jag0137-3d-project

[jag0137-3d-project]

Gameplay Video

Here's the gameplay video on Betadrive

[jag0137-3d-project]

Reflection

Overall - I'm really happy with how my game has turned out given the very small period of time i've been given as an indie developer to develop the concept.

Some parts I'm proud of in the game are:

The sound design, i'd go out on a limb here saying it may be the best part of the game, footsteps are implemented, ambience in the background of the spawn room like humming flourescent lights and small little details, not to mention the reverb indoors!

The level design, using Quixel Megascans was definitely the right call given again the short period of time, it helped me to develop a hyper-realistic level integrated into the game itself, adding an extra level of immersion.

Weapon Design, as you know there was a concept for a P226 type weapon modelled in MagicaVoxel that was never implemented, the MDL is especially great, and translates into Unreal Engine really well, infact i'd say it blends nicely to the eye into the realistic backdrop due to the odd lighting mechanics of UE5. I'm happy with the voxel guns in a realistic setting aesthetic and personally think it's fairly unique.

However, some parts i'm not proud of:

The janky movement, it's definitely not fully fluid and could've been developed quite a bit further, however, at the end of the day it is functional. Perhaps air strafing, and less smooth walking and maybe even sprinting could have been added.

Lack of ADS, you are fully unable to aim down the sights, not to mention how the bullet comes from the center of the screen and not the barrel of the gun, luckily this is only noticeable if you're looking for it really, and helps to create an easier sense of aiming by shooting directly where I implemented the crosshair widget.

I'd say I found 3D development no more difficult than 2D, though that could be my bias due to previous experience in the field. The games definitely unfinished and I didn't get time to add the music theme, however the proof of concept was there, and could be developed accordingly.

0 notes

[jag0137-3d-project]

Maya Mix-Tape Modelling

Here i'll show off a good example of 3D modelling in Maya, and using some of the tools provided. Below was the reference image I used for this cassette tape

And now here's the final product

And here's the UV map that was applied!

Firstly, I added a cube to my workspace in maya, and I used the slice tool to implement some angled cuts to then extrude the bottom section, making the small raised grip at the bottom. Next, I added two cylinders to the scene, scaled them vertically and moved them to where I wanted to punch out the holes on the tape, which I did with the boolean modifier. From there, multiple cubes were scaled and placed onto the tape to create the dimple around the holes and the square hole through the middle, which were again created using the boolean. The last cube was placed and scaled to create the label, and then finally used the bevel modifier to smooth out the edges of the tape itself.

[jag0137-3d-project]

Feedback on the game!

I showed my game and it's gameplay to a few of my friends and some of the biggest complaints before changing were these:

Doesn't feel as fluid as it should hitting enemies/indistinguishable

Shouldn't be able to instantly One-Shot enemies

And so, as seen from previous posts, I fixed and implemented these issues satisfying the requests of playtesters, and helping create an overall smoother experience from third-person feedback.

[jag0137-3d-project]

Planning of Level

Here's my original plan I came up with for the level that ended up making it into the game! messy, but I understand it, and if compared, it's visible that I didn't stray too far at all from my original idea.

[jag0137-3d-project]

Accessibility in my game

There isn't much to accesibalise either in my game, if that's even a word. However, I personally think sound design links into it, and the bright red health bars above the enemies. On the other end of the scale the colours are a bit washed out, and could make it troubling for colourblind people to distinguish between colours.

[jag0137-3d-project]

Ethics in MY games.

If I'm going to be honest - I really don't believe ethics would be an issue in my game. There's no humans, as you shoot soulless robots. The only possible offensive feature could perhaps be the main character's Gun, and I suppose the portrayal of war waging between the player and robots.

[jag0137-3d-project]

Ethics in Games

Interesting food for thought, here's an article I read on ethics of games design

[jag0137-3d-project]

5 Similar Games - PEGI edition

Here are 5 games featuring similar styles as me and their PEGI ratings:

Krunker - 12

Pixel Gun 3D - 12

Half Life 1 - 18 (Nowadays the gore equates to 14)

Call Of Duty: Black Ops Zombies - 18

Bloons TD 5 (seems unrelated, but it's a wave shooter) - 9

[jag0137-3d-project]

Moving Platforms in games

Moving platforms have been around in video games since near the creation of platformers, it creates an unexpected and more challenging situation to put a player in to get to a reward/goal.

What I took and found interesting from researching is that there are multiple ways of creatively using them, one of my favourites as opposed to the usual platform scrolling between two places is a platform embedded in a wall which pops in and out, now if you line these up and create odd timing patterns, it gives even more challenge for the player, as if the mess up the timing or make a mistake they will fall to either a lesser part of the level or their doom.

[jag0137-3d-project]

Real Time Animation in UE5

Here's an article on real-time animation in UE5, and a video explaining behind the scenes.

3 things I've learnt from their creative processes are:

They created sketches of scenes beforehand

They had to entirely learn UE5 with no experience of the software beforehand

They use the same assets from pre-production to final production, and improve on them throughout the working period.

Something I could definitely take from this is using the same assets start to end, I think with enough post processing, any assets can be game ready.

[jag0137-3d-project]

Game Soundscapes and Player Experience

I'm going to use a well known game called Skyrim for this investigation. Generally, Skyrim is built around a fantasial setting with places such as enchanting caves and luscious forests, including of course settlements and towns and even different anthropomorphic sentient species. Audio adds LARGELY to this fantasial experience, let's look at a waterfall from the game.

Now, with normal sound design and just simple water rushing, birds chirping and wind blowing this could believably be in some place on earth, and appears as very boring and natural. However, throw in some enchanting wind chimes, whistling and such and a surreal experience is created with a captivating aura, this can be multiplied tenfold by the sound of crystals clinking and creatures humming.

[jag0137-3d-project]

Cross Cultural Sound Design

Sound design can be used to create a sense of flow in the experience and meet certain expectations, for example, stereotypically you would expect to hear perhaps bluegrass-banjo music in a wild west situation, or a harmonica/whistling with the occasional bird crow. It infact helps to create a sense of immersion using said stereotypes to subliminally inform your mind from an auditory standpoint of where you are/where you would expect to be when hearing this.

This can also help to create certain player experiences - lets take a medieval English town to talk about here. A faint sound of blacksmith's tools clinking, horses neighing and sounds you'd expect to hear could be adding in the backdrop, without actually modelling and adding in such scenes to fill the gaps in a player's mind in what is and isn't in a certain level/scene.

[jag0137-3d-project]

Auditory Influence on Player Behaviour

An interesting example of this influence is used through sound cues, negative and positive. They inflict a certain emotion on the player especially when they are presented with an emotional or game-changing choice. In a way, it points the player in a certain direction/down a certain route gameplay wise that the developers could want the player to experience.

Behaviour can also be influenced directly via music, for example, if melancholic music is playing, the player is more inclined to feel sad, and pick merciful choices if it comes to killing off a character, however if the same scene is played out from the beginning but with evil/mischievous music, the player is more likely to use less mercy, and assume it is morally ok to kill off a certain character. This can be used fully to semi-control the way you want a game to be played out - it's all about affecting the subconscious in making games.

[jag0137-3d-project]

Cognitive Processing in Games

On the topic of investigating how sound cues are used to guide players in video games, I found a very interesting example of such:

In this game, the scene around you is completely invisible and simulates seeing through sonar, as if you were a bat. This game is near impossible to beat without using these sound cues which give you sight in the form of outlining/wireframe.

It's an interesting concept and helps to understand how important sound cues can be *especially* for the blind. In this game, any sources that emit sound light up a radius around them, if you make sound, a small radius around you is lit up. The sound design affects us on a subliminal level in most games, adding a layer and sense of polish to the game, if a game's sound design is bad - you'll notice it.

Another interesting example into this study is Counter Strike. The comparison of the game with and without audio makes a HUGE difference in the sense that sound cues are used to locate where an enemy is cognitively behind an obstruction. Without audio, you would quite literally be shooting in the dark.

[jag0137-3d-project]

7 Games Research

Crossy Road

Crossy Road is an isometric scroller in which you play as a multitude of characters starting as a chicken. The objective of the game is to get as far as possible while avoiding obstacles such as train crossings, roads, rivers and collect as many coins as possible along the way. Characters are unlocked from a gacha like system in which you spend your coins that you've collected (usually 100) in exchange for a new character. Mostly purely cosmetic however.

Minecraft

Minecraft is an open world exploration survival game, there is a set goal to follow, however you can take as long as you like and will not be ushered, and can play after completing said goal (fighting the ender-dragon). There are three dimensions and to get into the End dimension you must first visit the nether to gain the correct resources, to access the nether you must gain necessary resources in the overworld first. You can also play the game without beating the objective at all, as this also counts as a sandbox meaning you can build to your hearts content in an almost infinite sprawling world with interesting biomes.

Teardown

Teardown is a career based - sandbox game in which you navigate fully voxel based scenes, that are entirely destructable with realistic physics. As voxel games go, this game is extremely revolutional in its destruction, everything behaves as you'd expect it to and you have a multitude of tools including for example the hammer, flamethrower and bomb. Fire physics are incredible for being voxel based, and as expected, smoke physics are aswell incredible.

Skies of the past

Skies of the past is once again voxel based, but leans more into an adventure game. It's built from the ground up to be a relaxing experience in which you navigate floating islands and their ruins from an ancient civilisation in which everybody forgot about. It's vastly open world and you can use a hot air balloon or an aircraft to move about the map, there are no set specific targets, just mainly exploration.

Fugl

Fugl is also an open world exploration adventure game built in voxel in which you play as a bird, exploring from canyon crevasses to rolling hills and plains, the sound design immerses you, adding a slight hint of reverb to most sounds to make the whole world feel larger and more empty. One thing that draws me to this game is the procedural voxel cloud design - just a small feature that I thought was rather neat.

The Touryst

The Touryst is an action-adventure game based around a 5 hour long story to keep the player busy, it features solving platforming puzzles and exploring mysterious ruins, capturing the feeling of stumbling onto an adventure when for example on holiday, I suppose this game could also class as a platformer in the sense of some of the puzzles, and of course, this game is once again a voxel game - starting to see a theme here.

Bonfire Peaks

Bonfire Peaks is also a puzzle game, specifically built around closure. You navigate hand crafted voxel based worlds telling a slight story along the way - the puzzles are built in a very sturdy fashion and can be quite challenging at times to complete, the protagonist - an unnamed man - is a mute character and the purpose of the game is to burn his belongings to reach the aforementioned closure.

[jag0137-3d-project]

AI - Healthbars

I've implemented now AI healthbars, it takes 4 bullets to kill one bot and it takes them 10 bullets to kill you.

Audio wise when shooting the Bots i've also implemented hitmarker SFXs to further be able to distinguish where you're hitting.