Introduction:
In my original Project Proposal, I had hoped to create a dark, dystonia survival game that’s set in the near future in London. I wanted to make the player feel isolated and alone. The aim was to infiltrate and gain control of Tower Bridge that was a large part of my game and secure a stockpile of explosives and bombs that were stored at the top of one of the towers. I also wanted to expand my knowledge of Blueprints and become more comfortable using them to do this I decided to try and create AI, knowing they would use Blueprints I was able to expand my knowledge and use it in a useful way in the Project.
Roles And Activities:
Since I was working by myself, it was my choice on what I had to prioritise and what parts of the project I might have to sacrifice in order to give time for other parts of the project. A large portion of my time was spent in UE4 modelling for the first few weeks to create an environment that the player could actually walk around in, creating Tower Bridge took a majority of my time considering I was building it close to ‘Life Size Scale’. I used Blueprints not just to use in the game but also to place Static Meshes in the world cutting out a large part of time that I might’ve needed to use doing this manually. I also created AI which was undoubtedly the hardest and most complicated section of my Project. In addition I also created Textures, Smaller Assets to fill the environment up, Lighting and Matinee Actors. In general, I spent very little time inside of 3DS MAX the only time I used it was to create the Gun that the player uses because of the animation. Finally even though I’ve worked by myself for this project I would love to work in a group in future Projects.
What Went Well:
During my Project, I was happy with how things mostly. Creating the Environment wasn’t difficult and generally went well and manage to create a believable representation of an alleyway and a waterfront road. I liked how Tower Bridge turned out, the scale and shapes I managed to create, and since this was a large section of my game it was important to create a set a consistency good models since the Bridge was made up of separate models. The atmosphere I created was just what I wanted I was pleased with how the AI turned out, I learnt how to create enemies and use Blueprints to program them to follow and shoot at you. Creating the smaller models was simple since I’d had a lot of experience with using Additive and Subtractive boxes, even through the models were small with a adequate amount of detail I thoroughly enjoyed making these models and was pleased with how they came out.
Changes:
During Production, I knew I would drop things and have to compromise because certain parts would require my attention more than others. During one of the Play Days I was asked ‘What sort of game play will the be?’ from one of my Peers. This made me change my plan drastically but it was a good change. Players want interactive environments with a challenge and if you’re just walking around In my opinion it’s not as interesting. I decided to add AI and gun play to thought this would be good because I have no experience with this and it would not only widen my range of games design to a completely new part that I’ve never undertaken but it would also work in my Project and allow me to use it in future projects and would be a good thing to learn. However because of this change I had slightly less time to create textures that would cover the environment but since it was dark in game this problem was less noticeable and wasn’t such a problem.
Video Clip showing AI following and shooting at you
What Went Wrong And What I Would Do Differently Next Time?
Firstly, I don’t believe personally anything when incredibly wrong or the was a massive issue with anything in particular but the were things that went wrong, I did run into problems but I managed to sort them out by myself or with help from my Peers and Tutors.
One thing that I would’ve done differently though. I would’ve added more 2D and background sounds because after reviewing and looking over the final few videos I noticed the game was relatively quiet and understood that I might’ve neglected background sounds, and the problem is sounds play a huge part I creating a realistic and immersive environment.
Even though it’s not an immediate problem, I would’ve liked to refine the gun-play just to make it smoother and a bit more ‘agreeable’ I guess and maybe messed around with the collision boxes because I discovered that sometimes the AIs don’t always take damage when they’re hit which is slightly irritating and something I would try and fix in future.
Progression And Compromises:
Thinking back to my Production Schedule I actually never used it once, I believe the reason it was irrelevant was because it just wasn’t useful. I never looked back at it to see if I’m on track, I preferred it that way to, because it made me less stressed and allowed me to use as much time as I desired on certain models. I was still time conscious obviously knowing how long I’d spent on each part. I planned roughly how much time I would be spent on certain parts but to be honest I just built things as I went along knowing what I needed to do when I came into college and updated my blog at home allowing me to spend more time making the game in college which allowed me to seek help from my Peers and Tutors.
Even though making this may of benefited me because it allowed me to set my ideas down again and allowed me to think what to begin with when Production started. However as I said I already had an idea what I needed to do and when Production did start I never back at it.
When I began making my game, a few weeks in I discovered that I’d been to ambitious with the AI thinking I could have several different models with different ‘Nav Meshes’ and Weapons.
Even after creating AI and discovering it wasn’t as difficult as I once thought, I still knew that with everything else I wanted to do it wasn’t possible but I accepted that it wasn’t possible to created a such wide variety of Enemies but still created two Variants. The reason I didn’t create so many was because of time constrains I had to put the environment first. Creating loads of complicated enemies is great but if you can’t place them in an interesting and immersive area I personally don’t see the point.
What Was I Influenced By?
Starting the project I was only really inspired by one game and this was Fallout 4, I loved the feeling of Isolation and how the enemies operate and how bases have been made out of old and re-purposed existing structures and buildings. Taking some of these ideas and intertwining these into my existing ideas and plans for the Project. These games also widened my ambition, opening me up to ideas that I never would’ve considered putting in my game. Such as AI because I believed it would’ve been to complicated and time consuming.
Small Amount of Game Play Showing Combat And The Environment
However as the Project went on I watched more games and was inspired by certain things that I wanted to add into my game even if it was just the atmosphere or something small.
After watching this map I loved the way the light bounces around the environment and the background sounds that create an amazing ambience and the night time theme that was included in this map.
These Games helped me develop my ideas, and I wanted to collect ideas off of them and implement them in my game, obviously I could never re-create the level of detail but I could take the different ideas and mix them with my existing ones and create a more impressive and interesting environment.
Communication, Giving And Receiving Help:
Since I was working by myself, I didn’t have a teammate to seek help from so I had to seek help from different teams and gave help to others who were struggling with certain issues. When creating AI, I had to find help. I knew what I wanted to do and to begin with, it seemed very ambitious because I had no idea what I was doing. Fortunately for me another group had already made AI and I asked them for help and they were happy to help and show me what to do after I explained to them what I wanted to create. They didn’t just do it for me though they allowed me to do it with their assistance, which was much more useful then them just doing it for me, because it would allow me to remember the way of doing it better and next time I could possibly do it myself. Communicating with other people and groups was a large benefit and very important throughout the Project and entire course so far because I was always learning different methods and more efficient ways of creating specific models which ever program it may of been in.
What Did I Learn?
During the entire Project I learnt firstly that being open to different opinions and criticism is incredibly important because it allows you to understand and notice what people would like to see and this is useful because no game designer operates inside of a bubble. Receiving and giving criticism was very important not just for me but for my peers also. However I believe that it’s impossible for you to include everyone’s thought and ideas because sometimes they contradict each other, but as long as I considered and reflected on them I think it would’ve been okay even if I didn’t bring them into my game.
Responses from the first of the Play Days showing useful Feedback
Helping other people is very important because overcoming different scenarios and problem solving is good because you may encounter these issues in the future and if you already know how to fix them you won’t become hung up on them. Communicating with others is useful anyway even if the problem is an easy fix, discussing problems is useful allowing you to alter you project if necessary to make it more impressive or allowing you a simpler or faster solution to reach the same or improved end result.
During the final Play Day which where we review each others projects and give feedback and constructive criticism of what we would’ve liked the see in the project, which is useful because it makes use more aware of what we could focus on next year making future project for example if we got a lot of feedback about Textures we could focus on them in ‘Future Projects’ to increase the quality and use of them.
One of the things that I told I needed to improve was Textures and asking myself I know that certain parts lacked interesting textures to textures altogether which does take away from the immersion of the game.
‘I think the models were great but I do the texture would help improve the game’
I understand where the comment came from about Texturing considering these were one of the final aspects I added in because in wanted to focus on game play and the environment, so receiving feedback in this way was expected and useful and not a bad things, even if a comment was bad it wasn’t wrote in a mean spirited-way it useful to hear what people think especially with similar interests. Looking back I should’ve dedicated a few more hours to Texturing I believe this would’ve increased the quality and appearance of my game making it more immersive and intriguing.
A few people suggested that I add more Weapons for the player to utilise.
‘This feels like it could be useful with more weapons and maybe some that could be picked up’
‘I would like to see more weapons that the player is able to use or even pick up from the enemies after you’ve shot them’
I think this would be a nice aspect to add letting the player choose a game style they enjoy and use a certain weapon to accompany that style whether that be ‘Stay out of sight with a sniper’ or ‘Run in with a machine gun’. As I said doing this would and could tailor to each persons individual ‘Play Style’ and gives the player options about how they want to approach a task given to them even if it’s given in a video game.
I also received Feedback on Sound both 2D and Foley.
‘Maybe in the background there could be the sound of bombs exploding or planes overhead’
‘I would also think about more sounds to add in your game for example, foot steps of people, maybe things being shifted, sound of an helicopter?, maybe your character breathing’
I did consider a few of these options during production but due to time constraints I was unable to add them. Sounds such as the character breathing and footsteps I believe I always overlook in video games because they’re always there but since they’re so subtle but gives the game so much more rich and life-like and breathing gives emotion, you can understand if the player okay, scared or exhausted by the rate and tone of their voice and I understand that these comments were fair and welcome them because they give me ideas as a Game Designer on what to focus on in Future Projects to create more realistic and well-done games.
Conclusion And Final Thoughts
In Conclusion, I would consider my Project a success, I thoroughly enjoy creating it and receiving a wide and different mix of ideas and constructive criticism from my peers allowing me to create a better and influenced game. Creating my project has been stressful at times but speaking to my peers and tutors helped they suggested ways that might help and talking to me about what I might need to drop and this helped because I knew from the start that I would have to drop things and that this was my first large project, it allowed me to really go all in and throw all my ideas into a large time frame where I could experiment with different ideas and take risks, This was great allowing me to notice what works and maybe what doesn’t work so well. Finally since I worked solo on this Project maybe working in a group next time would be a nice change allowing me to understand and take responsibilities and knowing that my actions with affect other people.
Georges_Games 