Golden Sun Project M map WIP thread

[Llama Juice]

Hey guys, I'm new here.

EDIT:
This stage has been released! Go to the release thread to grab it :D
/Edit

I signed up to try to be more active in the community, try to learn more about the Smash Bros Brawl engine and how to best use it to make pretty things.

I'm an environment artist, and this game has needed some Golden Sun love for a long time. I hope to bring that to the table. So here is my current WIP thread for my Golden Sun map.

Posted this image in a thread earlier today. The pictures in the corners are reference pictures that I've been going off of from the GBA game "Golden Sun". I'm putting it here as well because It gives you a good idea of where I'm coming from and where I'm going with this thing.

This is from tonight. I worked on the doorway thing and added some more decorative arches to the front.

I've textured the statues in the background. They're one of the few things that currently I feel that I'm pretty much "done" with. Ignore the big red thing in the middle. that's just placeholder garbage texture.

I'm trying to stay mostly true to the source material, but I'm also respecting the fact that the GBA had some pretty heavy limitations, so I'm trying to take some creative licence and create extra decorations to the map that'll make it less bland to look at.

Anyhow, hope you like it. I hope to get this stuff out there pretty quickly, I've already put three weeks into this thing, but it's been coming along pretty smoothly. This is my first Smash Bros Brawl project though, so when it comes to putting the art into the game engine I'm sure I'll run into every problem.

Thanks for checking it out :D I hope to update this thread at least every other day with progress updates.

 

[QQQQQQQ7777777]

This is awesome!

 

[Rhinevalcke6]

Looks really good.

Have you considered making that Center Part similar to the Combo Tent in Hyrule Castle?

 

[Shin F.]

i've said it before and I'll say it again - this looks fantastic. I'm definitely going to want to follow this thread.

 

[Crixler]

I've never played Golden Sun, but this is making me want to.

 

[Paradoxium]

I've never played Golden Sun, but this is making me want to.

dude, golden sun is legit
i recently played the one for DS, it has such a Final Fantasy 7 feel to it, it was a blast to play

 

[Crixler]

dude, golden sun is legit
i recently played the one for DS, it has such a Final Fantasy 7 feel to it, it was a blast to play

I'm thinking I'll play it after I finish with FE: Sacred Stones and A Link Between Worlds. Never been big on Final Fantasy, though. Hmm. But hey, even if I don't end up liking the game, this stage looks too cool.

 

[Shin F.]

I'm thinking I'll play it after I finish with FE: Sacred Stones and A Link Between Worlds. Never been big on Final Fantasy, though. Hmm. But hey, even if I don't end up liking the game, this stage looks too cool.

It's really not like Final Fantasy at all, in my opinion. I've always like Golden Sun much better than most Final Fantasy games, except maybe FFX.

 

[Thethiala]

Definitely will be keeping tabs on this project. Looking good so far.

 

[Llama Juice]

I originally said I was going to try to update this thread at least every other day. Here is that update.

I've been toying around with skybox ideas, how to try to tie this map into the world. I decided it'd be neat if I tried to actually make the surrounding landscape and bring that into the map as well. I found an overhead map of the world and started creating a simple version of everything. It doesn't look too crazy impressive yet, but it'll get there.

One of my big things is that I want to personally be creating all of the art in this map myself. I don't want to borrow any assets from what already exists in the game. This creates a lot more work for me, but it also makes me learn more as I go along. Today I created the tree textures. This required three textures, a side "forest view", a top "leaf canopy" view, and a single tree all by itself.

Ignore all of the multicolored grid stuff by the way, that's all stuff that I've just not textured yet.

Closer look at the trees and what I'm trying to do to make them look OK at a distance. Brawl's rendering engine also puts in a thick layer of fog that will blur out a lot of the stuff further away in the background, so just by being harder to see it'll look better haha.

Thanks for all the support guys, I'm super excited to get this thing out there.

 

[LeeYawshee]

This is looking pretty good, I'm actually very excited for the full product.

 

[Llama Juice]

I know this doesn't look like much to you guys, but to me this is insane. My first time getting a mesh ingame. I spent the entire day just trying to figure this stuff out. 94% of the tutorials out there are for Max users, and most of those tutorials are for character stuff. As a Maya Environment artist... this was difficult.

 

[Shin F.]

I know this doesn't look like much to you guys, but to me this is insane. My first time getting a mesh ingame. I spent the entire day just trying to figure this stuff out. 94% of the tutorials out there are for Max users, and most of those tutorials are for character stuff. As a Maya Environment artist... this was difficult.

Oh, wow! Very well done! It looks fantastic! I honestly don't know how you've gotten this far so quickly. It's really impressive.

 

[CardiganBoy]

Amazing work your doing right there man!
May i suggest making the stage a little bigger, and also i would like to see the statues like old roman/greek sculptures, just of a single color with gray in the textures to emulate the darker parts, here an example:

Spoiler

Also good luck on the background, keep your great job!

 

[Arteen]

Llama Juice, you have a fine taste in games.

 

[Llama Juice]

@ Shin F. I worked on this for almost three weeks before posting anything. It's not like I've gotten this far in just one week or anything Thanks though!

@ Arteen Back at you sir! haha. Thanks again to everyone who's been supporting me in this.

@ CardiganBoy I'm trying to keep it close to what is actually in the game based off of the tiny reference images that I have. You can see a comparison of my model with the reference images below :D

I worked on UVs and started making textures for a few of the scenery objects. At first I wasn't a fan of the purple/green color pallet, but now it's starting to grow on me. I'm planning on redoing my purple brick texture with some green brick patterns throughout it as well to spruce things up a bit. Not sure exactly what I'll do with it yet, but it'll be there. Also, I'm fairly certain that I'm going to be knocking down the wall and making a tunnel through the center.

 

[Llama Juice]

I'm at roughly 33K triangles right now. (Ignore the tricount in the images, they're wrong. There's stuff out of frame that isn't being counted) Originally I was planning on trying to keep it under 50K when i didn't know what my limits were. (I've been told not to go over 80K) I've been trying to cut corners and optimize meshes wherever I can, so right now I feel that I'm getting a lot more out of my polycount than what you'd expect of 33K. (Each Statue is 3K, so the statues by themselves take up 1/3rd of my map) I still do plan on adding a lot of decorative pieces to flesh it out more. With this pass I just needed to put a dent in the objects that still needed textures.

=================================
To do list:

Spoiler

Textures:
1: "Runway path" I want some sort of fancy path that runs along the stage everywhere that the player can go. Something to visually differentiate the playable space from non-playable space. Currently that's what those colorful checker pattern pieces are, but I'm going to redo those entirely probably.
2: Various trim pieces. I have models running along the areas where purple sidebrick meets green floortile. I need those textured. Planning on using the same trim texture for the side of the small platforms on the far left and right.
3: Stairs: Right now I'm literally using the stairs from the Golden Sun game as my texture. Obviously I need to make my own and make them look good.
4: Door Archway: This archway will stay in the build, I don't know if the door in the middle of it will.
5: Grass: Background texture assets.
6: Mountain: Background texture assets.
7: Babi lighthouse card: Background texture assets.
8: Small town card: Background texture assets.
9: Clouds: Background texture assets.
10: Water: Background texture assets.
11: Sky: Background texture assets.
12: Dirt Path: Background Texture assets. I want to mirror the ground map from the original Golden Sun game. That includes all the weird little things in the background.

Models: (And textures that'll go with them)
1: Fancy green brick deco that I can just stab into the purple brick texture that already is in place. The idea is to have some green bricks extruding from the purple bricks in some places for some visual flair. This will probably be used to cap off any angled corners and in large flat boring purple brick spaces.
2: Small plants: It would be neat to have some plants growing through the tiles/vines running up some walls.
3: Babi Lighthouse: Simple model to be able to make a card out of it for the background.
4: Small Town: Simple model to be able to make a card out of it for the background.

=================================

I'm sure there's a bunch of other stuff that I'm missing from this list at the moment, but it's a good idea to have a list of what to work on so that I know where to go next and have a measurable way to say what I've completed and what I still have yet to do.

 

[Shin F.]

I'm at roughly 33K triangles right now. (Ignore the tricount in the images, they're wrong. There's stuff out of frame that isn't being counted) Originally I was planning on trying to keep it under 50K when i didn't know what my limits were. (I've been told not to go over 80K) I've been trying to cut corners and optimize meshes wherever I can, so right now I feel that I'm getting a lot more out of my polycount than what you'd expect of 33K. (Each Statue is 3K, so the statues by themselves take up 1/3rd of my map) I still do plan on adding a lot of decorative pieces to flesh it out more. With this pass I just needed to put a dent in the objects that still needed textures.

=================================
To do list:

Spoiler

Textures:
1: "Runway path" I want some sort of fancy path that runs along the stage everywhere that the player can go. Something to visually differentiate the playable space from non-playable space. Currently that's what those colorful checker pattern pieces are, but I'm going to redo those entirely probably.
2: Various trim pieces. I have models running along the areas where purple sidebrick meets green floortile. I need those textured. Planning on using the same trim texture for the side of the small platforms on the far left and right.
3: Stairs: Right now I'm literally using the stairs from the Golden Sun game as my texture. Obviously I need to make my own and make them look good.
4: Door Archway: This archway will stay in the build, I don't know if the door in the middle of it will.
5: Grass: Background texture assets.
6: Mountain: Background texture assets.
7: Babi lighthouse card: Background texture assets.
8: Small town card: Background texture assets.
9: Clouds: Background texture assets.
10: Water: Background texture assets.
11: Sky: Background texture assets.
12: Dirt Path: Background Texture assets. I want to mirror the ground map from the original Golden Sun game. That includes all the weird little things in the background.

Models: (And textures that'll go with them)
1: Fancy green brick deco that I can just stab into the purple brick texture that already is in place. The idea is to have some green bricks extruding from the purple bricks in some places for some visual flair. This will probably be used to cap off any angled corners and in large flat boring purple brick spaces.
2: Small plants: It would be neat to have some plants growing through the tiles/vines running up some walls.
3: Babi Lighthouse: Simple model to be able to make a card out of it for the background.
4: Small Town: Simple model to be able to make a card out of it for the background.

=================================

I'm sure there's a bunch of other stuff that I'm missing from this list at the moment, but it's a good idea to have a list of what to work on so that I know where to go next and have a measurable way to say what I've completed and what I still have yet to do.

I like that you've listed out everything that you intend to do. I know how much that helps out. I started making lists like that for my projects recently, and it really helps to just break things down like that. It's looking really, really cool so far.

 

[Raziek]

Really looking forward to how this turns out. I'd be happy to playtest it for you if you want advice on tweaking ledges/boundaries, etc!

 

[Crispywaffles]

This is awesome bro! I really want to play this game, but I don't want to get the emulator since I'd rather support the official release. Like I do every game really, but still . Anyways keep up the good work!

 

[Llama Juice]

I didn't get to work on it at all Monday night, so today is just a small update.

I worked on creating textures for the "center fight path" and for the stairs. I wanted to make a path that ran along the ground where the players are actually fighting to help separate that part of the stage from the non-playable bits.

Creating that Golden Sun: Lost Age logo took way too long. (and yes I know that mine is damaged differently than the original one, I don't care hahaha)

 

[Llama Juice]

Added trim around nearly everything, added a few small decorative touches. Made the carpets droop off the sides of the platform, as I couldn't figure out any other way to make them look decent.

The only textures remaining in the foreground currently are the door/door frame and the hole between the statue ladies. I'm pretty excited.

My first attempt at making the carpet. I made it have circle endcaps to it with the idea that it'd make them get closer to my ledges. Eventually I decided on having them droop off the sides instead.

 

[YoungCatface]

So I'm assuming/hoping this'll be publicly released before too long?

 

[Thethiala]

I like your idea of having carpets, it makes it visually much easier to read where you're able to fight.

My only small nitpick is that I think the statues look a bit too different from thee the original game, but I'l probably get accustomed to that after a while. Everything else is looking sharp. ;p

 

[Llama Juice]

I might try to rework the texture of the statues using a white Marble as the base. See if that works out better than the cement base that I'm using now.

What about the statues doesn't look right to you specifically? I'm open to constructive criticism, that's half of why I'm posting these pictures haha.

 

[Llama Juice]

Added green bricks to try to break up the flat purple walls. I think I like it, but I'm not entirely sure. I want to try to make the green match the rest of the stage's green themes, but I just haven't gotten it yet.

What do you guys think? Tone the bricks down? Add more? Get rid of them? I think they add a lot of visual interest to the scene. They're also fairly light on the polycount. All of those bricks don't even add up to 3,000 triangles, so I wouldn't consider that a limiting factor at all.

 

[CardiganBoy]

Added green bricks to try to break up the flat purple walls. I think I like it, but I'm not entirely sure. I want to try to make the green match the rest of the stage's green themes, but I just haven't gotten it yet.

What do you guys think? Tone the bricks down? Add more? Get rid of them? I think they add a lot of visual interest to the scene. They're also fairly light on the polycount. All of those bricks don't even add up to 3,000 triangles, so I wouldn't consider that a limiting factor at all.

I'm liking the green bricks, maybe getting rid of some of them would look better.

Also about the statues, i think in game they look like their heads are bigger? are more like made of marble.

 

[Llama Juice]

Toying with learning collision and such. Obviously haven't replaced the background yet, and there are still textures that need to be made for a few items.

It's pretty exciting to be able to play the stage even though there's still a lot to do yet. One strange issue was trying to make the edges not look like crap for the players when they jump and grab onto them.

 

[CardiganBoy]

Toying with learning collision and such. Obviously haven't replaced the background yet, and there are still textures that need to be made for a few items.

It's pretty exciting to be able to play the stage even though there's still a lot to do yet. One strange issue was trying to make the edges not look like crap for the players when they jump and grab onto them.

Wonderful!
May i suggest you release a sligthly bigger version of the stage? i would like to see that. (when you finish it, of course)

 

[marlinswine]

I agree with making it bigger. Maybe about 1.5x the size, I think that'll help make the side platforms feel more substantial and also will help stop the bottom of the models ending prematurely when the screen pans down (i know this can be fixed easily anyway, but two birds etc.).
A different request though, as i really like how it is now but also think it would be cool with the empty archways idea, do you think it'd possible to have both? As in perhaps start with the doors closed but have them open after a certain amount of time to reveal the combo tunnel? or possibly even have the doors breakable (prob not that one though, i know some people don't like smashable stuff).
I think the alternation would be a cool way to give the level it's own unique element. Looking super sharp as is, keep it up, can't wait.

 

[Thethiala]

You might possibly want to make the towers extend further down than they're currently doing in order to avoid us seeing them end in thin air if the camera zooms out. Not sure if the green bricks are an improvement or not either. Otherwise looking good so far, this'll definitely be one of the best custom stages when it's finished.

 

[Llama Juice]

I'm afraid of scaling it up globally too much more, as making it taller makes getting up on the middle platform rough. Typically it goes down a lot more, but I was having problems importing it into the game, and so I chopped off the bottom and that seemed to fix it haha.

I'm not sure of the final layout yet, I enjoyed playing it with the doors closed. Everything is still up in the air though.

*Still on vacation, I just miss you guys.*

 

[Llama Juice]

HI GUYS

I got home, had a fantastic vacation, jumped back into this project today.

I worked on putting some serious effort into the background of the scene.

The blue boxes on the left are placeholder for a small town that's going in there. I still need to make another small lighthouse that goes behind those blue houses as well.

Sky color and such is all placeholder as well.

 

[CardiganBoy]

Looking beautiful, but that isn't the finallightigs, right?

 

[Llama Juice]

Hahaha of course not, that image is still from within Maya using it's default light stuff. No lighting has been attempted within the game engine yet.

 

[Llama Juice]

I spent a bunch of time tinkering with BrawlBox, got the full stage ingame, but was having a bunch of problems with transparency shaders and stuff. So after spending a silly amount of time trying to research how to do it... I gave up. I'll worry about that stuff when I'm actually done with the art.

Then I worked more on background assets.

Created the small town to the left of the tower
Created simple log bridges to go across the rivers
Added mountains/clouds to the skydome to make the sky more interesting.
Created textures for the doors on the main platform.

 

[Thethiala]

You're really ambitious with the background, you've got guts.

 

[Shin F.]

Can't believe I stopped getting notifications from this It looks really good! It's absolutely beautiful! Makes me want a Golden Sun HD remake.

 

[Llama Juice]

Played a lot with the engine today trying to figure stuff out.

I for the life of me can't figure out transparencies, animated textures, or an easy way to do lighting/fog that doesn't involve launching brawl each time to see my changes so that makes things a bit ugly at the moment. #Noob

Also, I started playing with trying to figure out how I'm going to light the lighthouse and introduce this stage's gimmick.... haven't split the mesh apart yet, but I did this instead.

Preview video of my mockup of the animation in Maya.

Other than that I've also spent a significant amount of time optimizing my mesh so that not including the beam/sphere I'm under 50,000 triangles. That number will go up a bit when I split the tower apart to be able to animate it.

I've completely redone the mountains in the background, dressed up the clouds some, and I created the red Babi Lighthouse as well.

Thanks for all the love guys, you're all rad. Seeing a flow of people that appreciate the work that I'm doing makes this project go a lot faster than a lot of stuff I've worked on in the past. You guys are all part of this team as far as I'm concerned.

Also, small sidenote just because I think it's kinda neat. Here's the overworld from this part of Golden Sun.

 

[Shin F.]

Played a lot with the engine today trying to figure stuff out.

I for the life of me can't figure out transparencies, animated textures, or an easy way to do lighting/fog that doesn't involve launching brawl each time to see my changes so that makes things a bit ugly at the moment. #Noob

Also, I started playing with trying to figure out how I'm going to light the lighthouse and introduce this stage's gimmick.... haven't split the mesh apart yet, but I did this instead.

Preview video of my mockup of the animation in Maya.

Other than that I've also spent a significant amount of time optimizing my mesh so that not including the beam/sphere I'm under 50,000 triangles. That number will go up a bit when I split the tower apart to be able to animate it.

I've completely redone the mountains in the background, dressed up the clouds some, and I created the red Babi Lighthouse as well.

Thanks for all the love guys, you're all rad. Seeing a flow of people that appreciate the work that I'm doing makes this project go a lot faster than a lot of stuff I've worked on in the past. You guys are all part of this team as far as I'm concerned.

Also, small sidenote just because I think it's kinda neat. Here's the overworld from this part of Golden Sun.

Oh, wow, that's really cool. I didn't know you were going to do the beacon, so that's really awesome! I'm really excited to see it in-game. It's beautiful!