Blogs - rockorc

Dark secrets was released last friday and so far this week has been really exiting, the visits on the mainpage have been skyrocketing and I’m just waiting for the results. I really hope the game is enjoyable for all gamers.

And today I was a little too exited so I decided to draw a speed sketch, which is loosely based on Zelda from the skyward sword. It took about 20- 25 minutes to draw.

I think I will take this character a step further and shade and color her, or even making a small tutorial and try to describe the way I'm drawing. I think it would be a fun idea and I since I have to describe I also have to take the time to reflect my own workflow.

What do you think, should I shade and color her, or even make a small tutorial?

This was all for now

feel free to comment and don’t forget to add Dark Secrets to your watchlist

/rockorc@ dreamcraft entertainment

A year and a half of hard work has finally paid off and I'm proud to announce that dark secrets finally I available to the public at gamers gate and the adventure shop it costs.

£ 12,99

€ 14,99

$ 19,99

We also have an updated demo to make it more justice to the final version. You can download it at our main page.

In other news

I can finally breathe out, at least for a moment that is, so I took a little time to draw some quick sketches. They say If you want to be good at anything you need to train a lot and I can only agree to that. I can easily tell the difference between the textures I do now compared to the textures at the start of the project.

this was all for this time,

Please feel free to comment and don't forget to add dark secrets to your watchlist.

/Rockorc @ dreamcraft entertainment

Dark secrets has finally gone gold and will be released the 10^th of February and can be purchased at gamers gate and the adventure shop.

Finally all the work we put into this title will finally pay off. I am mostly excited about how well Dark Secrets will be received, I really hope that the “adventure type” gamers really like game and the story which we built up with our passion. We really wanted to bring forth our memories of childhood in Sweden. I really hoped we capture the moments and are able to convey the lifestyles of Swedes.

We did a few last minute changes in dark secrets. The most noticeable change is the soundtracks from our newest addition in dark secrets. Here is a sample of our new main theme.

We also added an old models of a toyhourse and made a complete texture rehash. This is a bronze/copper statue of a horse we had in stock. For this one I tested a new trick I learnt in zbrush, metcap material baking. A link that explains matcap material baking

I found it very useful and could easily make a bronze/copper material that actually looks like it’s supposed to look, which is very hard with photoshop alone. I wanted to give the impression that the horse is created a long time ago so I gave it a little verdigris and i believe it made quite the difference.

This was all for this time!

Credit for the 3-d work goes to P. Zippert

Please feel free to comment and don't forget to add dark secrets to your watchlist.

/Rockorc @ dreamcraft entertainment

The release of Dark Secrets is just around the corner (the release date will be revealed in the near future), and we at Dreamcraft thought it would be a good idea to take a look back in the past and share our progress and development during the past 18 months. You can take a look at the screenshots at our main page and judge for yourself. I can only say that there have been major improvements to every point. I was aware that we improved during this project, but little did I suspect that it was this much.

As a bonus I speed-sketched a random character. I just experimented with some different styles and accessories, like a goofy hat and clothes that are way too big and etc. I just had some fun and did all sort of crazy things, even tried to give it a slingshot that shoot axes. It is hard to draw things that shouldn't work, so you have to come up with a construction that may work in a fantasy world.

Please feel free to comment and don't forget to add dark secrets to your watchlist.

/Rockorc @ dreamcraft entertainment

The last week been very exhausting, but after a lot of hard work from every member of the team we finally got a complete Anna Smith in the game. The part I'm most proud of from my side is the textures, especially the hair and shirt, and also the specular map that gives that little extra life to Anna. There are still minor fixes and fine tuning we need to make before the Gold-version of the game, but those problems shouldn't be too much of a worry for us.

Please feel free to comment and don't forget to add dark secrets to your watchlist.

Rockorc @ dreamcraft entertainment

Been a while since last update, but I'm back in full speed.

This time I have a little sketch I drew during the break. It's a kick-ass lady with army styled clothes and accessories. As you can see she also wears a headset, which strongly suggests her occupation. Her appearance gives the impression of being a slacker, which is a little contradicting, but what I believe would be interesting character traits when creating personality because you can more easily create problems and solutions for a person’s behavior.

I was really satisfied with the result for this sketch, especially the hands, which usually are the hardest part in my opinion. I usually end up stuck at that department but I think I'm starting to get the hang of it.

Please feel free to comment and don't forget to add dark secrets to your watchlist.

Rockorc @ dreamcraft entertainment

Time to follow up our last update, this time I've been working on the body.

This time I made a few difference in relation to concept. I made her a little bit more feminine and less of a tomboyish appearance by giving her a little wider hips but yet undefined curves given by her loose t-shirt and jeans. To keep her innocent look I kept the thin “anime/comic” waistline from the concept.

Many game characters seem to over empathize on the breast area and the waist. But I think I managed to balance between being to “animeish” and and to “feminine”. In other words I'm quite satisfied with the results, and I think it's the best part of her. But the shoes could be better. It is a hard area to work with. Something I need to train at in future projects.

That's all for this time

Feel free to comment. Feedback will be appreciated

/
rockorc @ dreamcraft

Been a while since the last update, but today I have something special a work in progress character.

Last time I posted a few concept art of the rehashed version of Anna Smith and today I will follow up with a w.i.p. picture of her head in z brush.

When I started in z brush I tried to give her a kinda “innocent cute” look by giving her a few anime influenced facial features. As you can see I emphasized on her eyes and made them a little bit bigger than what they should be, I also made her nose a little smaller. When I compared the model and the sketch side by side I was a little surprised to see how well I managed to transfer the concept to the model.

That's all for time and next time I will show you more w.i.p. of Anna.

Feel free to comment. Feedback will be appreciated

/

rockorc @ dreamcraft

If you follow the development of Dark secret you probably know we pushed back the release a few week further to avoid after Christmas sales dip. But with the extended time we decided to take a step back and enhance some old models and etc from scratch.

First one out is one of our earliest character created, Anna Smith. This is the cute and dear sister of Arthur(the main protagonist). She is the only person in Calmwood that Arthur he can confide to and share all his problem with.

In Arthurs eyes Anna still is and always will be the sweet little innocent sister he took care of as a little boy. We aimed to bring forth that by give her kinda child-like appearance and yet an adult and feminine body and face.

My personal favorite of the different concepts was the first from the left version, the one with the headset, and the 2^nd to the left with a long dress and “plastic” necklace. In the final version of the concept I chose the first one as a base and implemented some elements like friendshipbraclets and a pink watch.

I hope I can convert the final concept into the zbrush.

Feel free to comment below and vote for dark secrets in indie of the year

See you then

/rockorc @ dreamcraft

The newest episode of darksecrets devlog will soon be live. And todays episode,which is featuring me, will give you a quick overview of my workflow.

You can find the video here!

This is my first time making a recording, so so I was of course excited and nervous at the same time, but I believe I manage to make a pretty good video. I learned a lot of thing during the process I tried several different voices and accents, but I chose the voice that I believe was the easiest to understand, which is a slightly slower than my usual speech. I also tried some kinda dj voice, which was very amusing, and to my surprise the best pronouncement and acting, but unfortunately I spoke way to fast.

As a bonus I also planned to reveal a new character.

His name is Theodore "Ted" Wilcolmson.
He is one of Arthur(main protagonist of dark secrets) old acquaintances before he left Calmwood. Will their reunion cause a sudden change of heart.

(This is the zbrush, highpoly version, one version with texture and a clean model.
The ingame model of Ted could differ a little)

This was all for today and support dark secrets in Indie of the year at our mainpage!

Please feel free comment

/rockorc @ dreamcraft