The Manor Beckons Once More

I managed to complete my art test a day before the deadline and submitted it without issue. The company responded quickly with a thoughtful and encouraging email. While it didn’t lead to an offer this time, it was still a valuable experience. I’ve come away from it having finally learned Blender, which is a great new skill to add to my toolkit.

I also mentioned this project to them during the interview, and they showed genuine interest, suggesting that I set it up with source control if I plan to take it further. Taking that advice on board, I set things up using Diversion, which I’ve previously used for freelance work. I also have experience with Perforce and Git from larger studios, and so far Diversion feels like a solid, user-friendly free option for solo and indie development.

Since my break from this project, Luke worked on implementing some player models for me. I decided that I wanted to use the Puppet Creature models from Stigma Studios on the Fab store.

Puppet Creature 01 by Stigma Studios 

Eventually I think I would like the player to have the option of customising these puppets, maybe by drawing on the faces or having some pre-set faces that they could choose. Similar to Content Warning, or Roadside Research. The players could maybe also have colour variants for more customisation.

Luke added the puppet to the project and attached a flashlight. This was initially set up with the basic unreal engine styled walking and running animations. He blended the animations between the flashlight holding and the default walking and running animations.

I decided that I would like the puppets to move in an uneven "shamble" rather than a walk. So Luke replaced the default Unreal Engine movement animations with some Zombie animations from Yummy Games on Fab, still blending with the flashlight animations. He also reduced the fog intensity on the flashlight slightly to improve visibility. 

I think that just having the player characters set up in engine really helps to sell the idea that they are dolls in a dollhouse. 

In other personal news, I got invited to carry out another art test for a different company that I had a successful interview with. This one was a lot bigger scope and I felt a bit like they were asking for too much in the timeframe, but you have to be professional about these things. I managed to complete the fully textured, fully lit environment that they asked for, with all of their specifications, in a week and it still resulted in another rejection..soo we move on. 

The cats are definitely picking up on the stress, as they have fallen out with each other again, this seems to happen every couple of months since being kittens. Now we have to keep them separate and slowly try to reintroduce them, like we have done before. It is a very tiring process and is taking a toll on both of us. So I will update when I can, but it's very difficult to concentrate when babysitting a screaming cat that needs constant attention, and only being able to leave a room when the other cat isn't around. Life is not great at the moment..