Project Pitch
The Project
The project I am proposing to develop for IGB400 will be an asset pack published for free to the unity asset store. This asset pack will include multiple low poly plane assets and if time permits a simple unity scene with a basic environment and controls to fly each plane around the environment. This project will include modelling, rigging and texturing of three Planes, these being an A-10 Thunderbolt, P-51 Mustang and SR-71 Blackbird. These planes were selected due to their diverse profiles making the package applicable to multiple projects and my own personal interest and knowledge about aviation. The sample scene to be included in the package will have a simple menu allowing the player to switch between planes. Controls allowing the player to move the camera, adjust the planes throttle, pitch, roll and yaw, these controls will adjust each planes rigged Rudder/s, elevators and ailerons. The environment will be a simple low poly landscape involving valleys and mountains created with Unity’s Terrain Tools. The sample scene is not a certified deliverable as the main goal of the project is the Plane assets so my priority will be the aesthetics and functionality of the models not the environment and controls.
A-10 Thunderbolt
P-51 Mustang
SR-71 Blackbird
My Industry/ Future
I have accepted a Job offer with Rio Tinto as a Graduate within their product and software development Graduate program. The first 2 years of this project will focus on training and discovery of my future role. The organisation has begun to build a product and software development team in house as they have made the decision to stop outsourcing to other countries for their software. “Rio’s IT function traditionally has not developed software, so actually, we’re starting from ground zero,” - Dan Evans Chief information officer. The organization will need various professions within this team including.
- Designers
- Engineers
- UI
- UX
- QA testers
- Artists
- Security
- Producers
- Project Managers
This allows me to get a taste of many roles within software development and either go further down the design/ management route that my degrees align with or delve into something different I have had less exposure to while at university.
My Skills
My current skills include Game design and project management, these skills have been developed further than any other due to these often being the roles i am put in during group assignments that are very often within the game’s degree. More specifically I feel very confident not only working in an agile development environment but also leading a team in one, whether this involves developing and updating a Gantt chart to track development process or hosting sprint meetings to update the team and track progress. This experience in project management has also made me adapt with the Microsoft office programs and collaboration programs often used in tech environments such as Microsoft teams, Discord and GitHub. My skills within game design more specifically include basic programming and level/ environment design. I am very capable to implement basic game features and mechanics designed by myself or others, these mechanics and features can be implemented in the game engine Unity with the use of visual studios utilising the language C#. Other skills I have experience with however, don't often utilise include the programming languages of Python, Java and SQL and due to my business degree i have experience in marketing, economics, law and ethics. These skills have allowed me to perform well in my game’s degree group projects as a member with a varied skill set that can confidently accomplish an area of tasks. Although throughout the degree I often encountered experiences when I or the group was lacking skills in the art domain and although I was inexperienced and untrained, I would often offer to attempt to fill the void not due to pressure from the group but from my natural desire and intrigue.
Project Justification
The justification for why I have selected this type of genre of project can be summarised with three major reasons, these being my absence of published artifacts, my work after graduation and my passion.
This project will help fill a significant gap within my current portfolio and that being a published artifact that a viewer can download and interact with. Although any project could be published and fill this gap, I wanted to ensure I selected a project that was different to the majority of my prior work but still within scope for the high work load I have this semester. If I had chosen to develop a game to be published by myself, I would have had to commit a significant amount of time to produce something I felt was both worth publishing and different enough from my prior MVP’s or prototypes even though this type of project is what I am currently most experienced with. Selecting to only commit myself to producing an asset pack that is listed on the Unity asset stores will provide me with a downloadable artifact that I am confident I can complete to a high quality within the time limit.
I know after graduation I will be working at Rio Tinto as part of their graduate team for product and software development however, the specifics of my exact role are still unclear as the purpose of the graduate program is to “lead, innovate and invent”, this means I will likely move between multiple roles to identify where I best fit. Due to this I see it as an appropriate time to further explore skills that were typically out of reach of my chosen major. Rio Tinto is a massive company too that requires many different skills even 3D animation or character modelling. Some examples of when this skillset would’ve been required are the Rio Tinto game “Rio Tinto family day” and the add “Rio Tinto Mine of the future intro” and other aspects such as virtual reality training.
The last justification I have to selecting this form of product is my passion, I completed the CGI fundamentals class as an elective class in 2021 where I developed the artifact present in this portfolio and I found it thoroughly enjoyable and I picked up the program Maya and the fundamentals rather quickly and I believe that shows as the class is still the highest grade I have ever received at university. Although I thoroughly enjoyed the process of designing and modelling a character, I wasn’t able to further utilise this skill in my projects being as I was a design major rather than an art major. Due to all this information, I have provided I believe now is the best time to further delve into this skill and publish an artifact I can be proud to post on my portfolio.
Project outcomes
1. A published Asset pack available for free on the unity asset store
# A low poly A-10 Thunderbolt
* Accurate texturing
* Accurate rigging of Ailerons, Flaperons and Rudder
# A low poly P-51 Mustang
* Accurate texturing
* Accurate rigging of Ailerons, Flaperons and Rudder
# A low poly SR-71 Blackbird
* Accurate texturing
* Accurate rigging of Ailerons, Flaperons and Rudders
2. A unity scene with a basic 3D environment and basic plane controls to test planes
# Basic environment involving valleys and mountains
# UI for player to switch between planes
# Controls to adjust planes Throttle, pitch, yaw and roll
# If time permits