Moving On Up In The World Like Elevators

True I got more fans than the average man but not enough loot to last me
to the end of the week, I live by the beat like you live check to check
If you don't move yo' feet then I don't eat, so we like neck to neck
Yes we done come a long way like them Slim ass cigarettes
from Virginia, this ain't gon stop so we just gonna continue...




Yo good people?! Hows everybody's week been thus far? Good I hope. I'm here with a brand new post and per spec, it's about the wonderfully fantabulous Bala! I must say that I really like what I've been seeing thus far from my entire squad. They work fast, they work efficiently, and damnit they just work hard. I'm always impressed with the shinny new implementations our programming unit has at the weekly scrums. Kyle and Khoa have been putting in some outstanding work just putting the core playable in action as we've already got two enemy types and their behavior implemented, 3 sets of working ammo for our dream witch, and a shield. And thats just been the past 2 weeks! Good show gents, good show!


Hank has been plugging away on models and rigging them for animation. He's already got a few of those ready, including our big paladin unit, who he has up and ready for action! Angelica has also been grinding away on concept art and making the tough decisions that go into being a project head! So here's the real question...the hell have you been doing Dave?


Concept art of course! I've been entrusted with heading up many of the enemy units that will go into our game. So I've been out there figuring out what is and what works. Angelica and myself have been really putting our heads together to establish the overall style of the game, and so we've been going with this weirdly cute kind of thing.

Behold evolution! Initially we where kind of just shooting from the hip. We wanted the weirdly cute style, we wanted this weird aquatic cat, but we didn't quite know how to get there. So she got some images together and we started to get a better grasp of what to do. We then decided he needed more versatility and so I did away with his flip flops and aqua suit and made him kind of like gentlemanly commando-ish. But the we realized his tech doesn't fit with the rest of the world, so I turned him into a magical wizard thing with goggles. If nothing else this is a valuable exercise in what it takes to be a concept artist. You can get married to a style or look, because it can change in a flash!

I also put in work on our big paladin. I was tasked with coming up with the design of how his behaviors will look, along with his general style. I referenced a grunty (which is this cow, pig like creature from the .hack series) and kind of humanized him. His weakness is akin to that of Forest Gump, and that's getting shot directly in the buttocks, which as you can see is conveniently busting out of his pants. We thought it would be funny if he swings his hammer and sticks his butt in the air, exposing his weak spot. Who knows what other madness we'll cook up before its over with!

Anywho, there's work to be done people, so I'll catch you next time!!

Project Balla (Week 1-5), the work in progress.

For my theme song...
My leather black jeans on...
My by any means on...
Pardon, I'm getting my scream on...


Yo, what's happening all you good people out there in the blog-o-sphere? I'm David Houston, and a proud member of team Bala. I am currently the Project Assistant Manager, Environment Artist, Character Artist, and Concept Artist (that's a lot of artist types isn't it?) for the afore mentioned project (Bala). What we have here is a nice little chronicle of my personal experiences while hopefully bringing Bala to a nice sparkly finished product. So without further ado...

The first few weeks have been a mixed bag of feelings for me up until this point. I'm getting a lot of on the job training about what it takes to go in and make a quality production of a game. It's cool to get to be around creative people, but focusing that can be a little difficult because you just want to get out there and make stuff! But that's not really how the industry works...I try to make things that work with the feel and style of the game. The style of the game is very loosely defined at this point because for the most part we really want to make sure the core mechanics work, but we at least know we want a very dreamlike cute-ish nightmare type direction. So that's the jump off point.

Mainly I've been working on the different enemy types as well as the type of ammunition our bullet witch uses. That's always fun, because early on you really get to let your imagination run wild with the process. You start thinking of all the cool things that your characters could do, or all the bad ass effects your weapons could have. But then you kind of get hit over the head with "wait, is that even feasible at our level?" And you have to go and reel it back in. Scoping is always vastly important, so I always find myself asking Angelica or one of our programmers if something is actually doable. The idea is to push what you can do to the absolute max, so that is an enjoyable experience!

 I really do dig on character creation, so that has been a huge plus that I've been entrusted with coming up with some of the designs that go into our witch's opposition. One of my personal favorites that I've done is this specter like bunny, that is loosely based off of the Egyptian goddess Unut.

 I say loosely because Unut was considered a fertility goddess, and based off the sketch she's not exactly out to reproduce. I tried to keep in mind that Unut was originally a snake, so after she does her hop attack she finishes very low to the ground. Rabbits are also known as tricksters in many cultures so that's why I gave her a big mischievous grin. The sleeve on her leg also loosely reads "hop"  in hieroglyphics so I thought that was a nice touch. There's no guarantee that she'll be in the game, but I am proud of the design regardless!

This is basically what I've been doing for the first few weeks. I'm roughly at about 10 different design sketches and concept with more to come! Well there is work to be done, I'll catch you good people next time!