Neon Trigger Devlog #1 - Whiteboxing and Narrative
Hello everyone, and welcome to the first Devlog for Bitloaf Studios new game ‘Neon Trigger’. My name is Braeden, and I am the Lead Environment Artist in a team of 5.
Over the next few weeks, the team will be posting here to discuss various things in the process of developing this game, I hope you guys enjoy!
What I am here to discuss today is my personal process of white-boxing for the development of this game, and how the narrative was a huge part in the creation of the level. We started discussing ideas for the overall world and how the player plays a role in the world. The Earth in the future of dystopia is mostly inhabited by cyborgs, all longing for a chance at natural life in a human body. Companies are aware of these feelings and exploit this. Where our set comes in, a company has taken the liberty of awarding one cyborg with a human body if they compete in a game-show, taken place in a poorly maintained city. Players in this game-show must compete against each other in this set, and the last cyborg standing is awarded the body.
How does this tie into the white-boxing process? It’s important to know that this takes place in a dystopian future, while also being on a set that is comprised of lowly maintained resources. This is where reference and concept gathering begins. A lot of the references gathered followed these themes, which then I would replicate in the process of white-boxing. Here are the references I used:
After gathering these, the hardest part is creating a variety of open spaces for enjoyable player movement. Because our game is an Arena Third Person Shooter, we wanted to have a good variety of platforms for enemies to be stationed, while also having a little bit of exploration, and a few corridors sprinkled throughout. Here are some screenshots of the overall white-box and how that turned out:
Overall, the most challenging part of this was making certain parts feel enclosed, while also not making player movement feel uncomfortable for the player. Having a solid foundation to work from for the level’s creation was super important for me, and I believe it is the key to creating some beautiful world building in general. Thanks for reading this week’s Devlog!