pureLIGHT - Pet Project

Introductions out of the way, let’s get into this little project of mine. In my professional life, I have spent the last 5 years building either intricate environments in pureLIGHT or working on advanced physics based simulators using the Unreal 3 engine. I also have a bit of a background through school in abstract sculpture and have always described myself as “thinking in 3d”. While I am looking forward to certain challenges in this project, I figured I’d start out easy by playing to my strengths. Therefore, the quintessential points of this game are:

- Heavy use of pureLIGHT (I have a soft spot for the clean “lighting study” aesthetic)

- Heavy use of physics

- Interaction between the physics and pureLIGHT (have to give this a bit of a unique gimmick after all!)

- Abstract shapes (with an emphasis on form vs texture)

- Emphasis on 3d gameplay

The first thought that came to mind could be described as an odd blend between Marble Madness, Pinball, Geometry Wars and Super Mario Galaxies. A bit of an odd mix, but I think it could work! As a teaser, here are some screenshots showing the first test environment with two alternate lighting states:

Categories: Design, Pics

Hello internet! Welcome to my little development blog!

Before I get into the project, a little bit of back-story. For my day-job, I’m Technical Director for 3DI. I’m also the original pureLIGHT user, hammering out projects back when it was a clunky piece of software called “lightmapper”. I’ve lost count of the pureLIGHT scenes I’ve built over the years, but my favorite have always been the abstract architectural lighting studies – many of which now decorate the pureLIGHT website. This style doesn’t really apply to the serious games work done at 3DI, but I’ve always maintained that somewhere, somehow, this style would fit wonderfully into a game. My first attempt at applying this style to a gaming environment was Hanging Gardens – a project that I had a lot of fun working on and generated a very positive buzz regarding the rather unique aesthetic. Hanging Gardens scratched a creative itch and certainly proved that there was a place for pureLIGHT lighting in a gaming environment. With the release of UDK, I started thinking that I could apply my background with both pureLIGHT and Unreal and actually make a game that played to those little abstract lighting studies I’ve always enjoyed making.

That brings me to this yet-to-be-named pet project – a project that plays to my strengths in both pureLIGHT and Unreal and gives me a creative outlet without the stress of the projects I deal with at work. (I absolutely love my projects at 3DI, but there is something to be said about instant gratification – like making a quick sketch without having to see it through to a completed painting). I would like to see this project turn into a fully fledged independent game, but right now I’m in it for the journey and not the destination. I figured that this journey might be an interesting story to tell (at the least it will likely show some pretty pictures involving pureLIGHT) and I hope to tell this story through this blog. I hope this glimpse into my process is interesting and useful to you – personally, I’m very excited to see where this will go!

(until comments are worked out, I fully welcome your input via my e-mail: andrewc[at]purelighttech.com)

Categories: Design