Structures & Landmarks

Detailed guidelines, use cases, and tips for creating buildings, landmarks, and other larger structures.

The Shrine of Truth, a 7 piece landmark by Sand Rush and Light Trail Adventures

Design Notes

Characteristics

Characteristics

• Medium to large size - See Sizing & Quality Guidelines for details about structures

• Some are designed to allow players to go inside to explore or complete quests

• Some may have animations

• Some may be assembled in Game Maker from multiple assets

Considerations

Considerations

• The Modeler and Animator have different size limits. Plan the asset carefully based on the limitations of the module you're using:

  • Modeler: 256 voxels in 3 dimensions

  • Animator: 512 voxels in 3 dimensions for unanimated assets 256 voxels in 3 dimensions for animated assets

• Adding an animation to the asset creates a single collision for the Asset, so players will not be able to enter it.

Utility

Decoration: Players Focus on Quests

• Can be animated, but Models should be compact in design for a tight collision boundary

• Only special use cases should have many nodes and moving parts

Decoration: Quests and Exploration Can Happen Inside

Builders can use blocks to create large structures in square and rectangular shapes and sometimes use building facades for the front and blocks for the rest. Some builders use walls made in VoxEdit to build larger buildings with angled walls other than 90 degrees.

• More space is needed inside (at least 8x8 blocks for a base)

• More steps to build openings for players to pass through

• Animations can NOT be applied (it will create a boundary around the whole asset)

Component Parts to Assemble

• When positioning the pivot point of a Model, position it to make it easy to snap to the grid in Game Maker for easy placement - 32 voxels per block.

• Test for z-fighting where colors will overlap when pieces are assembled in Game Maker and are intended to overlap (such as an angled corner. Unify coloring where intersecting pieces are intended.

Find a Creative Flow

Unanimated Basic Building - No Entry

Animated Building - No Entry

Unanimated Building - Player Entry

Landmark - Animated or Not - Player Entry if unanimated or when multiple parts are assembled

Unanimated Building Facade - Player Entry

Structure Component Parts - Some may be animated - Player Entry possible when assembled

Modular Architecture - Player Entry - Designed to be interlocked with itself

🎨Art Techniques