Na verdade, a razão pela qual nós conseguimos chegar a um nome final é justamente porque conseguimos dar um sentido a tudo e juntar todas as peças do quebra-cabeça desse jeito!  Para nós, isso é como um renascimento do Project Tilt, em que ele vai mudar muito, PARA MUITO MELHOR

Então fique de olho, porque vamos mostrar muito mais detalhes de todas as coisas que andamos fazendo, e também anunciar o novo nome, em breve!!

Ah, e não se preocupe, se você não gostar do que estamos fazendo (não só da troca de nome, qualquer coisa) sinta-se livre para nos falar. Nós aceitamos críticas e feedbacks, amamos ler o que vocês escrevem e tentamos responder tudo.

Para terminar, queria agradecer a todos vocês por estarem nos acompanhando e jogando o jogo! Ver a reação dos jogadores e saber que eles se importam com o jogo é nosso maior feito e é o que nos mantém seguindo em frente, vocês são os melhores!

Nos vemos in-game!

New set available: the Gangster!

The whole collection is available right now, alongside its new gun: The Intimidator!

And check out this video we made showcasing it and showing all the item thumbnails and also the foil version:

Nova coleção disponível: Malandro!

A coleção inteira já está disponível junto da sua arma nova: A Intimidadora!

E dêem uma olhada nesse vídeo que fizemos mostrando o set de todos os ângulos, além da sua versão foil:

 A new update has been released!

We just updated the game with some cool stuff, specially for those who have not won their 50 Bits for verifying your e-mail!

Here’s the changelog:

Changes to the account creation process

– You can now freely change the e-mail you used to start playing Project Tilt BEFORE you verify it. (After verification your e-mail won’t be changeable anymore!)
– You can now request to change your password from withing the settings menu after verifying your e-mail.
– You don’t need to create an account before playing the game anymore if you’re playing on Facebook! (just accept the app and create a nickname) Later, you will be prompted to upgrade your account – this is an optional step in which you insert email address and password. With this “BitCake Account” you can play Project Tilt in any other platform (Facebook,ProjectTilt.com and others in the near future)

Game

– Changed the whole Tutorial ending screen. Now we explain the rewards the player gets when he/she finishes the tutorial.
– Changed all bullet sizes and shader effects (Normal bullets and Double Damage bullets)
– Small visual adjustments on Floorophobic so it reflects its collider better
– Small adjustment on BigRigs post-game so when you hop on a ramp you’ll fall on the vote capsule.

– Many many many bugfixes and improvements to the game Emoticon smile

Come play the game!
https://apps.facebook.com/project-tilt/

Atualizamos o jogo!

Acabamos de atualizar o jogo com algumas coisas bem legais, especialmente para aqueles que ainda não pegaram seus 50 Bits de verificação de e-mail!

Aqui vai a lista de mudanças:

Mudanças no processo de criação de conta

– Agora você pode mudar o seu e-mail que usou para cadastrar no Tilt. Isso vai ajudar aqueles que se inscreveram com um e-mail “fake” e depois não conseguiram verificar o email. Emoticon smile Mas atenção: depois de verificá-lo, não dá mais para trocar.
– Agora é possível pedir para trocar a senha do jogo de dentro do menu de configurações depois de verificar seu e-mail.
– Para quem criar contas novas NO FACEBOOK a partir de hoje, não será necessário inserir e-mail e senha em um primeiro momento (é só aceitar o app e escolher um nick), a conta será linkada diretamente com sua conta no face. Depois, o jogador pode fazer um “upgrade da conta”, onde ele cadastra e-mail e senha. Só assim será possível carregar seu progresso no Tilt para outras plataformas (Projecttilt.com, Facebook, e outros no futuro)

Jogo

– Nova tela final do Tutorial, agora explicando as recompensas que o jogador ganha ao terminá-lo
– Modificadas todas as balas e os efeitos de balas de todas as armas (normal e com power-up de dano duplo)
– Pequenas mudanças visuais no Floorophobic para melhor refletir suas colisões de cenário.
– Pequena modificação no pós jogo do BigRigs – se você subir numa rampa de pulo agora você deve cair em cima da capsula de votação.

– Muitos muitos muitos consertos de bugs e melhorias em geral Emoticon smile

https://apps.facebook.com/project-tilt/

Hey everyone!
We made some adjustments to how some weapons work!

Here’s a changelog:

Minigun:
– Damage reduced to 10 from 12
– Spin decay time reduce to 0.75 from 2
– Fire rate reduced to 16 from 18

Bazooka:
– Fire rate reduced to 0.6 from 0.7
– Initial ammo reduced to 2 from 3
– Total ammo reduced to 4 from 6

Phantomzooka:
– Fire rate reduced to 0.5 from 0.7

Tell us what you think in the comments!

Try out the new balancing!
https://apps.facebook.com/project-tilt/Atenção jogadores!
Nós modificamos a maneira como algumas armas se comportam!

Aqui estão as mudanças detalhadas:

Minigun:
– Dano diminuído pra 10 de 12
– Diminuído o tempo da arma esfriar para 0.75 de 2
– Cadência de tiro diminuída para 16 de 18

Bazooka:
– Cadência diminuída para 0.6 de 0.7
– Balas iniciais diminuída para 2 de 3
– Balas totais diminuídas para 4 de 6

Phantomzooka:
– Cadência diminuída para 0.5 de 0.7

Nos diga o que achou nos comentários!

Vem testar o balanceamento novo:
https://apps.facebook.com/project-tilt/

Hey everyone! We decided it’s a good idea to start posting our changelogs in our blog. I’m trying to revive it for a very long time, and changelogs are always there and maybe useful for some people to see in a specific link. So here it is, our first one 🙂

FEBRUARY 14, 2015 – CARNIVAL UPDATE

It’s Carnival here in Brazil, so in the spirit of that we are giving you a surprise!

– Everyone will get a Speacial Giftpack with a Carnival Mask headgear
– Special SALE! If you buy Bits on the store you’ll get DOUBLE the Bits!

Also here’s a changelog of the updates:

– Lobby news are now clickable and contextual! (If you click on a Weapons rotation news it’ll take you to the loadout screen for instance)
– Free Weapon Rotation is now AUTOMATIC and will happen every 3 days! (thank god, says [Dev]Ashkental)
– You can now use the chat if you’re spectating a game! (If you join a match while people are on the Post-Game Screen)
– Improved loading screen between matches
– Fixed opening empty holopack bugs
– Added a pretty new loading before some important server calls
– Added some cool new art to popup menus!
– Moved the AUDIO/VIDEO options to its own sub-menu
– Added option to disable Music in the In-Game options menu!
– Fixed Background music playing on the Post-Game Screen even if you had disabled it before
– Added and remade a bunch of localization stuf Emoticon smile
– Fixed some other bugs! Emoticon grin

So GO PLAY!
https://apps.facebook.com/project-tilt/E aí galera! Resolvemos que é uma boa ideia começar a usar nosso blog para postar as mudanças de cada atualização no Tilt. Nosso blog está super morto e eu ando tentando revivê-lo há algum tempo, então changelogs parecem uma boa opção! Estão sempre aí e pode ser útil para algumas pessoas ter um link direto para eles. 🙂 Então aí vai, nosso primeiríssimo!

14 de Fevereiro de 2015 – CARNIVAL UPDATE

Como vocês sabem, é Carnaval aqui no Brasil, então resolvemos comemorar em alto estilo!

– Todo mundo vai ganhar um Giftpack especial com uma máscara maneira para combinar com seus vários chapéus!
– PROMOÇÃO de Carnaval! Se você comprar Bits durante essa promoção você vai ganhar O DOBRO de Bits!

E não para por aí! Aqui vai a lista de mudanças e atualizações:

– As notícias da Lobby agora são clicáveis e contextuais! (Se voc&e clicar numa notícia de rotação de arma ela vai te levar para o menu de armamentos por exemplo)
– As Rotações de Armas agora acontecem AUTOMATICAMENTE e à cada 3 dias! (Grazadeus, disse [Dev] Ashkental)
– Você agora pode usar o chat se estiver espectando uma partida! (Se você entrar enquanto o jogo estiver na tela de Pós-Jogo)
– Melhoramos a loading screen entre partidas
– Consertamos o bug de abrir holopacks vazios
– Adicionamos um loading bonitinho antes de algumas chamadas importantes ao servidor
– Adicionamos algumas artes bonitinhas para os menus de popup!
– Movemos as opções de AUDIO/VIDEO para seu próprio sub-menu
– Adicionamos opção de tirar ou diminuir o som da música de dentro de uma partida
– Consertamos o bug do som da música voltar durante a tela de Pós-Jogo mesmo quando ele havia sido desabilitado
– Adicionado e refeito várias coisas de localização Emoticon smile
– Consertamos alguns outros bugs! 🙂

Agora VÃO JOGAR!
http://www.ProjectTilt.com/
http://apps.facebook.com/project-tilt

So, the story behind Project Tilt’s main character is a very winding one. Project Tilt was, for a long time, a game without any art, without any idea of theme, and without a character. It was a long process that is, actually, still happening, and we all learned a lot. I’m going to make a series of posts about it, and I hope you guys enjoy it and comment back with your opinions! 🙂

Early Investigation

When I joined the Project Tilt team around May last year, the project was going on for about five months but we had nothing more than a big pile of sketches and no idea of what to do with them. So we started an investigation of what we wanted out of our game in terms of language, to start building the beginning of our art direction.

Early sketches

All we knew was that we wanted the game to be fast and crazy, with a kind of explosive humour, but not explicitly violent. Just cartoon-ish explosive fun. Like Team Fortress or Smash Bros, with a bit of nonsensey-ness from cartoons, like Invader Zim, Dexter’s Laboratory or Adventure Time (who doesn’t like that?).

Comical, Crazy and Charismatic

So we made the graph below, comparing the humor and tone that we wanted out of Project Tilt with other similar games. This might seem weird, but it was useful to put everyone in the team in the same place: sometimes each person in the team is thinking something different and we can only find that out in the worst way. That’s why this kind of investigation is useful, and since I was new in the team, I wanted to align my ideas with the rest of the team’s, and also to see if they were all aligned between themselves and if our ideas made sense.     Btw, the app I used to make that graph is a very cool web app called Mural.ly. It’s a great way to creat moodboards and communicate visual ideas to a team 🙂

A Starting Point: The Character!

We needed a character to begin with. The character was central to the game’s concept, since the idea behind Project Tilt has always been that every player starts the same: we have no grinding and your level doesn’t change your power in the gameplay. Our character had to be cool enough for the player to like him and want to play with it, but also had to be customizable so players could differentiate themselves and show how much they played by the items they have, and how their character looks. So, we looked first at the requirements of our project:

• The character had to be highly customizable;
• It had to look charismatic on its own, but even cooler when customized;
• The customizations would be other 3D models on top of the character, like in Little Big Planet or Modnation Racers (this is a decision we made early on before starting the design process, since it also involved technical things about the 3D modelling and the way the game would be programmed);
• Our customizations would include garments and hats of any kind, even if very different from the theme of the game (Ex: Pirate hat in a robot character);
• The character had to hold a big and visible weapon – for gameplay reasons, since the weapon had to be readily recognizable;
• The head of the character also had to be pretty big, so hats would be easily seen and become important to the experience.

Proportions – at the same time we were studying the proportions to fit our game

With this in mind, we took a look at some real-world references that could be useful, like Lego toys, Toy Arts, and Paper Craft. We studied games that used those kind of references and tried to decide which ones we liked the most and fitted our game more.

Nailing Down to One Theme

Then, we chose some options that we liked and started brainstorming and making sketches. From those sketches, I decided to make a presentation to the team. The theme of the game is something that everyone should be excited about, and a short presentation is a nice way to make everyone informed about everything at once, expose your arguments, and make a decision from there.

Toy Art Sketches

Paper Craft Sketches

Cartoony Robot Sketches

All the three ideas were loved by the team, the robot one because it was actually the original theme of the game from the beginning, the toy art looked cute, and the paper craft looked very different from what other games were doing. And we wanted to try something different so we got really excited about the Paper Craft theme.  And on top of that, we were thinking we could name the game “Paper Crash”and it would sound awesome! And it would! So we decided to take that route, and the characters would be robots made of paper, being made in large quantities in a crazy lab and studied by awkward scientists. All the game could have a low-poly papery look. And so we began a long road of paper-robot drawings!

Pirate Paper Robot Science – Paper robots have a heart too :{

Some references that we used:

Retro3D by ~ABELOroz on deviantART

Monster Life mobile game characters

 And here is a link for a project with a paper aesthetic that looks really cool: https://www.behance.net/gallery/Power-Giants-lowpoly-paperworld/7890183

The Paper Craft Path

The drawings were going well and during that time our 3D modeller, Daniel, joined the team, and we had him modelling everything we could so we could test as early as possible!

Papelez – One of our concepts for the PaperBot

The PaperBot – One of the first concepts

But the problem came when we actually transported the drawings to 3D models and put them in the game. We made simple textures and rigged the 3D models of the new ideas and used Unity 4’s Mechanim to transport all the animations from the old placeholder robot character to the news ones. Then we could rapidly make early tests by playing with the new models. And the result was… Well, not so cool. We tried lots of things, with lots of silhouettes and shapes, but it looked like the pointy corners of a Paper Craft models didn’t really fit into the game. They didn’t look good in the camera, and we weren’t really happy. Of course a lot could change with lighting, shader and more texture work, but it looked like no matter how we tried changing the shape and working a bit more in the texture, it didn’t look the way we wanted.

The Turning Point!

So, we had to make a rational decision to make things work. We decided to make a test in the same way we’ve been doing, but with one of our robot ideas. We all loved the first concepts and would like to see it back anyway, and it would probably work out. So I started drawing some robots and our 3D artist modelled them and we made some in-game tests. And it looked A LOT better from the start. We learned a few things from that too: – First, the rounded corners looked a lot better than the pointy paper ones. Our character is really small in the game, so his shape has to be simple and easy to understand from a distance. The paper pointy corners were not easily readable. – A more rounded head was also much clearer to see in the side-scrolling camera view. Our robot shape right now is actually still not so round, but it is a bit, and it allows some of the character’s face to show even if we are seeing it completely sideways (a pretty common thing in a side-scroller game). We were really happy with the result and started working in the design of our robot non-stop! The only down-side was losing the opportunity to use that name we liked so much — but we can save that for a next game. 🙂 It was still a lot of work to get to the version that is in game now, and even that one is still not done.

After that…

In the next part of the post I will be explaining how our design came to life and what we learned with it! Also, if you are insterested in seeing creative process in character design, here are a few links! Sackboy is one of our favorite characters of all time, and our biggest reference in terms of customization. In this link from Media Molecule’s blog, they explain the process behind the creation of this awesome character: http://www.mediamolecule.com/blog/article/from_yellowhead_to_sackboy/ And this is their Flickr with lots of pics from the process: https://www.flickr.com/photos/mediamolecule/sets/72157625338372788/ If you want to see more, this is a video from the Modnation Racers team talking about character customization and how they made it unique in their game: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yfx0xCHNC70 If you have any questions, tips, feedback, feel free to comment below! 🙂 We are happy to discuss anything with other developers or people who just appreciate Project Tilt and what we are doing. See you in the next post, and in-game!So, the story behind Project Tilt’s main character is a very winding one. Project Tilt was, for a long time, a game without any art, without any idea of theme, and without a character. It was a long process that is, actually, still happening, and we all learned a lot. I’m going to make a series of posts about it, and I hope you guys enjoy it and comment back with your opinions! 🙂

Early Investigation

When I joined the Project Tilt team around May last year, the project was going on for about five months but we had nothing more than a big pile of sketches and no idea of what to do with them. So we started an investigation of what we wanted out of our game in terms of language, to start building the beginning of our art direction.

Early sketches

All we knew was that we wanted the game to be fast and crazy, with a kind of explosive humour, but not explicitly violent. Just cartoon-ish explosive fun. Like Team Fortress or Smash Bros, with a bit of nonsensey-ness from cartoons, like Invader Zim, Dexter’s Laboratory or Adventure Time (who doesn’t like that?).

Comical, Crazy and Charismatic

So we made the graph below, comparing the humor and tone that we wanted out of Project Tilt with other similar games. This might seem weird, but it was useful to put everyone in the team in the same place: sometimes each person in the team is thinking something different and we can only find that out in the worst way. That’s why this kind of investigation is useful, and since I was new in the team, I wanted to align my ideas with the rest of the team’s, and also to see if they were all aligned between themselves and if our ideas made sense.     Btw, the app I used to make that graph is a very cool web app called Mural.ly. It’s a great way to creat moodboards and communicate visual ideas to a team 🙂

A Starting Point: The Character!

We needed a character to begin with. The character was central to the game’s concept, since the idea behind Project Tilt has always been that every player starts the same: we have no grinding and your level doesn’t change your power in the gameplay. Our character had to be cool enough for the player to like him and want to play with it, but also had to be customizable so players could differentiate themselves and show how much they played by the items they have, and how their character looks. So, we looked first at the requirements of our project:

• The character had to be highly customizable;
• It had to look charismatic on its own, but even cooler when customized;
• The customizations would be other 3D models on top of the character, like in Little Big Planet or Modnation Racers (this is a decision we made early on before starting the design process, since it also involved technical things about the 3D modelling and the way the game would be programmed);
• Our customizations would include garments and hats of any kind, even if very different from the theme of the game (Ex: Pirate hat in a robot character);
• The character had to hold a big and visible weapon – for gameplay reasons, since the weapon had to be readily recognizable;
• The head of the character also had to be pretty big, so hats would be easily seen and become important to the experience.

Proportions – at the same time we were studying the proportions to fit our game

With this in mind, we took a look at some real-world references that could be useful, like Lego toys, Toy Arts, and Paper Craft. We studied games that used those kind of references and tried to decide which ones we liked the most and fitted our game more.

Nailing Down to One Theme

Then, we chose some options that we liked and started brainstorming and making sketches. From those sketches, I decided to make a presentation to the team. The theme of the game is something that everyone should be excited about, and a short presentation is a nice way to make everyone informed about everything at once, expose your arguments, and make a decision from there.

Toy Art Sketches

Paper Craft Sketches

Cartoony Robot Sketches

All the three ideas were loved by the team, the robot one because it was actually the original theme of the game from the beginning, the toy art looked cute, and the paper craft looked very different from what other games were doing. And we wanted to try something different so we got really excited about the Paper Craft theme.  And on top of that, we were thinking we could name the game “Paper Crash”and it would sound awesome! And it would! So we decided to take that route, and the characters would be robots made of paper, being made in large quantities in a crazy lab and studied by awkward scientists. All the game could have a low-poly papery look. And so we began a long road of paper-robot drawings!

Pirate Paper Robot Science – Paper robots have a heart too :{

Some references that we used:

Retro3D by ~ABELOroz on deviantART

Monster Life mobile game characters

 And here is a link for a project with a paper aesthetic that looks really cool: https://www.behance.net/gallery/Power-Giants-lowpoly-paperworld/7890183

The Paper Craft Path

The drawings were going well and during that time our 3D modeller, Daniel, joined the team, and we had him modelling everything we could so we could test as early as possible!

Papelez – One of our concepts for the PaperBot

The PaperBot – One of the first concepts

But the problem came when we actually transported the drawings to 3D models and put them in the game. We made simple textures and rigged the 3D models of the new ideas and used Unity 4’s Mechanim to transport all the animations from the old placeholder robot character to the news ones. Then we could rapidly make early tests by playing with the new models. And the result was… Well, not so cool. We tried lots of things, with lots of silhouettes and shapes, but it looked like the pointy corners of a Paper Craft models didn’t really fit into the game. They didn’t look good in the camera, and we weren’t really happy. Of course a lot could change with lighting, shader and more texture work, but it looked like no matter how we tried changing the shape and working a bit more in the texture, it didn’t look the way we wanted.

The Turning Point!

So, we had to make a rational decision to make things work. We decided to make a test in the same way we’ve been doing, but with one of our robot ideas. We all loved the first concepts and would like to see it back anyway, and it would probably work out. So I started drawing some robots and our 3D artist modelled them and we made some in-game tests. And it looked A LOT better from the start. We learned a few things from that too: – First, the rounded corners looked a lot better than the pointy paper ones. Our character is really small in the game, so his shape has to be simple and easy to understand from a distance. The paper pointy corners were not easily readable. – A more rounded head was also much clearer to see in the side-scrolling camera view. Our robot shape right now is actually still not so round, but it is a bit, and it allows some of the character’s face to show even if we are seeing it completely sideways (a pretty common thing in a side-scroller game). We were really happy with the result and started working in the design of our robot non-stop! The only down-side was losing the opportunity to use that name we liked so much — but we can save that for a next game. 🙂 It was still a lot of work to get to the version that is in game now, and even that one is still not done.

After that…

In the next part of the post I will be explaining how our design came to life and what we learned with it! Also, if you are insterested in seeing creative process in character design, here are a few links! Sackboy is one of our favorite characters of all time, and our biggest reference in terms of customization. In this link from Media Molecule’s blog, they explain the process behind the creation of this awesome character: http://www.mediamolecule.com/blog/article/from_yellowhead_to_sackboy/ And this is their Flickr with lots of pics from the process: https://www.flickr.com/photos/mediamolecule/sets/72157625338372788/ If you want to see more, this is a video from the Modnation Racers team talking about character customization and how they made it unique in their game: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yfx0xCHNC70 If you have any questions, tips, feedback, feel free to comment below! 🙂 We are happy to discuss anything with other developers or people who just appreciate Project Tilt and what we are doing. See you in the next post, and in-game!