Whiteboxing mark 4

Although mark 3 went quite well I still wasn't 'feeling' it, couldnt get into the groove so it seemed. I basically tried another variation and moved stuff around, tried more of a field section on a different level rather than up on a bit of rock. as in previous attempts it starts with going down a road then down a bit of a slope to the village.



I tried to stay in keeping with this rock over grass idea for the level, just for a test (think of them large rock things placed in my white box as this)In Whitebox it doesn't look too impressive but I think it might work alright. Ill have to try and find somewhere with that sort of thing for proper reference though. Yeah
what you see is what you get, in keeping with things experimented with in previous whiteboxes. Although its probably the best Whitebox to date i'm still not quite there yet with how I want it to be. It simply needs explored some more but its getting there.. its getting there..

Whiteboxing Mark 3

I completly forgotton but during the summer I went to an Arts in Action fair in oxfordshire. It was as commercial as they get.. wasnt terribly interesting to be honest but the actual house which It was based there was a little museum full of all wonderful and deadly looking agricultural tools.

There were quite a lot condensed into 1 small space but it was all very interesting - apparently some of the tools were banned at their time for their lethal nature. With looking at that field idea form Fable surley I could incorporate these in my project somehow.

Anyway yes after looking at this and my other moodboards last post I tried doing another whitebox, my third attempt.



So based on the above reference I tried to make more of a working village with a bit of a field (towards the middle of the image) having it sort of overhanging the river. So far im liking how this is going. I also incorporated
this into the level on the bottom right of the image. I think it helps make it look more natural and interesting than a few bushes spread around the river.
I also thought that I could have one of the large broads on the other side (but inaccessible, perhaps with a little ship or something bobbing up and down.

Whiteboxing Mark 2

Ok for Mark 2 I was playing around with the idea of having the settlement a bit closer to the harbor and having the area surrounded by rocky terrain loosely based on what I seen in Fable 2's Oakfield village.

The idea of compressing the village a little more is what I was mainly going for in comparison to the actual Anglo-Saxon village I went to. With Mark 1, since I wasn't happy with it I stopped before i thought about the actual wooden harbor.

I seen an improovement with this whitebox from the previous but I still wasn't really getting it. I stopped at that point seen in this image as I wanted to try from the start again.

Before Going into it again I had a little break and had a look around the levels in question in Assassins Creed and Fable 2. I remember in the first one there was a little harbor in the "Kingdom" section of Assassins Creed.



Once again this is the middle-east rather than Britain which I think my village will be set in. I did look through my riverside photos I taken in Norfolk but none of them actually had anything like this around. A lot of the moorings were done at the sides of the banks with modern wooden beams and posts, I didn't want boats tied up like that in my FMP as it wasnt true to the time period I was going for and also I wanted to suggest that this village had a working fishing and eeling buisiness.

In fact the harbor is pretty plain but with plenty of posts and areas to moor up.
Also in my norfolk research I taken a photo of a boat house which I thought I could have as part of my village for the more expensive boats.

I thought it was useful also due to the fact that it looked a little dilapidated.

Yes after Assassins creed I looked at Fable 2 again.


I liked the farming element also in this village which I could maybe incorporate with my level to give it a sense of a working village. Also it would make sense for the village to have their own things to sell rather than imported stuff (compared to this age...) The fact that the field wasn't all flat and straight as you would find in the country here, its also 'touching' that the villagers work with what they have got rather than in a perfect work, and during that time not the best tools were available.

Whiteboxing Mark 1

So after that I thought it was time to experiment with whiteboxing.
I made very quick and easy representation of the buildings as well as a few market stalls loosely based on the reference I taken in Norfolk as well as my original stalls from Assassins creed.

To be brutally honest I didn't really know what I was doing for this Whitebox I had a vague idea in my head of what I wanted but I found it difficult both draw or whitebox. This comes closer to what I thought than what I could draw, basically
having a road behind the village which the player would start by. Seeing between the trees they would see what looks like a village which will prompt them to go have a look when they see the turning. There will be a few market stalls around more in the center of the village with a few aspects of home life including a pen for chickens or other live stock.

A few posts back I mentioned about some forms of wildlife which I taken photos of while on holiday and I thought it might be fun to model a few and have them animate around (which ill have to look into, I can animate in UDKS' matinee but for animals they would have to be animated in max and imported).
Also in presentation Heather thought it would be good to have a few free chickens running around. As seen in my assassins creed research there were some caged chickens also, presumably that would be sold in the markets... BINGO!