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First Person 3D Evaluation

Media and techniques (research)

When researching i looked at a lot of other fps titles and more specifically  movement shooters, this game me a good sense of direction when looking at what mechanics are best for movement shooters, when talking about techniques i definitely learned a lot about optimisation when it comes to using custom events and branches, another thing i learnt a lot about was animating and using mixamo to bring player models to life.

A Lot of my knowledge just came from google searching problems that i have or solutions i need and seeing what other people have done

Purpose / theme / concept

My game was based on the thought of a parkour movement shooter that included a scoring system that made it so that when you did tricks you would gain a score that would give you damage bonuses and other buffs. The theme just closely resembles a cyberpunk abandoned area overrun by robots, this theme isn't inspired by too much and it shows, the game is voxel based in artstyle and was made using magica voxel. My initial concept certainly did a lot of evolving from the initial idea of just, movement shooter but you can front flip, to the more, almost ability based movement shooter that has the additional aspect of flipping and wallrunning.

Outcome

The game I made meets my initial expectations when thinking about the initial concept of a parkour movement shooter with a trick metre like tony hawk's pro skater though when thinking now about what else i could do with the mechanics i certainly have a few ideas of how to expand upon those mechanics. I think it definitely meets my original idea of what the game should be conceptually and artistically.

Conclusion

To conclude my evaluation i think i certainly have lots of room for improvement though that doesn't matter when thinking about the purpose of this project being to learn how to make a first person game, i learnt a lot about 3d modelling and animation of models, as well as a lot more blueprint types, such as the widgets i used to make a menu system or the many bindings i did for the player HUD to convey the trick system, or the use of navmeshes and ai enemy types that taught me a lot about how to design levels and the thinking behind in depth blueprints and what it might take to make in depth ai npcs

When looking at the next project i'm making i'll probably keep doing a 3d game because it gives me a lot more freedom than 2D, and will proceed to use magica voxel and unreal engine as they are easy to use and work for what i'm trying to achieve

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Play Test Analysis

To Sum up what I've received from my play test the only problems I've received are due to progression and people not being able to get past the kill enemies wall, i know exactly why, and its because there is an enemy that you encounter before you get your gun and it could be easy to miss killing him, i think i just need to lead players to kill him to progress, i could do this by putting another kill enemies wall just after him, to show players how the mechanic works. other than that i just found what sort of new features i should add to my game

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PlayTest Results

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Making A UV Map in Maya

first enter the UV Editor and get your UV map.

select all your iv panels

save the uv outline

take the uv map into photoshop

make your design for your object

bear in mind that anything you design out of the map wont show up on your object

back in maya enter object mode then click assign new material, make a Lambert material

then change the colour to blue and select the texture button next to colour

select the file option and select the file you wanted

then select textured to see your uv map

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Next level,

I made the next level of my game, its not really a level but more of a sandbox mode where you can test tricks and guns against an ever increasing horde of enemy, i decided to do this in order to give my play test some more substance so that anyone testing can have a proper go,

i used the enemy spawners around the outside of the walled area and have health spawners inside the cover area

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Height Maps

this is an extension of the landscaping post i made, to make a height map you can first get one for free using this height map of the earth

the lighter colours signify higher land. and you can use Photoshop to properly export it into a usable format for unreal engine, simply set the file to 16 bit and grey scale, then make your landscape using the file.

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Research

Voxel Games

Crossy Road:

The Voxel Based mobile game is an example of how a game can be mechanically in impressive but if the gameplay loop is satisfying and the artstyle and animations are visually appealing the game can appeal to consumers. The Pastel colour palette and basic Art style is inoffensive and easy to enjoy.

Minecraft:

a well-known 'voxel' game, popular for the nature of voxel building games, that you can build anything and explore procedurally generated environments, the artstyle is yet again basic and appeals to the concept of having a large selection of basic blocks so that you can make whatever you want.

Atlas:

the pastel, light, low detail, voxel-based rouge lite again appeals to a cutesy aesthetic, I would say I'm surprised that not more people use voxels to make darker themed games or any other genre.

Skies of the past:

Skies is described as a calming voxel adventure, i would say the use of voxel art adds to that and the games use of mountains and fog gives me shadows of the colossus vibes (see below)

Fugl:

Fugl is my favourite use of voxels so far, the animations are beautiful, and the game uses an amazing colour palette and layer of detail for the set pieces, The Shading on trees and size of the individual voxels is mind blowing.

The Touryst:

This is another Voxel Game done well artistically, the use of shading, lighting and overall style works great with the laidback theme of the game

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Win States/ Lose States

Lose State:

Getting Killed by an Enemy if your health hits 0 (technically 0.01) you 'die' basically you lose control of your character and are given the 'death screen where you can choose to respawn.

Lose State: Death Box,

A Death box is an entity that if you overlap with it forces you to the death screen

Win State

Finishing a level would be a win, for instance the portal at the end of my first level

additionally, if you were to do a horde survival game you could not have a 'win state' but instead judge someone's ability off of a score or time,

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Voxel Art: What's Possible

With Magica voxel you can make anything, here are a few examples of what's possible.

Sir Carna:

VoxelMade:

Theses all show me that with voxels you can make some pretty spectacular art this also shows me how with proper colour paletes you can make your models much more thematic and aesthetically appealing.

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Maya Autodesk: What's Possible

Maya is the main 3d modelling software that we will be using in design for games development, here is a list of well-known games that used maya for the 3d modelling

Call of Duty: Black Ops III:

Ratchet & Clank:

Mirror’s Edge Catalyst:

For Honour:

Dead By Daylight:

All of these games show me the extent of what is possible with maya and some skill and effort, especially when looking at games such as Dead by Daylight, For Honour and how detailed the characters are.

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End of level 1

I Made a teleporter blueprint to spawn a portal at the end of your level where you enter the teleporter, and it will teleport you to a predetermined location, first to spawn the portal you must have killed a certain number of enemies for the portal to spawn.

i also made a script to rotate the portal to give it an animated feel.

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Making a material

when importing a model from magica voxel you get a material that gives your model colour, this material can be edited

what i just did was multiply the rgb base colour to make it more luminant

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Landscaping

using the landscaping tools you can make your games world.

first make a landscape.

In landscaping there are an array of tools to use to change the heights and topology of the map

Sculpt can raise or lower the ground

ramps are used to make inclines, you set two points and raise one, then click add ramp to make a ramp

Erosion simulates the change of ground from high to low, and smooths the ground out,

Hydro erosion simulates the erosion of water, so it erodes eras where water pools,

Though i definitely won't be using these tools in my current game these are useful tools

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Quixel assets

by going to the quixel bridge and signing in with epic games you can access a host of 3d models

due to my game's art style i won't be using Quixel for my assets

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Research

More mechanics

after more thought Im now thinking on more weapons that could be used in my game, I have thought mainly of a kick mechanic that acts as a melee attack, and maybe the addition of explosive items, wether that be throwable grenades or explosive barrels/ propane tanks, the kick mechanic could work with the barrels so that you could kick a barrel into an enemy and shoot it to explode the enemy or kick grenades away from you to save yourself

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Research

After looking at more games I broadened my horizons for movement abilities, I now think that movement techniques such as grapple hooks or sliding.

games like Apex legends and borderlands 3s slide are great examples of these mechanics and how you can implement them but not have them be events that are location specific and scripted, but moreso when talking about apex legends with pathfinders grapple hook, and slide where it can be done anywhere and used in anyways to reach new locations or readily accessible locations faster.

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Research / planning

when looking at all of these games in a similar genre to mine I keep seeing recurring features the most significant being abilities, I think a good step for my game would be to turn tricks more into abilities, that offer something more than just score, and are on a greater cool-down to force the player to use different tricks in combination instead of repeatedly using one trick