Bard will be a notable character during the first mission of our game. He’s meant to epitomize the “Administrator” faction. He’s large and he’s in charge. I asked for an opulent, wealthy merchant look for him and this is what John came up with.

Bard used to be a working-class member of the “Engineers” faction, but he pushed and climbed his way up to a position of power. As an Admin, he still has a strong bias for his previous faction. He is a champion for the workers that keep the Norship running and operational. That said, he enjoys his status and all of the benefits that it provides.

Included here are front, back and side poses as a model-sheet to be translated into 3D, along with facial expressions which will be used as reference for facial rigging.

For commentary, there are two Google+ posts regarding this concept art, for Bard’s front pose and Bard’s facial expressions.

We sorted out our graphics pipeline and then discussed the difference between features for prototypes. Basically a roadmap meeting for how do we get there, from here.

Please excuse my barely legible scribblings.

Usually when I want to get a project done, it’s either:

1. I lock myself into a room and obsessively focus on one sole aspect, then I come out for a breather and back in for the next aspect until I get it done. Solitary single-mindedness.

or

2. As a single-member on a team, I only have one aspect to focus on, so I just do it.

This time around, I tried to do #1 for months and just buried myself too much into one thing and completely lost scope of the fact that I’m the manager of the whole project. Too many things got ignored and I defaulted back to #2 but our team isn’t big enough for me to take that luxury.

So I had to stop and re-task myself. My new methodology:

3. I pick which aspect I’m working on for the next few days. If it requires learning, I go into student mode and just try to soak up things. I don’t immediately move from learning to doing on the same topic. Instead I switch topics.

So today if I’m learning about the workflow for facial animations, then tomorrow I go back to coding in UnrealScript because that’s (somewhat) familiar from earlier studying. When I get back to the facial animation stuff the next time, if the learning hasn’t stuck, I watch some more tutorials or read some more wiki pages. This is how my brain absorbs, in piecemeal.

I also spend a great deal of time explaining what I’ve learned to our other team members. That helps my process a lot, because talking it through gives me further insights of how to use these new skills. The discussions help all of us to recognize gaps in the overall project.

This week was key, because I have a much better understanding of what we’re capable of– and what we’ll need to outsource.

This is a long slow process. I’m okay with that. I’m patient.

**mild spoilers below**

Engineers

The Engineers are the largest faction and could be considered the proles, or working class faction. As you can expect from their designation, they are responsible for keeping things running aboard the Norship. Engineering decks (and sometimes clothing) are marked with a red-ochre, representing the rust of areas in need of repair.

Caretakers

The Caretakers are the next largest faction and about a third of the Nor population overall. At one time, they were mainly keepers of the gardens of the Norship, but now they cover Security duties as much as gardening. Caretakers wear uniforms that are teal in colour, but the force-fields that the Security forces use are a more direct blue.

Administrators

The Administrators operate as the Nor’s governing body and as such they are the smallest population. The Administrative quarters and offices are often made using an adobe-like clay, so this colour indicates their status.

Q: When will 4thWall be released?
A: We do not have an ETA for the full game, but we will first be doing a series of prototypes that will be available publicly to download. The first 4thWall prototype is expected November 2011.

Q: What platforms will 4thWall be available on?
A: PC (Windows) and Mac (OS X). 4thWall is being developed with UDK, which is available for Windows and OS X. If Epic Games adds more platforms to the UDK license then we will probably support them, but we are not making any promises and are not aware of any such plans by Epic. We are not planning mobile or console versions of 4thWall at this time.

Q: Will 4thWall be using DirectX 11?
A: We are developing primarily with DirectX 9 as a target to reach the widest audience, but we are intrigued by some of UDK’s more advanced visual features, so an optional DirectX 11 version is possible.

Q: How much will 4thWall cost?
A: Our prototypes and even our initial game’s first chapter will be free to download, with no cost or hidden charges (no in-game store or anything like that). If those initial releases gain enough interest, we will be looking at our options for profit. If they don’t, we will continue to update and release, because we believe in our game and we’re also rather stubborn.

Eventually we would like to get paid in some way, but not until we have done work that we feel is worth earning that pay.

Q: Will there be a Kickstarter project campaign for 4thWall?
A: Not until we have enough to show that could gather enough interest. Also, we are in Canada and Kickstarter does not support Canadian projects directly, so we would need an American partner to host a project on Kickstarter.

Q: The first 4thWall chapter won’t include combat? Is this some sort of anti-violence game?
A: Our first chapter will be focused on stealth gameplay with options other than combat. This isn’t meant to be any sort of preachy message, it’s just a different approach from most first-person games. Combat will eventually become an option, but we want an experience that allows the player to weigh all of their options, including non-combat and non-lethal solutions.

Q: How can I contact the 4thWall team?
A: Send us Feedback here.

Nin is our main environmental artist and he’s currently getting up to speed with his migration from Blender to 3ds Max. Our art direction will rely on what he comes up with once we start putting levels together with his meshes.

We do not yet have a character artist. We haven’t been in any rush to find one, since . . .

We’ve just commissioned some character concept art for 4thWall. Once that art is finalized, we will post it. While waiting for the initial proofs to come in, we are shopping for freelance character modellers. I know it’s a lot to ask, but we would prefer to get someone that can take a character from concept art, follow a specific style, and complete right up to (and including) rigging and morph targets. Of course, all on a reasonably tight budget. Time is less of an issue, so some compromise between budget & non-rushed work can hopefully be made.

Know anyone that might fit that description? Hit us with some Feedback.

What you may see in the meantime, is placeholder art. Plus us stumbling about in our usual fashion, messing with colour schemes and environment materials.

(Note: The screenshot above was taken during our first week on the 4thWall project, when it was still a Half-Life 2 mod.)

Nin joined the 4thWall project, after life gave him a strange turn (a topic unto itself). Later on, Jim came on board after he and I worked together for several months at Hellbent Games.

Our mod plans grew into a full conversion project and then we shrunk that back to a more reasonable indie game design which we will develop with UDK.

Two of us are experienced in the games industry, two of us are not. It’s been a challenge to get Nin and Nelg up to speed, especially since their time for the project is often limited. Life has been consuming for all of us. Each of us went through some sort of upheaval in the past year.

Nin has made the most progress, learning 3D by going from SketchUp to Blender and now to 3ds Max. He has a long way to go, but his determination keeps moving him forward. In the long run, his aim is to become a full fledged environmental artist.

Nelg has set up a DIY motion capture studio, using an array of mounted cameras and iPi Soft’s Desktop Motion Capture. He’s got his work cut out for him with a steep learning curve. Nelg is also going to try his hand at level editing, or at least level staging.

I initially followed along with Nin learning 3D with Blender, but about a month ago I realized it was consuming all of my energy and I needed to shift my efforts into UnrealScript and Kismet. We needed to get a prototype going with some gameplay.

As lead developer, I’m trying to dip my fingers into every aspect with UDK and that can be overwhelming at times. I also realized I needed to free myself up from other responsibilities and dedicate myself to 4thWall full-time. I’d talked about it previously, but I hadn’t actually put in the hours yet.

A few weeks past that and we’re making tangible progress in ways that we haven’t seen since we first started. Our plans are more concrete and the things we’ve learned are starting to accumulate into useful skills.

I realized from the beginning that if I was aiming for a financially successful project: I should have written up a business plan, gotten a loan and hired experienced people. Make a prototype and then pitch it to publishers. Instead, I’m having a great time with my small crew of friends, while we stumble about, sorting out what goes where. We’re now about to make that prototype and we’re doing it for ourselves. Maybe it will end up financially successful anyway, but that’s besides the point.

We’re determined to make a great game. It’s an incredibly fulfilling feeling so far.

This blog is meant to fulfill the openness of 4thWall’s development, a promise I made to myself and everyone else. That will involve the minutiae of our process. Warts, beauty marks and all.

Each article should be short and to the point. I’d rather have a large number of small posts than a few time-consuming large ones. The layout of this site’s theme should help keep things rolling. At some point I will gather up the important info into a typical “this is our game” press-friendly format, but for now this site is all about a work-in-progress.

I hope you enjoy witnessing our development process as much as you may enjoy our game (once it is released).

Gameplay is the focus of this Prototype. It is not expected to be pretty. Any art included will not be indicative of the full 4thWall game.

What can you expect to see?

• Basic stealth movement in first-person.
• A series of gameplay tests, room to room.
• Debugging UI.
• Simple AI behaviour and player detection.

What won’t be included?

• No detailed Character models. At most, there may be placeholder models for the player-character and NPCs.
• No 3rd person perspective. At least not initially. We will be testing 3rd person at some point, but the Prototype will be a 1st person test.
• No Sound. Ambient sound indicators will be present, but the sounds themselves will not.
• No Story. The emphasis will be on the gameplay tests.
• No gadgets or RPG elements / progression. Those will be saved for future tests.

Current ETA for initial 4thWall: Prototype release: January, 2012.

4thWall Core Team:

Rog (Rog Dor) – Wears too many hats.
    Game Design, coding, character design, other stuff.
        Read more about Rog on his website: Rog Dor or on Google+.

Nin (Philip Lye) – Is probably undead.
    Environmental Art, animation, other stuff.

Nelg (Nelg Murray) – Has 4! letters to his moniker.
    Motion-Capture, animation, play-testing.

4thWall Collaborators:

Michelle Robertson – Environment Lighting, Character consulting.
James Baxter – AI consulting.
Chris Mair – Audio Engineering.

4thWall Freelance Contractors:

John Amor – Character Concept Art.
Eugene Ivanov – 3D Character Creation.