Week 01

The Exodus

In 2119, Earth became uninhabitable. Mankind tore through the last of Earth’s resources, and it could no longer support human life form. Inbound for extinction, the last human population built The Exodus mothership and fled. A distant alien planet with the possibility of sustaining life was the only option. As The Exodus began its descent into the atmosphere, the entire vessel ignited. The mothership tore apart piece by piece, raining survivors across the landscape. You and 3 crew members survived, but only with enough resources for a handful of days.

Welcome to Galilei-9e.

As the leader of your new clan, embark on a perilous journey across an uncharted alien planet to rescue other survivors, survive a brutal environment, and maintain your resources long enough to reach The Exodus.

EXODUS

We are EXODUS, a continuation of Burnt Onion Studio‘s work on The Exodus. We are to take the pre-production package left by the previous studio and finalize all decisions in an effort to publish the AAA-quality title to Steam. The previous team laid out more than enough groundwork in technical design, art style, and game design for us to feel confident enough in concluding the project. We are a team of 2 Technical Artists, 2 Artists (one working as a producer as well), and 1 Level Designer.

Technical Design

Hongzhu: I’m joining team Exodus as a technical artist and programmer. I’m most comfortable with creating components that concentrate on a few areas of the system. I hope this project can make me better at managing game systems as a whole. As a technical artist, it’s always exciting to create polished content. Exodus is the project where extreme refinements will happen. Overall, this project will give me a better understanding of how things like pipeline and scheduling work in a game studio, which is what I’m always curious of.

Varun: Hello! I am serving as a technical artist and gameplay programmer on the team. Exodus is the second half of ETC’s first-ever year-long game project. Having worked on the pre-production of The Exodus as a technical artist, I am excited about building on the foundation we laid down last semester and taking the game to publication. In my opinion, this project is a great playground to balance technical growth against the real challenges of production. And Chris is a great faculty advisor to work with.

Art Design

Healthy: Exodus is a project whose end goal is to be a shipped title. Within Exodus, it is expected that we produce AAA level art. That is why I am here. I want to grow as an environment artist as well as continue my work to become a character artist. This project will let me learn how to texture a wide range of materials and get me out of my comfort zone. My objective is to be able to create professional-level art quickly and have a solid portfolio piece. I plan to do this by not learning the program, but rather the technique behind successfully appealing styles that we may be able to use.

Keran: I am really excited about working with my talented team members and building a AAA-level game. As an artist, I am in charge of making and polishing animations, which I am learning now for both this project and for my career. I am also helping Healthy make textures and materials, and I am sure we will learn a lot while communicating and working with each other. My final goal is to keep improving my art skills and, at the same time, I want to gain more experience in working with team members from different backgrounds.

Level Design

Julian: I am on the project as level designer, using last semester’s game design documentation as constraints for the final product. I am on team EXODUS because it will be an incredibly rewarding experience to take a project to publication. My career will be in AAA game development, so working in an intense environment like this one will prepare me for my tasks to come. I am excited to work with this incredibly talented team and excited for them to push me into new and exciting places for the sake of the game. Our advisors have a history of working in AAA studios, so their knowledge and guidance will be crucial in my career development as well.

As for the rest of the semester, I plan to learn more about level design, some narrative design, and even environmental storytelling. I know our team can handle this incredible task of publishing The Exodus. I’m ready for the coming semester.

Production:

Keran: As the producer of this team, I am in charge of helping team members arrange our schedule, and make sure we are on the right track to finishing our polished project on time. We are a team of five talented people and I am proud to be the producer on this team. I will help in building a friendly and comfortable environment in which everyone is willing to share their opinions and work together towards our final AAA shippable game.

For Week 01 we had a lot to discuss. We also wanted to get all of the ETC’s (Entertainment Technology Center) housekeeping out of the way as soon as possible. Tasks included discussing our roles and intended personal goals for the project, requesting our equipment and technology, discussing The Exodus-relevant inspirational media, and brainstorming our team half sheet and poster design (updates on these in the next two weeks) amongst other things.