Final Evaluation

Since my last hand in that was in February and since coming back after that term I have been involved in some different set of projects, which my main was a collaborative game project with a team of 5 people (Me, Ben L, Ben R, Curtis and Olivia), I also was involved in a week-long cross-course collaborative project in fine art this consisted of a team of 5 of us once again. (Me, Michaela, Elly, Jo and Shin), during this week I also had an interchange project that was one session looking at UI/UX design, Designing a swimming pool. During these projects, I realised team work was a very important part. Without my teams, I would not have been able to get where I am now with the game and the fine art collaboration project. I have realised how important it is to keep communicating within a team if you are working together because if you do not do this so well you do miss out on what you should be doing and not seeing the progression of the project at hand.  Even though I attended all my sessions with my team meetings for the game and fine art project I can see how certain members within my team did not have a better understanding of the tasks set.

I believe in doing my collaborative projects I have learnt how you must be more patient with how other people do their work, I find that I like to get straight into a project if it has to get done, I have seen how some others do not work in the same way as I do, I especially saw this in the fine art project as Jo and Shin did not have any or not much knowledge of the programmes I and other game students have, they work differently to us in the way they pitch a creative idea and the speed they work. I did enjoy branching out into fine art for a week-long project with Jo and Shin, we all got on very well and worked well together, when we did all meet up. The only downside to the fine art project is that we could have been more organized as half way through the week as our idea did change as our communication wasn't as solid as it should have been during the first day or two. Overall we all put in a good amount of effort on all sides and produced a final video that was presented successfully.

In the collaborative game production project, I knew me and Olivia would end up in the same group as we were working in the same group during our game jam and worked well together. It wasn't hard to find a team we knew Ben R fairly well but I did not know Ben L and Curtis. I liked the idea of being in a team with people that I haven't ever spoken to it was exciting to see how we would all get on as a team and to work with a team were most members where 3D artists, I thought it would be a good experience to see how they produced they own work and to see if I could pick up any new skills along the way. I would say the communication within the team could have been better in the first week or two but this did improve except for one of the members. At the start of this project I would meet the team and we would discuss the game and what tasks which were set for each of us. I would meet them for an hour or so and leave to do some of the tasks (Concept art) at home because I work better sometimes with less distraction around me such as noise, I understand in the game industry I will not be able to do this, I must break this habit. I think now that I should of stayed and worked more often at the university with my team at the beginning of our production, this did change mid-way through to the end of the project I should of started to work more inside the university with my team more as this would of gave me a better understanding of different skills that I could of learnt by them. As a concept artist for the game I did find at times that I wasn't very useful nearing the end of the project even though my team stated that I had done a lot of work for the game and should be pleased as they were with my contributions to the project. I would have liked to of done some 3D work or blueprints for UE4 that would have been placed into the game but because of my lack of confidents with 3D and the logical side to blueprints I did not want to slow the team down or let them down. Therefore, I am going to try and do more modelling in Maya and use substance painter in the summer break even if it is with simpler items or props as I am currently working on my Z Brush skills I could also gain more knowledge in Maya while I do this. I am also planning on working on a small indie game with a small group during the summer break to gain more knowledge of UE4.

Overall there were a few things that did not get put into the game because of time limits but I find if me and some other members had better knowledge of certain skills there would have been a higher chance of achieving these tasks. There could have been a few things in the game that could have been improved on such as the controls at first while playing the game it can be a little tricky to get used to and I find that this could be a problem for the public who will play this at the Norwich gaming festival, a games controller may have been a better option for how to control the character for our game. After a while you do get to grips with the controls in the game. Something in the game that I was disappointed with the most for me was the characters in the game particularly the AI's. Because I specialise in character art it was a shame to not get the time to put in my own designs within the game. Another reason why this did not happen was because no one knew how to rig a character. I believe if we had more time to do this I would of gave it a good attempt to bring this into the game. I have rigged a character once before in 3Ds Max a few years ago now but I find it hard to remember how to do this, I may have still tried to give it ago but time limit was a big issue for us with this specific task. Overall the game project went well and we didn't have many problems as a team, we all added our own skills to this project and I have enjoyed my time doing it and made new friends in the process, I believe the game looks well developed in aesthetics it has well modeled assets and textures, it was a busy but enjoyable experience. 

Week Summary

This week is hand in week. On the Monday me and the team had a team meeting with the tutors to go over our game. We had some good and negative feedback. The good was that the game runs wells and the games appearance is looking good with textures and such. (Z tiles were not added till Tuesday). The negative is that the game is not fun enough something that our tutor probably wouldn't go back too, we were told if we had more time and everyone was dedicated to the game it could of had a different turn out, but overall the game is doing well even though we were a little disappointed.

In the afternoon on Monday we all were in and working on the game, I managed to get most of the finalised artwork into the game such as score art pieces and a gem in the left hand corner or the game so the player knows how many pieces of treasure have been collected, also a foliage piece has been added around the timer to give the game more of a jungle like theme and aesthetics. Olivia was still working on the Z tiles in Substance designer creating a muddy floor texture. Ben R was modeling a plane piece for the environment, a piece of wreckage (Plane wing) that the player can come across in game. This gives the game more narrative adding these details. Curtis was making a 3D model of the boat the player will catch at the end of the game, it is going well so far we plan to add the boat in by mid week if all goes to plan. Ben L has been sorting out the level and adding in details such as the torch lighting effects making it more realistic, he also added in fog and a final night scene setting, this was to make the game creepier. On Monday I did finish the lose screen with the hand. Olivia drew and added in a gem, I then went in and finished the piece off by adding a background and details. I also finished the title logo for the title screen it was also added into the game on Monday.

 This is the game with the added fog effects.

This is the Gem that is placed in the top left hand corner of the game, collected treasure points are calculated on top of this gem.

This is the foliage piece that circles the timer in the game.

This is the final lose screen with added treasure piece and background. I made the piece dark to give it that effect of sadness.

This is my final design for the game logo, I added three of the enemy characters and with blood markings to the text. I did this to give the logo a threatening design. The font that I used for this piece is from this website: http://www.1001fonts.com/sad-kropotkin-laugh-font.html.

The two images above are of the in game title screen with added pieces such as the title logo and controls menu. I like how the design with the stone buttons works well with the stone menu keys.

This was also added to the game this week, this is a part of the ferns that Olivia draw and she sent it to Ben L to place into the game as a plant piece for game, now when the player plays the game you will see ferns plants scattered around the level. This made such a difference to the game.

Tuesday was another busy day. Another one of the tutors went over the game and was very happy with how it has turned out. We were all happy about this as a team. The plane wreckage piece that Ben R was creating was put into the game on the Tuesday and is looking good it fits well. Ben L placed a few crate boxes into the game near the plane wing model to give it more detail. Curtis also modeled a walkies talkie into the game and added text above it. It gives the player a piece of narrative. The text reads along the lines that a boat will be on the other side of the island to rescue you as you have crashed landed on the island but you will need to get to the dock area in the time limit as it will leave without you. Curtis is was still modeling the boat asset. Olivia finished the Z tiles (Muddy) for the game and have added them to the game, this has made the game so much more detailed, it really made a difference. She is working on another Z tile with a grass texture. The scoreboard needed a piece of art work for the background. As a team we decided to use a piece of art work that Olivia has created a few weeks before. (Background for the pitch document). I took that piece and added a pile of treasure gems. The piece that we used for the scoreboard was not to scale, the image was stretched. I made a new page in Photoshop took the image and added my own piece to it so it matched the screen size in game play. Ben R was modelling some vines for the game, these should be added during the week. Ben L also changed the timer to a longer amount so instead of 1 minute roughly it is now gone up to 3 minutes. Sound has just been added into the game this week too, it runs while in game play. The music was done by my partner as he has a background in music and recording he was happy enough to add some music to our game. He could not spend as much time as he had liked on it but he did what he could in the time he had.

 
 This is the final scoreboard piece in which I had to add details to, such as gems and tree etc...

On Wednesday we had out last contextual studies lecture till September in year 3. In this lecture we looked at 'Being: Queer and disability studies'. We looked more in depth at how games portray same sex relationships and disability within there games. Dragon age was discussed as this game has implemented gay relationships within their games. This topic is never really portrayed in many games, some games tend to focus more on race and gender instead of sexuality.

For the game on Wednesday Ben R did model and texture some vines for the game but they did not match the style, Ben L decided not to add them to the game. Olivia has worked and completed the second Z tile design which was the grass/moss. This was added to the game and works very well as we used a tool within UE4 called vertex painting, the outcome was pleasing everyone in the team agreed. Curtis is still working on the boat but is nearly there with it, he has had some problems with the UV's flipping but he is working on this issue.

This is the final outcome for the ground texture with a mixture of mud/grass and moss like textures. In this image the scene is lit up, The texture looks more effective when in the darker mode and light is hitting it. One problem with this is that the textures look a little to big, Olivia we see if she can get this fixed on Thursday.

I have finished my part for the game now. I did do a promo art piece for the game, at first we were not going to do one but because I felt I didn't have much of a role in the game at this time I thought it would be best to do a promo piece for the game. I worked on this in one sitting.

This is the promo art piece for the game. I did play around with some different effects to gain the light effect from the torch and I also added in fog. The trees were done using a downloaded brush from a ImagineFX magazine I bought a awhile back, it had a very textured brush, it gave me the effect I was looking for with the trees. I'm quite happy with this piece in the short amount of time I put into. I would of worked longer on it but I didn't want to take all my time doing one task in hand in week, if I knew last week to add a promo piece I would of spend longer doing it, overall it gives the effect I wanted with a dark atmosphere and puts a narrative to the game.

On Wednesday night we had a problem with the game it was stuck on the D drive on one of the computers at university, we had trouble with putting the file onto our hard drives and it caused problems. So on the Thursday we all met up to go into the university to see if we could get this problem sorted by asking a tutor. It did get fixed. Curtis was still  doing the boat UV's for half the day as he had a problem with the building of the cage, Ben L helped and the last thing Curtis had to do was texture it in substance painter. The boat was then placed into the game as soon as he was finished.

This is the boat within the game our final asset to be placed.This is were the character will end the game after successfully going through the island level.

Olivia also managed to change the size of the ground texture within the game and it looks a lot more effective in the game, we where all happy with the outcome. She did well doing these textures as she has never used Substance designer before. I will give this ago during my time off university.

This is the new ground texture.

After we added the last final touches and got help from our tutor with the problem we had, we built the game which worked fine and then we got a video capture of the game play. The game is finished and ready for hand in for Friday.

Below are some screen shots of our final game.

 Bear trap in game, one of the many traps.

 

Week Summary

This week on Monday was a bank holiday, I did not hear much from the team on the bank holiday weekend and did not really get much done for the game on this weekend. I started working on the game from Tuesday onward in which I had quite a busy week a head.

On Tuesday I had a busy day, first me and Olivia went into university to meet the team for a catch up on our progress. I did not stay long as I wanted to get on with the work at home as it was quite busy. Ben L was adding more to game and sorting out the level, He has been working even more harder as we are two down at the moment (Curtis was back later in the week and working on the game), While me and Olivia focused on the aesthetics of the game and making it look presentable with title screens etc...

When I got home I started to play around with text fonts for the buttons.

  I messaged the team to see what text fonts they preferred everyone like 3 or 7 the best, In the end I decided with number 3, but after the decision I came across a font I thought was better suited.

  The Papyrus font. I felt that this was better suited as it looks worn.

These are the Stone buttons with the Papyrus font that were added to the tile screen. I think they work well with the whole theme, jungle. The team were happy with them and they worked well in the title screen. The buttons were created in Photo shop and I used different effects to achieved the markings.

(This is the replay button for the end screens, I forgot to add it on the Tuesday with the other buttons)

On Tuesday evening I finished my part for the title screen.  Me and Olivia decided together to do parts of the title screen together instead of doing one each or working on one screen and the other does another screen. To show that we collaborated together as a pair and to portrayed our own art styles this is why we did it this way.

This is the main character and some wreckage to go with him for the title screen. This was added into Olivia's environment piece for the title screen later on in the week.

Also on Tuesday I manged to to play around in Maya and create a very simple 3D model of a dock piece that we tend to add to the game near the exit scene with the boat in the final part of our game.

This is the simple model that I create in Maya, but it is not UV mapped. I placed the file into Drop box for Ben L, Ben R or Curtis to look at. I do not usually do 3D modeling especially in Maya but  wanted to give it ago, as it was very simple to do.I will however attempt to do more 3D modelling in my own time as I would like to learn more in depth in this skill. I did not do the UV's as I did not feel confident, next time I will try. 

 Ben L use my 3D as a reference and edited it in a way to create this piece above. He has added a texture using Substance designer, in game the dock is made longer. (This was done later in the week).

 This is the doc area added into the game, Now waiting for the boat to be added.

On Wednesday we had a Contextual studies lecture which was 'Choices: Morality and Economics'.
In this lecture we looked at the game 'Telltale- The walking dead', we looked at how in this game you have choices, choices such as giving food to others or yourself, and how these actions can effect the outcome of the situation or characters. We also looked at scarcity in video games, this could mean the rarity of an item in a video game. Fallout 4 is a good example with bottle caps, This is there form of currency in the game, how the character can buy goods, Without it you have nothing. We also looked at the theory of value.This lecture was very handy as it has given me a finalised topic for my research report.

In my report I will look at how post- apocalyptic and dystopian game world are influenced by both man made disasters and natural, how this can affect the characters in game and the player to progress.
For example the topic scarcity will be spoken about as I will be comparing Fallout 4 and Dishonured1/2 both have different elements to them such as fallout is by nuclear war, and dishonored is by power and disease. I will look at how these games relate also using other games such as 'The last of us'. Scarcity are both shown in both if not all of my chosen games. It is a idea that can be worked on.

Also on Wednesday I decided to go into Z Brush and work on a Z tile for the ground texture in our game, it was more of a try out more than anything and has not been used as I was told by Olivia that in Maya it did not import properly and topology was wrong in some areas of the plane. I did this just to give it ago and to try something I don't really do in Z brush. I believe Olivia is planning on working on this task next week, and she is planning on using Substance designer to texture the tile.

My tile that I created in Z Brush, This was for a muddy surface.

By the end of the week me and Olivia had finished the tile screen and near finished the Win screen.
With the Title screen we needed a control menu, so once the player clicks the controls button the controls menu will appear. I decided to do this task.

This is the final result of the control menu screen. I wanted to keep the theme consistent and thought drawing the movement keys and mouse as if they were made of stone would fit the theme well. This was added into the game by Friday.

 The first titles screen when placed into the game it was stretched. Olivia sorted this problem out by changing the page to 1920 by 1080. She had to add a little extra to the painting but not to much. Below is the final piece.

This is the final title screen. As you can see my character and the added wreckage works well with Olivia's environment piece, I think our styles work well together. In all I added the character all wreckage pieces and drag markings, fire lighting to wreckage (In middle) and bottom grass area which is textured. I am very happy with the outcome, it displays a piece of the plot well and I believe this is a good image to go by for the start of the game. Olivia is happy with the outcome too.

I started the lose screen by drawing out a bloody hand (Characters) me and Olivia hope to add a gem to this piece in which it shows he has been court with the gem and killed.

 I have also started the treasure trials logo for the game this will be placed on the title screen and (promo art if we have time to do).

This is a very rough sketch but it put across the logo well, Me and Olivia agree. I have started to do the final logo this will be done next Monday.

This is not yet finished but this is the win screen so far, Olivia worked on the background and I drew the boat with characters. Olivia wants to add waves to the water to give the painting motion. Olivia managed to get this done on the weekend, below is the final piece.

This is the final Win screen, with the added waves. It really does give the painting a feeling of motion.

By the end of this week me and Olivia have came to realise that this was a good way of putting both our art styles across in each piece and that we enjoyed working it together and worked well which we think had effective results.

 Also added into the game this week was a spear added to the now finished AI characters, Curtis has made the AI now chase you if you get to close and kill you when they do.

Change of materials to the AI. We were going to model and rig our own AI character like the ones I drew a few weeks ago, but we did not have the time to do this. If we ever continue to work on this game later on that is something we will add.

 Ben L also modeled this torch for the game it will guild and light up the path for the player.