Greyboxing in Blender

Hello fellow game devs and hobbyists and welcome back to the next episode of my newsletter. This time I will talk about Greyboxing using Geometry Nodes in Blender.

For those who can't wait until the end, here are two download links: cube_grid.blend, sidewalk.blend

Shall We Play a Game?

As some readers may already know, I plan to develop a turn-based strategy game in my second master's program. In addition to topics like marketing, business creation, XR, art, and game design, my fellow students and I also have to develop prototypes for our individual projects.

I'm the only one who entered the master program without an existing game prototype, that means I'll be spending a lot of time prototyping in the coming weeks.

But where to start?

A few weeks ago I already presented my first paper prototype. The game was now playtested for the first time last week. As it turned out, I spent too much time programming a gamemaster to determine the hit probabilities so that players won't have to roll dices.

The development was almost superfluous, because the rulebook had to be laboriously explained to the players anyway.

Besides, my main goal is not to develop a tabletop game, but a video game.

Looking for Inspiration

I grew up with the Gundam series and the mecha genre. That's probably where my interest in developing a mech configurator comes from. And recently I found a Battletech dev diary that I liked very much. If my videogame prototype could keep up with the graphics shown there in 17 months, I would have achieved one of my personal challenges of my second study.

Of course, a wide range of 3D assets can be purchased from various online stores in no time. However, only a few 3D models are thematically appropriate, inexpensive, rigged, animated, lowpoly, textured, easy to modify and extend, etc.

Proportions

Before deciding on a graphic style, I think it is necessary to determine the proportions. Gundams and other mobile suits are approximately 60 feet tall (~18 meters). In contrast, the mechs from the Battletech universe are between 7 and 17 meters high.

Depending on the width of the streets and the density of the buildings, the unit height can have different effects on players. If the units are too high, navigation in an urban scenario may become difficult. On the other hand, if the units are too small, players may not have the feeling of being powerful.

The german Leopard 2 battle tank for instance, is about 3.76m wide, 10.97m long and 3.03m high. It just fits on a road lane, if this is 3.75m wide. Based on this and other collected data, it can be explained why the graphics in the BattleTech forum mainly show 4 or more lanes. This creates the impression of sufficient space for strategic planning.

Finally! Let's begin Greyboxing.

Roads

I found a great Youtube video about drawing roads in Blender using Geometry Nodes. The creator didn't mention which texture he used from poliigon.com, but luckily there is only one free road texture to download.

Sidenote: to avoid errors when drawing streets, you should pay attention to the currently set cursor height.

Grid Material and Geometry Nodes

The grid material of my buildings is from another Youtube video. However, I was originally looking for a material that changes when the 3D model is moved. That's how I finally ended up at stackexchange.com and developed my final material and Geometry Nodes setup.

The Geometry Nodes setup for the sidewalk looks a little different, but works the same way. Meanwhile, the grid material was also assigned. It doesn't look so great though, since the height is currently a fractional number.

By combining the two Blender projects and following the Youtube tutorial on how to create roads, you are now able to design levels yourself.

That's it for today!

1. Don't forget to add me as a contact or press the "Follow" button if you haven't done so already.
2. If you want to let others know about my project, feel free to leave a Like or share this article in your own feed.
3. Or leave a screenshot of your first level prototype in the comments.

Not convinced yet? Well, maybe you will be once you read some of my?other articles. I try to write one article every week while I develop my own strategy game.

#gamedevelopment

#3D

#Blender