The Cast of Robyn HUD: The Guard(s)

July 28, 2017

The Robyn HUD computer game is all about the player performing stealthy heists. Of course, in order to be stealthy, there has to be someone to be stealthy against. There’s no point in sneaking down a hallway if there’s nobody there to sneak by. To turn that nobody into a somebody means populating the game world with guards.

[Early days for the first guard in the game.]
Early days for the first guard in the game.

As I reported not too long ago, I’ve recently switched to using Blender to model the 3D objects that populate the environment. Now I’ve also started modelling character models in Blender as well. The initial one was the first of the guard characters. The work in progress is shown above.

The guards, and the other generic bystanders in the game for that matter, offer the chance to get some increased bang for the buck in terms of development time. To start with, I currently have the one guard body and the one head shown above. However, by modeling two or three different guard body shapes and half a dozen or so different heads, I can mix and match the pieces to produce a greater variety of guards without having to individually model each one. That number can go even higher by changing the colouring of the uniforms, skin, and hair in texturing.

The current state of the guard model is sufficient to incorporate him into the game for development and testing purposes. Before all is said and done though, the model will undergo a few additional changes. Specifically the guard will get more guard-esque accoutrements. The final model will incorporate equipment such as a Taser, handcuff pouch, nightstick, and radio. Additionally, I’m planning to add a security guard cap to the model.

These additional pieces will do more than simply give the model a more interesting and asymmetrical look. The presence of these items, in particular the hat, will change up the silhouette of the guards. This should help players to tell the difference between security guards and normal bystanders with a quick glance, which will be a boon to gameplay.