In the latest dev-log, I'm going to dive into the wild world of new monsters! I'll reveal how they'll wreak havoc in the game and the cool inspirations behind their looks and attacks. Plus, I'll give you a sneak peek at two brand-new environments (we're already at 5 out of 6 planned). The project is nearing its epic finale!
New monsters:
Hors
In one of our previous updates, I promised we'd create a two-legged horse with huge teeth. Well, here it is in all its glory! The inspiration came from a meme. When I first saw it, I was so surprised and knew right away that we had to create a monster based on it. The horse from the meme was funny, interesting, and a bit creepy, making it a perfect fit for the world of SPORTAL.
We named it Hors. Actually, one of our good friends came up with the name based on a screenshot on the Bluesky platform. I instantly fell in love with the name. When at rest, Hors patrols the area, but once it spots us, it charges with its mouth wide open, full of teeth.
View in the Unity game engine
View in Substance Painter before texture finalization process (colors and pixelation)
Model without texture sculpted in Blender
Barrelman
In one of our previous games, My Demon Wife, there's a character who's a detective with a barrel on his head. We thought he was so creepy that we decided to bring him into SPORTAL in a modified form.
As for his origin story, My Demon Wife was a very low-budget game. We had to mix and match different elements to save time, and we already had models for a mummy and a barrel. 🙂
Barrelmen the progenitor from one of our previous games
In the current game, Barrelman is a little guy. We figured we already had plenty of enemies of average or large size. When he's at rest, this creepy character patrols the area, but once he spots us, he starts screaming, runs towards us, and explodes when he gets close. He's super creepy. Check him out. I don't know if it's just me, but every time I kill him, I feel a bit sorry for him because some villain put an explosive barrel on his head. The whole vibe around this character adds a dark twist to the game world. I think it turned out pretty cool.
View in the Unity game engine
Texture closeup in Blender
Model without texture sculpted in Blender
New environments:
So far, we've created three environments:
- A haunted medieval village
- Ruins/burnt-out areas
- Caves
But we were missing some more modern/sci-fi vibes (and since SPORTAL is supposed to be a pulp-culture mix of everything we love, we couldn't leave that out). So, we brought to life "Nightmare" and "Alien Planet"! 🚀✨
The Nightmare
The look of these locations is inspired by the horror movie A Nightmare on Elm Street. We have scorched ground, concrete, as well as furnaces, pipes, chimneys, and steam.
I think a cool trick is to suspend the terrain in space - it gives an otherworldly, dreamlike impression.
The final boss in this environment will be inspired by Freddy Krueger. He'll be huge and terrifying (literally like half the level you see above). However, he hasn't been modeled yet. 🙂
Fun fact: When creating environments for SPORTAL, I try not to use too many references. I mainly rely on what I remember from specific movies or games. I believe that filtering through my own sensitivity or memory imperfections adds charm and a unique style to the game. I only turn to Google Images or Pinterest when I'm out of ideas for models or textures, but that doesn't happen often.
Alien Planet
The inspiration comes from numerous sci-fi movies from the 50s, 60s, and 70s. Once again, I didn't look for specific shots or images. I jumped straight into modeling based on what had accumulated in my head over the years. Initially, it was just terrain and textures. Then, I found a cool rock texture on textures.com. After that, cosmic trees appeared, and so on. One thing led to another. 🚀✨
Crystals were added after the lighting setup created a red glow from below. Besides justifying the light source, the crystals are interesting, alien, and look great.
Finally, I added a moon and asteroids hanging against the sky because the dark background with stars felt too empty.
As you can see, working on our game (especially the environments) is a very organic process. We don't set anything in stone because we believe that allows us to achieve the best results. It's also very enjoyable because we can unleash our creativity. We believe that this approach makes the games we create more original and truly "ours."
More stuff:
It's been a while since our last update. Of course, that's not all we've been working on. There's been so much more.
Here's a little sneak peek of what's coming up in future updates. For example, this is how the model of Insektoid, one of the enemies that will appear in the Alien Planet environment, was created:
That's all for today:
Okay, that's all for today. I hope you found it inspiring or interesting and can't wait for the release of SPORTAL. If you enjoyed it, give us a thumbs up and leave a few words. Warm greetings from the Sleepwalking Potatoes duo!