The Adventure of Khaoneeo & Mamuang

NSC2018 1st Prize Award

2018 ( ~6 months in development )

At that time, I had recently quit Architecture Bachelor Degree and started a gap year. While exploring potential activities, the annual National Software Contest (NSC) came by. Consequently, I approached Bright since we used to work together in Dorothea game project and asked if he would be interested in earning some additional cash by participating and potentially winning the first prize. He agreed, and together, we emerged and did win first prize.

This game revolved around the question, 'What if I were to apply a 2.5D art style to the game?' The narrative centers on two experimental children who explored their way through an adventure, shonen style.

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Game trailer video

DEVELOPMENT PROCESS

Initially, we divided our responsibilities individually into two members—art-related tasks and programming-related tasks. However, upon reflection on the Dorothea project, Bright was managing all aspects of the engine, which is not ideal considering he has to program all the features in the game. Consequently, I undertook the responsibility of managing art-related aspects within the engine, involving set dressing, animations, visual effects (VFX), and other art assets.

This is an illustration I've done since 2018 which shows us working overnight before presentation day at a local co-working space.

Tools

Unity
- Managing art assets
- Creating in-game animations with visual effects
- Set dressing imported art assets
- Creating cutscenes using Cinemachine and PostProcessing
Adobe Photoshop
- Creating pixelated art assets
- Creating concept art
Magica Voxel
- Create 3D assets
Adobe Premiere pro
- Game trailer
Adobe Soundbooth & FL studio
- Editing dialogue sound
- Editing vfx sound

Concept Art

Unfortunately, I've only recovered some of the illustrations which showcase only enemy character designed concept art

Environment

This approach involves a straightforward method for creating the 3D environment scene. Start with creating modular 3D assets using Magica Voxel, which later used as assets for scene dressing.

This is some of the screenshot of the real-time environment in the scene

Animations / Particle Effect

This is my first experience with the Animation editor in Unity. Through exploration, I've found that the Animation editor is capable of controlling many values of Component in the Inspector section. Using this understanding, I animate sprite animation using the flipbook technique, changing the transform values for character animation mimicking the spline technique, or manipulate values of Visual Effects to enhance the overall outcome.

This is some of available footage of the used of Visual effects + Animation

I was also apply this technique to cutscenes using Cinemachine and PostProcessing ( This was real-time rendered in Unity )

Conclusion

It was an unusual period for me, getting into game development began somewhat funny, initially not taken too seriously. However, this seemingly lighthearted approach led me into a spiral of attending numerous events, meeting new individuals, and exploring various locales. During this phase, I lacked a clear understanding of my direction since at the time, I had yet to encounter anyone engaged in similar pursuits – an artist utilizing game engines.

Unfortunately, I couldn't describe many of the techniques employed in this project, as I believe that most of them have become outdated and can now be achieved through more advanced methods. Also, I can't remember most of what I did since this project dates back to five years ago.

Upon looking at the methods used during that period with the current knowledge, it is apparent that many of them were unoptimized and potentially destructive. I believe there is room for improvement by adopting a more pipeline-friendly approach that not only enhances visual quality but also efficiency to work with.

I & Bright decided to take this award picture as a joke ( we intentionally did not smilling ) but this image ended up as the only image we got holding the award and in the news article.

later that year we decided to present the game to ( currently I don't remember what was that contest but it had something with Microsoft) ft. Nick who will later be our game designer and project manager for TOGETHER OUT.

Later that year got to take images with Princess Sirindhorn since she's a huge funder of NECTEC I think, it was a very surreal situation since normally we only got to see her on screen. As a result, my grandmother was very proud because she loved the royal family.

Index