Hello again, Washers! 👋
We’re back with another DevLog, this time we’re talking to 3D Artist, Rory, about another new addition to the PowerWash Sim 2 equipment, the SwirlForce floor cleaner!
This long requested cleaner is a very satisfying way to relax and bust the grime. If you haven’t seen it in action yet, take a look here ⬇️
Rory starts off; “The SwirlForce was one of the first jobs I was assigned coming into Futurlab and PowerWash Simulator 2 at the start of the year. I hadn't had much experience doing this equipment before, so it was a nice challenge to try to get right (and match the visual identity of the other powerwashers!) No pressure!
As with all things 3D, on my end you start with some reference gathering and those early block out shapes to send over to test some dimensions and how it would feel in the players hands. Moving what in real-life would be a two-handed tool into one hand required some tinkering in the shapes, so we played a lot with the proportions of this particular floor-cleaner, so it didn't look either too small or too cumbersome.”
“The way the shaft works is that (like the other washers) it has a series of extensions, but on top of that it has a telescopic shaft that extends out in increments so that the player can clean those hard to reach places. This required a little balancing, as initially I made it way too long, and it felt like you were holding some strange Sci-Fi implement (future DLC idea?)!”
Rory continues; “After a bit of back and forth on the shape and starting to finalize the block out some consideration was put into how the thing looked outside of those base shapes for testing. For this we actually had some concept art, which gave us a really great idea of how the Surface Cleaner would look from a side profile.
It unfortunately didn't account for our head-sizes, though and instead of having a dinky head to the powerwasher, we needed it to be quite large because floor cleaners in real-life are quite large; I mean, you're supposed to hold them with two hands!”
“So, getting creative and taking the concept as a base bit of reference, I started experimenting and getting a little bit stylized with the curves - making them more exaggerated here and there, and making parts of the main body perhaps a little bit larger than their real-life counterpart.
By the end of all that exploratory modelling, doodles, meetings and cubes we had something that looked like a real powertool, whilst still feeling like it could exist in the same world as the other powerwashers. Particularly the hard-yellow stood out in contrast to nearly EVERYTHING you ended up washing.”
“But just when you think you've finished, you have to have some little considerations into how the visual matches up with the gameplay. The aforementioned telescopic shaft had gone through some revisions before we settled on the exact length, but we wanted to add in a visual cue outside of the UI that marked when you were near the full-extent of the shaft to save you from continuously pulling up.
Sometimes the most simple solution works the best, and after a few trial and error decisions, it was settled that we'd have that shaft turn from metal grey to a very strong red (as well as the words MAX in case you didn't get the memo the first time)!”
“After all that was said and done, we finally had the art for our Surface Cleaner, our SwirlForce. I think with key items like this a lot of thought goes into every single facet that might not necessarily be felt by the player immediately, but each of these little decisions, fine-tuning measurements, thickness, shapes, nozzle-sizes and all that really come to create a complete product.
I was pretty over the moon seeing the reaction to it when the gameplay trailer went live; I know it's silly as it's a new feature to PowerWash Simulator 2 so of course people would hyperfocus on it, but I had gotten myself worked up that it would be lost between all the new and exciting environments, other equipment and cats on screen!”
We can’t wait for you to get your hands on the new SwirlForce, not only is it a super relaxing way to clean but it’s a fun new tool for those of you who like to create art while you clean!
Did you see something in the gameplay trailer you’d like us to take a deeper look into, or something you’d like the team to talk about? Drop your ideas down in the comments for us!
If you’re looking for some more looks behind the curtain of PowerWash Simulator and FuturLab, UI Artist Alex recently talked UI/UX design in a FuturLab blog! ⬇️
To keep up with all PowerWash Sim 2 news, you can wishlist it here ⬇️
We’ll catch you in the next one, Washers 💦
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