Graduation: Hidden at First Sight

This July I graduated as Game Artist at the HKU (University of the Arts Utrecht, a bachelor)! For about six months I worked on my project, which is a 3D walking sim in which two storylines took place in two different time periods. They eventually were partly connected to each other, and the player needs to find out what happened and why, based on the visual clues the environment offers. I've always had a love for dark stories, I love listening, watching or reading them. Next to that, my adult gaming experience started with mostly walking sims, like Dear Esther. I was so fascinated by the stories that I experiences through games, even if there wasn't a whole lot of action, I absolutely loved it when those walking sims managed to grab my attention by their stories and environments. I decided I wanted to give something like that a try for my graduation, as it was the main reason why I decided to study game art. And eventhough I wanted so much more for this project, like more interaction, a timeline, a NPC ghost you could call upon... etc. I'm still happy I managed to make this a whole and maybe it quite player proof. It was super nice to hear players being actually interested in the story, like when they couldn't figure it all out, they kept asking me to explain it all in detail. Makes me happy people were that interested eventhough this is only a small part from the game I imagined at the beginning.

It was my first time working in Unreal Engine, also first time using blueprints. I really loved it, and surprisingly enough blueprints were quite fun too (when they worked like they should haha!). Before this, I always made projects in Unity and only did a little bit of coding, which I did not enjoy at all (the coding part). I made most models myself in Maya, UVmapped, textured in Substance Painter or used materials from Quixel. I collected the foliage from multiple free Epic Store recources.
If you want the build of the current state of the project and play it for yourself, PM me!

As you may have noticed, my game art passion lies by creating natural environments or props, I love a cozy atmosphere, or even a creepy one, as long as it feels nature-y :) Eventhough this project is 99% 3D work, I have a big heart for 2D as well, I just love to do both and would love to keep doing both.