Table Trenches was a project I worked on concurrently with Snoverload during the summer after my third year at RIT. I was approached by a professor with a project that MAGIC was funding and they needed a 3D modeler. I am so grateful to have been chosen for this project, and I learned a lot about working with clients in the actual field. It was an experience full of challenges and learning opportunities. I learned how to correspond with non-artist clients and what questions to ask and how the process works for a team that only meets remotely. It took a while to get in a groove so the project extended into the fall semester, but I managed to finish with a product we were all happy with. I got to work with a professor advising me and sharing his knowledge about the game art industry, and I learned a lot about Maya and the asset creation pipeline that I hadn't experienced during my other classes or projects.
The biggest challenge would be working with a new modeling software: MagicaVoxel. Although frustrated and feeling stubborn about having to use an application that was so unfamiliar and didn't boast the same capabilities of Maya, I learned to like voxel art and MagicaVoxel. (I like to joke that I don't ever want to work outside of Maya and in a voxel art style again, but I would honestly be excited and happy to be assigned another project like this one.) Once I mastered MagicaVoxel and created the 17 models necessary for the game, I had to go back and forth with the developers trying to figure out how to get UVs and objects from the voxel files to animate and export into a usable format. Seeing the end product now, it was definitely worth all the time I spent banging my head against the desk to understand the file structure and Unity Plug-ins. Because the concept art and code were marked with the familiar "Intellectual property: Do not distribute," I stayed away from keeping a blog, but a lot of the posts would have probably be titled "WHY ISN'T THIS WORKING: A dissertation by Amanda DelloStritto."
Ultimately this has been my favorite project to date and I can only dream that I'll get another experience like this. I became a better team member, artist, modeler, rigger, and animator from something that seemed like a simple, small project. I learned the importance of file management and progress tracking. I learned how to work through seemingly impossible challenges.
Most importantly, I learned that I am exactly where I want to be. I'm ready to face the game design industry with all the passion and excitement I felt during this project. I still struggle with self-doubt and Impostor Syndrome, but knowing that I was able to work on a great project full of great developers makes me more confident in my ability and skill. This project has brought me closer to my goal of being a game artist, and I am so excited for games like this in the future!
At this time I cannot share photos or videos, but we did get chosen to represent MAGIC at the New York State Pavilion at GDC this year! I can't even describe how excited I am to go! Once the game is published, I'll be able to add the work to this website and my portfolio.
Update:
It's out!
Here is the link to the trailer, since Wix doesn't seem to want to put an embedded video in right now: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-anZsPnnUfE
And the links to the actual games:
And a couple of renders:
I'm ecstatic with how it turned out! I'm really sad that I wasn't able to meet everyone and represent the game at GDC because it was cancelled due to Corona Virus concerns, but I look forward to possibly meeting the rest of the devs in the future!
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