Thursday, March 11, 2010

wordpress blog




New Blog!


It is still under construction and is also getting a facelift, but check back soon to see updates and other neat things.


Tuesday, March 2, 2010

lymph node scene


A (possibly Avatar-themed.. too many sparkles?) concept image of medullary sinus 'pathways' leading to germinal center globes (after our discussion about how the medullary cords would be made out of lymph cells).




Inspired by the concept art from: TERA, Geoff's metastatic bone cancer, Wensi's sketches, sparkles..

Wednesday, February 24, 2010

Character Design - Minions

To begin, we have a Naive B cell in the G-zero phase (Picture 1).

Picture 1.

Next, we have a naive B-cell that has begun it's path down the thymus-dependent maturation route (picture 2). The green bits are antigen.

Picture 2.

Here, the naive B cell has been activated with signal 2 (picture 3). As the cell progress from the G1 to the S phase, I envision the endoplastic reticulum sorta increasing in sheaths. Note too that they can now be influenced by IL to change isotypes?

Picture 3. Aka centroblast...?

Picture 4.

Picture 5.

HUD images / sketches



Game play icons, health bar, and map. Icons from left to right: immunopedia button, inventory button, nanorg stats button, cell stats button.




Inventory window/display. On the left is a rough nanorg/humanoid body, with boxes to place items (i.e. goggles on the head, boots or flippers on feet, antibody or MHC complex items on the hands).
On the right is a palette that holds drugs (anti-bacterial, anti-fungal, anti-viral), vitamins, energy supplies, and other immune-boosting items (like sleep).
TG= triglycerides; ATP = adenosine triphosphate. There are also proliferation and differentiation cytokines (IL-2, IL-4, IL-5, TGF-beta, IFN-gamma).





Nanorg statistics window. The red-green cell orb on the upper right fills up with experience gained in gameplay; when it reaches 100% the nanorg levels up. Each level increase provides roughly 10 skill points, which can be funnelled into vitality, strength, luck or knowledge attributes.
HP = hit points; these increase with vitality and level. CP = cell points (affects how many and how well you control immune cells); these increase with knowledge and level.






Cell statistics window. These represent the cells the nanorg can control (the number will increase with game progress/levelling).
The tabs on the top let you view either 'myeloid' lineage (eosinophil, basophil, megakaryote, and monocyte) or 'lymphoid' (T, B, and natural killer/NK) cells.
Through the tabs on the left, you can access 'early' (mostly naive and centroblast) and 'late' (mostly memory and plasma) B cells. Geoff's cell stat sheets can be accessed by scrolling through b cells shown on a dock.






Immunopedia window. This will present background information on the science, fictional story, and play/logistic concepts of the game.

Character Design - Playable Character


Here are some brainstorm sketches for the characters. Starting with Picture 1, we have a basic example of a possible design for the male version of an anthropomorphic player character.

Picture 1. Nano organism male version.

Included are some quick motion studies (picture 2) and an idea I had that these nano-organisms have very malleable bodies, membranes, and cytoskeletons (picture 3), so they can take on this more "humanoid" form. To explain this a little more, the way that I envision these beings is that they are like amoebas. They don't have joints. Instead they use cytoplasmic projections and such to move. They swing their internal "bone" structures around like pendulums to morph themselves and propel themselves forward.

Picture 2. Leg motion study.

Picture 3. Morphing.

Amour stuff to come! Think silicone shells!

Tuesday, February 23, 2010

Game World design




























































































Picture 1: game map
Picture 2: design for medulla
Picture 3: design for secondary follicle in cortex
Picture 4: design for paracortex part
Picture 5: design for HEV in paracortex