In my previous post I laid out the groundwork for the next phase of Alien Arena development, and that it would be an entirely new game with a lot of different concepts and focus, as well as using my own proprietary engine that I developed from scratch. I also mentioned that this was something I’d been contemplating for well over a year, and that I’d been working on assets for some time, though sporadically. Recently I caught the “create stuff” bug, as some ideas came to mind, and I’m able to show some of the assets for this game which will give an indicator of the style and artistic direction.
As you can see, this is a departure from Alien Arena in several ways, from palette, to style, to technique. There is a huge focus on player visibility, and colors will be geared to create contrast, with a conscious effort to keep player colors lighter, brighter, and not used much on the environments. There will be glowing bits, and quite a bit of animation in the environments as well.
I’ve spent the better part of two decades creating “little green men” for games, and each time I seem to come up with some new angle or idea. Initially I would revise my models quickly, mostly because I was just learning to 3d model, and because tools were scarce and new ones would come out. My earliest efforts were pretty horrible, and my texturing skills were basically “cut and paste” as I had no ability to draw 2d textures. Finally with the early releases of Alien Arena, I was drawing my own, though still using the QME program to model which was a very incomplete tool, and very, very limited in what it could do.
Walking through memory lane…
Generation 1 of Alien Arena had a pretty “silly” style to it, but to this day I have a strong fondness for it, and still have many regrets in changing it. Despite it’s technical poor quality, it had charm, and…fans.
The unwrapping was poor because QME had no real ability to do so, you had to generate an UV map from a base from, so unwrapping was literally peeling the model apart physically and laying it out. Once I figured that technique out, I was able to actually generate usable UV maps. Being very limited by the hardware and engine, the poly count for it was low, and there was a lack of detail. In those days, I used a lot of shiny rib-pipe on my models, brushed metal textures, and bright colors. Stylistically I wanted something that was reminiscent of Mars Attacks, but keeping it different enough to avoid any copyright issues.
Five years later, I realized I needed to remake the model. Blender was now a thing, and I was learning to use it rapidly, and learning many new texturing techniques. I also wanted to change some things, especially with how the model was constructed.
The biggest improvements came in the legs and arms, which now had a more pleasing construction, detail, and cleaner. The torso remained nearly identical, but with improved unwrapping, and a much cleaner mesh without the noise that using QME created. The rear had a more detailed and thought out respirator, and the head received a major stylistic change. Now with an exposed brain, more detailed features, these aliens really took on the Mars Attacks style. Years later I would regret this, but at the time I was very happy. My texturing abilities were getting better, but this model had a pretty bad mistake in how the head was unwrapped, which resulted in the weird seam in the back of the head. the model had considerably more polygons, but still fairly low.
Another five years passed, and the urge to remake the alien had come. It should be noted that each time I remade the alien, I also would then remake the other player models and weapons. This time I wanted to create something that “should have been” the successor the first version of the model, but take the detail to an entirely new level.
As you can see the body still stayed true to the original concept, but the appendages had considerable more detail, and moved from the “clean” look to something far more complex, ditching the rib-tube from the first two iterations in favor of a mechanical, cybernetic style. The head ditched the exposed brain for an almost reptilian, very sinister look. My modeling skills had dramatically improved by then, and the unwrapping produced a very tightly packed texture layout. The texture was vastly more detailed, macabre, and gritty. To this day I am very proud and pleased with how this model turned out, it was IMO, the perfection of the original concept that I had envisioned. The only issue, and for players it seemed to be a big one, was that the palette, style, and darkness of the model blended in with the environment far too much.
Seven more years passed – but in a sense it was only five because I spent 2 of those years fairly detached from Alien Arena to work on the Frenzy engine(and game). So much had changed…the genre was by now in it’s death throes, Quake Champions had come, and largely failed, Diabotical had come and failed to catch on, and many other projects seemed dead or nearly so. Yet I still felt compelled to do “something” with this universe, and Little Green Men. Hence, Generation 4.
I decided this time around to basically do something very different, not to try and borrow any likeness from the previous versions. I also wanted something that was very real in proportions, and quite terrifying. No longer limited by the engine, I had a vastly higher polycount budget, which allowed me to flesh out some pretty nice details. The body and head use two separate UV layouts, and both use 2048×2048 textures(my other versions all used 1024×1024). My texturing techniques had evolved, as well as my overall eye for the palette. The polycount is vastly higher now that I’m not nearly as restricted by the engine. The concept is somewhat different as well, despite it being another bubble helmeted alien of diminutive stature. The head is actually a fetal human skull, with a glowing blue brain inside, bulging Rat Fink style eyes, and there are bits of exposed flesh and bone at the arm/leg sockets and hands. The torso is noticeable more svelte, the limbs longer and creepier, and a lot of thought went into how it would deform and still look natural and good. I retained a fairly complex detail level, but considerable changed the palette and texture style to be much brighter, and almost creamy in tone.
So that’s it thus far, I hope to have some in-game shots coming soon, so that you can see how this will look with proper lighting, shading, and other effects that the Frenzy Engine offers.