Particle Effects
On Rekindling, I designed and implemented various particle effects, from blowing dust to dripping water. These particles allowed us to communicate critical visual feedback to players as they solve puzzles while making the most of our limited resources, with only one other artist and a strict two-week development period.
The player controls Wisp, a sentient ball of light, who earns points by performing good deeds and learning about the humans around him. So, when the player brings an object to a human to learn about it, I combined two different particle effects to show them earning points.
The first particle system spawns abstract balls of light around Wisp and draws them towards him, showing that he's receiving knowledge and light from his environment. Then, a separate particle system spawns light bulb icons that pop out of Wisp before flying to the points counter in the top right. One lightbulb particle spawns for each point earned, showing the player a direct visual impact of their actions as well as drawing their eye to the upper right of the screen.
This cloud of dust is made of two particle systems: one consists of large, dark, low-opacity clouds of dust that hover in the air, while the other is made of smaller, lighter particles that waft around the room.
When the player uses the duster, the cloud of dust disappears in a poof, which consists of the same larger cloud particles rushing outwards, with their velocity and opacity decreasing as they go. This cloud helps obscure the initial, static particle systems being disabled and gives the player clear feedback that their actions have had an impact.
All of these particle systems use only a single dust sprite, meaning our illustrator was free to focus her time on other game assets. I was able to obscure this limitation by rotating and subtly tinting particles to reintroduce a sense of randomness.
I used a similar effect to create the particle effects for an in-progress game in which the player explores a 3D recreation of a real historical cult compound in Northern California. Given that the compound ultimately burned down in the real world, I designed particle systems that foreshadow the role of fire in this story, as well as to create the pivotal fire itself.
These particle systems, which can be found around the compound, mark important locations where players can read through real historical documents. To visually and thematically separate them from the black-and-white game world, I chose a bright orange that fades to a pale yellow once the player has interacted with the documents.
When the player interacts with a document, an orb fires out towards a new location. When it impacts, the swirling gold trails appear around it to form another interactable node. These effects are achieved with just a sphere primitive and trails that render behind each particle, fading in color and opacity as they move along.
I combined these effects with a similar smoke particle system to the one I designed for Rekindling to create this effect of a building burning down, which happens later in the game. First, a puff of smoke draws attention and disguises the other particle systems turning on. When it dissipates, a static smoke cloud system remains hanging in the area, with an additional set of small ember particles floating in the wind. Then, as the building rumbles and collapses, flames created with the same trail effect rise up to replace it. When the flames die down, the building model has been replaced with rubble, and only the smoke and ember particles remain.
