The area surrounding the arena looks nice. The size of the arena is good. There are a few nice details in there. One criticism I'd have is with the rainbow lights. It should be more gothic / twisted than vibrant. Most of the emissive lights should be coming from the heroes.
Other than that it looks nice. Some polish to make it more interesting and a bit less blocky/linear and it's got some potential.
The Wired for Blood team thought it would be a great idea to publicly showcase the creative process of hero creation from the drafting stage where it begins as an idea to the ass-beating stage where it's fully implemented into the game with all of its bells and whistles. We hope these demonstrations will serve as inspiration and a learning platform for aspiring concept artists and 3D artists.
Every day or so we will be posting our progress on the model, listening to any suggestions you have and answering any questions you may have. Feel free to give feedback or ask questions!
About the Modeler
The modeler working on the concept art and models we'll be posting in this thread is currently our primary Concept Artist and 3D Artist, crazyfingers. He also helps with other creative and brainstorming processes.
Summoning the Sorceress
Currently we have planned four archetypes: Str Melee, Agi Melee, Ranged and Caster. We have chosen to complete the Caster first.
1. Brainstorming/Design
The first step of our process is to figure out what type of character we will be building. Is she male or female? What sorts of skills and weapons will she use? What is her backstory? What makes her unique?
Since we decided on a post-apocalyptic setting featuring biological cyborg heroes, we applied those factors to the Caster. We felt the silhouette of the caster should be frail but powerful, which made it an easy decision to make her female. We felt she would be most fun if she, and all of our heroes, were dark/twisted as their primary theme and cyborg as their secondary theme.
2. Concept Art
Now that we've decided what role we want the character to play, we need to visualize her and put her to paper. This is the concept art we are currently using to model our Caster class.
We were satisfied with most of these aspects, however we wanted to make her a bit more youthful and attractive. We also wanted to think up some cool weapons she could use to trash other heroes around with. We decided we would make these changes as we iterated through her 3D Modeling stages.
3. Modeling
This is where we begin showing the modeling stages. Today is our first day working on the model and this is our current iteration.
You can see the shapes are very primitive at this point, the general silhouette of the model is being refined currently. On the right is the generic model she originated from, to illustrate the progress made across the day. The objects on her palms are basic prototypes of a unique weapon we're discussing for the Caster archetype.
Here's another shot, without the weapons or hip armor:
Updates
Every day or so we'll be making a new post here showing our next step of the creation process including texturing, modeling, animating and everything else involved in getting this concept into a working element of the game.
Feel free to post any feedback, suggestions or questions and we'll do our best to keep in contact!
I think I might give it a shot, but I have a few questions.
Are ramps/high ground features ok? Or do the players need to be on the same cliff level?
Is there line of sight/fog of war or is the entire arena revealed by default?
What is roughly the size of each player's unit? (I assume something close to zealot/ghost, just making sure so I don't make features too small.)
More great questions, I answered all three in an edit to the bottom of the original post.
HEY YOU ! why didn't you bust their balls about the pop system in the custom map QA @ blizzcon? :P :P you went all the way there might as well voice the community's anger about the matter in a manly fashion :P
They screen the questions. The two people directly in front of me asked the same question so they didn't let me.
Those are excellent questions Farmrush, thank you. I have edited the original post with answers. Let me know if you have anything else you'd like clarified.
The Wired for Blood team is looking for fresh, fun arenas for the upcoming mod. In order to achieve that goal, we thought it would be fun to host a contest! All selected arenas will be used in the mod, and the designers' names placed in the credits. Up to five arenas will be selected for the project.
Setting
Each arena should be between 42x42 and 74x74 in size. The setting is a post-apocalyptic world, so the Avernus tileset should be used and appropriate doodads should be placed. A fair amount of doodads will be expected, but not so many that some players may begin to get visual lag. Feel free to tweak the lighting in the arena to round off your atmosphere and give it that post-apocalyptic vibe. The characters should be easily visually distinguishable from the environment so try to avoid clutter. Each artist can win multiple times if he/she has submitted multiple awesome arenas.
Both aesthetics and gameplay will be taken into account when judging the arenas. Design your arena to be viewed diagonally. That is, rotated 45 degrees. Think diamonds instead of squares.
Time Frame
We'll keep this contest running until Friday, Nov 12. At that point we'll announce the winners and shortly thereafter post some updates on the map involving the arenas and some of our new heroes and mechanics. Good luck, everybody! We're excited to see the awesome arenas you can think up.
Inspiration
One of our big inspirations for the game (Although we are pulling from multiple muses) is the D3 arena system that was featured at BlizzCon this year. One of your inspirations for the arenas should be the D3 arena as well. However keep in mind the setting is post-apocalyptic.
Addendum
Going to answer all your questions and requests for more information here!
Q: How many players per team?
A: There are three players per team.
Q: Should we include a shop system?
A: No, the shops will be separated from the arenas. Each arena should only include the killing grounds. There are no NPCs, shops or other areas for you to be concerned about. Shopping and progression is handled between rounds.
Q: What format will the players be battling in?
A: The players will be fighting in team deathmatch style. Whichever team kills the opposing team will win.
Q: Where do players spawn?
A: Players spawn with their team on opposite sides of the map: Left and right. They only spawn once, at the beginning of the round, so there is no real-time respawn system.
Q: Are there any special features we should include?
A: Bonus points will be given for cool potential environmental hazards, but they're not required as we can always add them later. Examples would be periodic flame jets, high winds, etc.
Q: Should we section off the arena?
A: As answered above, we want up to 5 separate arenas that will not be linked. The only thing the player will be doing in these arenas is beating the snot out of each other. Each arena should be self-contained. They will be imported into one map and we will spread them out from each other manually.
Q: Can we use multiple levels or should we stick to one cliff level?
A: We will probably have a couple flat arenas and a couple leveled arenas. Any cliff level that is not accessible by foot may not be accessible by every class so we won't be able to use those. Use cliff levels in moderation, use your best judgement.
Q: Will there be line of sight and fog of war?
A: Certain skills will have a line of sight, however there will be no fog of war; The whole arena will be revealed to the players.
Q: How big are the units?
A: Build the arena as if the heroes were twice the dimensions of a zealot.
Thanks for the great questions and keep them coming if you need more clarification.
Due to the number of interested terrain artists, we've decided it would be fun to host a contest. Winners get their maps placed in the game and their name will be placed in the credits.
We've also come up with a name for the game, which is currently tentative: Wired for Blood. It's a play on both the arena aspect and the organic cyborg aspect.
"MAD" was the only winning map that was actually fun and polished; Too bad it broke the rules by being released 2 months before the contest even began, and should have been disqualified. The other two maps were horrible, not even up to par with Nexus Wars. That's saying a lot.
As progammer said, there were a ton of deserving entries that took experienced professionals 10+ hours per day for the full month to complete.
Additionally, both original posts advertising the contest encouraged innovative and new designs, such as "a first person shooter or the new dota map". However, none of the three winners were innovative or unique. None featured a WASD system. All three were poorly executed regurgitated ideas of the caliber of every other map on BNet 2.0 at this time.
0
@lotsofcolors: Go
The area surrounding the arena looks nice. The size of the arena is good. There are a few nice details in there. One criticism I'd have is with the rainbow lights. It should be more gothic / twisted than vibrant. Most of the emissive lights should be coming from the heroes.
Other than that it looks nice. Some polish to make it more interesting and a bit less blocky/linear and it's got some potential.
Nice job.
0
As agreed upon in IRC, I give this a 7.4 out of 10.
Trying a bit too hard and your rage is misdirected but it was still funny.
0
Introduction
The Wired for Blood team thought it would be a great idea to publicly showcase the creative process of hero creation from the drafting stage where it begins as an idea to the ass-beating stage where it's fully implemented into the game with all of its bells and whistles. We hope these demonstrations will serve as inspiration and a learning platform for aspiring concept artists and 3D artists.
Every day or so we will be posting our progress on the model, listening to any suggestions you have and answering any questions you may have. Feel free to give feedback or ask questions!
About the Modeler
The modeler working on the concept art and models we'll be posting in this thread is currently our primary Concept Artist and 3D Artist, crazyfingers. He also helps with other creative and brainstorming processes.
Summoning the Sorceress
Currently we have planned four archetypes: Str Melee, Agi Melee, Ranged and Caster. We have chosen to complete the Caster first.
1. Brainstorming/Design
The first step of our process is to figure out what type of character we will be building. Is she male or female? What sorts of skills and weapons will she use? What is her backstory? What makes her unique?
Since we decided on a post-apocalyptic setting featuring biological cyborg heroes, we applied those factors to the Caster. We felt the silhouette of the caster should be frail but powerful, which made it an easy decision to make her female. We felt she would be most fun if she, and all of our heroes, were dark/twisted as their primary theme and cyborg as their secondary theme.
2. Concept Art
Now that we've decided what role we want the character to play, we need to visualize her and put her to paper. This is the concept art we are currently using to model our Caster class.
We were satisfied with most of these aspects, however we wanted to make her a bit more youthful and attractive. We also wanted to think up some cool weapons she could use to trash other heroes around with. We decided we would make these changes as we iterated through her 3D Modeling stages.
3. Modeling
This is where we begin showing the modeling stages. Today is our first day working on the model and this is our current iteration.
You can see the shapes are very primitive at this point, the general silhouette of the model is being refined currently. On the right is the generic model she originated from, to illustrate the progress made across the day. The objects on her palms are basic prototypes of a unique weapon we're discussing for the Caster archetype.
Here's another shot, without the weapons or hip armor:
Updates
Every day or so we'll be making a new post here showing our next step of the creation process including texturing, modeling, animating and everything else involved in getting this concept into a working element of the game.
Feel free to post any feedback, suggestions or questions and we'll do our best to keep in contact!
0
More great questions, I answered all three in an edit to the bottom of the original post.
0
They screen the questions. The two people directly in front of me asked the same question so they didn't let me.
0
I'm sure you realize this is a silly idea that they'll never go for.
0
@Farmrush: Go
Those are excellent questions Farmrush, thank you. I have edited the original post with answers. Let me know if you have anything else you'd like clarified.
0
Odd coincidence, but we're looking for something more specific.
0
Summary
The Wired for Blood team is looking for fresh, fun arenas for the upcoming mod. In order to achieve that goal, we thought it would be fun to host a contest! All selected arenas will be used in the mod, and the designers' names placed in the credits. Up to five arenas will be selected for the project.
Setting
Each arena should be between 42x42 and 74x74 in size. The setting is a post-apocalyptic world, so the Avernus tileset should be used and appropriate doodads should be placed. A fair amount of doodads will be expected, but not so many that some players may begin to get visual lag. Feel free to tweak the lighting in the arena to round off your atmosphere and give it that post-apocalyptic vibe. The characters should be easily visually distinguishable from the environment so try to avoid clutter. Each artist can win multiple times if he/she has submitted multiple awesome arenas.
Both aesthetics and gameplay will be taken into account when judging the arenas. Design your arena to be viewed diagonally. That is, rotated 45 degrees. Think diamonds instead of squares.
Time Frame
We'll keep this contest running until Friday, Nov 12. At that point we'll announce the winners and shortly thereafter post some updates on the map involving the arenas and some of our new heroes and mechanics. Good luck, everybody! We're excited to see the awesome arenas you can think up.
Inspiration
One of our big inspirations for the game (Although we are pulling from multiple muses) is the D3 arena system that was featured at BlizzCon this year. One of your inspirations for the arenas should be the D3 arena as well. However keep in mind the setting is post-apocalyptic.
Addendum
Going to answer all your questions and requests for more information here!
Q: How many players per team? A: There are three players per team.
Q: Should we include a shop system? A: No, the shops will be separated from the arenas. Each arena should only include the killing grounds. There are no NPCs, shops or other areas for you to be concerned about. Shopping and progression is handled between rounds.
Q: What format will the players be battling in? A: The players will be fighting in team deathmatch style. Whichever team kills the opposing team will win.
Q: Where do players spawn? A: Players spawn with their team on opposite sides of the map: Left and right. They only spawn once, at the beginning of the round, so there is no real-time respawn system.
Q: Are there any special features we should include? A: Bonus points will be given for cool potential environmental hazards, but they're not required as we can always add them later. Examples would be periodic flame jets, high winds, etc.
Q: Should we section off the arena? A: As answered above, we want up to 5 separate arenas that will not be linked. The only thing the player will be doing in these arenas is beating the snot out of each other. Each arena should be self-contained. They will be imported into one map and we will spread them out from each other manually.
Q: Can we use multiple levels or should we stick to one cliff level? A: We will probably have a couple flat arenas and a couple leveled arenas. Any cliff level that is not accessible by foot may not be accessible by every class so we won't be able to use those. Use cliff levels in moderation, use your best judgement.
Q: Will there be line of sight and fog of war? A: Certain skills will have a line of sight, however there will be no fog of war; The whole arena will be revealed to the players.
Q: How big are the units? A: Build the arena as if the heroes were twice the dimensions of a zealot.
Thanks for the great questions and keep them coming if you need more clarification.
0
Due to the number of interested terrain artists, we've decided it would be fun to host a contest. Winners get their maps placed in the game and their name will be placed in the credits.
We've also come up with a name for the game, which is currently tentative: Wired for Blood. It's a play on both the arena aspect and the organic cyborg aspect.
0
I don't know if any of you actually play melee but when you begin the game, you start with the hatchery.
0
"MAD" was the only winning map that was actually fun and polished; Too bad it broke the rules by being released 2 months before the contest even began, and should have been disqualified. The other two maps were horrible, not even up to par with Nexus Wars. That's saying a lot.
As progammer said, there were a ton of deserving entries that took experienced professionals 10+ hours per day for the full month to complete.
Additionally, both original posts advertising the contest encouraged innovative and new designs, such as "a first person shooter or the new dota map". However, none of the three winners were innovative or unique. None featured a WASD system. All three were poorly executed regurgitated ideas of the caliber of every other map on BNet 2.0 at this time.
0
Updated. Filled many positions. We're still looking for a Terrain Designer and UI Designer. If you've got the skills, don't pass this opportunity up.
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