samanthajanetaylor-illustration

[samanthajanetaylor-illustration]

Evaluation

Its been a long, exhausting, but rewarding process and the game is complete! Overall I’m very proud of what I’ve created, and glad to have worked with a partner to do the things I can’t (programming). The animations are smooth and natural for the isometric angle, and art style of the game, the characters and objects feel like they really have a weight to them, which having  hitboxes tailored to the object exactly definitely helps.I feel the narrative flows quite naturally, it is more linear than I had planned all the way back with the pre-major unit and early into this one, though now I think this is appropriate for the subject matter. The playable nature of Fathom lends itself well to the story and I’m not sure it could be told as effectively if it was a book, or even entirely an animation. Players learn through the visuals, through searching, trial and error and the game uses auditory and visual ques effectively, making it feel quite immersive -- particularly with the ambient soundtracks. The art style and choice to use two programs (Photoshop & Illustrator) to create the artwork for the game lent itself well in the overall development process, using Illustrator to make the basic shapes of assets and environments and certain lighting/shadow effects, and then importing these to Photoshop for detail and texture. This way of working was not exactly fast-paced, and that’s why I’m glad of the overall artstyle I chose to work in, as I can’t imagine how long something a little more detailed would have taken. The game uses the environment to convey information to the player subtly, for instance, how the initial forest/ village area is full of bright, mystical colours, full of life and energy despite the lack of people, and how the player is suddenly thrust into a scary, dark and foreboding place, which doesn't even have a solid floor. Even before though, there is a hint of a more sinister occurrence under the vale of the forested area, which the player will pick up on particularly from the starling NPC and the abandoned house. I’m definitely pleased with how the environments came out, and with how they help construct the narrative.

There are things I wish I could have done differently of course. For one, i would have liked the game to be a bit longer, have a few more puzzles based on Enid’s character traits perhaps -- though obviously time was a factor here, and I think myself and Tom did a great job with the 4 months we had. I do wish I had used the environment a little more than I have, perhaps, to tell the story directly. Little things, like perhaps leaving the dried daffodils on top of the chest instead of hidden inside it, or perhaps more evidence of Enid’s interests in mythology -- like stuffed toy dragons on a shelf. I also believe in a few places, certain objects appear to defy the physics of the world, for example, some of the trees appear to go straight up, rather than it looking more like a semi-top-down perspective like the rest of the world (due to the isometric style). This is not part of the art-style I set, and perhaps I noticed rather too late, but this is always something I can go back and correct in the future. Some of the colours appear a slightly different colour on other monitors and I’m not sure if that is more to do with that particular monitor's setting or the colours I’ve used, unlike last year though, at least the player can still see where they’re going clearly and there is no danger of dying or losing the game by colliding with anything. I also wish I could have implemented a few different mechanics, like perhaps certain areas you have to crawl or jump to, rather than just walking everywhere, adding a little more variety to the gameplay and narrative alike. 

There are some problems with crashing or some devices, however this does not seem to happen for any particular reason. I was hoping to have fixed this before the deadline, however unfortunately it wasn’t possible. The game seems to play fine on better computers than my laptop, so hopefully it wont be too much of a problem for most people, its an unfortunate fact that these things sometimes happen. I think the problem is caused when the system memory is becoming too full, therefore lower spec computers can’t play it for very long. I think the problem was also to do with Tom allowing the game to retain information about previous rooms (rather than loading each time a new place is entered) and this stored information just stacks and stacks until there isn’t any more memory. This might not have been an issue if the files I had used were smaller, something I will definitely not forget to check ever again. The player can also become trapped if they walk between two objects which are very close together, sometimes they may be able to squeeze out, but unfortunately a lot of the time the only way to fix it is to exit the game. Perhaps I should have asked Tom to implement some sort of system that saves progress every now and then, or something similar. Currently, if a glitch is encountered, unfortunately the player will have to exit the game.

I’ve learned a lot during this project, about collaborating with others, problem solving, how to set up visuals for a more complex game, more advanced hitbox/collision and user interfaces. I feel I’ve come out of this project wishing for more, and I definitely intend to work on more of my own games again in the future. Tom Rule has been excellent to work with, as he challenged me to stick strictly to individual mini deadlines, provided constructive criticism, lent his advanced programming skills to my game and helped me stay sane! Now I’m just wondering where I can take my abilities next.

[samanthajanetaylor-illustration]

Playthrough video

The video is available on the USB drive, as well as online. This is mostly just in case for some reason the examiner cannot play the game. I will make anther video that is more for a show reel rather than showing the full game.

[samanthajanetaylor-illustration]

Problem-solving

There were a lot of large and small issues during development that I had to overcome/fix, so instead of writing in lots of detail I’ll make a list:

Oversized image files: this was the earliest problem we had. I forgot to research how large an average screen was so I made massive files, particularly for backgrounds. This caused a glitch in the game where all the assets became an abstracted, glitchy smear across the screen. Had to go back and re-size most levels and objects. (Lots of small and large issues link back to this mistake!)

Sprite sheets too long: This problem wasn’t so much that the individual animation frames were too big, but when put together a lot of them stretched off longer or taller than the background file. This would cause the game to become really laggy, or crash. For a lot of them I had to go back and figure how to cut down an animation, having to remove a lot of frames in come cases. The ones that caused the most problems were the large things, such as the dog, or the retracting teeth.

Shifting animations: this links back to the original problem created by the oversized files. Some of the NPC/character animations were also large because when I first make them I forgot to think about how big they NEEDED to be in levels (which was a lot smaller than originally thought). Instead of resizing individual frames I thought resizing the sprite sheet by the amount required (82.56%)  would do it, which it did, but it also caused the animation in game to be jumpy which was particularly obvious when idle. To fix this I had to go back to the original PSD and export the animation again at the correct size and make new sprite sheets.

Cutscenes: The NPC animations took longer than I originally thought they would, as I ended up doing some characters who walked in multiple directions the same as the player character. This meant I only had about 2 weeks to create all the cutscenes for the game! I had to cut the amount of illustrations down in each scene quite substantially, though I feel what I did come up with does convey the information I originally intended.

These problems taught me valuable lessons, and I know I will not make the same ones in the future! 

[samanthajanetaylor-illustration]

Target Audience

When coming up with concepts for my game, the narrative and when in the process of designing it, I wanted to try and make it accessible for all ages as it talks about a subject thats personal to me. I think its very important for people to understand the things that those on the spectrum struggle with in a more personal take, as it will hopefully get people thinking about the little things they can do to help someone like this. Although the game never explicitly states that it is about aspergers, I think the same heavily implies it and I think people will understand that.

I think my target audience is mainly people who do not have autism themselves, but they may know someone who fits the behaviors mentioned in the story. It’s message is to try and get people to understand the subject better, understand why that person acts differently and why it isn't always something that they can control, that other people can actually help these people fundamentally BY understanding them. Growing up I had a lot of the same issues Enid in the story does, and I still do, but getting my diagnosis has helped me in many different ways.

I think my target age group is above the age of 12, as the teenage years are extremely trying times for autistic people, as at this age and onward everything becomes about being social with others. The most difficult years are teenage to early 20′s as so many changes occur during this time, and is thus the time that most children/young adults are diagnosed. Thats why I think people need to be educated more about disabilities such as autism at a young age, I think it could prevent so many misunderstandings, especially later in life. many middle aged and elderly do not understand autism either, which is why I left the age group open ended.

I will need to think about how my game will be displayed for the exhibition, I would love for people to be able to play it for themselves, though this may not be practical. This is why I need to record a play through as well, as this could be a suitable replacement, though perhaps not as impactful. I think the playable nature of the work is important for the narrative.

[samanthajanetaylor-illustration]

My website!

http://www.sammytaylorart.co.uk/

Realised I hadn’t actually linked it onto here yet, so here it is! 

I will be making a showreal of my artwork, including my games, animations and some still artwork too. I want to really show the different things I can do, I know what I want to do specifically now so I need to make sure it’s tailored in a way that expresses my interest in asset design, backgrounds, animation (particularly looped), concept artwork/design and GUI (Graphic User Interface, basically the art of a user interface system).

[samanthajanetaylor-illustration]

The main menu screen/loading screen. I was originally thinking of adding more options to the menu, such as a separate key to open up the controls etc. Though, since the game doesn’t have many controls and they are fairly easy to remember (since it just uses the mouse), I decided to just have that information available on the screen itself. I feel the simple controls makes the game more accessible to older and younger people too. I decided to go for simple background artwork, as I feel a great landscape might distract from the meaning of the game and the title in a way. A simple image of starlight breaking through the leaves reflects the discoveries the player character will make in the adventure in a more subtle way. The title text is obviously hand drawn by me, using a chalk texture brush on my drawing program (unlike most assets this was entirely photoshop, rather than a combination of illustrator and photoshop), I liked the idea of reflecting Enid’s hand written notes and drawings with the title too. I think the simplistic appearance of the text works well and you can read everything clearly.

I would have liked to have animated this too, though didn’t want to create more work for the programmer either, as currently neither of us know how to create a moving file for a screen without it either being a sprite (which wouldn't work for a game with resolution like this, it did work last year with Extricate, but it was a pixel game and not as demanding on a graphics card) or a movie file. Hopefully in industry I will learn all the ins and outs of how to implement such animations into a game without the need for huge files! 

[samanthajanetaylor-illustration]

Oops, I can’t upload any more audio today (I suppose tumblr has an upload limit?) so I may have to do so tomorrow, possibly over the next few days -- but they are also in my game.

[samanthajanetaylor-illustration]

Looping audio of level 6.

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Looping audio of level 5.

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Looping audio of level 4.

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Looping audio of level 3.

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Looping audio of level 2.

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The audio that loops in the first area of the game.

[samanthajanetaylor-illustration]

Music used from Freesound.org

Here are the 3 pieces of music I used in Cutscene 1, 2 and 4. I did not edit these, except from cutting them down a bit to fit with the scenes:

https://freesound.org/people/ipodpierwsza/sounds/333436/

https://freesound.org/people/Setuniman/sounds/403968/

https://freesound.org/people/Setuniman/sounds/201060/

[samanthajanetaylor-illustration]

Sounds used from Freesound.org

A list of all the sound files used in Fathom. Note that in most cases I did completely transform them, edit them or combine them:

https://freesound.org/people/blendcache/sounds/379993/

https://freesound.org/people/klankbeeld/sounds/135836/

https://freesound.org/people/Timbre/sounds/219104/

https://freesound.org/people/Timbre/sounds/350776/

https://freesound.org/people/Ev-Dawg/sounds/337434/

https://freesound.org/people/cylon8472/sounds/366671/

https://freesound.org/people/maycuddlepie/sounds/330298/

https://freesound.org/people/InspectorJ/sounds/328864/

https://freesound.org/people/dansotak/sounds/137416/

https://freesound.org/people/FullMetalJedi/sounds/397164/

https://freesound.org/people/waveplay/sounds/187499/

https://freesound.org/people/KFerentchak/sounds/235918/

https://freesound.org/people/acclivity/sounds/24929/

https://freesound.org/people/jourblue/sounds/344365/

https://freesound.org/people/jorickhoofd/sounds/179990/

https://freesound.org/people/tim.kahn/sounds/336999/

https://freesound.org/people/InspectorJ/sounds/403180/

https://freesound.org/people/ermine/sounds/23639/

https://freesound.org/people/RebekahDay/sounds/171946/

https://freesound.org/people/thearxx08/sounds/344887/

https://freesound.org/people/DRFX/sounds/398278/

https://freesound.org/people/vedas/sounds/207352/

https://freesound.org/people/burning-mir/sounds/155142/

https://freesound.org/people/gynation/sounds/82378/

https://freesound.org/people/apolloaiello/sounds/276267/

https://freesound.org/people/SoundCollectah/sounds/109360/

https://freesound.org/people/nornalbion/sounds/195733/

https://freesound.org/people/janbezouska/sounds/397091/

https://freesound.org/people/klankbeeld/sounds/405249/

https://freesound.org/people/klankbeeld/sounds/332946/

https://freesound.org/people/daytripper/sounds/73622/

https://freesound.org/people/D%20W/sounds/151989/

https://freesound.org/people/Stevious42/sounds/259613/

https://freesound.org/people/Motion_S/sounds/221758/

https://freesound.org/people/13F_Panska_Petruzelova_Anna/sounds/379210/

https://freesound.org/people/HerbertBoland/sounds/28168/

https://freesound.org/people/Lasdimot/sounds/405515/

https://freesound.org/people/InspectorJ/sounds/353501/

https://freesound.org/people/sithjawa/sounds/261001/

[samanthajanetaylor-illustration]

The final/ending cutscene for Fathom! I think this one is my favorite so far, I think I enjoy making actual animations more than the individually “shot” scenes in the other scenes. It took a lot of time but I’m quite happy with how the ending of the game is pretty open ended in terms of you can just imagine what happens with the two characters after the game ends, it doesn't need to be spelled out. I would have liked it to be a bit longer maybe, as I do think its still a little short but with the deadline closing in I think it’s enough. If I had made it longer, I would have liked Enid to ponder the flower a little longer, maybe have the mum sit down on the floor next to her, then they hug after a longer time (as time is still needed to process emotions).  I also saw the opportunity to add a little credit screen at the end, as the music went on a little longer than the animation itself, so I like that I am able to properly credit myself and Tom for all the work we did!

[samanthajanetaylor-illustration]

My two Pictoplasma entries! The first was for #CharacterStareDown and the second for #RabbitReloaded. These were fun little things I did in my spare time (which wasn’t much), nice to draw/animate something that wasn’t just for FMP.

I seem to really be going with a blue/green colour palette obsessively recently.