Before Balancelot I’ve been involved with other game development projects: Planet Colonization (2015-2018), Hippopotamus (2015) and Masked Away Light (2014).
Planet Colonization
Skills achieved
- Basic idea what creating a visual style for a game needs
- Marketing graphics, i.e. logos and leaflets
- Consept art
- Website with WordPress
- Team skills
- Basics of 3D-modelling
- Basics of adding and managing assets in Unreal Engine
I joined this project around the same time as I worked on Hippopotamus. In Planet Colonization the framework of the game already existed, but it had to be transferred to a new platform, to Unreal Engine. My job in the project was to be a graphic artist and Art Director. When I started in the project I didn’t know much about being an art director, and so far haven’t built any proper skills to do the job yet, but understood that being an AD would need more knowledge about game development in general. This was the cue to apply to study game development to various schools (and also because clothing industry in Finland has very limited amount of open positions in design).
The game is currently being developed by its original creator, since the rest of the team is currently busy with employment and studies. We’ll see when will be the next time the team has time to work on it together.
Hippopotamus
Skills achieved
- Polishing 2D-rendering skills
- Improving asset design workflow
- Team skills
- Basics of creating assets for a mobile game
Hippopotamus was a small mobile game which needed some new graphics and I needed an opportunity to learn to create graphics for games. For this game I painted a logo, two character-skins, game assets and backgrounds. This project was a great way to improve the workflow and painting skills. Unfortunately, the game was never published.
Masked Away Light
Skills achieved
- The Very Basics of Game Development
- Marketing graphics, i.e. logos and leaflets
- Basics of Consept art, character design and UI-design
- Basics of trying to create social media buzz
- Team skills
Masked Away Light was the first game development project I was officially involved with. In autumn 2015 there was a chance to participate a five-month workshop where small teams would develop a game as far to finished as they could. The workshop was called Jyväskylä Game Lab, and the idea was to give students and unemployed people a chance to try their hand with game development. Due to surprising events during the summer I was unemployed and needed something to do.
Game Lab was my first step into game development and a jump straight to the deep end of the pool. It was a great lesson about scope of a project with limited timeframe, and about teamwork. I took the role of a supportive artist, did some marketing on social media and designed logos for the game. I also designed some UI-elements and did some character concepts.
This project inspired me to look deeper into Information Technology as a possible new career. After Game Lab ended, I sought for new game projects and applied for a course about IT-technologies in entrepreneurship.
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