====== April 2022 ======

===== The Problem =====
I like games where you can customize your character, car or ship. Sometimes I spent more time in the editor than I did playing the game. However I never really found a good way to deliver that type of customization in the games I was designing.

{{ :renders:d46_v1.jpg?400|Seventh Circle design 46}}
I've used //Substance Painter// to create the skins for my game assets for quite some time. It's a great tool and can deliver great results. To the right you'll see one of the fighters from the //Seventh Circle// game. Using Substance Painter I could create a number of different skins for the same model, but I couldn't find an easy way to change certain colors within a skin. The obvious solution, having skins that had all the required color combinations, was just too much work; even with a limited number of possible colors the number of skins was huge. I also tried using shaders to do the coloring but that turned out to be too intensive and didn't work well with the grungy textures I was using.

===== The Solution =====
So for Argon-88 I've decided to try out a different approach. I'll construct the ship model using a number of different meshes and each mesh will have a different material assigned to it. Then within the game it should be possible to change just one of the materials and alter just part of the ship. I'd use PBR materials so would still be able to retain that nice grungy look.

===== Design Concept =====
{{ :renders:concept1.jpg?400|}}My concept for the ships in Argon-88 is something that looks a little retro as the game is supposed to be set in the 1950s. So something more like a flying tank than an airplane. Huge armored flying vehicles would need large oversized engines. I also wanted the I needed a design that would be modular (more on that later). I ended up with something that had a hull at the front and engines at the back, linked together will a powerplant.

The sketch to the right is one of the concepts I came up with, back when I was calling the game //Skybattles '54//.

Next: [[blog:May2022]]