Hello all, I am the artist for Deep Sleep, and I am going to be streaming for a bit and talking about some of the art I made for our game. If you have any questions, feel free to hop in.

https://www.twitch.tv/alphabean11

Hello! I am the 3D artist for our game Deep Sleep. I am going to be on stream for a bit so anyone can hop on and submit any game they would like me to take a look at.

https://www.twitch.tv/alphabean11

Enter your game information here: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1uhtnj1X1ZldWAqmxN1XamSn-bTaV3XqNPCjtPABNLrw/edit

I am the artist that worked on Deep Sleep. When we initially came up with our idea (A meaningful, story and visual driven game) I knew that I needed to do a more simple art style to allow me to create all of the items I needed in the time frame. So I cut out the Substance Suite from my workflow as it would take extra time and isn't needed for the low poly look.

I instead spent my time thinking about the analogies that could be made with art that would help push our ideas in the story that we wouldn't have enough time to physically tell.

One of the first items I came up with, was the idea of the playground in the center of the Hub. I wanted this playground to slowly deteriorate over the course of the dream. Then showcase it again at the end as whole to really symbolize the journey our player has gone on, and the level of sadness he has gone through. And how that sadness may never leave you, but can become a part of who you are in the future for the better.

I also wanted to push that same idea in other ways as part of the story. As you travel through the various areas, you will notice the color palette changes, the chromatic aberration becomes stronger, and the vignette darkens. The colors also become more and more saturated, and the lighting becomes darker. This provides a really good compliment to the feelings of the character and the descent the player goes through.

Through the story, I made the design more and more abstract, and slightly off putting. When you get to the final area, and see the antagonist large, it really pushes the idea of how much power or how much damage that character may have been doing to our main character.

The extra bonus of making the art less detailed and more abstract, was we could make our story more ambiguous. Which, when dealing with a sensitive subject matter like we are, it helps the player fill in the blanks with what they understand and with what they know about the subject matter. Or they fill it in with their own life circumstances.

Maybe someone dealt with this personally, or was on the sidelines watching, or was the perpetrator. In all of these circumstances, the ambiguity of the art, but symbolic interpretations, can help each person have their own personal experience with the story. Which hopefully will teach the player what they should know about the subject matter in a positive and uplifting way. (How to possibly find help if you are in these circumstances, find out how you can help and how to spot when it is happening, or what harm you may be doing to someone intentionally, or unintentionally)

I share all of this to really showcase how much art can have a meaningful impact in a game. What we see compliments what we read, and what we read and see, helps generate feelings. And if the written message, and visual queues line up, then the feelings will come through in a meaningful way.

Thank you for reading through this long explanation, and feel free to check out our game if you haven't already! And don't hesitate to ask questions about our design process.

Check out Deep Sleep: https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/48/deep-sleep-5

So glad we finished our jam! It was a lot of fun and I think we have a pretty solid submission. I did all of the art from scratch. Below is an in progress screenshot from Saturday.

Check out our game: https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/50/the-hero-always-wins

Hello! I would like to officially present our game, the hero always wins! I just got around to getting screenshots and a quick tutorial written out for the page. Feel free to add your games below and I’ll play them. And check out our game: https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/50/the-hero-always-wins

Hello! I’ve been playing our game over and over to try and get past level 4. I’ve gotten super close. My main two strategy’s are large mask minions and healing towers, or dart towers and poison with wisps as backup. Let me know if anyone else is able to get past level 4 and let me know how you do it!

Our game: https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/50/the-hero-always-wins

We have released our third game jam! It was quite the experience and I think the hardest we have worked yet on a jam, and I think it is the most impressive final result we have had yet. I am really happy with how it came out and hope all of you enjoy the game!

https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/51/bots-bots-bots

And some quick screenshots of the modeling I handled for the game up close. All modeling and texturing was done with the intention of using a cel and outline shader in Unreal. I built the cel and outline shaders, along with some other custom material shaders to help us achieve our look.

There is one function in our game that I don’t think a lot of people have noticed or clicked on… on the start menu (or the pause menu) try clicking the three colored buttons. We built in this functionality and it’s actually a lot more powerful than it seems. Everything is textured with one texture map (minus the robots)

Check it out here: https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/51/bots-bots-bots

This jam was a ton of fun to work on! At the end of the jam we were pretty happy with the result, but felt it would benefit greatly from a few extra hours. I think it was time well spent! Let us know what you think!

We only need two more reviews! Feel free to check out our game. This game was a ton of fun to work on and learn from. Let us know what you think!