The scene inside the Emporium is a little confusing because the entrance way looks like it's own structure, not a passageway through a wall.
Yep, I just dropped that entrance way in, still need to place it exactly, probably a little more in the middle I reckon. The whole interior layout is still very much ongoing. But the hope is to be a little confusing, or at least disorientating.
The idea is that you're playing though a sort of memory, and in this memory you entered the Emporium through the main entrance, but left a different way - so from the perspective of 'inside the Emporium' the original entrance way is just another "memory exhibit". You'll notice red rope barriers with white placards placed around the interior, these denote other "memory exhibits". I still need to add red rope to the entrance structure, as well as add the other exhibits. When you walk up to the "memory exhibits", the camera pulls in and you can read the placard text, which will sort of give hints to the back story.
The tradesman character, who you see sitting by the trailer, was someone who had a stall at the Emporium (still need to make the stall). You and him are sort of sharing the same memory space. They'll be a large cavernous scene inside his trailer that will house his own "memory exhibits" and shed a little light on his backstory.
I'm gonna be honest, I think the final area could be improved, too. The fact that the pattern of the windows/vents doesn't continue past the brickhouse is disconcerting and doesn't seem logical for the kind of megastructure/industrial setting you have. Perhaps to keep things proper barren, the windows/vents can be collapseable, and past the brickhouse you just have the roof textures at floor level?
Ah yep, I've still got a lot more work to do on the roof scene!
Maybe these are questions that will be answered in game but right now they're just confusing, and not in the good way.
There's an odd internal logic to the game - hopefully once it's all together it'll land more on disorientating/intriguing as opposed to confusing/frustrating! I don't know how clear the exact logic of the "memory exhibit" concept will be in the final product - but it seems like an interesting way to tell a story and hopefully people can engage with it somehow!
All that being said, I do think the project looks really cool! I dig the orthographic perspective and concept! Your models, esp. the trailer, look great. I'm wondering, is the focus going to be on some kind of story/reveal or will it be simulation/trading based?
Cheers
the focus will definitely be story, the main gameplay is the branching dialogue between you and the tradesman. Some responses will block off others and the whole game loops - giving you the opportunity to try different dialogue paths. The whole thing will be a relative small experience - limited in budget, time and programming skill! Future expansions/episodes exploring other characters who occupied the Emporium is very much an interesting possibility!
The aesthetics reminds me of INSIDE. Looks amazing.
Yeah, also reminded me of INSIDE! Which is a great reference btw. The game looks beautiful, could you share some more of the references? Great job transitioning from 2D to 3D, the animations are looking pretty good.
Again, beautiful work, the mood looks incredible and it looks like you found the perfect tone for it.
Cheers very much! 2D to 3D has been an up-hill struggle! So when I first started Emporium, I was very much inspired by
Monument Valley and
Timothy J. Reynolds' low-poly stuff - I had hopes taking that kind of look and layering up some more foreboding/darker vibes. I was also playing INSIDE a bunch at that time - that kind of desolate industrial look had definitely crept into my subconscious!
Also, just in case you missed the link, I talk a bit more about my specific architectural influences in this little article with KillScreen. You can check it out
hereCheers all for the kind words and feed back! I'll have more to show real soon
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