Michael Denhart
Game Designer. Lighting Artist. Storyteller.
Plague
Originally described as a point and click adventure Plague is a collaborative project that began at the Academy of Art University. I originally assisted the pre-production team with creating a proof-of-concept model in Unreal Engine 5. I later returned to the project as the lighting and visual effect artist to help bring a cohesive visual to the final demo project. The project was shown at GDC2023 and PAX East 2023 with great success and positive reception.
Proof of Concept
When the artists first described their vision for Plague, I chose to create a mixed 2D and 3D point and click environment as a proof of concept to show how their ideas would look. Using rough animations, the mesh creation system in Unreal Engine 5, and Substance Painter I created this mockup with core blueprints for functionality. I was able to successfully show the flexibility and unique style that met with the project vision, and this became the base project the final demo was built on.
Lighting Artist & VFX
After creating the proof-of-concept a dedicated team of over 30 artists and 5 designers continued working on the project. I returned to Plague as the lighting and visual effect artist to help unify the desired visual of the game and add additional effects. Utilizing Lumen, I worked through creating an atmospheric moonlight for the scene, implemented enhanced emissive lighting, and created specialized sprite and candle flame materials. To further add a unique look and feeling to the project scenes I created several Niagara particle systems for the fireflies, plague spores, ground fog, and plague fog.
