Company: Daniel Brian Advertising / Big Heart Productions
Publisher: Klabater
Genre: 3D Collectathon / Platformer
Team Size: 1 (with occasional porting and audio help)
Role: Solo Developer
Release Date: Coming Soon
About
Castle on the Coast is a retro 3D collectathon. You play as George the Giraffe as he explore the mysterious, hand-drawn castle. It's a 4 hour adventure that takes you through stone laden halls and trippy alternate dimensions!
What I Did
I was the solo developer for the project with some minor help.
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Worked through the trenches of blockouts and prototypes that inevitably get thrown away as the best ideas take hold.
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Wrote / animated story for game using a custom cutscene system.
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Coded lots and lots of systems using UE4s blueprint system.
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Created 8 interconnected levels from start to finish.
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Produced a signature art style for the game using colorful, hand-drawn textures and vertex colors.
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Directed / organized 25+ voice-over sessions.
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Sought after and secured a publisher for the project.
And much more...
Additional Credits
Sound Design / VO Recording and Mastering
Some Sound Design
Adam Ludwig
Alyssa Masters
Peter Lantz
Music
Adam Ludwid
Audioblocks
Trailer Editors
Alyssa Masters
Steve Pankotai
Some Concept Art (not shown)
Adam Ludwig
Tom Caprizzi
Business / Management
Christian Stoehr
Dan Cobb
UI / UX Design
Castle on the Coast was initially developed for use at a pediatric hospital called Valley Children's. Now its a full fledged game for all ages being distributed normally.
The initial focus on children led to some interesting design problems.
Problems
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Player may not read yet (children).
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Player may be experiencing a game for the first time (children).
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Player may be disabled (at a hospital).
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Menu must work with mouse input AND directional input.
Solutions
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Use icons as much as possible.
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Keep things visual!
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Make buttons large and juicy.
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input remapping for unusual layouts (such as playing with facial expressions or with a single hand).
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Invincibility option if part of the game is too difficult.
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When characters speak, use voice acting in addition to written text.
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Game uses only face buttons for simplicity.
Title Screen
In the story, George the giraffe sails to the castle the game takes place in. Instead of showing this upon starting the game, the main menu shows it!
Logo background flows with the wind.
File Select
Files use text, shape, AND color in iconography to be extra clear.
Files are an abstract concept. I imagined a child would think of them as their playable character, therefore the file's currently selected costume is displayed.
The crate character is staring at his highlighted friend!
File Select - File Focus
Stats help players know for sure this is their file. Stats also give players a goal if they aim to 100% the game.
Flower petals deliberately show no maximum value to avoid stressing out players. They are numerous, everywhere, and sometimes well hidden.
HUD
transparency is lowered on all hud elements to make them less intrusive during play, but visible enough to check up on.
HUD - Compass
Compass points to nearby items for QoL for players hunting every last collectible down.
Prioritizes important collectible first.
Will change into a checkmark once all collectibles in area are gathered.
HUD - Dialogue
you can speak with characters without stopping gameplay for a seamless experience.
Dialogue banner is colored for special characters.
Pause Menu
Notice every button has an icon. This helps reading challenged players guess their way through menus!
Everything is kept chunky n' simple when possible.
Confirmation Screen
Coded to be used anywhere in game. Would be silly to make a new one all the time!
In-World Map
The world is non-linear and won't hold your hand for navigation for a sense of exploration. Therefore, clues are used instead.
These maps posted around the castle help players understand the overall layout and find unfamiliar areas.
Settings
Some co-op games struggle with who gets what controller, or flat out require 2 gamepads to work. This button visually gives players options on how to divvy up input devices.
Invincibility is added as an accessibility option since it doesn't compromise the core experience.
Settings - Graphics
FPS meter helps players gauge real-time how their settings help.
Game takes up more screen space to help players see the visual difference of settings.
Settings - Input
Input remapping is extremely important for disabled players with unusual setups.
Settings - Player 2 (Swirlz) Controls
All input images use an object coded to change with platform, currently used input device, and keybindings.
Unlike most, this menu falls off screen upon exiting!
Steam Achievements
Designed to be readable at 64x64.
I had to time myself due the sheer number of unique illustrations.
Red indicates a more difficult to obtain achievement.
Gameplay Highlights
Sky Dimension
The Sky Dimension is my favorite level and the final major area added to the game. It's unexpectedly ethereal, spacious tone, low gravity, and special effects make it a highlight for players.
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Developed shader trickery to make platforms shift with the wind and glow with sunlight
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Lowered gravity and designed level around it, including complex, spinning structures and giant cylinders that are fun to wall jump up.
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Picked out 2 tracks of music to establish the ethereal feel. Level starts with a calm one to set the mood, then transitions to a more serious tone once the platforming picks up.
Rolling Ball Dimension
The Rolling Ball Dimension is another late addition to the game world. It replaced a stunt track world for the car that just wasn't fun enough, replacing it with an alternate dimension that showcases a new rolling ball mechanic.
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Developed a rolling ball vehicle that can hop off the ground or in midair.
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Created a 2 story obstacle course for the ball featuring curved ramps and pathways to match the slippery nature of the ball.
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Built out a trippy crystalline background that juts out from an ethereal expanse using some shader trickery.
Rocket Car Stunt Park
A memorable part of the game is when the player finds a rocket league inspired car inside of a stunt park. This section of the game resulted from my company pitching game to a car company, which meant the character needed a car.
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Designed car to behave a like a platforming character: it can't crash when landing, it jumps, and its double jump is boosting forward to fly.
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Designed stunt park to get jazzed up as soon as you enter car. Music becomes intense, and a colored spotlights flash from overhead arches.
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Developed a suitable objective for level to get player driving car everywhere. Driving through flaming rings positioned throughout park removes a barrier to the next level.
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Added color and license plate variations between cars found in park for fun!
Final Boss (Aleandra and Vendrick Fight).
The bosses involve a wizard sibling duo you encounter throughout the world. They were designed both to act as separate fights and a tag team fight during prototyping, which turned out pretty good!
Many aspects of them are complimentary...
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Vendrick is a melee fighter, Aleandra is a ranged fighter.
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Vendrick is distracting since he chases you with ice clones. Meanwhile Aleandra deals the damage with all kinds of fireball attacks.
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Vendrick is brave but rude, while Aleandra is kind but shy.
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Vendrick is V shaped, Aleandra is A shaped.
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Vendrick is ice, Aleandra is fire.
Other Notes
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Character don't use traditional nav meshes to navigate since they hop around a lot. Instead characters use volumes that tell them to fly up when approaching a ledge.
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Designed bosses to be cheese-proof since default player behavior is to spam attack in their face. Bosses counter attack when approached, forcing evasive action. Aleandra leaps back with a volley of fireballs, while Vendrick grows ice armor and swings at you.
Artwork
Level Sketches
To plan out level art, I wanted a big picture view of what assets were needed and what mood I was going for, all while staying faithful to the blockout.
To achieve this, I simply printed out faded screenshots of blockouts and drew on top of them. Perspective is not longer an issue with this method, and it's easy to see whether or not individual props will play nice with each other.
This method definitely puts gameplay first. The art works around the blockout, not the other way around. If I were working with another artist, I would have them create concept art to influence the blockout as well to make it a more collaborative effort.
Character Art
Much like how Disney cartoons use paintings for backgrounds and line art for characters, Castle on the Coast differentiates characters from their background by using simpler surfaces.
Coloring is achieved by using vertex colors, which result in sharp borders between colors with no additional resolution, unlike textures.
Facial expression textures are authored in a vector-art program to keep the line work clean, like the model it's shown on.
Blockout Models
An essential part of how I translate drawings to 3D is through the use of blockout models (different than prototype models).
Blockout models are built out of simple, easy to manipulate shapes. The goals is to arrange them until the character proportions are nailed down. Afterwards, they can be used as a guide for laying down final polygons.
This is much faster (and fun) than tweaking edge loops and polygons every time a discrepancy is found. This is a technique that works for Zbrush models as well.
Prototype Models
When programming a new character, I always started with a low-quality, animated mesh to begin developing their look/charm while simultaneously getting their logic working.
For instance, it turns out frogs look funny when walking rigidly, so the spirit of their rough animation was retained in the final art.
Environment Art
A fun part about working on level assets for the game is that their textures are hand-drawn.
the process goes like so:
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print out the UV map
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Draw on it
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Scan it back in
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Touch it up with colors and gradients.
I got the idea from the realization my digital painting skills were lacking, but my drawing skills were good enough to create some interesting surfaces.
A Journey Of Blockouts
Iteration #1 - The Testing Pond
The first level every built for the game.
I had to sell my boss on the idea of a platformer, so it looks better than most prototypes. I also wanted to push the project towards cartoony route instead of a realistic one.
Many mechanics were developed here, such as picking up blocks, climbing on trees, and basic player movement.
This level showed how the game needed to have a playful environment. It also showed how much fun could be had in a smaller space, which steered us away from a larger world later.
Iteration #2 - The Forest
This was the first serious attempt to make a level. It featured multiple routes, making each play through different. I experimented with a roaming, giant chicken that patrols the level, shooting eggs at any player it spots.
This iteration was scrapped due to its unforgiving nature. Every mistake was punished with a long fall to your death. The chicken was also a constant source of stress. It made my bosses kid cry when he played.
With the next iteration I would allow players to fail multiple times before being sent back to a checkpoint. I also wanted to shift the focus towards exploration and away from challenge.
Iteration #3 - Open World Castle
This world's focus was on discovery. Every inch of the level had a suprise, such as an underground cavern, bones underwater, etc.. Also I wanted the platforming to be more forgiving, with most mistakes leading to the player falling to a new area or bouncing off lava.
Bloated scope, poor chances at optimization, and more led this this world being scrapped. Reaching points of interest was a boring walk, and everything was too large compared to the player.
With the next iteration I wanted to make smaller, more condensed levels with a focus on interactivity, but keep the sense of discovery that made this blockout so compelling.
Iteration #4 - The Castle on the Coast
The concept to this blockout was a castle of many rooms, and reach each room would involve solving a puzzle. I believed the library was the best part of the open world castle, so I started with that.
The pirate ship / ocean was added to explain how George arrived at the castle.
Throughout this iteration blockouts were still being discarded, including a spooky forest and a snowy world. But at last... something stuck.
Building out the World From Here
The world grew in scope organically as more time was allowed to work on the project. As parts of the game felt too short/simple, sections were added to fill the void.
The foundation was firm. Many bad ideas had met an early demise in previous blockouts, leaving a brighter future for the game.