liamfoulger-unit4narrative

[liamfoulger-unit4narrative]

Showing off my quest system

[liamfoulger-unit4narrative]

Evaluation

In this project I was able to make a working dialogue and weapon system which I am very happy about and what I was hoping to do from the beginning. Upgrading my dialogue system into a quest system was a lot more difficult than I expected. It would've helped if I noticed some small mistakes earlier but I'm still very happy with what I have done. I was able to make a small narrative of telling either a weaponsmith or armoursmith about a battle and then receiving either a sword or new armour depending who you talk to. I am happy as I was able to manage my time well and have a reasonable scope with how much I wanted to make. There were still extras that I could have done but I am more than happy with what I have done.

The project would've gone better if I could've noticed the mistake I made with my quest system earlier because then I could've gone on to updating my weapon and inventory system or adding a boss fight or just some enemies into the game in an outside area. I could have also added a quest UI so you can see your progress through the quest.

If I were to have done this project again I would make sure to check my code more and try to rely on others checking it less. I would also start on my coding earlier and maybe add an extra quest to make it more interesting. I would have also thought about the design of the UI for my dialogue.

I am looking forward to the next project no matter what it is. I am hoping to carry on with doing what I have been doing this year and making different systems that I can use moving forward.

[liamfoulger-unit4narrative]

Greyboxing my game

I decided to greybox my game so then the gameplay will be a bit more exciting. I based my design off clock town from The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask this is because I liked the simplicity of having a centre area and four gates around the outside. I also placed guards by the gates to help guide the players to beginning the quest. I also placed characters around the area guiding the player more as well.

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Making a Quest System pt2

After checking to see if the current NPC is a quest finisher. It then does a for each loop to check through the active quest and sees whether the quest the quest receiver is a part of is in the active quests. It then sets the position it is in as a variable in case I need to call for it again, then it checks if it is active.

If all of those are true it then checks if the item has been given to the player. If it hasn't then it sets the quest giver as the quest giver, it then spawns in the quest item associated with that character and gets the actor class from the quest giver variable.

Then it adds one to the current conversation of the quest giver and sets that new value. After that it gets the quest finishers and looks through them using a loop.

It then casts to the first person character and checks whether the talk to character is the same as the quest finisher it then adds one to the conversation of the quest finisher which is wrong so I got rid of that code. It sets the new conversation of the quest giver as the relevant one to the quest finisher. Then it sets the current line back to 1 which I forgot about having to do before which caused issues with my code. If the quest finisher is not the same as the talk to character then it adds one to the conversation of that quest finisher.

[liamfoulger-unit4narrative]

Making a Quest System

I decided to add a quest system to my dialogue system.

I started off making it on the end of my dialogue system and got this far but when it went wrong it was very hard to keep a handle on it so I decided to put it inside my quest manager instead.

I also knew I'd need to add the quests to an array and I first started to do this in the Old Lady Blueprint for quest A but then I realised I could automate it all so I made it in the Quest_Giver Blueprint which is the parent to the Old Lady Blueprint. It will then allow me to have more Quest Givers once I have got my quest system working.

So once the Custom event is called in the NPC after the dialogue has finished, it sets the NPC as a variable in the Quest Manager so then I can call it more easily and stops me from having to have the lines going everywhere making it more readable. Then it goes to a branch which checks whether the NPC you are talking to is a Quest Finisher. If it isn't then it checks whether the NPC you are talking to is a quest Giver if they are then it carry's on with the code I am going to talk about now.

It uses the quest giver variable I made earlier to call the custom event I made to make the quests and add them to the Active quests array. Then it goes to a do once which means the next section of code would be repeated if the player decides to talk to the character again. Then a for each loop cycles through the active quests.

It checks to see if the quest the character is a part of is in the array which it definitely should but it is just a check and then cycles through the quest receivers.

Then it adds one to the current conversation number stored in the active quest.

[liamfoulger-unit4narrative]

Chekhov's Gun

Chekhov's gun is a dramatic principle which is about how you should remove unnecessary elements from a story. Meaning you shouldn't show something which won't then lead to a pay off. This means if you make a point of showing something then it should be of significance like if you leave a gun on the table and make it obvious then it should be used in some way. The only down side to using this a lot it will make things predictable so you need to lay down some red herrings here and there so the player won't be able to tell what's happening next. In horror films Chekhov's gun isn't as effective as you need to keep a lot of unpredictability to scare people. They shouldn't rely on the unpredictability to set up just jump scares or they get predictable and should use it to make a creepy story and atmosphere.

It's good when a story leaves clues that you don't know are clues until the end as this will make people want to rewatch or replay through the story. A good example of this is The Sixth Sense where the ending is completely unexpected but it shows you previous scenes in the film which make you realise just how well written the twist is.

Another good example is a show called Mr Robot where at the end of all the seasons a big twist is revealed the biggest I would say are the first and final season reveals. They made me want to rewatch the series all over again just because of how unexpected they were but also how well written they were and how looking back you can see just how they set it all up.

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Story Inspiration

I would prefer to do a more visual way of storytelling to begin my game as this immerses players more than just being told everything through text. This makes the player more likely to want to carry on playing the game so understanding how to make the beginning is very important.

Bioshock Infinite

The introduction to Bioshock Infinite is very good as it leans into the horror aspects of the previous games by dropping you off at a lighthouse in the middle of the ocean, given a gun and told to find the girl. It builds quite a lot of tension and has a lot of open questions like who is the girl, where are you going and lots of other things. It also breaks the trope from the first game, where you are sent underwater from the lighthouse, by sending you into the sky. You then wake up in a utopian sky city called Columbia. Then you walk through Columbia seeing different posters making you ask more questions like why are you the false Shepard and why are the people being told to watch out for you.

Mainlining

The introduction to mainlining is very effective at drawing in players with it replicating an old school style PC. The opening helps to engage the players with it just flashing to blue suddenly and giving a reboot style screen, the immersion is kept with it keeping with the old look to the UI but it just uses text which isn't the best way of telling a story but it couldn't have been done any other way with keeping the player involved. Maybe having more of a cutscene would've made it more exciting but it would be difficult to implement.

Silent Hill 2

The opening to Silent Hill 2 is very good as it starts very abruptly with you starting off in an old run down bathroom just looking into a mirror. The character then starts to monologue talking about a woman called Mary and asking whether she could really be there. This opens the question of who is Mary and where is she. You then have to exit the bathroom and hear a woman talking. She starts talking about a town called Silent Hill and how you promised to take her there again and how you never did. She tells she's alone in your special place which half answers the question of where she is but you need to know where your special place is. The main character starts speaking again saying he got a letter from Mary. He then says how Mary was your wife and how she died 3 years ago of disease. He then says how the whole town is your special place but then talks about a park. This then answers the two main questions set up in the introduction but asks another of is she really alive or not. The background is a scene of an area overlooking some trees covered in mist. This is very effective and eerie setting the whole tone of the game by answering questions but opening others with those answers.

The Last Of Us

The opening to the Last Of Us is very good and sets the tone for the game really well. It starts the game with a cutscene showing off a man on the phone worried about losing his job, he then turns on the light waking up a little girl. They then sit down on the sofa together, he calls her honey letting you know they're a farther and daughter. She hands him a present saying its for his birthday which is a new watch, the dad then pulls a joke on her saying it isn't working showing just how close they are. She then falls asleep on the sofa and gets carried upstairs. The gameplay then starts by having you get woken up by a phone call from your uncle asking for your dad. You then have to walk around the house looking for your dad, you're able to look around and find a little bit about the characters and see a bit of a news report telling you about a virus which is flooding the hospitals and see a hospital get blown up. Once you go downstairs and go towards the backdoor, he then walks through the door and tells you to get ready to leave. Then one of your neighbors walks up to the door and smashes it, your dad then shoots them after they run towards you. Your uncle then arrives at the front door and you go in his car, seeing the carnage the world has been plunged into as you get driven past. The car then crashes and you get to play as the dad, Joel, you then have to carry your daughter whilst running through the city avoiding explosions and enemies. You then lose tommy, the uncle, when he saves you by holding back some enemies since he's faster than you because you're holding your daughter. You then get chased by some enemies and then get taken into a cutscene where they get shot. You then see a soldier in front of you who is afraid that you're infected. He then radios through seeming distressed and letting them know you have a little girl with you. He then raises his gun and opens fire. You roll down a hill and tommy saves you but not in time since your daughter was shot. She then dies in your arms and the game truly begins. This really sets up the solemn feel of the whole game and sets up the farther daughter feel which is replicated through Joel and Ellies relationship. At the begin Joel is cold towards her but they slowly grow closer but the dark tone is kept throughout the whole game. This introduction is really effective as it draws you in and shows you the infection and just caught by surprise everyone was. It has a lot of good visual story telling allowing you to see the news report and see all the houses and people stranded on the road whilst you're driving away from the house.

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Inspiration

I was inspired to make this starter section of a game by older game like Pokémon and Zelda. These types of games usually have a starter town or area to get you used to the game. I thought this would fit really well with the narrative project because games have to set up the narrative and the reason why your character is doing what they are doing.

This video shows off the first area in Ocarina of Time and shows all the things you have to do to be able to leave the area. It also has an opening cutscene which is another good way of introducing the story.

Another Zelda game called Majora's Mask does this well because the games map has a central town which you are forced to stay in for the first 3 day cycle and have to do certain tasks which introduces you to the quest system and opens up a few new quests for you to be able to do later on in the game. This video shows the introduction to the great fairy fountain stray fairy collection quests which are in dungeons. It also introduces you to the bomber book which lets you keep track of quests and then shows the title deed quest which is carried on further into the game.

Goodsprings is another good example of a starter town especially since the quests build a story which is like a mini version of the main games story. This is where you wake up after being shot in the head at the start of the game. You have lots to do and get put in the middle of a faction war between the townsfolk of Goodsprings and a group of prison escapees called the powder gangers. You can choose to side with either side but if you choose to side with the people of Goodsprings then you have to pass certain skill checks to get extra help from the townsfolk. This quite unique and makes it so you can choose to spend extra time getting your skills to a good enough level to get help from the people you want to help you. It's quite a cool idea for a starter area as it makes it more in-depth and still gives you choice and the ability to change the way certain parts of the game progress. It also at the end tells you what your options mean for the town and people living there if you didn't kill them all.

Red Dead Redemption 2 has a good starter area since it sets the tone for the game showing how you are on the run and just getting by as a group. During this section you are stuck in a snowy area, you have to do a mission where you combat another gang holed up near your camp, then you have to search for another gang member and then the game allows you to roam around the town a bit asking you to talk to a couple other members, once you talk to the cook he says they are low on supplies so you have to go out hunting for a mission which is a big mechanic in the game and allows you to upgrade your camp and inventory and get food to heal. Then you have to go do another shoot out mission and then do a heist. After that you move on to the next section of the game. It is a bit annoying they didn't let you explore the snowy area more whilst you were there but it is a nice starting section since it introduces you to the main mechanics of the game and the other members of the gang. Getting closer to the other gang members is another big mechanic in the game and something that makes it a lot nicer to play and makes upgrading the camp and doing side missions feel worth it.

I thought it would be a good reason to do a really basic quest too because they usually have to work you into everything after the tutorial with a basic quest before setting up a big one. A quest system will be really useful and allow me to make my games more enjoyable to play.

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Using A Line Trace Instead Of Collision

This helps because it stops everything from being so janky and means I can adjust how far you can connect with things easier.

This is a more complex but more useful way of doing things and it can be used in more situations. I could also use it for guns but not in a 3D game because bullet drop would be a lot more difficult to do. I am not expecting to do 3D games though as I prefer doing 2D games whether that is top down or side scrolling as they are easier to do and means I don't have to worry about the z axis.

In this code it just gets the way the character is looking and then shoots off the line trace.

It then checks to see if it hits anything and if it does it then checks to see if it's an actor with the correct interface and then runs the rest of the code.

[liamfoulger-unit4narrative]

Turning My Dialogue System Into A Quest System

I did this by making a new blueprint called the quest manager. This will help me later on if I want to make a UI for the quest and being able to select different ones or see how far through them you are. I then had to make some booleans in the NPC to be able to tell what kind of character they are. This was so then I could later use branches and make different NPC classes do different things.

I then decided to use a struct to store all the quest information so then I will have it all in one place and be able to call things a lot easier.

I then made it so if one character spawned the quest item the other wouldn't.

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Twine Games

The Ballad Of Devils Creek

This games was made using twine. I didn't play too much of it but it seems like a reasonably solid text based game. It is a western style game where you play as an outlaw. It gets repetitive very quickly though since it doesn't have any challenge to it.

A Witch's Word

This game is not the best since you can't really read the text because it uses black coloured text on a dark grey background only having a few in purple. It then changes the text to white with some as black which you can click on which expands it or changes the words. The options at the bottom are in purple to begin with but then become black. This game has not thought about its colour palette at all which makes it really annoying to play. It is really short so doesn't get repetitive.

[liamfoulger-unit4narrative]

Using Twine

I wouldn't usually use this kind of software but it isn't difficult to use so if I wanted to just make a text based game I would definitely use it but I am not planning on making an entirely text based game in the future.

It works like a flow chart with you adding hyper links to the text and making that allow you to go from one text box thing to another. This also allows the player to have a choice but isn't really like a standard text based games like Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy which have a terminal bit that you get to type into.

I started a basic game using twine but didn't see the point in finishing it as I wanted to get on with my project. It was okay to mess around in and as I said earlier if I wanted to make a text based game it would be really useful. It is a bit annoying that the options are on the screen because you can't add fun little things like Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy did like how you get a towel early on and if you throw it down then the game ends and it makes it a lot less challenging as the options are always on the screen and doesn't make you need to think about how you are wording things.

I used variables to make it a little more interesting but I didn't feel like doing anymore with it.

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Making it so only the last line of dialogue is played once you've alraedy spoken to a character.

I did this because it is a standard things RPG's do so you don't need to go through all the characters dialogue again to get an idea of what sort of quest they gave. This was a lot more complex than I first believed it would be.

First I had to make 2 new variables to check whether it was on the last line and whether the conversation needed to be ended which are booleans.

I then had to put a new row in my csv called final row. This was a boolean to which I could then set in the code.

I then had to check whether that was true or not once the for loop is over. If its false it goes through code I've already explained and if true it sets the conversation as over and then goes through the same code as false but if the code is messed up it wont repeat thewhole conversation.

After that at the beginning of the NPC code after the player has used the interact button there is a branch which checks whether the conversation is over. If it isn't it does code I've already written. If it is true then it removes the widget from the viewport and then sets the conversation as not over. Then it casts to the first person character and then sets the movement as walking and then sets the widget as nothing for the checking of whether there is a widget open.

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Dialogue Using Datatables

I first made the spreadsheet with the conversations on it to start with. I then followed a set of videos to get a base for the dialogue system.

This is the first of the four they made but I did not use the fourth as it was not useful to me:

The videos are good as they show the progression up to it but I only needed a few of the things from the second video for the code in the player character and the third video for the NPC dialogue code.

I first had to make a custom input action for the player as an empty interface blue print. I then set this interface on the character and the NPC blueprint.

After doing that I started by calling it as an input action in the player. I then got all the actors with the interface so then it would allow me to have more than one NPC. It then loops through to check when you interact that the player is overlapped with one of the actors with the interface and calls an event through the interface.

It then runs the event in the NPC blueprint which then casts to the player to disable their movement, this was not shown on the video but is something I chose to do. At first I couldn't get it working because I was using it in the player a before calling the interact event but moving it into the NPC blueprint just after the event was called in there made it work for whatever reason. I then incremented the current line variable by 1 and called a function within the NPC blueprint called dialogue create.

This obviously creates the dialogue widget and puts the text on the screen. It does this by first checking whether there is already a widget on the screen. If there is it then just calls a function and sets the output dialogue line as the dialogue. If there isn't a widget already up it creates one and sets it to the screen and then calls the function etc.

[liamfoulger-unit4narrative]

Plan for this week

This week I am hoping to get a basis for my dialogue system implemented so that I can build upon it. If I get that done quick enough I can hopefully then get it so only the last bit of dialogue is shown and then get it looking to see whether youve done the quest or not.

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Plan For My Idea

To make my idea work I am going to have a town where the character has to walk around and talk to NPC's in the town. They will point the player in the direction of a certain area which is where the quest will be. The quest will ask the player to go to a few different locations before giving them a choice. The choice will affect what they are given at the end of the quest. This could lead onto my weapon system rework by giving them a weapon. I could also give them just a damage buff or movement boost and then the key to a boss fight.

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Mindmap

I like the more nature based design for my town idea because I think it would make most sense especially with expanding upon it adding more to it if I had the time because I could include some of my other ideas with it. I could also use the more nature themed setting for a boss fight arena with it being like a cave system with a boss at the end.

I think the futuristic design would suit the detective style game a bit more since I could make things looker cooler and have more hidden bits within objects.

Redesigning my weapon system I could use any of the different ones but using ancient civilisation might be fun to do and have enemies themed around the mythology of the chosen civilisation.