next-caller-game

[next-caller-game]

Week 29 (13/04/2025) Build 2.1

One of the things I noticed after reading back through the blog is I mentioned I was looking for voice actors for the project, and I felt that that went neglected for a long time! To begin with an update, I decided not to incorporate voice lines as I felt it messed with the vibe of the project. The tutorial video, while I am looking to implement that later down the line, felt somewhat unimportant for the game at this stage, and So I also decided against adding this in, too. My main focus, as it has always been for this alpha version of the game, Is to incorporate narrative into the game space to demonstrate how the most key function of the game would work.

That being said, I wanted to incorporate some of the more horror elements into the game before I sent it off for submission. So, I introduced the illusive character, The creep, to the agony aunt dynamic. I also wasn't very happy with the writing I had done for the vampire, and decided to revisit it later this week and make some adjustments. After this was added In I worked on adding the final caller for the alpha, and worked on cleaning up the GDD one more time and getting everything ready for submission. I've learnt so much over this time period, and I've achieved far more than I could ever imagine. After my transition from business to design I wasn't sure If I would be able to create something, let alone something I really enjoyed and see as a game that could take to full development. For now, I'll be spending the rest of my time working on the Itch page, and getting the final alpha build of the game ready for submission. Thank you to those who have supported me throughout this journey, and I can't wait to see where next caller goes next.

[next-caller-game]

Week 28 (06/04/2025)

Now that the deadlines were looming ever closer, I wanted to start really getting the game ready to be played. I made a quick instruction screen to add to the very beginning of the game, just to aid players who had their first time playing the game. Originally, this was supposed to be a clipboard, but the animation logic became too complicated so I went with my reliable widget instead. This worked great, and helps guide players through this initial playthrough. I also worked on cleaning a few things up technically, like the caller times and working on adding more in. As well as a few spelling errors I noticed and a few lines progressing to the wrong line of dialogue. I then did another Build to check on issues that had appeared, and continued with this and noting down issues that came up and needed fixing before submission. I realised the menu screen was Still demonstrating issues utilising the mouse cursor, so I went back and took a look at the widget itself to find the mouse cursor was still set to false. I quickly changed this and hopefully this will now work in the next game build.

Aside from that, the game was running very smoothly and now it was just a case of adding in another caller or two and getting ready to submit!

[next-caller-game]

Week 27 (30/03/2025)

I'd been doing so much that I hadn't even realised the deadline was so close! With less than a month now until the finish line, I wanted to ensure my game was in a state that really captured the atmosphere, mood, and genre of the concept. Originally, I had played with the idea of adding jump scares to the demo, but decided against it as I didn't want to put any of the testers through the same repetitive cycle that wasn't really the focus of the game. The jump scares, while a massive part of the horror genre, were only a small part of the concept I had originally created. But, of course, I know all too well that horror is much more than that. I thought about what I had created thus far, and felt like perhaps I hadn't incorporated enough horror. So, using the footage I had from the game, I decided I would make a cinematic concept trailer to use in my presentation. I felt as though this could not only help with the presentation side of this project, but actually, this could really give me an idea of how people feel when they look at the cinematics of this game. And so, I got right to it. Using my footage from before and some free sound assets online, I made a trailer and shared it with my group. One of my biggest fears is that because of my personal affinity with the horror genre, I would be desensitized to anything that was genuinely uncomfortable and tension building, and wouldn't notice it myself. This, in turn, could cause the game to be over-designed, cheaply made with its horror appreciation and garner a lack of actual creativity. So, Once I finished the trailer, I decided to share it with some peers to see what they thought. It received probably the best reaction I could have asked for, with multiple people saying the change in atmosphere was unlike anything they had seen, it proved that the concept was a success.

So, with this information I took on board I decided to keep things how they are, for the most part. a lot of the feeling within the trailer definitely came from the sound design, which I always understood would play a large part in Next Caller becoming successful. While I spent time cleaning things up, I added in some more sound design assets to give it that extra layer it was missing. And with only so little time left, I'm still wondering exactly what I can do next...

[next-caller-game]

Week 26 (23/03/2025)

This week I added in the calendar and digital clock, just to really portray the game space in a genuine way. The level design was really important for me to get right, I wanted it to be messy, gritty, unkept and almost a little gross to really capture that untouched and unloved feel for the radio station. While not perfect, I'm really proud of what I've done with the assets I have. As always, I used free assets, this time from sketchfab, to import the clock and calendar.

Now I was happy with the way the level looked, I decided to finally go in and start colour grading the post process volume. I had a good Idea in my head of what I've always wanted Next Caller to look like, but It's been difficult to convey that into words. Finally getting to really show what the game could look like at the end of development gave me a rush of positivity, and my skills with the post process volume have expanded once again. I added a few intuitive things, such as a film grain, blooming, high contrast shadows and more saturation to make those colours really pop. I wanted to really capture the concept in the world, as well as portray the equal balance of genre for all of them. A while ago, I did add a cel shader to the game, However this does not align with my Lumen lighting process and turns all of the lights off. However, I have found myself preferring the grittier feel from the post process volume colour grading anyway. So this wasn't a loss! I kept my cel shader within the files anyway, just in case I wanted to try it again with different settings, but for now I'm really happy with how the levels look as is.

[next-caller-game]

Week 25 (16/03/2025) 2.0

This week, I spent some time getting my presentation ready for the end of submission. With the deadlines looming ever-closer, I wanted to make sure I was ahead of myself so I wouldn't have any stress going forward.

As I'm rounding up the game, a lot of my focus has been on cleaning things up, such as the blueprints I had no longer been using for the game, as well as some things that had been temporarily taken out, such as the "go live" sign. I am now looking at implementing the ticking clock as well as the calendar as the final pieces to immerse the player for the Alpha demo. Apart from this, I've had a big focus getting up to speed with my other projects such as my portfolio and dissertation, As I've spent a really long time working on this project and neglecting those. I haven't done much this week, but I believe its for all the right reasons!

[next-caller-game]

Week 24 (09/03/2025)

I started this week by redoing my Main Menu and Loading screens, as I wasn't happy with the original ones I had created. After doing this and creating a new build for testing, I realised the mouse cursor wasn't working properly on the menu screen. I added a small node of set show mouse cursor to the level blueprint, and while it worked in the game testing within unreal I need to check if this works in the build. Before I did another build, I wanted to make sure I had fixed a number of other issues that came up in the last build as well. One of the main issues was timing of dialogue, and ensuring it ran smoothly and intuitively. However, despite my best efforts to run custom events and learn how they work, I simply don't know enough about the engine to get it working as it should. This, While a major flaw in production, remains as something more I get to learn when production continues. And while this is a flaw, I still believe the game runs in a way which proves the concept and does tell the story as it should, it is just not as clean as I'd like. From this particular situation, I'm taking away that even though I did not have the skills with unreal to do this, I fixed the problem in a way that ensures the game still functions and promotes narrative.

While playing this build, I noticed an issue with picking options on screen, which I believe comes from my attempt at trying to sort out the cursor as it wasn't working as intended. While you could click on options, the cursor would always stay on screen. To fix this, I simply removed one of the set show cursors on the event graph of the master dialogue system and it was easily fixed. QA testing has continued, and has been incredibly helpful. I've had lots of feedback about the way it plays, and much of it is similar to things I have already noticed myself.

[next-caller-game]

Week 23 (02/03/2025) BUILD 1.9

This week I started by re-adding my fisheye lens to my post process volume, as originally I had removed it to work efficiently as it became somewhat distracting to work with. As well as this, I started working with the Niagara System to add in some dust particles, just to extend my knowledge of level design in unreal a little more. This also added another layer of immersion, as I wanted to express the idea that the environment was old and run down, and not well taken care of. Because I had some experience with materials already, this was a quick creation and was really easily implemented into the game. I found the Niagara system really intuitive and easy to work with, which helped me put it together efficiently.

Finally, I made a light flicker for the spotlight within the station, again, I really wanted to add that extra layer of run-down immersion to the space, as it aids in environmental story-telling massively. I was looking to find ways that were just out of my comfort zone to better utilise the environment in the way the story is told, and I think these add great depth and context for the player. Finally, I finalised my GDD this week and also spent time on my other projects. For next week, I plan to finish the last caller script and get it implemented into the game, as well as an "ending screen" for the demo to make it a whole, consistent piece.

[next-caller-game]

Week 22 (23/02/2025) Build 1.8

This week, I attempted to build my game for the first time, to begin working out any errors that may appear. Of course, it couldn't build the first time due to cooking errors, so I began working on the issues and how to fix them.

Firstly, I noticed a lot of the errors were to do with the Visual Novel Framework I was working with briefly, by Woodsy Studios. This was advised to me by a Game designer peer I have, and ultimately I only ended up using the ST_Scriptlines from it. To minimise the issues, I copied the files and build and began deleting everything I wasn't using, just to clean it up and see what issues were actually within my game that I could fix. Slowly, I worked through everything and actually resolved this issue very quickly. I began my first build, which I accidentally built to only do this first level, and quickly changed my build settings to start on the main menu, which worked perfectly! However, I once again ran into an issue with the main level opening after dialogue had been completed, and needed to rush to see what fix I could implement. I referred back to my non-buildable copy of the game, and realised the global BP was not being called on my buildable copy. To test if this was the issue, I went back to see if my non-buildable was working as intended. However, it wasn't, meaning the issue was located somewhere else. The blueprint system was extremely simple for the level loading logic, and could only be referenced back to either the level blueprint or the blueprint on the character that spawned the level and dialogue. Of course, in true unreal fashion, it was an easy fix which required me adding the loading screen to the viewport and redoing the blueprint so it was working correctly. After switching some things around, everything was, once again, working as intended.

[next-caller-game]

Week 21 (16/02/2025)

This week, I wanted to take some time away from the narrative side and focus on preparing next caller for further production after the assignment was completed. Following my desires, I created an excel sheet for required audio assets, so my audio designer could begin working on what would be required. While I don't believe this will be done in time for game implementation, It's important to me on a personal level that when continuing to work on the project the information is as digestible to others as it has been to me while working through this.

I have, at this point, completed most of the things I had set for myself that I assigned during creating the Trello board, ticking off everything as I had been going along. Some things were removed, such as certain 3d modelling and animation I did not have the skills or people to do, as well as forgoing most of the in house audio design to to our composer being needed for other projects. But, I instead utilised assets that were free and found multiple things online to, at the very least, encapsulate the vision. For now, almost all of the writing has been completed, mainly advertisements and caller interactions, and all that's left is to finish the itch.io page, create a presentation, and implement the last of the callers. With such a heavy focus on writing for this project, and with my lack of skills in programming, I find myself in a unique position where my scope has now outlasted my skill set, and I will be moving on with more study on Unreal as I begin to dive more into the side of programming. I am trying to focus on learning the custom events, and hoping I will learn enough to implement these in time, however the timer system I have currently is working and I am pleased to leave it as such if I do not acquire the knowledge fast enough.

[next-caller-game]

Week 20 (09/02/2025)

This week was similar to those before, Adding in new dialogue for the caller segments within the game, as well as writing them and finalising them for implementation. For the demo mode of the game, my main focus is to incorporate the writing and the callers to the best of my ability rather than focus on any non-narrative focused mechanics. This week, I added in the Vampire caller. I also ran this through a quick playtest, and made notes of what players suggested and felt about the caller. So far, players have reported they really enjoy the difference in character presentation, narratively, and found that each one felt like an entirely different character. This is exactly what I wanted to capture, so I'm pleased that this has been received well.

I've also started preparing things like the itch.io page, as well as the information on my website updated to show all the next caller assets and screenshots to help capture some hype for the game. I've spent a lot of this time focusing on my other projects since I am ahead with the design work, so This week has been a little more relaxed in writing for the game.

[next-caller-game]

Week 19 (02/02/2025)

After successfully implementing the script for the imp section, I spent this week finishing the caller segment for our first caller, a werewolf frat-boy with girl problems. After analysing the script a few times and getting some players to look over it, I converted it into an excel sheet and put it straight into unreal as a new data table. By this point, my confidence with implementing the narrative was quite high, however there were a few things I was concerned with. My implementation methods, will functional, weren't based on an event system. Instead, I used delays and timers to time the dialogue for specific moments. While this work's, it doesn't work based on a simple event being completed. However, custom events were out of my skill set and I knew I'd need time to work on learning how they work before I could implement them into the game. I have started studying custom events, But I've also started ensuring my game is functional and backed up should anything happen to this functional save while working on custom events.

Aside from that, the caller dialogue is now working and automatically plays. While there is no "happiness" system yet implemented, as my design expertise does not fall within this bracket, the choices are available to the player and it plays very smoothly! another big win this week as my confidence with dialogue goes up. The writing side of the script did Have to take an unusual turn, as I needed to write out all of my dialogue options and choices to ensure the dialogue read smoothly and realistically, as well as in keeping with the theme of the conversation. But this was easily translated into an excel sheet and moved to a data table, with the choices being added back later.

Naturally, I did some more edits on the GDD and kept bringing it up to as much of an industry standard as I could.

[next-caller-game]

Week 18 (26/01/2025)

This week started off really positively, with my newfound knowledge of the dialogue master system and data tables being utilised perfectly. I finished writing the script for the Imp interaction and decided to put it into the game almost immediately after gameplay starts. By adding the spawn widget to the sprite speaking the lines and adding a delay, it works really nicely and was very easily added in, creating a seamless sequence of events. For next week, I'd like to attempt making the sprite fade in and out, but this is somewhat complicated due to the nature of the sprite material. However, I have a few ideas about how to get it working and now I am confident with sequences I'm eager to try it out and see if I can get it working.

Like every week, I've also been adding more and more to the GDD, and have done another round of testing to the game, receiving similar results to the last round. Most people have no concerns with the writing itself, and are asking for more choice. So I think more choices utilised within the caller segments will aid in giving more player choice and better narrative. I'm excited to see how this develops, And I'll be looking at adding in caller narrative next week!

[next-caller-game]

Week 17 (19/01/2025)

This week I began running some QA testing with some peers. While not so much a traditional sense of game testing, I was running into issues with writing the script, and felt I needed an extra pair of eyes on it from someone who didn't know as much about the game.

I asked them to read through some of the scripting and presented images of the game and situation to the participant, asking how they would choose to answer this question and then writing it down. This gave me a much better understanding of how fluid the game felt to walk through with the narrative, and how difficult it was to pick the correct answers. Some players wanted to actively disrupt the balance and chose answers that weren't correct, but this was noted within the testing session. It is clear that there is a direct route of choice based on player intention, which is exactly what we're aiming for. This will now be in further consideration when script writing, and new scripts will be tested while game integration is waiting.

Aside from that, I spent more time this week working on GDD implementation, adding more pages to go more into depth with the narrative and scripting, as well as writing some pages about post-production and QA testing.

[next-caller-game]

Week 16 (12/01/2025)

This week had a heavy focus on writing and script-working, ensuring that the scripting was mostly finished for the demo of the game, as well as have them ready for implementation. For this, I utilised the skills gathered thus far with scriptwriting and formatted them in a way that they were easily transferred into a data table, ready for use in game.

The scripting process is one that is somewhat long and tedious. Similar to other aspects of game design, there's not only a necessary skill level required to enhance these scripts and make them fit for games, but also a lot of conditions and considerations for the world you are writing within to tell an effective and fluent story.

For this week, I focused on writing the caller stories. This requires an in depth analyse of a few different things. The written understanding of different creature types, their personal situation and how they need to be advised, without making any answers too obvious or too difficult to pick from. These considerations set the tone for the entire writing process, and mean that within all of the layers around it the script writing takes time, editing, and dedication. While I focused on this, I took regular breaks to continue writing within my GDD, and left technical development for a later date as my scripting was somewhat behind.

[next-caller-game]

Week 15 (9/1/2025) Build 1.7

This week was one of the most asset heavy yet. I began by adding a custom art piece as a poster for the environmental story-telling, which acts not only as a short control guide, but one that tells a story about the people that ran the radio station before the player got there. I added this to a plane and hung it on the front wall of the radio station, as well as creating a card gifted to the player from Mr Flea, reading "sorry for your loss", Trying very hard to incorporate both layers of comedy and horror.

I ran into an issue after attempting some bug fixing when I realised something was overwriting the dialogue within the level blueprint! this meant that when dialogue was trying to run, it would only run the first line before resetting. I fixed this, quite simply, just by disconnecting the node.

I then spent a good chunk of this week working on caller scripting, GDD writing and other projects. For the GDD, I spent a good amount of time going over everything and editing it so it was sufficiently fleshed out, before writing another better page on the narrative and a new page on the target audience. While I had these notes written down, I needed to expand on them a lot more so I could understand my audience better when making the game. This is so valuable, as it helps decipher exactly what the audience requires to not only enjoy the experience, but thrive in it.

[next-caller-game]

Week 14 (1/01/2025)

I returned to the project after a few days away to celebrate Christmas, so there's a lot to catch up on! Firstly, I began working hard on solving the dialogue issue. While it was looping, the game itself was virtually unplayable. Continuing the loop no matter what I did. After some online research and a few conversations with peers, it was deduced that the blueprints for opening the level should not be on the end dialogue function, but instead on the blueprint that spawns the widget itself at the beginning of the game. This seemed to work, for a time, but unfortunately there were more errors that seemed to appear out of nowhere as soon as I tried to do anything different. Eventually, I decided it was time to learn custom events and see if that could be of any use.

While useful, it was exceedingly difficult to get working. There was a lot of uncertainty about where exactly things should be put, and while I had a good system (and far too lengthy) for checking when the dialogue itself so the level could spawn, it just didn't seem to work. I decided to completely start over with what I was doing, and removed the things I thought were causing the issues. This was the blueprint string I had made to check the last line of dialogue so it could only open a level after that particular line was done. While I took a break from this, I created a simple loading screen to add in, more than anything just to clear my head. It was an extremely difficult task, But I'm now pleased to say this is working after adding this function to the Mr Flea sprite blueprint, which is where the widget spawns.

Aside from dialogue, I spent this time retexturing some of the free assets I was using to make them fit the room more. As well as adding a small player zoom onto the camera. When the player right clicks, they zoom in 60 degrees to get a better look at the world surrounding them.

And finally, for the GDD, I wrote more about the environmental story-telling so I could spend the next week working on implementing some environmental assets that helped shape the world a little better, aligning with my own career goals as a narrative designer and writer.

[next-caller-game]

Week 13 (15/12/2025) Build 1.6

I began this week by starting on a few aesthetic pieces to add to the level design. I began with adding a door to the radio station as well as an emissive yellow light following the same steps I had taken to make the emissive lights in the station.

I also wrote a new script, following the interaction the player will have with the Imp species. This is now complete and formatted perfectly to be turned into a data table.

As for the 180 degree turn issue, While it works the Z axis is completely inverted. Up and down seems to not be working as intended, and it was not an issue I had noticed prior when I created this blueprint last week. After some researching and hard work I discovered this could be inverted in the blueprint itself, and after adding more limits on the camera view It worked perfectly. While this now works, it does override the blueprint system I have in place to prevent the player from looking past the assigned viewpoint, and the player can now look around the entire room. Though it is not seamless, My focus does remain on the narrative and therefore since it works somewhat as intended I am looking to fix this at a later date.

This week for the GDD I wrote on the bestiary/guidebook, as well as finalised the dialogue master system pages. As it stands, this is how the level is looking!