My Carrots
My Role - Art Generalist
Company - Windy Isle Digital
Tools - Blender, Substance Painter, Procreate, Photoshop, Roblox Studio,
Timeline - July 2024 - Present
Background
My Carrots is based on the wonderful world of Mitten and Pants! Collect Carrots and exchange them for tractor upgrades! Unlock and explore new areas in your customizable tractor. Earn powerful bonuses from playing with your friends.
Current Work Progress
Design Challenge
Working with the original IP of Mittens and Pants, the team had the challenge of capturing that wonderful world into the Roblox limitations.
The biggest challenged for myself in the role of Art Generalist was creating original assets that not only fit the designs of what could be seen in the world of Mitten and Pants, but fit the required constraints of asset size and poly count. There was numerous instances of needing to approach designs by figuring out how to best reduce the amount of polygons were present. In order for the game to run smoothly for a wide range of audience playing with various technical constraints, we wanted to make sure that no one would experience lag or delayed gameplay as a result of too highly detailed of assets.
My role in this project was to create not only original 3D assets but also textures, concepts, and the development of 2D UI assets. As can be seen below, I wore many hats in this project that required different approached based off how quickly the art piece was required.
Initial Concepts
Production is often a role that is overlooked or otherwise seems invisible in many team settings. It is an unspoken side of game development that, without realizing it, is embedded into the team by either an individual or through a group collective effort in order to stay organized and have the production pipeline run smoothly. Without a well versed or well organized production, games and teams fall apart. This not only affects the end product, but the people involved.
The problem I have set out to resolve is the effectiveness of our team production which has been affecting both morale, efficiency, and our game. This incomplete game production pipeline is something that impacted our team dynamic as well as our game production which in turn affected everyone. What we lacked in our team was a strong leadership position, that guided the team to planning and organizing deliverables and goals. I decided, along with the support from a majority of the team, that through my organizational skills I would develop a pipeline plan to carry us into the completion of our game.
Workload
The biggest challenge I faced working in this position was the varying amount of workload that was required from me on a week-to-week basis. Some weeks I would be looking at 1-2 assets, and the next week requiring over a dozen. Some days, I was even requested to have an asset to be done by the end of the day. Overall, this experience really taught me to adapt and manage my workload effectively. The best approach for me was allotting time during the week when I would be able to work on assets, that way no matter the amount that was requested from me I would at the very least have an open slot of time ready to be used.
Communication
Another hurdle to overcome was communication. Working aThis was best supported by our Kanban board and multiple check-in meetings throughout the week.
Organization
Finally, organization. The biggest hurdle of the team. It was made very clear to us very quickly into the semester that just as we started we were already behind. We lacked organizational tools, and it very much felt like we dove in ill-prepared. Overall, though we implemented weekly meetings and general plans for production, we lacked cohesive planning and organizing our production.
Take-Aways
Final Designs
Reflection
Throughout this Capstone project I have learned a lot about real world application of the game design production pipeline. Our team had numerous obstacles and challenges we faced, but taking the time to reflect there are many lessons I can take away from this experience and put forward into my next endeavor.
Production roles are the backbone to a well working team. Not just in terms of working efficiently, but as well as fostering a psychological safe working environment. Taking on this role I gained knowledge of its importance and the countless hours of work and communication needed for it to be done correctly.
Artist and Animation roles within game design calls for the skill to be able to quickly adapt and iterate on work. Learning how to work within the timeframes and working in engine to streamline asset creation and animation pipelines was a good takeaway for future projects.
Credits
Phil McCordic - Co-Producer, Programmer
Ericka Evans - Co-Producer, Programmer
James - Producer
Jake - Programmer
Bronson - Level Designer
Jenny - Programmer
Ben - VFX Artist, 3D Animator
Lucas - 3D Artist, Texture Artist