Week 1: Ideation and Planning

This first week was spent mainly doing brainstorming and idea generation for my final overall project so that it can inform how I approach this research project which I would like to tie in nicely. I aim to use this project to nail down some of my main designs, workflows and assets that I will then be able to use for the final game going forward.

As I begin my research project, I’ve decided to focus on UV unwrapping and texturing 3D models, with a particular emphasis on optimizing texture maps for a lighter end game file and to work with simpler models. My goal is to apply this to a lightweight game with a retro aesthetic, which ties into my broader thesis project which will then use these assets.

I’m interested in making smaller scale games myself and so am very much looking to learn about the challenge of making 3D models look visually appealing while keeping the poly count low and the textures efficient, going for a retro-style game aesthetic will allow me to explore this more than a more realistic style.

The aim will be to look into different techniques and tools that can be used and what will best suit my own needs. Moving forward, I’ll be diving deeper into literature and tutorials to refine my approach and develop a clear plan for testing and documenting this process.

Something I'll definitely be coming back to is this video:

For now, I’m happy with the plans I've come up with for the main game and it is giving some good motivation for wanting to get on with these smaller projects to get parts of it moving.