Week Summary - BA2a Week 5

Game Project

This week I fleshed out a lot of the level to make it feel a bit more like a proper environment, adding some motion-activated lights, other props and some small test objects for the player to clean. 

I also imported a rough model of the robot character to give me a better idea of how it would look finished. This actually ended up showing me a problem with the pawn rotation, as it was facing in one direction constantly while playing regardless of which way it was moving. This was fortunately easily solved by checking the "orient rotation to movement" setting in the character movement, although it's still a bit snappy and I think would need a lerp node somewhere to smooth it out. For now though, this is working as much as I need it to.

My initial attempt at solving the rotation issue before finding the "orient rotation to movement" setting

With help I also managed to get a rough 'voice over' system working, in the style of Portal's GLaDOS, which runs over the top of the game to provide instructions and feedback, as well as a bit of comedy. The blueprint is set up so that each trigger box will send a different string of text to the UI when overlapped, although currently I'm having trouble with different dialogue pieces overlapping each other if the player triggers the boxes in quick succession before the previous one has finished speaking. I've tried to set a condition that the text won't fire if it's already firing somewhere else using a boolean, but I've been having some trouble getting it to work across all the blueprints, I think because the variable is tied to each instance rather than being universal.

Result of text cast to UI

Here I managed to fix the issue I was having with the door allowing itself to be opened multiple times and becoming offset by using a DoOnce node which resets when the animation finishes. There are some extraneous nodes here as well which I will clean up later.

Asset Creation

I worked on some highpoly zbrush models for my door this week. I didn't put too much detail into them because I wanted to focus on the game project, just some general wear and scratches and some simple carvings.

Week Summary - BA2a Week 4

Game Project

I decided to start from scratch in a new project after my test projects last week, to let me plan the level more around the route I want the player to take. The core idea is still the same; a central corridor with a series of branching rooms. To begin with I'm only going to build one of the rooms and focus on finishing that one first, so I don't risk trying to build too much. Below is the initial layout.

Each room has a dedicated camera which is switched to when the player enters the room's trigger box. The game also finds the camera rotation so that the pawn moves relevant to the camera instead of the world or itself.

The player character is currently just a cube, but I hope to get a simple mesh modelled soon to make the experience a little more polished.

Asset creation

The maya section of the high poly model is now finished, and I can now move on to adding some detail and wear in zbrush. I'd like to add some carved sections to the pillars and door bar to add some interest to those sections. I'm pretty happy with how this is coming along so far and I'm looking forward to seeing the finished version.

Week Summary - BA2a Week 3

Game project

This week I started to work on the prototype for my game. I managed to get it working so that the active camera switches when the player enters the relevant trigger volume, so that it functions similarly to old point-and-clicks like Grim Fandango. Next, I'd like to include a bit of tracking on the cameras to make them feel a bit smoother, and also fix the player movement so that the avatar moves in relation to the camera instead of the world or itself.

I also set up a door blueprint which causes the door to open when the player clicks on it. It works well other than the fact that currently it can be clicked multiple times in succession, causing the door to be offset and not move back into position correctly.

Asset Creation

I've completed the UE4 blockout and low poly version of my door in maya. I think I'm pretty happy with the overall aesthetic, and can move on to adding some more detail for the high poly version now.

Week Summary - BA2a Week 2

Game idea

I started to think about the kind of game I wanted to make this week and think I've come up with an idea I'd like to pursue. The premise for the game is that the player is a cleaning and maintenance robot in a large hotel, and has to make up the beds and clean the rooms on each floor. The gameplay style is 3D point-and-click, and some rooms require the player to solve puzzles in order to progress and clean the room. The player character is silent, with narration being provided via the hotel's main AI to provide some humour and guidance. Players are invited to see what they can figure out about the inhabitants of each room through observation, as a game the AI likes to play to keep itself entertained. Below are some designs for the robot character.

It's essentially an advanced roomba, with the lower section being a vacuum cleaner and the upper part having arms for tidying. The middle section is extendable to allow it to reach both high and low areas.

I'd like the game to have a fixed camera which tracks the player to a certain extent, in the style of old point-and-clicks like grim fandango. I've found some threads on the unreal forums about how to do this, but I'm having trouble getting the camera to switch when entering the trigger volume so I need to seek some help with it.

Asset production

Started some blockouts for a three-part door in our first session, I'm looking at making some double doors with a locking bar. Below are a couple of my initial blockouts.

I'd like to go for a kind of futuristic east asian look for this, and have a couple of mood boards to that effect. Something like the visual style Blizzard have used for the Hanamura overwatch map would be close to what I'm aiming for, I think.

Research - Mazes

Ten video games which involve mazes:

Unicursal:

• Super Mario Bros. series (Design)
• Gran Turismo series (Design)
• Uncharted (Design)
• Grow Home (Design)
• Tomb Raider (Design)

Multicursal

• The Stanley Parable (Design & narrative)
• Overwatch (Design)
• Dishonored (Design & narrative)
• Life is Strange (Narrative)
• Grow Up (Design)

Looking at this list, I found it interesting that many unicursal games are fairly old titles, and as games have progressed they have started to move more towards a multicursal route in terms of both design and narrative.

Game pitch

A third person traversal game about a person escaping from their unfulfilling life. The game begins as a unicursal maze, with the player following the character through their linear routine, but starts to open up into multiple paths which lead to different decisions - some are dead ends, but some allow the character to become successful and happy on a new path. Some routes are harder than others and may require skill, logic or perseverance to continue on. There is always the option for the player to stick to the same path throughout, in which case the maze will remain grey and undecorated, whereas if they take a different route the maze's appearance will change with regards to things like colour palette, architecture and objects which appear. 

Week Summary - BA2a Week 1

Idea generation exercise 

(In-class prompts)

"Deep Sea Extreme Chess"
Mobile/tablet game for casual gamers, touch-and-drag gameplay with capabilities for online and offline play. 
At a basic level, it's a chess game skinned to be ocean-themed, with pieces shaped like various fish and with 3D ocean environments like coral reefs for the boards. The USP is the random events included to unbalance the game - for example an undersea earthquake renders certain spaces unusable, a fishing line removes a piece from the board or a change in tide flips the board so that players now have to use their opponent's pieces.

"Global Warming Denial Team"
PC/mac/mobile/tablet, a comedy tower defense game. The user plays as a politician in their office fighting off waves of scientists presenting them with proof of climate change, using items such as security guards, caltrops, oil slicks, and coal-powered laser weapons. At the end of each level the water level begins to rise, forcing the politician to relocate to a new office on higher ground. The game is won when there are no offices left to relocate to and the world is entirely covered in water.

(Further 10 ideas out of session)

1. Citizen Gravel
3D platformer for console and PC aimed at children (6-11). Play as a sentient rock unearthed by humans from a quarry, as you defend the earth from evil plant creatures and try to become an upstanding member of the community. Powers available include rock throwing, quicksand, turning into a giant boulder, and more.

2. Budget Rush
PC/Mac. It's a busy day at the office and time for some resource management. You play as the financial supervisor of a small company, and have to effectively manage your losses and gains if you want to stay afloat. As the game progresses your company grows larger or shrinks depending on your success, with the ultimate goal being to survive as long as possible with the largest possible company.

3. Maximum Doubt
LA Noire-style case-based investigations. PC/Mac/console. Play as a reporter who has the ability to tell when people are lying. Interview witnesses and suspects, break into crime scenes, dodge the police chasing you from the crime scenes, and bring to the public the news they should be told about.

4. Notebook Snail
Touch-typing course PC/Mac game, mostly aimed at children but with varying difficulty levels. The player is a small snail student trying to take notes in class by writing in their slime across the page, and the user must type out the teacher's words quickly before they move on. The amount of notes they successfully take determines their grade at the end of the level. The game starts off with slow, simple words, and uses more complex ones with a shorter time limit as the difficulty rises.

5. Medium Judicial Salad
Low poly style PC/Mac game, possibly even an in-browser title. Life is hard in the food business. 'Cook, serve, delicious' style game where you play as a food business owner, taking your lunch cart around the streets of the city. Choose your menu, your route, take and cook orders or bring prepacked meals, and maybe even gain some regular customers! Some might ask you for the usual, some might be fussy, or maybe you'll make some friends along the way.

6. Velvet Mind Wine
PC/Mac/tablet title. Surreal point-and-click adventure game, with an emphasis on story and aesthetic. The inhabitants of a small town are disappearing one by one, and it appears to be linked to the introduction of a new recreational drug. The protagonist's best friend is one of those who have gone missing, and they decide to investigate the source of the disappearances in order to find their friend, and figure out where all these people have gone.

7. Skeleton Sport
Event-based party game for consoles, for all ages. It's the Ghoulimpics, and events are in full swing for all kinds of monsters. Compete competitively or co-operatively with other players to earn medals in events such as rib boomerang, skull toss and tug-of-horror. Potentially motion-based but players should also be able to use a controller.

8. Soprano Voyage
Karaoke game for use with an external mic on compatible consoles or PC. The player has been hired as the entertainment for a one-month cruise on a huge ship, and has to sing their way through each night's performance. (Single or multiplayer.)

9. Conflict Entertainment Fantasy
Open-world RPG parody, drawing from AAA game tropes. PC/Mac/console. Play as the Chosen One in a world where Faction A and B fight for control of something clearly very important, and force your opinions upon the entire population, because you're the strongest one here, and the best qualified, and clearly know what you're doing. Maybe the world is going to end too, and obviously, you will be the one to stop that, all by yourself, without consulting anyone else. It's fun being the main character.

10. Falsify Mask Ball
PC/Mac/console visual novel style game. Murder mystery set during the Venetian Carnevale. A foreign dignitary has been killed, and the only clue to the murderer's identity is their costume. Players must travel the streets of Venice, examining important locations and crime scenes in order to figure out who the murderer really is, their motive, and the reason why no-one seems to want to investigate this crime...

Life drawing