Creator Wizard Seth Dev Log #17 - Converging on my first open world environment

 After some tinkering and weighing the benefit vs cost between developing a structural approach to environment design, with the development mainly focusing on creating multistory architectural structures in modular reusable components. An important cost is the time involved in developing the small details that make the world look detailed and plausible and interesting. These details include surface details like dealing with dense geometry associated with bricks and stone rendered with a high resolution, the effort involved in working with curved walls and structures, and the time needed to find appropriate trim for objects, grouping complimentary colors and material types. Another example of the cost would be the time it takes to develop proper placement and layout of doors and windows in structures, design the look of the method of changing elevation, such as an elevator, a set of stairs, a ramp of some type. Large objects with simple geometry and a lack of material variance creates an object that is very empty feeling and looks like a game from the early 2000s. The largest cost involved in my opinion is grouping together structures in a terrain in a way that makes sense and seems to contribute to the game and not just seem like a disorganized attempt to fill some space. So like house systems with small simple structures that seem to fit together like a neighborhood or a Palace or a Keep or a defensive structure surrounded by an intricate wall system. Filling empty space with some type of structural material is also not scalable as compared to a well developed terrain with small details like rocks and grass. 

Placing grass by hand, trees, and painting the color of the terrain is a much more straightforward and scalable solution to filling space. Of course structures on the natural terrain is the ultimate goal, balancing the benefits and cost of each approach. Another reason to consider focusing attention on the natural environment is that is will provide a backdrop that is to scale with a live environment so that when I am constructing and designing structures I have a believable backdrop that will give me a better idea of how the object I am creating will fit into the bigger picture of the way I am doing things. 

One of the main ideas behind my game is a large open environment that still has beauty and detail at all places. Mass amounts of prefabricated objects. Filling empty space with only structural components is extremely time consuming and difficult to develop. Filling empty space with grass and trees is very natural and easy to adapt to and learn. Therefore, I can build an environment that matches my desired attributes with a natural approach with the complete lack of structure. I cannot build an environment that is large with just concrete, brick, and hard materials. The structures have to be on the ground to make any sense and so that requires a natural environment. Natural environment absolutely is the foundation for a structural world and so I am required to focus on my attention on developing that aspect first and leave the detailed structural components to come later.

What follows is a progressive time lapse of the progress I have made in the last two days composing environments for gameplay and exploration. 

































Object economies, material to object exchange, interconnected abstract systems.




 

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