The Adventure Begins!

Class has started back up again, and that means it's time for me to get the sleeves rolled up and start digging into my (finally!) final project. After talking things over with Mr. Poole on Tuesday, and bouncing different concepts off hapless classmates, I've decided my final project will be going back to the future, in a manner of speaking.

Six months ago I presented a concept for a hypothetical Old West MMO called "Silver Rush Online," and outlined a three month plan to model the strutures and props associated with a main hub city. Within the allotted time, I created roughly 115 objects for the scene, including the 14 buildings that line Main Street. Among those are a massive courthouse as the major landmark, which towers above the other 1 and 2 story structures, and a saloon, which is the "centerpiece" of the project. The saloon was the only building with a fully furnished interior.

Continuing from there, for this project I will be aiming to complete the modeling for the town. By the end of this week I will have broken down what will be added in terms of additional buildings and props (taking into account the traditional anemities of a hub city in an MMO) and begun laying out milestones and a production plan to ensure everything is done as efficiently as possible.

Immediately off the top of my head, the "centerpiece" of the new additions figures to be a train station, for several reasons. Primarily, if this is an important hub city in Silver Rush Online, it makes sense that it would have access to mass transit, and in the Old West, access to a major rail line for a desert mining town was akin to building harbor towns back east and on the west coast: easy transport to and from the city, and easy shipping of goods produced by the town. I'm envisioning a small train station similar to the ones seen in High Noon and 3:10 to Yuma, with tracks and a steam engine.

From there, I will be setting out to identify which buildings were missing from the first run through this project, which existing buildings need to be given interiors (as opposed to being window dressing for the scene), and what furnishings need to be made for them (as well as which existing furnishings can be re-used).

I will be back with a more detailed analysis of that by tomorrow.