"SARKA"- Videogame project---Making of: part 1 -How it was started | Play area: Gas station | Unreal Engine

Hey everyone,

As promised a while ago, I would start posting more updates and content from both my games "Sarka" and "Geryon", so here it goes.

"SARKA" which in Greek translation stands for : "Flesh", started a few months ago when I was still experimenting inside Unreal Engine and while on a break from "Geryon" due to other factors. I used this time to play around with the engine and try more complex coding and gameplay. That led me into designing another level map (which I will be posting bellow) without any very specific idea what Im doing or going for but rather just have fun and try out my design skills and visual story telling through world design and properly placed elements to guide the player through the map and eventually lead him to an endgame.

"Biomech Terror" (I know, right?) The "Failed" project that lead to the creation of "Sarka"

That project was supposed to be scifi /horror based and I pretty much innovated on any aspect while creating it..be it like build stuff as I go and see where it takes me. I spent about 2 months designing the map and I decided I want something new...so I started learning some aI basic programming..worked quite well for the purposes and I kept going from there..slowly the "Experiment" project started been fleshed out and potentially become something concrete..And so I kept building and designing it.

Aliens have come to Earth and wrecked the hell out of it! :D (SO original)

!

The goal was very simple. Start from a certain point and through obstacles and other puzzles, reach to the end. For that purpose I purchased a simple adventure template on unreal and used as a base to modify on. Long story short, after endless hours and glitches, fails, errors, and all sort of bugs but also design problems, the project...just failed. I got some severe errors that prevented me from going. I spent lots of time researching without results. Being devastated from the progress lost (and quite honestly depressed for a while) I decided to start over from scratch.

However, this time, the idea was much more solid and specific. There was an idea I had on mind for a while based on older concept sketches that were revisited and influenced by old time school horror games such as resident evil and the team silent silent hill entries, to make a European based thriller adventure. I would use influencedfrom the villages I grew near by in my earlier years as well, and use what could seem to be "Creepy" in terms of environment design inspired by those old places I used to visit and explore myself.

Some of the concept sketches for the first area.

Without losing much time, I was thrown into start designing the first area that was already drawn. The gas station. All the experience and failures learnt from the previous project were now taken in account. I used the same adventure template which will allow for collecting of certain items in order to progress and unlock new areas. I also migrated assets from Biomech to this new one. The idea remained pretty simple still. Start from point A , finish at point B. However, this time, you can do in a non linear way and explore through various paths, shortcuts and more while stalked by AI threat and unfold the story. Speaking of which it was now also fleshed out as I been writing for a while, alonside Geryon.

To keep things simpler, I will save the story details for another post where I can hopefully can create a concept trailer.
Being still upset about the lost over the past project, I used this feeling as fuel to get something better and more ambitious this time. I had learnt how to create certain events but there is still tongs to solve and I will explain as the making parts are posted.

Starting from scratch - no pain no gain

I just had to start off with what I feel more confident doing. Designing the world. A process that, as many hours spent on, I never get tired of doing. Especially inside a 3D environment. For the purpose of the gas station design, I collected many relevant photos from real life and out of this, I made my own. There was endless difficulties still in putting the right objects in , using the correct scales, having figures for reference and most importantly, setting the mood.

As seen in the pictures, I went through circles often trying to figure out some light setups and coloration. At times, it would be too vivid and cartoony while other times I couldnt strike the right contrast and balance. Unfortunately, thats something you have to spend dozens or hundreds of hours to figure out. Such was this case ofcourse.

As you can see, many light setups while may look beautiful, looked quite dull and fake. To solve that problem, I kept on using post process methods that were constantly updated to this day while trying to figure out the best look and mood.

Um...we got a situation...

Rotating and snapping each object at place was a hell. Tedious and frustrating. Some items wouldnt apply properly resulting in endless sorrow, tears of pain, agony and misery. Same goes for the parts where I would just design by plain shapes that I would later texture. I used some free asset as base for the station that I later heavily modified (still lots to do). Foliage used was either Unreal's assets or some purchased ones to save time and pain.

I knew what the overall map layout would look like this time which made it easier for me to place each asset on the right spot.

Slowly and painfully, started coming together.

Later, there was another major issue that seemed to screw the entire scene...lighting method and skylight options. I wasnt happy with the initial testings, while to be fair, it was just for placeholder. I then decided to bring in another solution borrowed by "Geryon" a full day night cycle system that allowed me more realistic results. There was heavy modifications on fog, sun angles, intensities, color correction and more. But it gave me the results I was going for.

texture streaming errors would haunt me. (still to this day)

In the meanwhile, I been spending half studying light setups and technical solutions on that as its a very difficult part for me.
I think the most difficult part was just to bring everything together in a balance way. Having some solid area for the players to explore and give a feeling of that place being small is about to expand to something bigger later on and its just a glimpse of what to expect later on.

The hill where the gas station resides, is also consisted of a broken bridge. that would serve as an observatory spot for the players to reach to and get an idea of how big the map may be as well get a sense of basic navigation. Then, it was the optimization thing...how to get as much density possible without cripple the machines or set them on fire? still something Im figuring out. Thankfully, there seems to be few ways that you can easily understand and apply. (If Im going to explode or fry your computers please make sure you have some kind insurance :P ) all jokes aside, Im gonna be working on that and try my best to optimize as much I can without sacrificing quality which is very important to me.

Being a concept artist, its my priority to create a visually interesting and engaging world for the players to explore. (story and gameplay might suck in the end but hey, at least I can give you something pretty to go trough and have an adventure in).

I could go on writing for ever if there was not the time limit but I hope I give you a good insight of how it is to create such a scene or a play area. Guys, feel free to ask me if you have any questions and will do my best to answer asap! Thank you for reading through and congratulations for having survived this onslaught of a text bible! :D
I will really try to keep those updates more frequent. (life usually comes in the between and blows all in the air, but , we can keep trying!)

                                                       BONUS IMAGES for your PATIENCE:

---------Gas Station at current in work progress state:

P.S: