Relapse - Outlandish development
Project details:
In the first-person shooter game Relapse, players take on the role of Kin, a former freerunner. As they parkour dense environments, they engage in intense battles against hordes of enemies, utilizing firearms and special powers. Throughout the game, Kin is forced to confront the consequences of his past addictions.
My role and extra information:
Role: UI Artist
Team size: 15
Project time: 8 months
Engine: Unity
Tools: Blender, Substance Painter, Photoshop
UI Artist
As the UI Artist, I was responsible for multiple UI elements, including creating artwork for power-ups, health bars, icons, and text bubbles. When I was first assigned to this project, there were many changes due to a significant shift in the art style. It evolved from realistic to hand-painted, and finally to a comic book style. I used Photoshop to create the UI assets, developing templates to streamline the workflow and increase efficiency.
When I first created the power-up assets, I was tasked with designing packages for vital patches and various needles. Since each needle had to be unique, this process took more time than creating the patches. For the packages of vitals, I structured them in a way that allowed me to easily swap out colors and logos, making the process more efficient. I began with a blank flat image of a package before adding my chosen colors and the logos I designed for each vital power-up. After that, I experimented with different filters to achieve a sketched look. To create the halftone pattern, I combined a halftone image with a masking technique and applied a pixelation filter. Each needle was made to show a different ability as well as to stand different from the rest more easily. By creating different tips and elements around the needle I was able to acomplish my goal.
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As the UI Artist I was also made Icons and text bubbles by handing them using the pen and shape tools, filling them in with my chosen colors. Then, I applied filters to achieve a halftone comic style look. Additionally, I created the health bars, keeping them very simple since they would disappear when the player wasn't taking damage. The design consists of a straightforward bar with a few accent lines for detail.
Finally I was tasked with creating a control UI that needed to be simple yet easily rearrangeable if necessary. I began by designing it with simple shapes featuring sharp corners to achieve a comic book look, using the pen tool in Photoshop. For the controller, I traced a real-life image of an Xbox controller with the pen tool, while I utilized the shape tool to create the buttons and analog sticks.
Reflection
During my journey as a UI Artist on this project, I learned a lot. I primarily use Photoshop to composite images, but throughout this project, I had the opportunity to expand my skills and improve in areas where I was weaker, such as drawing instead of relying solely on images. I also learned how to create in different styles beyond my usual realistic approach. I enjoyed the challenge of developing my own style and experimenting with various tools to bring my ideas to life.