Hello, My name is Ben and I am one of the two artists on Build A Bot.

Throughout the project my main role has been environment art with work on level design and enemy art. In the first semester, I was mainly fully focused on environment modelling and texturing, creating a large quantity of assets and creating tile maps for the level.

This level was originally being designed as level 2 for our vertical slice but quickly became our main level instead. At some point near Christmas Jacob and I discussed the art style of the environment and decided on texturing in black outlines onto the models rather than only relying on the black outline from the toonshader we were using. This decision drastically improved the look of the environment as it allowed for lines to be added to the front faces of objects rather than being just and outline.


The next piece of work that I moved onto was the boss model for the game. The idea for the boss was to make a construction machine that is a sort of overseer for the factory. To sell this idea, the boss was design very angular similar to construction machinery, legs modelled to resemble an excavator arm, nail guns as its main weapons, top mounted exhausts and the ability to compact down into a bulldozer While working on the model, I wrote up the original boss mechanics and move set. The idea for the boss was for it to be a zoning boss, that would use it lasers to draw lines and trap the player in a narrow area, allowing the boss to shoot the player or charge it by turning into a bulldozer. 

The next thing I worked on was the boss room art. This room had to be given unique models to help it stand out as a room of importance. I chose a more brutalist industrial style for this room, making walls that resembled concrete and large metal catwalks and dirty pipes. The design of the room was changed over time to be two separate rooms with the new top room being cleaner and more similar to the rest of the factory. For this, I made a large master machine aswell as a command center of computers.

After the boss room, I worked on was the environment art for the tutorial level. The tutorial was design to be a train yard that would teach the basic mechanics of the game and would then have the player enter a train and leave to the first level. The specifics of the tutorials where decided on after I had began work on the models however, with me created assets that would make sense in a trainyard rather than what would be needed for the tutorial. This worked out though in my opinion, as it meant that if I was missing an object for the tutorial, I could improvise with what was logically in a train yard.


An example would be the fact that I didn't make any door models, so to stop the player from moving through the tutorial rooms too early. I decided on having a traintrack run through the rooms that had a train that act as a barrier for the player that would move up the tutorial after they completed a room. While working on the tutorial art, I also made assets for the entrance room for the level and designed the room. The use of unique assets for this room allows them to stand out as a significant room. These same assets will be used for the exit room, making it obvious when you reach the end of a level. These rooms do still follow the same color scheme as the rest of the level but are more metallic in appearance.

The next thing I worked on was creating 3 levels based on concepts that we had drawn up. The main challenge of this was making the rooms feel unique while sharing assets between rooms. This could be helped by assigning specific roles to each room, and only using assets that fit the idea behind the room.


The last thing that I worked on was creating the art for the two latest enemies, the tank and the tesla bot. 

The tesla bot was designed as a area control enemy that would electrocute the player if they got too close so the most important design piece of this enemy would be the tesla coil, which I made to be majority of its body mass. I also lined the legs of the tesla bot with metal hoops similar to the hoops around the tesla coil. The body itself was designed to look like a power generator and thus shares the shape as the small power generators found within the levels.

The tank enemy needed to be large and was on tank threads. This design was easier too make as there is no shortage of tanks to look at. The body is angular with the front plates angled, which is harder to penetrate with projectiles in real life. The top has a hatch for entering the tank and the tank boasts two large rocket pods as its weapons.


And that about covers everything so far. I will continue to pump out environment assets as long as I breathe.

WISHLIST RIGHT NOW -Ben