THIS LADY HAS COST ME MONTHS
Hi horror fans,
It's been a while since the last newsletter for my horror game Dark Lessons, where you need to survive your murderous teacher. Let me start by doing what I bet no man has ever done before me: blame a woman (as an aside, I've been thinking a lot about misogyny in horror media since I started work on the game ... 🤔).
I'm referring of course to Agatha, your favorite teacher and the game's villain! In an upcoming newsletter, you'll learn more about her back story, but today will be all about the makeover she's gone through in the last couple of months.
How It Started vs How It's Going
My original plan was to make a game as quickly as possible, just to prove to myself that I could finish it. I knew nothing about 3D modelling, so I used the bought asset that you see above on the left. Since then, my goals for Dark Lessons have shifted quite a bit, and quality has become much more important to me.
One of the most common criticisms of my game has been how generic good-old Asset-Agatha looked. I had to agree, found an amazing artist and asked them for a 2D, Manga-style redesign. This is what they came up with:
In July, I began working on the 3D model. This is the first time I've modeled a human being, and I had to follow along in-depth tutorials to make it happen. As if that wasn't enough, I wanted to make my model work simultaneously as a higher-detail asset for marketing material and as a simpler, lowish-poly version that would fit in with the game's low-poly style.
Once the shape was done, Agatha needed colored textures and a skeleton that could be used for poses and animations. So I learned texture painting and rigging to make Agatha come to life:
The finishing touch was motion capturing to add facial movement. (I'll spare you the horrifying webcam recordings of myself here, but you'll find one on my social media. 🙈 )
I'll be honest: Had I known beforehand how much work the redesign would be and how long it would take, I wouldn't have done it. At the same time, I'm really happy with the result — it is, just like the redesign of Agatha's house, more than I thought I could ever do not too long ago. Let's just hope I won't take as long for the remaining two models ... 👀
If you've made it until here, don't forget to support me by wishlisting Dark Lessons!
https://store.steampowered.com/app/2675700/Dark_Lessons/