Julia

As a Ringling senior in Game Art, I had to design a fully interactive game that went through the stages of modeling, texturing, and polishing. Through each of these phases, I needed to get faculty approval before moving to the next stage of production.

My game is entitled Julia. It is named after a real-world event that took place in 1999: a hydrophone field in the Pacific Ocean recorded a sound that resembled a giant creature howling in the deep. For years, the sound was unclassified and online fanatics theorized that the sound was in fact a monstrous, unknown creature howling from the depths of the ocean. After a few years passed, the sound was finally identified as an iceberg scraping the bottom of the ocean, but online forums and videos still explore the possibility of something far greater. 

My game illustrates what it could have been like to discover a giant creature that made that sound. It is set in the mechanical bay of a subaquatic research station where the resident communications engineer works to manage the drones that are sent out to collect samples. During one of her regular shifts, an unknown event causes the base to become structurally unstable. She must work quickly to restore the base and discover the cause.

This is a supplemental environment shot to demonstrate my central asset. It is a submersible drone designed to swim through the depths of the ocean and collect samples for the researchers on the station to study. Because it is designed for deep-sea deployment, the components have to be exposed, otherwise, pressure will build and it can cause structural or technical issues. 

Since this experience is heavily reliant on technology and research, all of the interactive points in the game involve different computer interfaces. 

The three videos below demonstrate a few of the interactive and animating materials I designed for these interaction points with 3D user interface elements.

The video above demonstrates the material designed for the menu screen which is meant to emulate an older-style sonar system since the game's plot relies on underwater sound. 

The material above was inspired by minimalistic computer interfaces similar to the design in Fallout 4. It requires the player to restart the deployed drone so it is operational.

This final material was meant to emulate a 2000's era CRT computer monitor. This multi-staged interactive material is the final one featured in the game.