For this module, I was put in a group with Sam, Andrew and later, Braulio to make a short game that's soley focused on being acessible and have planning put into the assignments. I'll be documenting each week and what I and others have done. This one in particular is more from my perspective.
In addition, I'll also include side tasks that me and the group have done.
Week 1
At the moment, there wasn't a group. We had a task to pick out a HUD from a game and analyse it for a bit.
The game I chose was God Mode, a game from 2013 that's no longer available anywhere. It's what I was playing for a while to revisit it.
The HUD is simple with it mostly being in a blie colour with a black, translucent shadow behind it so it doesn't blend in with the game's graphics. Each information is split, with the important permanent information on top of the screen whilst temporary information like hints and pickup notifications are on the bottom.
The plus to this HUD is that the important information being on the top is where the player is looking at the most, with throwing axes, tall and flying enemies and other entities appear there. With the information above, the player can make quicker reactions to activating specials at the right time or dodging more when health is low.
One negative is that the HUD lacks variety in colour. Since blue is associated with armour, it can be slightly confusing that the health (Red) and ammo (Green) is also blue.
I would take a screenshot of my own, but the game stopped working with my new GPU.
So I've taken and linked this picture.
Week 2
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Group 2 was formed which included me, Sam and Andrew.
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Our group meeting started on Friday 25th Feb:
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We’ve settled on using Unity as our engine.
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I was given the job as the animator and to take turns in programming the work.
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The title of the game is Suspended Damage and it’s a FPS stealth platformer which involves the use of a gravity flipping item.
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I can’t recall what I exactly said, but I remember saying how I wanted to make it solely on stealth and platforming, similarly to A Hat in Time's stealth levels.
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A roughly made UI was done by Sam to show what the menu layout would look like.
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Week 3
Control
Crouch
Mouse
Move
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Meeting started on Wednesday 2nd March.
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We discussed the starting level of the game and what it would include. Sam giving concept sketches of the level design.
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We talked about how to use colours to help guide the player or give them good information, whilst including those who can’t hear or are colourblind.
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We also discussed the designs of the enemy and thrown around character motifs and what story will entail in the game. I suggested that the main character is a risky journalist investigating a run-down building, whilst a clean-up crew patrolled the building.
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We shared images for reference like enemies being robots or hazmat agents. I shared the maps for The Glow in Fallout, showing a large hole whilst discussing one of the opening levels featuring a large hole with floating items.
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Sam has begun on the character movement scripts from weeks 1 to 3. To see his codes, click on the white button to view them in Pastebin.
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Then I found a model that I could use to animate in Maya. It was of a basic male human with no textures. The joints were only moveable through rotation. We’re unsure to either make this character a robot or a person, so the model will be edited later with materials and parented objects. (Click the image for link)
A gun model was quickly created by me for the character on the same day. This is a placeholder until there's a better rifle model, or it will stay with the character if there's a disagreement on replaceing it.
Week 4
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We have had a new member Braulio, joining the group. He will be working on the concept art of the project, and also posted sketches of the main character.
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Thursday 10th March.
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We got into detail about the colourblind mechanic and looked through some tutorials on how to implement them. I suggested something about a setting that changes material's RBG value.
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For creating character models, Andrew brought up using VRoid Studio. I rejected the idea since anime characters contrasted with the concept of ruined buildings, robots/hazmat enemies and a rough-looking main character. In addition, I was already working on the 3D model’s animations.
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Speaking of the model, the Idle animation was completed, but the walking animation wasn’t. The gun model made last week was implemented to the character’s right arm.
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Sam has began working on the AI Script. The current week's version can be viewed below.
AI Enemy
Our group task is to create a profile of the common demographic we're trying to target. We give him a generic game, his wants and goals, and then write down what games and things he likes.
I helped find the image using ThisPersonDoesNotExist, a website that generates random faces with mixed results.
Name: Cool-Guy Steve
Catchphrase: "I don't really do much of anything."
Age: 18 to 27
Hobbies: Watches Anime, Drinks, Collects things, Gambles
Description: 6 ft, Average build (190.6 ib), 86.3, Greasy Energetic
Frustrations: hates repetition, interruptions, overly complex controls
Goals: being rich, problems solving and to relaxed
Gaming Habits:
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Takes the easy path
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Likes a good puzzle
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Likes tycoon games
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Like to gain something pricey
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Like to play causally
Week 5
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Thursday 17th March.
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We went into detail about the gravity mechanic and it's implementation within the levels.
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Andrew has created grayboxes for the game's tutorial.
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Sam has worked on the movement script for the player.
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Braulio has shown more sketches of the protagonist character.
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Animation-wise, I've shown the animations for the walking and idle animations to the team.
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After that was settled, I was tasked to split the asset modelling job with Andrew. Whilst he works on the Office desk and computer equipment, I'll be working on the rubble and lamp props for next week.
Week 6
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Friday 25th March.
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Andrew was halfway in making his assets and will share them later.
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I've made early versions for the rebar and broken concrete models and shared them with the group.
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Sam has moved onto making scripts for the main menu and will keep at it in the upcoming weeks.
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Braulio continues to share his art on stream and was learning to use VRoid despite my disagreement on using it.
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At this point we made a decision to postpone this module to focus our attention towards other assignments like Performance Animation and Experimental Games.
For that reason, weeks 7 and 8 have been skipped.
MainMenu test
Week 9
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Thursday 21st April
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Andrew has completed his few office props for the environment.
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Sam has worked on the options menu script.
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I have worked on improving the animation and it's playing speed. Some parts were too fast, so I had to correct them.
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Options Menu
Week 10
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Thursday 28th April
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I’ve modelled a riggable lamp in Maya as one of the assets for the project. The lamp model began development on Thursday 26th April and was finished on the 28th. When unhappy with the way it’s pointing, I can have it repositioned in Maya and send it back.
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On 30th April, 10 new rubble props were completed. There are 5 varieties of bent and broken rebar, 4 types of broken concrete tiles and a single hybrid of the 2 objects.
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Andrew has updated the graybox for the tutorial level.
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Week 11
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Thursday 5th May
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We've spoken more about the second level's design and the ones that braulio has shared with us on stream.
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We chose to completely take out the idea of the gravity mechanic and focus more on the stealth gameplay.
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I was given the task to work on the UI after my animations are done, so I'll be working on that when Sam gives me the project to take a look at the UI.
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Braulio has shared his sketches on Discord for the main character and the Hazmat enemies.
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On the 2nd of May, the Animations were supposedly finished with the Idle, Walk and Alert variants completed. The textures aren't there yet, but this will be done soon.
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7th May, the model has been updated to have a yellow hazmat suit with a newly modeled helmet to cover the character's face. In addition, the model got a new alert animation which has the character running with their gun out.
Week 12
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Sam has worked on a second version of the Enemy AI script.
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I've began work on the UI assets while using the project for reference. I've made a red screen border for when the player gets hit, and an exclamation mark for alerted enemies.
AI Version2
Week 13
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Animation porting resulted in issues where the character doesn’t move.
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Reviewing the rig in Blender has revealed it having numerous unneeded components and too many bones (About 500 bones).
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The rig has been redone and I’m left to animate again from scratch.
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I’ve been given Andrew’s book models and was tasked in finishing them off. On 15th May, I made 4 different coloured books, another 4 but opened and 2 bookshelves.
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Andrew has worked on the second layout of his graybox.
Week 14
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Nothing animation-wise was done at that time.
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In our meeting, we came to an agreement to use the Dripper Marker font as graffiti text sprayed on the wall. It would be used to tell the player the controls and what to do, as well as shine a light with the lamp prop I made.
Week 15
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For week 15, I managed to finish a third version of all my animations in a very rough state. They worked in Unity, so it's something.
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Andrew worked on the colourblind settings, as well as the template for the main menu.
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Sam has worked on the AI script yet again and has made imporvements to it.
Colourblind
AI Version3
Conclusion
My overall thoughts on all this is mixed. On the one hand, I've had a good time working in a group to make this game happen, and I would say that whatever help I've done was enough for what my job was. But on the other hand, I'd say that there were a lot of hiccups and my lack of engagement on other parts have left it on a slight sour note.
The first negative to point out is with my animations and how I practically wasted a long time animating a model that had issues from top to bottom. The animation on their own were good in my eyes, but porting the thing in the first place was impossible. Because of that, I had to rush out a new set of animations that look more rough as shown in week 15. I would say I should've looked into this model deeply to find it's flaws and make a new rig next time.
My other point is that I didn't have much involvement in the coding/scripting part of the assignment. In my defense, this side was my weakest in the game-making landscape and I've directed most of my focus on the Experimental Games assignment which I was doing solo, therefore coding that game by myself. On the other hand, I should've at the very least contributed to one part of code, but didn't. I was close to doing that when I was asked to do the UI graphics, but I ditched the job to go back and redo the animations. If I was to work on one script in my time, I would say I helped a lot more in that aspect.
To end this conclusion, I would give credit more to Sam and I hope that he delivered on the project and that my assets have helped somewhat.