To start this week of Kessler's development, I continued adding to the Airport scene that I started making at the end of last week. By adding some new assets to the level including a windsock asset that I drew using Sketchbook on my iPad. I included the windsock as an asset within the airport scene because after some research I found out that aviation windsocks are used to give the pilot a quick reference as to where the wind is coming from and the approximate wind speed.
Before accelerating before take-off, pilots take a quick look at it, so they can give the necessary rutter input while strolling down the runway. So I included this in the scene to add that sense of realism to the airport level of the game.
Holland Aviation. (n.d.). Aviation Windsock - What is it and how does it work? [online] Available at: https://www.hollandaviation.nl/en/aviation-windsock/.
I attempted to make an animation using these three frames for the windsock to simulate wind passing through it because I was thinking that a world like Kessler that is affected by such a brutal battering from falling space debris would probably have more frequent storms that cause high winds. However, that didn't work out quite so well as the animation frames were so far apart that the animation looked janky and made the windsock move back and forth super fast, which resulted in me scrapping the idea for the windsocks animation entirely opting for the first frame to be used as a static image. Another Asset that I added to the airport scene this week was a Hanger (drawn on sketchbook app for my iPad) that is designed to look worn down and destroyed to fit the theme of the world and set the tone for the rest of the game.
The Broken Windows provide an unwritten backstory for the game as it showcases that over time the impacts and shockwaves of debris impacting the planet have caused the windows to shatter. The hanger also has dead grass at its base to blend perfectly with the dead grass tile for the tile map made underneath it and the green moss/vines that are growing on the side showcase that since humanity has been absent for nearly two decades nature has begun to reclaim the earth. The most interesting part of the hanger though is the destroyed plane that is half sticking out of the hanger and has been hit and destroyed by a giant asteroid the vines and moss that have grown over it show that this impact happened a long time ago as nature has had time to grow over the debris. You may also notice that the top left corner of the roof of the hanger is missing I designed it like this so that the building tells more of a story regarding the collision of the asteroid as it shows that the asteroid hit the top of the building destroying it before hitting the plane.
I also created new tiles for the tile map of the airport scene using Adobe Photoshop. These tiles are used to create the back end of the airport runway that the player walks across the grey is used as the tarmac, and the white lines and the yellow is different types of guidelines used in airport runways based on a picture I found online of airport runways.
The tiles on the far right include grass and dirt which merge the two textures of the grass/dirt and the tarmac together in a smooth way which, makes the transition from one tile to another within the scene more natural. All of these assets together were used to form these:
The next asset that I added to the scene was this piece of rocket ship debris that has crashed down onto the surface. The piece is the engine booster of a rocket which I designed this way since in all space launches the first stage to be ejected from the rocket are the boosters making it more likely that parts like this exist within the earth orbit and could crash down in a Kessler syndrome type event like shown in Kessler's story.
The dirt at the bottom and the vines growing over it showcase that this piece of debris too has been crashed here for a long time allowing for nature aka grass to grow over the impact site and vines to grow over the rocket booster fragment itself. This asset, however, is not just a pretty background piece it also provides gameplay mechanics as it requires the player to jump onto or over it to progress the scene. I wanted to add a jumpable object to the scene to add more challenge to the game as so far the game contained no threat/danger or challenge which makes the game very boring.
I also created another piece of debris that the player has to jump over which is a crashed satellite with a solar panel that sticks out of the ground. Unlike the first piece of debris the player encounters within the airport scene this piece of debris has crashed very recently and is still smoking from the heat of entering the atmosphere.
This piece of debris has no vines, moss, or weathering applied to it to better illustrate the fact that it landed recently and the smoke also illustrates this. however, this alone would not create an environment that portrays a recent debris impact site so to further illustrate that I created a few more tiles for the airport tile map that when put together create a creator of burnt grass and dirt showcasing how recent the satellite collided with the earth.