FMP Pitch Doc

My task for my final major project is to create the interior of a 1920s long distance passenger express train, which will be comprised of several types of coaches, including compartment cars, dining cars and sleeping cars. The interior of the coach will be accompanied by a low poly, dynamic exterior scene, which will be viewable from within the carriages. Both the interior and exterior environments will be photorealistic, and should complement each other perfectly.

The genre of game I am pursuing is that of a mystery adventure game, similar to old point and click adventure games, and its more current gen successors. Inspiration will also be taken from film and television adaptations of the murder mystery style.

The route of the train is to be set in France, travelling from Calais to the French Riviera, similar to The Blue Train (Le Train Bleu), the Calais-Mediterranée Express, which was a luxury night express train popular amongst the wealthy and famous of this time. Because of this, the exterior environment will resemble French rural countryside, for which I will reference the works of Monet and other appropriate masters.

The interior of the train itself will be loosely based on carriages from the golden age of rail travel, including sleepers and dining cars of the Compagnie Internationale des Wagons-Lits, and European Pullman dining and lounge coaches. I will source my own reference images of Pullman cars, and conclude the designs by marrying my research and reference with my own concepts and styling, to produce a final outcome that I'm happy with, and which may at some times favour artistic licence over complete accuracy.

The finished piece will introduce just a sample of the long journey. The train won't stop at stations, and characters won't be present. The focus is on the environment itself, which could in theory accommodate intriguing characters as its passengers and therefore play host to an interesting story.

General Asset list

Interior:

The train environment will be separated into different types of carriage. Some assets and modular pieces will be shared throughout the carriages, like structural meshes, fixtures, fittings and wall panelling. Some will be specific to just that one type of carriage, like seats and tables in the dining car. More unique assets will be used less often or just once, such as personal items, newspapers etc.

-Modular wall panels, flooring and roofing

-Modular sections for corridors

-Modular sections for private seating/dining compartments

-Sliding doors (different variations dependant on location)

-Windows, Curtains

-Light fittings and other fixtures, Picture frames, clocks, maybe mirrors

-Overhead and above seat brass luggage racks (different styles and sizes)

-Passenger seats, different sizes/styles depending on berth/carriage

-Dining seats, Dining table, decorations, lamps, cutlery, a vase of flowers etc

-Private sleeping compartments, to include bed and linen, wardrobe and drawers, basin and faucets, toilet? The sleeping cars still require more research

-Assets to decorate the carriages to make it look inhabited. Newspapers, cigarette in an ashtray, a ladies handbag and perfume, a gentleman's shaving kit etc

Exterior:

Low poly assets that fly past the carriages using Unreal Matinee, to give the impression of the train in motion. Objects will travel at different speeds to give an illusion of depth, and will loop at different intervals so that the repetition is irregular and does not repeat so often.

-Fields and farmland

-Trees, bushes, hedgerows, grass verges and embankments

-manmade structures, fences, telephone poles/wires

-Villages and farmhouses

-Distant objects and landscape, possibly flat planes

-Skydome

Technical Specification:

Rough estimates, subject to change once full asset list is created at white-boxing stage

Tri Limit of 60,000 est.

Texture Budget of 90mb est.

Intended Platform:

PC

Programs to use:

3D Studio Max 2012

Adobe Photoshop

Xnormal

nDo/nDo2

Unreal Development Kit

Some vidéo

Some naughty compression going on here

The Spot Gate Inn photos

A selection of the photos I got,the folder is over a gig so I definately got what I went for. Much thanks to the staff for letting me

Second class carriage

First class carriage, with dining compartments and individual armchairs

The Spot Gate Inn

After so much searching and nearly giving up, I finally found some carriages worth visiting. The Spotgate Inn is a pub with 2 genuine 1920s Pullman carriages being used as dining areas. Apparently people come from quite far away just because of them.
I was on the next train out of here... to Stoke-on-Trent, and then a taxi out in the sticks. But lunch was tasty and the staff were really really nice and helpful, and i got a lift back to the train station which was very much appreciated. It did take 4 long trains to get back for some reason though, but i saw 'The Viking' Andy Fordham in Cov train station, yay.

http://www.spotgateinn.co.uk/

Pas de chance

The one carriage I could find in a museum was the Pullman parlour car 'Topaz' at the National Railway museum in York. From all of the photos I found of it, it doesn't even seem like you can get on board it. Allthough the style and era are right, The few photos show it all really. I don't think I'd learn a great deal more from visiting and peeking through the windows. But it does look really nice.

First Pitch

The first pitch for my idea went kind of okay. Understandably there were criticisms of my references, many contrasting styles and such but this was something i was aware of as i hadn't settled on a style or era. It was just to pitch the overall concept of a moving train with scrolling landscape. Mike preferred the idea of making a whole train and putting it into a simulator, which wasn't a bad idea, it just kind of missed the point of what i want to achieve. Most probably I'd not explained it well, I'd had about one hour sleep and i was left till second last to go up and present. Heather liked the idea, and thankfully fought my corner, I think maybe because she was more appreciative of the genre of game i was describing.

I had originally intended to dedicate alot of the project to the exterior scene, but I was told this wouldn't take as much effort and time as I had previously thought. So with less time spent on the scrolling landscape there is more time to spend on the carriages, and I was persuaded to do sleeping compartments, something I was a bit scared of doing as I thought it might take up too much time. Mike said to look at pre war carriages as they're much more interesting, and to get up to the National Rail Museum to get some reference.

2nd/3rd class public compartments

Sleeping cabins

Dining Cars

cheap illustration of how outside landscape will whizz past the windows

All in all I came away from the presentation reassured about the idea. That was until I got back and spent a whole weekend looking for museums in the uk that had pre war carriages that were worth a visit. I found next to nothing, I was really suprised. The only carriages I could find were in use, and I'd have had to pay several hundred foils for the journey and 3 or 5 course meal, pay to get there, buy a suit, and look like an absolute div while taking pictures. I was really stumped.

Final Major Project - Initial Ideas

For a long time I've had a strong idea of what I wanted to do for my FMP. My first thoughts probably occurred around the time of the beginning of the second year, where I was really interested in the idea of having an interior environment, set on some kind of public transport. Another idea was something like an offshore oil rig. I was really into the idea of having an environment that was limited by itself, one that you can't leave.

I was swayed towards the transportation idea mainly because of inspiration from films and tv. A good example which I first remember watching to try and steer my idea was the Twilight Zone episode 'Nightmare at 20,000 Feet' with William Shatner. I like those kind of short stories where a good deal happens condensed into a short amount of time, and where the story plays out in just the one environment.

However I was more interested in the idea of a train. Alot of my previous inspiration for this kind of idea had come from films set nearly entirely on trains. A few examples that come to mind are Silver Streak, Narrow Margin, Strangers on a Train and the many adaptations of Murder on the Orient Express. The thing I like about some of these types of films is the inability for the passengers to leave the train, creating the thrills and suspense, and interesting relationships with other passengers. There aren't many places to hide on a train, so characters are forced to deal with whatever problems until they reach their destination.

I'm also a big fan of good mysteries, so I was into the idea of creating an environment for something like Columbo or Poirot. LA Noire has shown recently that there is a place for this kind of game in the mainstream market, with beautiful locations to explore and detailed assets to pick up and examine which propel the story forward.

One of the elements that also sold the train idea to me was the journey and locations it would travel through. For a while I was unsure, but remembering back to many holidays to the south of France when I was young gave me an intriguing concept to consider. I have lasting memories of the long coach journeys. The scenery through France at the height of Summer, especially towards the end of the day was beautiful. Vast fields of sunflowers, vineyards and little villages and farmhouses all stick in my mind.

I don't want the view outside to be just a flat image scrolling past, I want to create something believable, and something that you could look at for a decent amount of time. This stems from me just enjoying journeys in general, I love having a window seat in any kind of vehicle, gazing out and seeing all the interesting things fly past. By having moving scenery outside, repeating on a loop, a more convincing illusion of depth would be created. I would be able to have light pouring into the carriages through the windows, and could perhaps consider different times of day. With this idea I started to think how I would want it to look like a moving painting, not in the sense of brushstrokes, but in the sense that its framed by the window, and is something of beauty. Appropriately I looked at a good deal of Monet's work, in particular his haystacks and poppy fields series of works, and his other rural paintings. He was the first artist I ever used to copy when I was really young, probably around the same time I went on these holidays, which sort of ties in with that personal touch I want, and it will kind of be like coming full circle, starting off at a young age with Monet, and finishing my degree with a nod to him.

I still have to look into what era and what style of train I want to base the environment on, so that's going to be the next stage of my research.