christopher Ellington
Game and Narrative Design
Faine's Melody
VFS Final Project
iPad Music Puzzle Game
Overview
Faine's Melody is a touch-based, musical puzzle game developed in Unity as our group's VFS Game Design Final Project.
Faine is a young girl who has fallen asleep under a tree while listening to music. In order to wake up from her dream, she needs to solve three music-based puzzles. With every puzzle, the music track of the game builds. Her stuffed animal friend, Bunny, is there to help her along the way.
This was the first mobile project to come from the VFS Game Design program.
My Roles:
Game Design, Lead Artist, Animator.
Faine's Melody Team:
Sharai Grant, Steven Martin, Michel McBride-Charpentier, Christopher Ellington
Gameplay Trailer
This is a short video showcasing the highlights of Faine's Melody as it is played on an iPad (those are my hands). See the full game play-through and a teaser trailer below.
Faine's Melody Credits:
Progamming, Design:
Steven Martin, Michel McBride-Charpentier
Project Manager, Art, UI Art, VFX, Design:
Sharai Grant
Lead Artist, Animator, Design:
Christopher Ellington
SFX and Music:
Jamie Tolliday, Kevin Fallis, Jesses Bardin
Additional 3D Art:
Vincent Ho, Nicole Hogan
Cloud Art:
Heather MacLellan
Game Art - Environment
I was the Lead Artist for Faine's Melody, despite the fact that I had almost no experience making game art! The project presented a huge challenge, but I learned a great deal in a short time.
Faine's Melody features three puzzles, each with its own environment. These three environments each represent a different season, Spring, Fall, and Winter.
Faine's Melody takes place on a curved world. This helps the player to easily tap the ground near Faine and navigate the world.
When a puzzle is solved, a lock on the Big Tree is released. When all locks are released, the door opens and Faine passes through a portal back to the waking world.
3D artists Vincent Ho and Nicole Hogan contributed models for some objects such as the snowman. 2D artist Heather Maclellan contributed art for the clouds in the sky.
Game Art - Characters
Faine's Melody contains two animated characters; Faine and Bunny. This was an especially big challenge for me. My responsibilities here involved design, modelling, rigging, texturing, and animation.
To ensure good performance on the iPad, we had to keep an eye on poly-count. All of Faine's Melody's 3D models are less than 1000 triangles.
Animations in Faine's Melody use a method that is pretty old at this point. Each "action" is animated and exported as a separate FBX model. As the game is played, different FBX models are called and cross-faded into each other to create the illusion of one animated character.
Game Art - Puzzles
Faine's Melody contains three music-based puzzles, each with its own unique assets. I modelled, textured, and animated the assets for all these puzzles.
The first puzzle in Faine's Melody is the Flower Field. The player opens up flowers using the spread gesture. When the five flowers are opened in order, the puzzle is solved.
The second puzzle is the Log Flute. The player uses the touch-and-hold gesture to "play" the flute. After playing all four notes correctly, the puzzle is solved.
The final puzzle is the Rotating Ruins. The player can rotate the ruins using the touch-and-drag gesture, and tap to guide Faine through. If Faine steps on the stones in the right order, the puzzle is solved and the game is won!
Game Art - Foliage
The world of Faine's Melody contains a number of 2D assets to represent plants and bushes and fill out the lush environments of the game.
I drew these foliage assets in Adobe Illustrator with the pen tool. I converted the strokes to fills and added gradients of different colors to represent each environment. I then added some final touches in Adobe Photoshop before importing the finished assets into Unity.
Using this streamlined workflow, I was able to generate a large amount of assets in a short time. This made it easy for me to fill the world of Faine's Melody with colorful flowers, plants, bushes, and trees.
Full Game Play-Through
This video shows a full play-through of Faine's Melody from beginning to end. Watch as my hands explore all three areas, solve all three puzzles, and complete the melody so that Faine can wake up from her dream!
Teaser Trailer
This is a short video I made with Adobe Premiere. It contains footage from the game as well as assets and animations created in Photoshop and Illustrator. It attempts to show Faine as she falls asleep under a big tree and enters the dream-world of Faine's Melody.