The Tale of Two Demos
Dear Modelers,
Model Builder has come a long way although the idea behind the game remained unchanged, we have done a lot to make the dream come true. We wanted to show you our road from one demo from back in the Spring to the one available today.
It all started with a single menu screen.
Empty room, a large desk and a workspace filled with various paints and accessories – that was our first attempt at workshop. It looked simple (and admittedly, a tad boring), but it served its purpose – it was a blueprint of what we have today. There was already a lot going on, but it lacked pizazz.
Same could be said about the early workbench – we needed to test out the building space without too many distractions. Plenty of dotted lines, both on the UI and the furniture (just look at those drawers). We had some placeholder painting tools, but nothing to paint yet – just a couple of paint jars waiting to be used.
When painting our first Spitfire we went for something more realistic (and if you are following us on Twitter or Facebook or are a part of our discord community you know how crazy some of our ideas can be), but it turned out a bit hazy. We didn’t focus on the detail too much – it was a test of our tools and how they work. Looks solid!
Our Messerschmitt was a real killer – notice all those marks on its engine! Still an early version, that was somewhat blurry, but it came out rather nice, with both the paintjob and the model itself easily distinguishable from the Spitfire.
Once you get the paint right, it’s time for some detail. This brightly coloured German plane got a bunch of bullet holes and the paint got scraped here and there. It took a real veteran to keep bringing it home despite the damage and the marks on the engine prove that the fighter has seen some real action.
We also couldn’t resist making our own Messerschmitt – this one fought for Moonlit, the good guys! Don’t worry, we have a Moonlit Spitfire on our shelf too!
If you are to feel at home in our digital workshop and spend hours upon hours working on models, you need the workspace to feel a bit more… friendly. Between improvements on the general experience, UI and painting we added some background details. A couple sketches, a monumental poster, and that card from a friendly modeler that has a bunch of crazy ideas. You’re gonna call him, eventually. You promised.
Going back to more important gameplay elements we significantly overhauled the UI – things got more round, we added icons and more buttons. We also tweaked the tools, making them a bit more realistic and attractive.
We spent a lot of time trying to make various types of paint look awesome. Sure, a realistic Spitfire is great, but with creative freedom offered by the virtual workshop why not make it shine? If there’s a golden gun, why not a golden fighter plane?
Alternatively, you can also get a pretty nice hot rod:
As the number of tools grew, so did the workshop. Filling in the surroundings was one thing, but we also fixed the lightning. Look at the difference in the glass! Proper illumination is key when trying to make your creations shine!
We tried to make the whole thing look as realistic as possible – do you think we succeeded?
Another extremely important thing is the photo mode – displaying your collection in game, even in a nice diorama, is one thing. Giving you the ability to shoot your models from any angle with variable lighting and extras is our dream, but one has to start somewhere – let’s look at the first try at the photo mode.
Same goes for display – figuring out how to fit everything on shelves, make them large or small enough to look great is a chore – there isn’t a single “right” size for all the models. We’re slowly getting there!
One of the latest additions to our game are the instructions – no more guessing where the wings go, everything is neatly presented and explained, so that you can quickly get to the meatiest part of the building process. We tried to keep it simple and fit the general aesthetic, and we feel we did a fine job at that!
Up next on our to-do list is the diorama builder – we already have a placeholder setup, but it’s going to take a bit longer before that part of the experience is ready. For now let’s just look at the three balls and imagine, it’s a detailed battlescape 😉
Wrapping up we wanted to show you a small detail that you might appreciate when looking at the models – the way we handle reflections. It may not be AAA-grade ray tracing marvel, but we feel that it’s pretty solid in its own class.
We hope you enjoyed our little journey through the progress so far and will like our demo. Even though we are still a couple of months from release, we are proud of our work so far, and believe that you can already have plenty of fun!
Be sure to follow us here, on social media and drop in by our discord to get more news about Model Builder!
Model Builder Team
Article author: ralindel
Model Builder has come a long way although the idea behind the game remained unchanged, we have done a lot to make the dream come true. We wanted to show you our road from one demo from back in the Spring to the one available today.
It all started with a single menu screen.
Empty room, a large desk and a workspace filled with various paints and accessories – that was our first attempt at workshop. It looked simple (and admittedly, a tad boring), but it served its purpose – it was a blueprint of what we have today. There was already a lot going on, but it lacked pizazz.
Same could be said about the early workbench – we needed to test out the building space without too many distractions. Plenty of dotted lines, both on the UI and the furniture (just look at those drawers). We had some placeholder painting tools, but nothing to paint yet – just a couple of paint jars waiting to be used.
When painting our first Spitfire we went for something more realistic (and if you are following us on Twitter or Facebook or are a part of our discord community you know how crazy some of our ideas can be), but it turned out a bit hazy. We didn’t focus on the detail too much – it was a test of our tools and how they work. Looks solid!
Our Messerschmitt was a real killer – notice all those marks on its engine! Still an early version, that was somewhat blurry, but it came out rather nice, with both the paintjob and the model itself easily distinguishable from the Spitfire.
Once you get the paint right, it’s time for some detail. This brightly coloured German plane got a bunch of bullet holes and the paint got scraped here and there. It took a real veteran to keep bringing it home despite the damage and the marks on the engine prove that the fighter has seen some real action.
We also couldn’t resist making our own Messerschmitt – this one fought for Moonlit, the good guys! Don’t worry, we have a Moonlit Spitfire on our shelf too!
If you are to feel at home in our digital workshop and spend hours upon hours working on models, you need the workspace to feel a bit more… friendly. Between improvements on the general experience, UI and painting we added some background details. A couple sketches, a monumental poster, and that card from a friendly modeler that has a bunch of crazy ideas. You’re gonna call him, eventually. You promised.
Going back to more important gameplay elements we significantly overhauled the UI – things got more round, we added icons and more buttons. We also tweaked the tools, making them a bit more realistic and attractive.
We spent a lot of time trying to make various types of paint look awesome. Sure, a realistic Spitfire is great, but with creative freedom offered by the virtual workshop why not make it shine? If there’s a golden gun, why not a golden fighter plane?
Alternatively, you can also get a pretty nice hot rod:
As the number of tools grew, so did the workshop. Filling in the surroundings was one thing, but we also fixed the lightning. Look at the difference in the glass! Proper illumination is key when trying to make your creations shine!
We tried to make the whole thing look as realistic as possible – do you think we succeeded?
Another extremely important thing is the photo mode – displaying your collection in game, even in a nice diorama, is one thing. Giving you the ability to shoot your models from any angle with variable lighting and extras is our dream, but one has to start somewhere – let’s look at the first try at the photo mode.
Same goes for display – figuring out how to fit everything on shelves, make them large or small enough to look great is a chore – there isn’t a single “right” size for all the models. We’re slowly getting there!
One of the latest additions to our game are the instructions – no more guessing where the wings go, everything is neatly presented and explained, so that you can quickly get to the meatiest part of the building process. We tried to keep it simple and fit the general aesthetic, and we feel we did a fine job at that!
Up next on our to-do list is the diorama builder – we already have a placeholder setup, but it’s going to take a bit longer before that part of the experience is ready. For now let’s just look at the three balls and imagine, it’s a detailed battlescape 😉
Wrapping up we wanted to show you a small detail that you might appreciate when looking at the models – the way we handle reflections. It may not be AAA-grade ray tracing marvel, but we feel that it’s pretty solid in its own class.
We hope you enjoyed our little journey through the progress so far and will like our demo. Even though we are still a couple of months from release, we are proud of our work so far, and believe that you can already have plenty of fun!
Be sure to follow us here, on social media and drop in by our discord to get more news about Model Builder!
Model Builder Team
Article author: ralindel