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Unity and Unreal

Unity

Unfortunately, in the first few weeks of creating the 2D platformer in Unity, my Unity wouldn’t load because of some issues so I was unable to properly to complete my game and I was far behind on game progress and blog posts. When I finally did get into Unity, I found the coding aspect very hard to understand. 

Unreal

When I first started Unreal, I found the coding simple and easy to understand as you just had to connect the lines in the coding therefore I preferred it. The advantages to using Unreal over Unity are that Unreal is much simpler and it’s easier to design a level in. When I was using Unreal, I was able to keep updated with my blog posts and updating my game. I wish I had improved my games aesthetic side of things as it looked relatively dull.

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2D and 3D games in Unity

2D games in Unity.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NMUr2yNALhU 

Most 2D games are created in Unity. They are relatively simple with the mechanics and objectives. In most 2D games, you are to travel the map whilst conquering opponents and enemies. When you get further into the level, the level gets harder.

3D games in Unity.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-bODQTfvZuk

3D games in Unity are less common as other softwares are better for 3D games. I like the design in Unity 3D games from this video. Each simple thing like grass and walls are detailed and realistic. The difference between 3D games and 2D games are that the objective is usually different as there is a lot more space in 3D games than 2D.

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This is some Counter Strike game play. I have chosen to research counter strike as I enjoy playing it and the aspects in it interest me and make me want to put them in my game. Counter Strike is a simple FPS game which in each team you either have to plant the defuser, or defend the bomb sites from the attackers.

The thing I like most about this game is that when you crouch, your cross hair decreases in size and makes your shot more accurate, this is a very cool aspect as it’s realistic. I will take the idea from this game of the scoring, timer, and health bar and implement it into my game. What I also like about Counter Strike is that you have to pay for weapons. I find this interesting because it’s a choice of what weapon you want to spend your money on to fit you best. You obtain the money by playing rounds and killing opponents.

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Unity Issues

I missed a lot of blog posts when we were creating our 2D plat-former in Unity because of Unity not loading up when we first started the project. This means I missed the first few weeks of Unity and didn’t fully understand it when I got onto it. This also put me behind everyone else so I wasn’t able to complete my game I was only able to complete my assets in Photoshop.

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Trim Sheets

A trim sheet is loads of textures that are made next to each other, in one bitmap.

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Resolved Issue

I worked out an issue in my game that was also announced in my questionnaire, which was that my bullets didn’t go exactly where my cross hair was. I have resolved this issue by editing my guns position to where the cross hair is so it shoots where the cross hair is aiming. I simply decreased the Z axis on the gun offset. I had to go into the first person characters blueprints to access the gun offset.

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This is the gameplay from a friend in class. He found it hard to understand my game in the beginning but once he understood it, he found it fun. If I was to create my game again I would add a settings menu with all the controls so it is simple for the player to understand and play. He suggested that I should add more levels/targets as the level is slightly short. I recorded this gameplay on OBS and attempted to edit it in Adobe Premiere Pro but I couldn’t seem to save it in the correct file to export it onto Tumblr.

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PlayTesting Questionnaire

I was ready for play testing as I wasn’t sure what to add next in my game so kept it simple. 

My questionnaire was useful as the people reviewing told me my mistakes and how to fix them. They also gave me positive outcomes so I could add more of that in the future.

Next time, I will improve my jumping mechanic to ensure that it is simple and people can understand it straight away.

I learnt that my jumping mechanic was over done and I should have kept it simple.

I will ask if my game has improved since last time, and how.

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Evaluation

The main idea of my game is to shoot all the targets around the map without falling and hitting the floor which is lava as it is based in a volcano.

The things I like about my game are that I was able to implement a fully automatic weapon by watching a YouTube video. https://youtu.be/Gac-zVDIiRs. I also liked that I used sound affects for my weapon to make it sound better and more suitable.

The things I dislike about my game are that my bullets don’t go where my cross hair is, it’s very short, and the general design isn’t developed. I used simple materials from Unreal when creating my game, no assets from Epic Store, no created materials. It’s just a bit plain.

If I was to create my game again, I would ensure that I had included all the things that I missed from this time, ie asset packs to make it look less tedious, longer levels, settings menu, accessibility options and special abilities.

Overall, my game was fun as it had competition to it, yet it could have been better by making it longer and look more unique.

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FPS Games Comparison

 - Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six Siege

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ktw2k3m7Qko - Titanfall 2

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FqnKB22pOC0 - Overwatch

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=18-_9E0HNY4 - Halo Reach

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=edYCtaNueQY - Counter Strike: Global Offensive

https://youtu.be/oQtHENM_GZU - Apex Legends

https://youtu.be/x3tedlWs1XY - Call of Duty Black Ops 2

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sFu5qXMuaJU - Call of Duty Advanced Warfare

https://youtu.be/coiTJbr9m04 - Call of Duty Modern Warfare 3

Modern Warfare - Modern Warfare is a recent game that was released in 2019. The game is similar to other Call of Duty games. It separates itself from them games by the theme and different game modes. The maps and weapons make the game feel like it’s in a world war and is set in the past.

Rainbow Six Siege - Rainbow Six Siege was released in 2014 game is not similar to most FPS games, as it’s a strategical game instead of run around and shoot everyone. Without the correct knowledge on specific operators and gadgets, you will lack the skills needed to be better at the game. The only thing it has similar to other FPS is similar HUD. Default timer, scoring system, health bar etc.

Titanfall 2 - There is a diverse range of Titans that each have different play styles and techniques. Titanfall is different to other FPS games as it’s very futuristic and unrealistic.

Overwatch - Overwatch is a very different game to other FPS games, usually, a lot of FPS games are relatively realistic, whereas Overwatch is very unrealistic with cartoons and animations to lighten the game up. Each ‘hero’ has a unique ability that helps a team to win.

Halo Reach - The Halo franchise is a very big and well known franchise. Many people have played at least 1 halo. The game play in Halo Reach specifically was determined by the player, if you wanted a fast play style, you would choose a low difficulty to go through it faster, if you were experienced and wanted to play it slowly, you choose a higher difficulty.

Counter Strike - Counter Strike is a competitive first person shooter which was released in 2012. It is different from other FPS games as you cannot sprint or aim in with-out a scope on your gun. It is based from 2 teams, a terrorist team, and a counter terrorist team. Each battle to plant/defuse the bomb.

Apex Legends - Apex Legends is a recent game, released in 2019. It is a battle royale game which is based around staying alive and collecting loot to improve your player. The difference between this battle royale and other battle royales is that there is specific characters you can play, called legends. Each legend has their own unique ability which gives them advantages.

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Extrude Tool

The extrude tool makes you able to edit objects in Maya to for example extend them at a certain position, creating a new shape.

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What is an FPS?

An FPS is a first person shooter game. These games usually include similar HUD’s as they involve health, a timer, scoring, kill feed, and a map. For example CS:GO, Rainbow Six Siege or Call of Duty.

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Lambert

Is a material (shader) that represents matte surfaces (such as chalk, matte paint, unpolished surfaces) with no specular highlights. The initial (default) shading group uses a special lambert surface material. Do not modify it; instead, create and apply a new lambert material.

In these images I have added something I created in Photoshop into my Maya project. This is done by editing the lambert in hypershade and make it your own created texture.

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Hyper shading

The hyper shade is the central working area of Maya rendering, where you can build shading networks by creating, editing, and connecting rendering nodes, such as textures, materials, lights, rendering utilities, and special effects.

This is adding a lambert into the hyper shade section in Maya. This enables you to change your 3D shape to designs you have created in Photoshop.

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UV Mapping Process

Editing your UV map in Maya. This enables you to add 2D designs to 3D objects to add emphasis. Once you’re in the UV Editor, you add your own design by adding your own lambert. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cy1vqLw-agk - How to UV map

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What is Maya?

Maya is a software that you can edit and build your own 3D objects into then import into Unreal. You can also add different colour and design to your object that you edit in Photoshop. Once you have built objects in Maya you can add them to your game in Unreal for effect and to make your game less tedious and stand out. For example, I created a barrel to make my game harder as the player will think they need to use it but it’s actually ineffective it’s just there for design. Unfortunately, I was not able to include it into my game as I restarted and changed my design and theme after I had made the barrel.

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Play Testing

My game was play tested by Jake. He said that my game was simple to understand the objective of and easy to know what your goal is, but I could have added more assets to make the general atmosphere look better.