Minerva - A World Building Project
Surfacing - Technical Artist - Environment Design - Blueprint Programming - Rendering and Lighting
What was the project?
Minerva was a project I did for a world building class where I started with a game design document and documented my ideas and worldbuilding. From this, I developed an Unreal Engine level based on this document, developing assets and writing blueprint code for some basic mechanics. This project was built in Unreal 5.5.4.
Developing the World
Firstly when developing Minerva, I wanted it to be something unique and I developed this by having a unique narrative. So I started to build around who you were as a character, why you were there and what the world was about. I made Minerva become a living being by incorporating its consciousness into the story and the reason for the downfall of the planet.
To give context, the story is that you are a space army recruit, scouting out planets for all kinds of research and you come across Minerva. The world is beautiful but in ruin and has been forgotten to time, as you can find remnants of previous human life on this planet, but no transmissions ever got out. However the orb directly in the centre of the planet has a mind of its own and slowly starts controlling you.
The world that I scoped out within the time dedicated to the Unreal Engine build really focused around the beauty of the planet as that is where my skills are developed. I made sure to have a large emphasis on lighting and colour contrast, following some early ideations I had developed. I used a cel-shader to bring this out more used Ultra Dynamic Skies for the atmosphere, which really accentuated the surrounding sky.
Learning and Working in Unreal Engine
This was my first time working in UE in terms of making blueprints and game mechanics. I picked this up pretty well, with my shader and tech art skills coming in handy. I developed multiple different game mechanics such as a flashlight and even a day night switch toggle, which was intended to show the world whilst it was awake and asleep.
My main challenge however was a pickup system where you could grab and pickup objects with physics applied to them. I didn't have too much difficulty coding this but instead actually applying it the world. If I could go back I wish I could implement more of these mechanics into the small level I had created, as I feel I spent a lot of my time trying to get the FPS stable and code the mechanics.
Doing one thing well not multiple things average would've benefitted this project but I still enjoy teh way it shines and the amount of unique colour there is within the scene. I achieved my goal of creating this world visually and I really enjoyed building and developing it. Working in UE solo, taught me a lot about scope and plausibility, which really benefitted me later as I learned a lot from the mistakes I made.
Overall I really enjoyed working on this project and it made me realise how much worldbuilding is and if I had to change one thing and go back for a second development would to be incorporate more visual narrative into the world. The theory is there and all the tools were there too, but I wish I just nailed the landing a little better with showing not doing. For example, showing the abandonment and how life used to live there. But I wouldn't have these ideas if I didn't make these mistakes so I am glad that it taught me a lot about how worldbuilding affects everything we do, from modelling, surfacing to rendering.
Learning Outcomes
Overall I really enjoyed working on this project and it made me realise how much worldbuilding is and if I had to change one thing and go back for a second development would to be incorporate more visual narrative into the world. The theory is there and all the tools were there too, but I wish I just nailed the landing a little better with showing not doing. For example, showing the abandonment and how life used to live there. But I wouldn't have these ideas if I didn't make these mistakes so I am glad that it taught me a lot about how worldbuilding affects everything we do, from modelling, surfacing to rendering.
