From there we will begin testing the game with hearing impaired gamers. I know that sounds crazy-- a music game for the hearing impaired, and who knows it just might be-- so that's why we want to have a playable version of the game by next week to get feedback and still have time to make iterations. Below is the little Music Dude that I modeled based off of Betin's character concepts. We ended up going with the version on the right. Betina is doing the character rig and animations while I'm finishing up the environmental assets.
Music Dude designed by Betina, Modeled by Ryan Bown (me) in Maya
I also worked a little bit more on another secret project; same one that I worked on over Christmas brake. So we took the 3D Maya model I made and built a maquette out of steel. It was pretty fun to weld again after 5 years. Thanks to B.C. and Brain at BYU for their help getting reacquainted with the welders:)
On the academic side of things-- I started to write the Game Art curriculum for Neumont, and also came up with my thesis statement for my MFA. My thesis will look at the MDA framework and how narrative driven experiences effects agile development. It will be high lighted by my experiences from creating Erie-- and how Erie went from an arcade chase game to a narrative driven thriller.
Finally I've been working day in and day out in ZBrush and I think Mudbox and I are about to have a big brake up:( It was a good run... But the cool thing is; each new program you learn the easier the next one becomes.
