Space Traders
Roleplaying games have always been a happy place for me. The fantasy worlds created by designers allowed me to escape reality. In the games, it does not matter what lot you are given, only what you do with it. A background story or “lot” and a set of guides for actions and reactions is a gamer’s only entry point to a world of adventure and escape. In this exhibition, I want to provide a small glimpse into the world of Space Traders, a roleplaying game where players take on the role of a pilot in training bound to the government entities providing the training. Once training is complete you will be open to explore on your own or stay within the safety and guide of the government corporation. The work in this exhibition serves as a game trailer and features the environment, elements of character interaction, and storyline. Unlike many games, the characters in this concept are the space crafts; the pilots solely serve as avatars.
My project is different than others in two ways. First, the idea of showing constructed details of 3D models is not normally shown as video in the beginning of a game’s concept. Second, it is more common for a game concept to include some programming development before presentation to the public in the form of a playable segment. While this looks like a game trailer you might find on a gaming platform like Steam or even YouTube; this game trailer demonstrates a careful appreciation of form, space, and color without a use of any playable segments.
This body of work responds to and draws cue from the work of artists working in digital and new media production. The idea to feature separate animations from the trailer with ploy block to texture transitions comes from Alan Warburton, who combines non-textured and highly textured models in his displays. Nikita Diakur, a master animator, creates his own rigging for each new project. This pushed me to research and experiment with similar types of rigging. In works such as his Tales from the Loop, animator and digital artist, Simon Stålenhag creates environments that appear as though they might not even be possible while still firmly rooting visual content in our reality. His ability to blend the realistic and the surreal served as a springboard for my own world building.
Space Traders is designed to demonstrate my ability to use visual elements and principles of organization in a digital format while telling a story of a players beginning life in my game. My characters have a fun and neutral feel to them using form, color, and motion. I use movement and repeated common position to emphasize which character is the hero. Lighting contrast is used to imply animated actions.
