Weekly Summary

First a recap the last week of term starting from 14th November till Wednesday the 16th (Last day before term).

Monday (14th November) We had a guest lecturer come in to talk to us "Get in the game" talk by "Aardvark Swift". The talk was mainly about what the games industry is looking for and tips on how to apply and what your portfolio should look like. The talk had some great tips on the employment process and how a CV should be produced. It was an interesting talk and I did learn a few things that I didn't know before especially about the CV and what should and should not be written on it. On the Wednesday (16th) I had my mid unit review. This was a good chance to play other peoples games so far. It was great to go through my game with a tutor as I now know on what things I can add and improve on, the feedback wasn't bad I seem to be on track. It was nice for others to play and see what they also thought of my game.

I also got some feedback from my game by other students below are images showing the results. Overall not bad feedback, mostly it shows  things that I have been told that I could add or change.

 

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This is the first week back to university since we broke up from term.  This week me and my group have been very busy with our Game jam. On Monday we had a talk from "John Allen" who works for "Splash damage" they are the creators of the very popular video game "Gears of War" series. The talk mainly was about how Josh works in UX and UI design. To be honest I didn't know much about UX and UI design but have found that it is a very interesting subject It has made me think of looking into it a lot more, it is a option. He also gave us some good tips on what company's are looking for and the Dos and Don't on how to apply for jobs within the industry.

After the talk we were given our brief for the game jam that consisted this week the theme for our game was 'boiling point'. We had to get into a group of 5 and make a game on UE4 with the knowledge of what we know so far, we had a few days to do this. We used Monday evening to go over some ideas with my group, we then met up on Tuesday to go over our solid idea and we started from there. We had till Friday morning to get it completed fully. We decided to go with a 2D space invader theme platform game, We went with a 2D game because we were all 2D artist not really 3D. Although this was a downfall we still managed to do well with our game and produce a fully working game with 4/5levels. Our game idea is a humor themed game were you play as a boy called "Jimmy" who has upset a load of internet stereotypes. A herd of them come to attack you and you need to destroy them by shooting them while they fall towards you. The further you progress you will then face a boss at the end of each level that will shoot back at you. The style of the game we were going for was 8 bit, we added 8 bit music and sound effects. The levels had different stereotypes from the internet to defeat, them being:
 1. Bronys/Nerds.
 2. Politics, characters such as "Trump and Hillary".
 3. Furry's (Did not appear in game through a problem, not enough time to fix).
 4. Internet memes such as "Pink guy, Grumpy cat" and others. 
 5.Vegan enthusiast/ Gym guys/Girls.

We called our group "Factory reset"  and our game was called "Jimmy and the keyboard warriors".
In the group Me, Hannah and Grace done the art work, from character designs to title screens and lasers, and then Will and Olivia Put the game together on UE4 doing the mechanics and blueprints. It was a very busy week but was also very fun, we didn't win but we did get mentioned in the talk after our game jam which was a bonus, we were all happy by the result. We were told that our game was a little hard to get through to the next levels, knowing this we did go and change this and made it a little easier for the players after the talk, in doing so people did enjoy the game a lot more. It felt good for people to play our game and enjoy it, by doing this game jam I felt it gave me a better understanding of how the industry maybe especially when it comes to working as a team. The game jam also helped me practice Photoshop in more depth and produce work a little quicker. If I get to do another game jam in the future I will remember what I learnt this week and will look forward to the next one.

This is a screenshot of what our game looked liked. As you can see we where going with the retro look with our game play,

 These are some of the character stereotypes that I drew for the game jam.

Game progress


(This is my game progress from my term week)

I took in what my tutor had said in the mid unit review and added the odd few changes to my game as much as I can. I would say my game is complete now. In the term I finished with placing assets and inspecting objects and making the home more realistic I did this with lighting and assets that I downloaded. I added all the sound cues in my game now. I was told to change the location of some of my interaction keys such as the opening of the door and inventory keys. I have now change this as the keys were to far away as this can be difficult for the player. I was told that the objects are a little to hard to find within the game and it can a bit confusing on what the player can and can't collect so on the inspecting of objects (The objects that you pick up and can rotate but can not collect) I decided to place text above them objects this makes it easier for the player. I also was told to add a cross hair to my view port so the player can clearly see where they are aiming when collecting and inspecting objects etc...,I chose a simple none intrusive marker. Also I had my brother play my game when I was home for term he suggested that I make the outside area (Where the game ends) bigger as he says it like walking into another room.  I made it bigger with added assets and lighting, Even though it still looks like a room it does feels more open and outside like.

This image shows the crosshair as you can see it is very faint, but in game it does still show well enough to guide the player.

These three images show the before and after of the inspecting object, the first shows the object in it first position and then the second shows the object being inspected (Rotated/lifted) and the 3rd image shows the text with its instruction which is newly added. And it also shows the newly added crosshair.

This image shows the sound cue blueprints.


Image shows my game scene from a top down prospective. This shows how I have created the outside areas, as you can see it is bigger.

These two images show some rendered shots of my game.

Throughout my game the 3D models that I did use for this project were from such websites:
https://www.cgtrader.com
http://tf3dm.com
http://archive3d.net
https://www.turbosquid.com/Search/3D-Models/free
http://www.sweethome3d.com/freeModels.jsp

Contextual Studies, Games as Simulations Task.

What are the basic assumptions behind your indie dev video game? What world view does it suggest?

My indie dev video game is basically about a Detective called 'Logan' who is sick and tired of dealing with bad people because of what happened to him in his past with his wife being murdered. He has to solve the case of a missing woman called 'Evelyn'. The game is a 3D exploring game that has narrative and a sense of thriller added to it. What world view does this suggest? I think it is a typical crime/murder mystery story that is similar in movies to some TV shows.

How would you subvert or pastiche a famous strategy/sim game? 

I would pastiche the 1997 game 'Theme hospital'. The player must build a the hospital with limited money and treat patients correctly with the right medical equipment or medicines but doing so costs more money in each patient you treat if done wrong it will have consequences. The player must find a way to balance the costs by negotiate with government parties. As the player you will have to make some bad and good decisions to progress.

Weekly Summary

This week for my first lecture we where presented with a lecture on 'Sell Sheets' in this lecture we where shown some good and bad examples of some sell sheets. The lecture gave us some good advise on how to layout our sell sheets and give us pointers on fonts, colors  etc..., it was a very useful lecture.

In Z brush session this week we were told to carry on with our own project. I have now started to edit the body of my Troll character (Top half so far) and make it more detailed. I will need to look at some reference images on how to create a body for my Troll, as mine is not correct in proportions and muscle locations etc... I still have a long way to go with this model.

In contextual studies this week we looked at Games as simulations. We were told a little on the history of games as simulations, H.G Wells, played at war simulation game in 1913. The game was called "Little Wars". This was played by using models of buildings and figures to reenact a war scene. We were also shown how these simulation changed the way how people emotions could change while playing, it could show a player being selfless or even selfish while playing the game.

In anatomy this week we looked at the face and neck, I found this to be the most interesting of all the sessions so far. It was good to see how a the muscle in the face change when a person makes an expression.

In the UE4 session this week, we were told to carry on with our games, and had help if need be. This was a useful session as I was able to talk to a tutor about my sell sheet.

Game progress

This week I have decided to add a few more rooms to my game as I felt the game was quite short when I played through it fully. I'm glad I added the other rooms as it makes the location feel more like a real home and it gave me the opportunity to add more detail to the game. I have also started to add sound cues to the game to give the player a more immersive playing experience, as well as music that plays in the background that also changes when you hit a certain spot in the game, this gives the player more emotion when playing the story. As well as doing this I have finished making the game visuals, there maybe one or two things that I may change later but for now I am happy with what the game looks like and it's effect. Also the spawning of the keys when you collect all of the evidence was a problem I had trouble getting it to work and getting my head around it so I found a video on Youtube on how to do it another way. It wasn't my ideal way for the key to spawn but it works. The keys will spawn after sometime has past, instead of when you collect all the evidence. The keys will spawn in different locations each time you play, (4/5 in total).

This image shows a scene in my game and a sound cue near the sink area, and a object to collect on the bath, with added decal (Blood effect), doing this creates more atmosphere.

 This is an extra room I created now finished.

 Added Kitchen area, with interaction on some objects within this room.

 This image shows sounds cues that I have used, and lighting.

 This image just shows some of sounds cues used for the doors and keys that spawn.

 This is the blueprints for the music for my game.

 This image just  shows some of the assets that I used for my game, most were downloaded off websites.

This image shows some of the sounds effects that I used for my game. I did go into some of the sound cues and use a modulator to change some of the pitch effects and speed of the cue to fit my preference, Some of the sounds within my game is of a male voice this is your characters voice "Inspector Logan", I added them because I believe it gives the effect of the character interacting with the environment. These effects where download off Free sound and some other websites.

 The two above images show the key spawn and then it will disappear when the player walks into it.

 This is the spawn key blueprint.

Contextual Studies, Games as toys, task.

How would you make your indie game design open-ended?

I could make my game have more levels or end the game on a cliff hanger, maybe the search for the missing woman in my game could not been found so the game will continue until you find her by using more levels added clues etc...

Think of a way of incorporating a physical object into your game design – could AR or NFC allow for meaningful interaction?

I believe AR would work well with my game. In my game you are a detective who needs to find the pieces of evidence in the suspect home and find the missing woman, AR would work with this as the evidence you collect could hold a QA code and when you use your phone camera and put it to the QA code it will show the evidence you have collect, you would then be able to look more in depth with that piece of evidence look for clues,prints for example.

 

Weekly Summary

This week we first started with a recap lecture then after that we looked at 'Flow' in games. This means how a player can stay focused on the game play at hand, if a player isn't interested on the task in the game they will not continue to play it. A player needs to be engrossed in a game for it to be successful.

In my Z brush session this week we had another go at creating the goblet,urn like objects. I had a problem with mine as the program was crashing a few times while trying to do this so I continued with my own project of mine the Troll head. In the session I was able to create a rough body for my Troll using the Z sphere tool.

Later in the week we had a Contextual studies session in which we were presented with a lecture on Performing worlds: Games as toys. We looked at games as objects for example in the lecture we looked at how video games company's such as Nintendo are using toy like models of game characters called "Amiibo" thus making something physical then seeing that in a virtual world, with this you can then play as that chosen character in the game. The next day we also spoke about the contextual studies lecture in my group in our seminar. The same day we also had a anatomy session which we looked at the abdomen and the chest area, this was a very interesting session as it will help with my Z brush model (The Troll) it has given me some tips on how I could correctly create the top half of the body, I will give this ago in my next Z brush session.

Later in the week in my UE4 session we looked at how to create checkpoints and a title start screen in which you have a background with 3 buttons: Start, Controls and Exit buttons. This will be very handy for my game project as I will be planning on putting a start menu within my game that can show controls on the menu and start play and exit my game.

Game progress

This as been another busy week with my game but I am glad as I believe I am on track. This week with my game I have added a title screen with added control window so the player will know the keys, also added to the title screen is a play button and exit button. I learnt how to add this to my game through a UE4 session this week. I have one problem with the title screen I notice I have to double click the buttons to play or exit the game, I do not understand why this happens but it doesn't seem to be to much of a problem. Also this week with my game I have nearly finished the layout of the rooms with assets and decor so the rooms are looking a lot more interact able. I have added a end game screen, when you get to the end of the game the game will end with a ending screen shot. I have added a door open and close system, I did have some trouble with some doors not opening so I did give it ago to fix it but some doors still didn't open. I decided to add one door to open and close and the others are fixed opened unfortunately.  I am also starting to build a spawn key system too so you can open locked doors. I have had problems with the key not spawning when collecting all the collectable objects so I will have another go at this but if it does not work I will have to find another way to spawn keys, I'm sure I will find a way.

This is a area of my game were you can see a interacting object that you can inspect and another object in this game that you can collect as evidence.

This image shows a scene in my game where I have added photographs of "Evelyn" this is a important location. Also here you can see a yellow note on the wall, if you get closer to the note (That seems to glow) the player will see text that they can read, it is similar to the other note in this game but you can not pick this note up but it gives the player a better understanding of the characters and story.

This is a image of the title screen of my game, it shows here movement keys, the interaction keys, title and buttons. The drawing in the middle is the inspector that you play as called "Logan" and this is the scene of the game where you find the photographs of "Evelyn".

 These two images above show the blueprints for the main title screen.

 This is the title screen main image that I drew.

 The above two images of the door show it opened and closed. Also some of the doors have sound effects to them (locked and open).

 The three images above show the open door blueprints by pressing the "C" key.

 This is the end game title screen.


This image shows the end game title screen blueprints.

This image shows the end of game trigger box, when the player walks into this green box you will be greeted with the end game title screen and the game will then end.