Jade’s Bird’s-Eye View

Remember Jade? She’s paired with instructor Mike M. as part of Game-U’s Accelerate program. Though she digs deep to develop her isometric dungeon crawler, she reaches high too – and today we get a bird’s-eye view of her creation!

While Jade’s player will spend most of his time in the castle dungeon, navigating its twisting pathways, dungeons don’t exist in isolation. Jade surrounded the castle with new terrain that gives the player a starting point and sets the tone of the game. Check out the cliffs and the red lake! While Jade worked, Mike M. showed her a few ways she could use Unity’s tools to her advantage. Paint height, for example, allows Jade to perfectly match the height of the new terrain to the height of her dungeon entrance. Notice how well the opposite lake banks align! Jade’s also got plans to expand the entrance into a dramatic portal worthy of Dante’s Inferno, so stay tuned.

Terrain wasn’t Jade’s only project. After populating the dungeon with more of her modular assets, built elsewhere and imported into the game, she got to work on a bridge that will eventually span the red lake that lies between the player and the dungeon. Whatever problems the player faces on the bridge, Jade faced her own while modeling it. The bridge’s overall shape required some trial and error – a familiar technique to game developers – but once she and Mike M. hammered the bugs out of the design, Jade used the rest of her class time to tweak the railings and bridge details to perfection. See her work for yourself!

Jade, thanks for the bird’s-eye view today. You’ve got skills as well as imagination! Keep in touch, as we’ll all be excited to play your finished crawler.