Sycoforge CEO Michela Rimensberger has walked us through the character production pipeline behind Return to Nangrim, explaining how the team utilizes Reallusion's Character Creator and iClone to produce characters for the game.
Introduction
Hello, I'm Michela and I've been passionate about video games since childhood. I have fond memories of playing games during the early days of the industry, where graphics were not as advanced and the story of Mario's princess always ended with her being in another castle. However, my passion for game development truly took shape after playing Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, which inspired me to pursue a career in creating my own games.
I started by learning programming and eventually studied Computer Sciences at Zurich University of Applied Sciences. After completing my studies, I worked at several universities, including ETH Zurich. During my time at ETH Zurich, I had the opportunity to work on various projects, including medical apps for mobile devices. One project I worked on aimed to aid patients with ulcers in detecting whether their wound was healing or if there was an issue like an infection. It was rewarding to use my skills in programming and computer science to make a difference in the healthcare industry. However, my passion for game development remained unwavering, and I continued to pursue it even outside of my studies and work. We were like garage founders, studying during the day and becoming night ninjas when it came to developing the entire world and lore of Arafinn – the universe that serves as the backdrop for our game, Return to Nangrim.
Developing the World of Arafinn
We knew we wanted to create something special when we embarked on the journey of developing our game, Return to Nangrim. So, we began by creating a consistent and immersive world where the rules are clear and make sense. We spent a staggering nine years building the universe of Arafinn, mapping out the physical terrain and fleshing out its creatures, clans, families, and beyond. We wanted to ensure that our world was rich with detail and could support countless stories for years to come.
As we delved deeper into our universe, we realized that the stories we wanted to tell were far too numerous to be contained within a single game. So, we decided to explore new avenues for storytelling through the power of transmedia. Our companion app, Arafinn Kontor, is the ultimate gateway to everything Arafinn, beyond Return to Nangrim.
And that's just the beginning – we've already released two narrated story books and are thrilled to announce our upcoming Kickstarter campaign for our first issue of a dark and gripping dwarven comic series called The Mountain Tales - Reach for Immortality. In the first issue, Duorìn and the Shadow Light, readers will follow a dwarf on his quest to uncover why they have not been granted immortality like the e.g. elves.
Our passion for world-building and storytelling is at the heart of everything we do, and we can't wait to share the wonders of Arafinn with the world.
Return to Nangrim
Our journey to create Return to Nangrim began at the forefront of the VR revolution. We were excited by the idea of exploring a dwarven dungeon in VR and set out to create a dual-playable VR and non-VR game. Our first prototype, which can still be found on YouTube, was a Moria-like experience that captured the imagination of players and that people really enjoyed. You can still find videos of our early prototype on YouTube. We took this prototype to various conventions and garnered invaluable feedback.
With each passing day, our feature request list grew longer, and our ambitions soared higher. Players were captivated by the possibilities, constantly asking, "Can we do this?" We knew we had something special on our hands, but we also knew that we were at a crossroads. We had to decide between cutting features and going small or going big and chasing our dreams.
We chose the latter, and we're proud to say that Return to Nangrim is the epitome of indie games "going big." It's a labor of love that has brought together a passionate team of creators, each dedicated to bringing our vision to life.
It hasn't been easy, but we're driven by our passion for the game and the world we've created. The weight of our ambition can be heavy at times, but the rewards are immeasurable. We're excited to see where this adventure takes us, and we can't wait to share it with you.
Getting Started With Reallusion Tools
Initially, we had planned for Return to Nangrim to have only the player character with no other NPCs or creatures. However, as we continued to add features, we realized that adding other characters was necessary. As a small indie game studio, we couldn't afford to model every character and creature from scratch or outsource the work due to the costs involved. We had to get creative and find a more efficient solution. That's when I discovered the Reallusion products, which were a perfect fit for our needs.
Character Creation Workflow
As a first step, our artists create the concept art for the character. This is all done by hand, just as traditionally. Whenever possible, we start with a base character in Character Creator and roughly form the character according to its concept. As soon as we’re happy with the base shape of our character, we click a button in CC and voilà, our character appears in ZBrush. There, we then sculpt all the details and send it back to CC to check the result.
When it comes to texturing, we usually export the highly detailed textures from CC and use them as a base in Substance 3D Painter. As the Reallusion suite is compatible with all these programs, feeding our character back into the system is no problem at all. And having a CC character as a base also means no manual rigging needed!
Initially, I was a bit apprehensive about whether the Reallusion Character Creator would be suitable for creating base shapes for fantasy creatures, given their distinctive differences from human characters. However, I was pleasantly surprised by the flexibility and variety of options available in the toolkit. The ability to customize each and every body part allowed us to create unique and diverse creatures for our game with ease. Overall, Character Creator has been an invaluable tool in our development process.
AccuRig
Reallusion's new AccuRig tool is amazing as it drastically reduces the amount of time spent on rigging, and it even allows us to integrate our custom characters seamlessly into the ecosystem. The steps involved are quite simple and don't require an animation background. All we need to do is import the model and place the rig-bones in the correct position, and we're done!
Motion Capture Workflow
The mocap workflow we use is quite efficient and not too time-consuming. Our primary tool is the Rokoko Suit, which delivers clean results that require minimal cleaning. The majority of our work goes into preparing animation lists and dance cards before the recording. If any adjustments need to be made, iClone's tools make it easy to clean up the motion capture data. The Curve Editor, which is now a built-in feature in iClone, makes the process even smoother. We also find it very useful for blending animations.
Motion Director
Motion Director is a powerful tool that enables you to apply gameplay controls directly to your character, providing you with the freedom to move around and test or record animations. With Motion Director, you can experiment with different behaviors and test them, e.g in crowd simulations, to achieve a more natural and realistic motion.
Thoughts on the Reallusion Pipeline
Overall, we have found the Reallusion pipeline to be a powerful and efficient solution for character creation and animation. Its wide range of features and tools has allowed us to create dynamic, lifelike characters that add depth and richness to our game. We highly recommend it to any indie game developers looking to elevate their projects to the next level.