3D tiles for an educational Flash game

Hi all.

I picked up a little work overhauling the graphics for an educational flash game recently. The game consists of building a simple network (from switches, filters, amplifiers, multiplexers etc) so that a message sent from a laser source reaches its destination. Basically you plonk down roughly square tiles, connect them with wires and then check to see if it works.

I’ve been playing around with a few different styles for the components, and wanted to see what people thought of the current one. I’m using no light sources, just ambient occlusion and shadeless materials. You know those photoshopped buttons you see on websites that look like a cross between a 2D design and a 3D object (like the buttons here: http://www.pavtube.com/images/video_to_zune/interface.gif )? That is what I’m aiming for, except doing it all in blender for the extra control. The design needs to be kept pretty simple because the tiles must be able to scale down to ~100x100 pixels.

Here’s what I currently have (a switch, a laser source, and an amplifier). The inputs/outputs are the little dimples, and sorry about the jpg noise:

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To add to the first post, the choice is between a simple 2D design as shown on the left, and the 3D design on the right. Thoughts?

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Its looking nice, new age and neat! :smiley:

Seriously though, not bad work at all keep it up and the overhaul should go quite smoothly i reckon!

Thanks mate, I appreciate the feedback. I’ll push on with the 3D design, and update the thread when I have something new.

They look very nice, indeed! You’ve nailed the shading and glossy look. It may be easier in a program like inkscape, though I don’t know. Keep it up anyway.

~Túrin

Cool looks awesome. I just had to do an article on blender and its uses in technology! This woulda been awesome to mention! I’ve been looking for a shiny button effect like youve got on your 3d renders. Did you just add a transparent dome like thing above the button?

Cheers mate. It may be easier in a vector graphics program, but it’s funny how often people use a 2D program to fake 3D effects! I’m planning to make a non-interactive 3D animation at the end, so the extra work needed to make 3D assets will pay off in the later hopefully.

Ta! I just added a white plane behind the camera and moved it around until I got the reflections I was after. Once again not very efficient I suppose, but I feel more comfortable in 3D, so why not?

So here’s a link to the beta if anyone is interested:http://www.physics.usyd.edu.au/~campbell/Simulator.swf