Creating the Church

Hey guys,

     One of the most recent buildings and most difficult buildings I tacked was the church.  The church is a huge part of our game as it is the start of our game, but the abyssal also plays a huge part. When creating the church, I wanted to show the wealth, and show how good of a state the abyssal and surrounding town is in. Then when the player enters the farm, they’ll see the contrast and the falling world.

     Inside of the church, I wanted to keep it clean, and bright. I used a lot of pale yellows, and whites to make it as clean and healthy-looking as possible. One of the biggest challenges when creating the church was its size and stained-glass windows. I wanted the church to be big, and show off the wealth. I pictured these high vaulted ceilings, with gigantic stained-glass windows. As a result, a building of that size and stained-glass windows that big took up a lot of my time. The stained-glass windows posed a unique challenge. I wanted to include the sign of the abyssal so I used that as a template when creating the stained-glass, but then I was left with the larger middle window. I did not want to just put another sign of the abyssal in the middle. I wanted to create a portrait to put on the tallest window. We only have a few images of Father Maxwell and they all show him as old and grey. In my mind, if I was going to have a portrait of myself forever ingrained in stained glass at the top of my church, I would want it to show off my youth when I first achieved the position. So, I decided to make a portrait of a young Father Maxwell that sits at the top of the class and overlooks the whole church. This was very time consuming as I had no reference image, but I feel like I was able to create a great representation of what he would’ve looked like in his youth.

     Currently, I am working on the town that surrounds the church. The town is described as wealthy, but not as wealthy as the church. The town also has not fallen to the infection like the other areas on the map. For the shops, I’m imagining small, clean New York City style shops. They’re going to be nice bright colors this way when the player enters the farm, they immediately notice the contrast. The farm is full of browns, dark greens, infections, and run-down buildings. The church level, on the other hand, is healthy and bright, and not infected. Hopefully, the contrast between the two areas will help further drive the story.

-DevinD1198-