firstpersonproject-1

[firstpersonproject-1]

First-person evaluation-

For this project again I found using unreal quite difficult to use,  however, I did find that using unreal for 3D work, was a much easier process than creating a 2D pixel art game.  The game that I made did not need any animation, which is something I really struggle with making,  so the art for this project was a lot easier for me to produce. Using Maya was probably my favorite part of the project as 3D modeling came quite naturally to me and I was able to pick it up much faster than a few other people in the class. I didn't really like using voxel as it felt super restricting with the art style, so I ended up not using this in my piece.

The process of making my game started off quite slow, as I didn't have a great basis for what I was going to do. However, after coming up with a good start concept the rest of the ideas started flowing better.  my original idea was to make it a Carnival-type game with a tent and maybe clowns, but after having a look at more theme parks I thought it would be cool to have everything in the park themed around that. To keep to work concept and work around something which probably hasn't been explored a lot, as I found.  After a couple weeks, I realized I didn't have a story objectives plan for my game which I think definitely stunted the development of my code.  since they are just visual ideas and didn't particularly need to play a part in the story.  I think next time I really need to develop my game concept not just visually but as a whole, because it really limits me to just the art and style of the game.

The main goals for my project at the start were to have the game working with limited bugs, which I achieved. to have the character be able to walk around and interact with objects and have at least 5 minutes of gameplay,  which I achieved to some degree.  I did manage to have the player able to interact with the generator and turn all the lights on which works successfully with little to no bugs however my playthrough of the game did not Make it past 3 minutes.  I overall think the game design did finally come together in the end,  and I'm really happy with the progress that I made throughout the term.  I'm really proud of all the assets that I 3D modeled for the game, and how they all look together.

After completing the project I feel is so next time I should spend less time at home working on models and more time I'm figuring out how to use UV and materials on the models I already have to make them look better. I would really like to Delve deeper into the details of Maya and some more programs used to sculpt/3D models. 

 I feel like next time, if I was doing the project again I would definitely do more research within the first couple weeks of the project to have a stronger base to go off of.  This will take the pressure off doing quick research before having to come up with assets or game mechanics and would make my game flow much better.

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Play testing and feedback!

We did some more play testing for our games and rotated around the classroom, as I had only added an objective last minute earlier that lesson I hadn't had time to add text or a set goal so a lot of the feedback was talking about the fact I didn't have any clear objectives and there was a lack of story.

The feedback was also helpful to work out through some of the bugs that the players came across, such as the doors glitching out or the sliding doors not working.

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Game play video

I tried to make sure I captured everything that the player may look at while keeping the game play short and concise.

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Health & Ammo boxes research

Health and ammo packs are used in most first-person shooter games and some adventure games. The idea of needing an ammo pack to reload or health packs to increase health or receive more hearts, it makes the game somewhat more difficult as your experience depends on you having to find these items.

The red cross on a white background is not legally allowed to be used within the public domain however lots of games breach this such as half-life, fallout, and many more.

A more realistic artstyle.

A more low poly style.

A pixel art style.

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Things I ended up not putting in the game.

When I originally 3d modeled these earlier in the process I thought the low poly hard edges look was something that I wanted to go for, but after importing them into the game I decided they looked too out of place as a lot of my other models were smooth.

I later decided to replace the bombs with some toy cutlasses that I had 3d modeled as I wanted to try modeling something completely different.

If I were to 3d model the bombs again I would have probably kept the poly count the same but edited the edges so that it automatically smoothes it.

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Editing materials in

I created a neon material to help the light look more realistic in the game, as n used the unreal lighting because the neon wasn't strong enough to light stuff by itself.

The neon material alone on the light models was not enough to light up the scene, which is why I had to add light boxes within unreal engine.

By making

I first made sure that the emissive colour had a multiplier attached to it, I also has a singular value attached so I could edit the light value.

I really like how the lights turned out, and I don't think I would have gotten the same effect if I hadn't done it this way.

I did the same thing with the brown material I was using for the floor as I wanted it to be glossy like a real shop floor, so I edited the roughness, so it wasn't as matte.

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Making a shipwreck in Maya.

I managed to make the entire boat with on object and then added the mast afterwards as a different object.

I coloured this piece in unreal as it was easier to drag and drop materials rather than reselecting colours in maya.

Overall, I do really like how it came out, however I would really like to learn to sculpt so I can add more detail to the builds.

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Adding lighting to my game.

I learned that by holding L and control whilst sliding my mouse I could edit the position of the sun in unreal, to make the scene look like a certain time of day (like having the sun setting or rising.)

I eventually settled on having my game set at dawn, as this would be right after the theme park closes and would explain why nobody is in the theme park at this time. I also did still want some sunlight as it would be hard to light up the entire map with artificial lighting but no source, it wouldn't make sense

In the first 2 areas, I looked at having more artificial lighting for the building by having them white and industrial looking.

For the other 2 shots, I looked at having a more natural sundown colour which I did by adjusting the intensity and colour to a lighter orange colour, I did this on a couple of sides that the sun was facing, just to make the lighting stand out a bit more.

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Laying everything out.

This was my original plan for my game level layout.

After rearranging all of the assets in my game i decided that this was the layout i wanted to stick with.

Overall, I'm really excited by how the game is coming along, I'm really proud of how far I've gotten with 3d modelling and the array of tools I've learnt to work with.

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Adding sliding doors to my game.

For the shop in my game, I wanted sliding glass doors to give it a more realistic look.

I started off by 3D modelling one door and flipping it in the viewport.

After testing the doors in game, they stopped closing properly, I suspected that this was because of the collision box being too small.

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Theme Park research

Theme parks are commonly made up of a variation of water rides, fun houses and roller coasters and usually have a variety of themed food places and gift shops.

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Animation in Maya

Using the timeline at the bottom of the animation you can edit the length of the animation and speed.

Using the animation hot bar at the top of the screen you can add a keyframe to start off the animation, move the timeline across, change the objects position/rotation and press the keyframe button again.

For every frame you move the timeline across, move the object and set a new keyframe.

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Win and lose states in games.

Lose states in most games end with a dark faded out screen telling you that you've lost, examples of this came be seen in terraria and slime rancher where the death screen says a vacation of "You've been killed/knocked out"

Whereas Grand theft auto settles for a simpler title of "wasted"

Win States for games are more varied as a lot of games don't have win states. A lot of the story games that i play would have endings rather than win screens, as the only way of "winning" is by ending the game

A lot of endings for story games usually fade out to the title screen once the game has ended or the credits start to roll.

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Making the model in maya.

To make my arcade machine in maya with the help of Chris i also looked up a quick youtube video to help me with some parts of the design.

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I was thinking about food stands and stuff for people at the park to eat and this came to mind, I thought the idea of it was pretty fun and could definitely fit into the theme

I came up for the names of the two stands, one selling drink and one selling food,

The golden grub and barnacle bay-verage

I thought these were pretty fun pirate themed names for the shops within the park.

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