LUNA
ROLE
Technical Artist / Level Designer
DESCRIPTION
My responsibilities in developing LUNA involved producing all VFX, all shaders, implementing VFX and shaders in C#, and designing the final two levels of the game. Luna was created in Unity using the Universal Render Pipeline (URP).
Being both the sole Technical Artist and a Level Designer for the team really allowed me to explore VFX for our combat and environment. Also, being able to design a level knowing my limits and capabilities as a Technical Artist responsible for VFX helped keep our team grounded in terms of what was possible within our scope when it came to design discussions.
VFX
LEVEL DESIGN
VFX EVOLUTION | RANGED ATTACK
This particular effect underwent an enormous number of iterations. From pre-production all the way through development, even with massive amounts of research and reference gathering, this effect underwent a sizable overhaul just about every milestone. Ultimately, this effect became one of my favorites in the game and was, just in general, a serious learning experience.
01
Reference Gathering, Concept, Pre-Production
02
Prototype, Milestone Placeholder
03
Design Flaws, Scope, Redesign
04
Tuning, Balancing, Embellishment
The concept for this ability was heavily inspired by Avatar: The Last Airbender. Originally, we designed this ability with the motion of a kick in mind rather than a push. Our initial idea was that Luna would hit the ground with her staff, a rock would levitate upwards, and she would kick it in the direction the player was aiming when the input was released. Our environmental artist was also an incredible concept artist, and she provided all concept art for our game.
In its most primitive state, this ability had no animation and was solely meant as a placeholder to represent the motion and feeling I wanted this ability to convey. Aesthetic improvements could come at a later time, but providing proof of concept first and foremost was the top priority. During this stage in development, I was still gaining confidence through research into particle systems and shaders.
As development continued, we needed to reconsider the scope of this ability. Having such an elaborate sequence of animations required to portray our initial vision of kicking the rock was proving to be too much of a workload on our animator. In regards to the design of the actual ability, through playtests, we discovered most players were getting punished in lingering frames (meant as placeholders for the final animations). At the same time, the ability only damaging a single target was too underwhelming. In the end, we settled on a much faster "Hold and Push" animation sequence and added an AoE to the attack. Major reference for our Panzer explosions came from The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild. Using some of the same effects from our Panzer explosion, I was able to convey the AoE in our ranged attack.
In the final stages of development, we wanted to hone in on Luna's moon powers. Part of this process was making the color of her abilities thematically cohesive. Ultimately, since we decided that because Luna was no longer breaking the ground itself to form the rock, I was able to really embellish the particulates of the ability using shaders to emphasize Luna's moon affinity. In the end, the starting, looping, releasing, and impact sequences came together to produce the final effect.