Week 21 – 2020: Bringing the game art to life

Our second development sprint is underway and most of the game features will be constructed next week. In the meanwhile we are creating the

game’s art for the multiple virtual game rooms. In these rooms the player will search for data sources and clues to finish the game’s challenges. We aim for a realistic style which makes the player feel likes he’s on an executive level floor in a (corporate) office.

Normally shooting pictures on such a location wouldn’t be a problem, but with most corporate offices closed off due to Covid-19 we had to be creative. So how do you create a CEO kind of office when all you have is you own industrial start up place? We tell you all about it in this blog.

Step 1: Sketching the rooms.

The game rooms represent various offices on an executive floor of a fictional corporate.Each room contains data sources hidden in objects that the player must investigate. So the Mise-en-scène must contain multiple objects that we can later connect to the right game elements in our database.

Step 2: Shooting on a set

We then recreated build a set to photograph. What was important here is that we don’t just add the

items that are required for the gameplay, but also some props for decoration or future Easter eggs. Since we didn’t have a CEO kind of room at our disposal we worked with a green screen. This allows us to later add the actual office room.

Step 3: Fit the set photo in an office room

Then we had to find a set of pictures that fit our desired style for an office floor. The database on Shutterstock has plenty of pictures that we could use. We choose three that will act as the main rooms in the game. Since we worked with a green screen we were able to combine both pictures to represent one room.

Step 4: Add user interaction

As a final step our developers can add this picture to the programming and implement it as a part of the interactive game design. The items on the desk (computer, tablet, etc.) will become clickable items where data sources can be analysed by the player. I make this sound easy but it takes a lot of effort to make this convincing. We talk about that another time.