Blogs - Pete_Bottomley

"All loose things seem to drift down to the sea, and so did I". Louis L'Amour

After a lot of hard work, design and planning we can finally reveal to you the first screenshots showcasing the distinct art style of our game in development, Ether. After many different iterations and experimentations of the art style we are extremely happy with the direction our creative artist, Oliver John Farrell has taken. As a studio we feel it complements the exciting world that we are currently creating and the explorative and puzzle based game play that we are striving to create. We wanted to create something that stood out from the crowd and really drew you into the mysterious world of Ether and the secrets that it contains.

"Blue, green, grey, white, or black; smooth, ruffled, or mountainous; that ocean is not silent." H. P. Lovecraft

I am not going to say much else apart from this and let the images take up the major part of this post, all I can say is that as O.J. continues with the art for Ether he will be keeping a distinct blog showcasing his work which we will reveal as soon as it is ready as well as post updates as and when we can.

"Can ye fathom the ocean, dark and deep, where the mighty waves and the grandeur sweep?" Fanny Crosby

We hope you enjoy what you see and as always comments are always welcome.

Hey everyone, since our last post we have been getting tons of development work done over the first episode and the second episode as well as getting a slice of the game fully arted up to test our aesthetics and general art direction. With Pete working on Episode One which is getting closer and closer to being finished in terms of game play I have been working on Episode Two of our debut game, Ether. Now the first episode is the first time the player gets to experience the strange memories of Jean, which we are building to be exciting and bewildering and tight. The second episode is the second memory that you work through and is going to be a little more open (but not too open) in terms of design, giving the player opportunities to explore larger environments. The second memory is based upon thick foggy moorland pushing into woodland which has given us an awful lot to play with in terms of game flow, design and puzzles and is something I am very excited about. Before I give you a brief and spoiler free walkthrough of the level in its current state let me explain how the level is broken down and where we are up to in terms of playability.The episode is broken down into 3 key sections with adjoining areas that will ease the player into each. The first section is set upon open moorland that is dense with fog, the second section is set within a woodland enclave and is a lot more open for exploration with more visibility and the third area is based around an observatory that is nestled at the top of a hill in the woods. Each area offers players new and exciting game play that is linked together by the level and the games core game mechanics and loop, but enough of that or I will ruin the surprises we have in store!So far the entire map is playable from start to finish with the third section having all the puzzles and gameplay placed into it. By the end of this week we are hoping to have the second section underway and by the end of next week the blocked up Alpha will hopefully be ready to play through for very early testing.Enough about the nitty gritty parts of development and lets have a look at a few images and what they could possibly hold for players when Ether is released.

Episode Two Overview Map

This overview shows you the three distinct areas quite well, at the moment the block is just brushed in but will feature quite a large amount of landscape on top of what is already there.

Episode Two Engines

This shot is from the very start of the level and as you can see the line of site for the player is very important so they can move through the level comfortably. Here we can see (what will be foreboding silhouettes through morning fog) of two beam engine houses.

Inside the rustic mine

Underneath each engine house is a network of mine tunnels with lots of puzzles and gameplay in them, here is shot of one of those mines. We are keen to mix this level up from having more open areas, to tight rooms will lots of gameplay. This is to pace the level and the player progression, allowing them to face many different challenges along the way.

Line of Sight from first Mine

This next shot is another line of sight view of a key focal point when you emerge from one of the mine shafts.

A Dark and Damp Mine

Here is a shot of the outside of one of the mine networks, I’m not going to show you the inside as there is an atmospheric puzzle in there that would be ruined if I did

Foggy Moorland

As players navigate through the foggy moorland they will need find a way of not straying and getting lost in the fog, one such puzzle using our levels core game play loop can be seen here as a block but don’t worry, I’m not going to tell you exactly what it is.

Woodland Overview

Here is shot of the second section of the level, I’m not going to go into too much detail here as there is still a lot to be worked into which I will go over in an episode two update post later in the month, but what I can show you is how open this are of the map is. Using specific focal and direction methods, the players will have a great opportunity to explore this area for hidden items whilst also being able to navigate to areas that have plenty of puzzles to solve for narrative purposes and level progression. We also have a cottage in there on the left hand side which holds some exciting secrets and features.

The Observatory and Grounds

This is a shot of the final area of the level and is based around a large and magnificent observatory and its grounds. There are lots of puzzles here that again mix up exploration and tight puzzle solving to create an exciting and climatic end to the level, but again I must stop there or I’ll let things slip So as you can see compared to the first environment you will traverse this is a little more open, to give players that sense of delving into these memories and unearthing clues to what is happening.I hope you enjoyed a little more development from Ether and we should be showing you some more detailed images with art of the game soon. For now though we must say goodbye but please follow us on Twitter and Facebook by clicking the contact tab at the top for up to date news and chat about White Paper Games and Ether, all support is greatly appreciated.

Hey guys,

Its been a while since we’ve posted anything directly design related on our main site so I thought I would throw a quick update together to show the progress so far on Ether. I’ve been working away trying to get the first episode of the game blocked out with all the game play added. Ben has also started work on the second episode and has all that pretty much blocked out too with game play being added as we speak. The UDK has really given us the option of quickly prototyping our levels so that we can focus a lot of our time on the actual game play and the balancing of the levels.

We’ve also got some added support on the art side of thing’s so hopefully more visual updates to come!

I’ve also included a breakdown of the first episode level design so you can see how we have developed our levels.

The first episode is the first time the player will experience gameplay inside of Ether. I won’t give too much away at this point about how the gameplay changes, but it will be different to play on the Island. The main aim of the level is to introduce the player to the environment and past memories of Jean. Here she will experience lots of different emotions not only through the narrative, but also from a ludology point of view. The player will then make their way through a Cornish coastal town and up into the lighthouse.

Here are a few images showing in the basic block map with around 60% of the game play added. Still more puzzles to go in but that may give too much away

This is the main overview of the level. There is still a lot more fleshing in to do and adding bits of landscape but this is the bare bones of the gameplay.

This is the first puzzle part and in the last room (indicated on the right of the image) you will find a lamp which shows what type of gameplay this level may have. Theres also a small jumping section getting up on to the top of the cliff..but we may alter some of that to be a little less repetitive after play testing it.

Heres one of the first puzzles. Mght be able to figure it out from the screenshots if you look closely

Walking down the steps to the coast..the lighthouse as a focal point ever present in the level.

As you emerge from the town, ive positioned this walkway to focus back on the lighthouse as this is always the players main objective.

Main part of the mining town, lots of puzzles with moving parts here.

Man Engine. (Google?)

Apologies about the image heavy posts, hopefully you have a good idea about how the first level is going to play out now. I’ll be back with some more design breakdowns very soon but now to start fleshing out the level and adding some more Kismet.

I’ll leave you with a concept for this level by our resident wanderer Josh Taylor

And remember to check www.whitepapergames.com for all other information about us

Hey guys!

Our first development diary. Hopefully the first of many. Let us know what you all think and if you found it interesting :)

Thanks for checking it out!

Hey guys!

As you can see from the image below, our island looked less like an island and more of a square. Although this may seem obvious, when staring it at for hours a day, you don’t notice yourself. So after the break we decided to study the structures of islands to create something much more organic which also allows us to still house all of our design ideas.

So the image below is what we came out with. I’m happy with the results. Although the area of the island has reduced dramatically, it feels much more open and fresh. Early play testing also feels much more promising with areas becoming much more accessible. The island hasn’t been refined yet so textures are still all over the place and some hard edges which need smoothing down but the overall shape works.

(ROTATE MAP CLOCKWISE IN YOUR HEAD FOR ACTUAL LAYOUT)

So far we’ve got 3 puzzles done for the ‘vertical slice’ demo we are going to release to test. We’ve got some pretty interesting mechanics going on, which although pretty simple is Kismet, play really well. An example of the cave puzzle is below. I didn’t want to add screenshots of the cave puzzle because I didn’t want to give too much away, I’d rather you play the game

Another mechanic I spent the afternoon with was how to stop the player from leaving the island. We didnt want to have invisible boundaries which the player couldnt pass. Hopefully we’ve created a mechanic which will lend itself to the gameplay. The idea behind it is if the player gets too far out there are multiple trigger volumes situated around the level which will pick up the player depending on what section they are in and then an event will happen and wash the player up on the beach. Again, I won’t give too much away but I’ve put the Kismet example and a few matinee shots up for curious people!

I think thats all for now. Ben has been ironing out the script over Christmas and we have pretty much sealed the story in terms of events. We’re still on track to having a trailer out and we’ve got our artists working hard on the assets and texturing so everything is coming together.

Thanks for checking our stuff out and hope to hear some feedback!

Note: For larger images please check them out directly on our main siteWhitepapergames.com

Hi all,

Pretty productive day working on the Ether Island. Still lots of props to add from our artists but just trying to get a good atmosphere on the Island as we know the player path now. More images than text today as its getting closer to Christmas and my mind is slowly winding down

Enjoy!

Hey everyone. It’s been a busy few weeks for both Pete and I, with birthdays getting in the way and large decisions to make on our direction with Ether! So as you are all so lovely I wanted to have a catch up and let you know what we have been up to.The first thing is that our concept of Ether is very nearly finalized with only visuals to nail before we can start to push on and complete our first prototype! Yep that’s right we are finally moving into development and with that we are hoping to be releasing lots and lots of new info on Ether and White Paper Games and exactly what we are about, where we are heading and why YOU guys should keep following us and get involved!Its going to be a month or so before we are at that stage so to keep you all ticking over I have a few pieces of concept art to show you as well as a piece of 3D art (Work in Progress) courtesy of Broady Blackwell.We hope you enjoy and remember to subscribe to our blog page, our facebook and twitter for more info on WP Games and Ether and leave us comments to help us improve on our work.

Boathouse Concept - Josh Taylor

Boathouse 3D - Broady BlackwellBoathouse 3D - Broady Blackwell

Character Concept - Josh Taylor

Just a quick post today. We have a couple of new concept drawings that help build a picture of some of the things you may encounter in Ether that we would like to show you.With Ether we are trying to build up a world that is full of deep mysteries that will enrich your game play experience. Hopefully these wonderful drawings will allow you to peek through a window into the world that will await you when Ether is complete.Enjoy.

Sit down, there is no reason to be scared

All I could see, was the sea

All I could see, was the sea

I also forgot to mention.. We have a youtube channel where we will be posting our thoughts about the development process along with other things we have learnt.

Hopefully it keeps things more personalised rather than just reading our words ;)

Check it out!

Youtube.com

Wow! It feels like a lifetime since we last updated but we are sticking to our weekly updates at least!

This week is more of a visual update rather than UDK mechanic based.

We've had a serious rethink about the direction we're heading (not too serious!). But we feel that we have been steam rolling ahead so quickly that we've been loosing sight about what the project is as a whole.

We want a rich unique universe based in Cornwall, UK. We want a strong narrative structure that will connect people on multple levels. But most of all we want a great experience.

So keeping the block maps aside, we've gone back to the drawing board on the narrative, the reason players will want to experience this reality, along with what style we are going for.

Firstly, heres a concept of one of our characters 'IBUSA'.

The concept artist on this image is Josh Taylor and you can find his personal blog here if your interested to see more

We think this image is a great starting point for us allowing us to connect and create a personality for him but also to set the visual standards of our game

We're also taking a lot of inspiration from artists such as Dave McKean (Mckean-art.co.uk) if you get a chance to check his work out, especially the work in Mirror Mask.

Environment wise I think we're still undecided about exactly how we would like to visualise it but heres another concept of a potential style

Thanks for taking the time to check out our blog updates and if you have any thoughts fire away! We'd love to know your opinions on any elements.