Week 5 Summary!

This week after the crit session, I continued to focus on getting my game mechanics finished, I was focused mainly on creating a successful AI set of mechanics.  By the end of the week I successfully managed to get my AI running after and attacking me when in range, my biggest problem was they wouldn't stop chasing me, I needed to figure out how to get them to go back to roaming after they lose sight of my character. I also was able to create a blueprint that lets me destroy them after a number of punches.

These various little blueprints show what happens to the health and stamina stats when they are affected, either by damage or the jumping ability. 

Advanced Health loss blueprint that causes the game to end if the player is destroyed.

Pitch Doc Iterations:

While I mainly focused on getting successful mechanics for my game done, I started on drawing iterations for my various robot characters.

I decided to have a Light, Average & Heavy class to choose from the complete the game:

For my light characters I decided to focus more on speed rather than power, I imagined these designs as being more like ninja's or assassins.  One design I imagined him being more like a grim reaper, but in the end I choose to stick with the assassins concept.

This character design is intended for players with average stats, who prefer to take the game at their own pace, I need to think about a colour scheme for these characters, I looked at various different robots from movies and games (I Robot).

With the Heavy characters, I imagined a terminator, or guardian look for the initial designs, I also looked at Baymax from big hero 6.  After borrowing at art book of the movie, I was able to use those references to come up with a couple of designs that suited the type of robot I was looking for.  (Also adding in my crotch cannon idea to one iteration).

Week 4 Summary!

(Please note for some reason it keeps centring my text at the beginning, It won't change no matter how many times I edit this, Thanks)

In week 4, we learned about Various Development Models, Playtesting and Minimum Variable Product (MVP) is in the lecture.  In the workshop I learnt about UI Widgets. I also had my crit session where I had a practise pitch of what I was going to say at the end of week 8. 

Lean, MVP, and Playtesting

The three models we learnt about were called waterfall, agile/scrum and lean, with lean development being the best method for game development.  The main reason why the lean model was is better is that it gives a faster workflow, but it also gave developers time to adjust their failures, so they produce better work for the product through the constant playtesting.

Next we learned what MVP's are.  MVP's (as defined by Eric Ries) are "that version of a new product which allows a team to collect the maximum amount of validated learning about customers with the least effort".  I believe my main MVP would be the core game loop and designing it to match the standards expected from this project.  To make sure I don't promise too much, I'll set myself limitations such as only using mechanics for basic combat shooting games.

We also learnt how to get the most out of our playtesting.  Later on I will get a few people to fill in a quick survey on my game to see how I can improve it, I hope to get more information than simple 'I enjoyed it' or 'looks great', I will ask them personally what I could do to make my game better.

Prototype:

In the Workshop I learnt about creating UI Widgets, these are bars usually found in a corner on the screen that tell the player about the health, stamina, ammo, e.t.c...  I knew that I would need a few UI widgets in my prototype such as health and stamina, if I have time I'll try to add in a start screen and a game over screen.

After that lesson I continued my work on my prototype, I already explained about 3D controls in week 3 summary, This week I used the previous lessons to create blueprints what I said was "Basic for my character to have".  These blueprints included:

1. A Health bar: this was achieved with the fresh knowledge I had learnt in the lesson a few hours beforehand. (No Control)
2. A Stamina bar: The same as before, I added it straight to my character. (No Control)

3. A Jumping and Double Jumping blueprint, I worked on this blueprint at the end of last week and finished it at the beginning of this week, I decided to make him jump higher than normal for a laugh, but will correct this later on before the deadline. (Control: Spacebar)

4. Shooting: Shooting was covered early on, I created this after referring to the slide presentation, notes I took, and online research to get a working blueprint, However I need to work on it to damage the AI's. (Control: Left Mouse button)

5. Ammo, Ammo Pickup Box, and Reload blueprint: Along side the shooting mechanic I also learned about these 3 blueprint's, Using the same method I used for the shooting, I was able to get the blueprints to shoot ammo bullets when I pressed the mouse button, and when I pressed R, it would reload the gun.  The ammo pickup box was set to destroy after I went over it and collected more ammo. (Control: R)

6. Early AI chasing and Damage: I was able to get an early idea of this blueprint after searching on youtube and Unreal Engine website, I successfully got an AI target to see me when within a certain range, and then proceed to chase me until it caught up to me upon which it will inflict damage to my health. (No Control)

Practise Pitch

Towards the end of the week, we had a practise presentation to explain what my game was about.  I had a maximum of 5 slides to show, I tried to use mostly images and diagrams to show what my pitch was about.  In it I had a working title page, information on what the game is about (view further down under 'Game Concept Idea'), a moodboard page to show my references, an iterations page, and a page with a video showing what I had successfully completed so far in my game with mechanics and level design.  During the video I made a comment about the bullets being fired from the crotch area, that seemed to get a number of positive reactions, So I decided on incorporating a 'crotch cannon' onto my robot designs. Things that I needed to work on for the presentation where to add more assets, continuing of completing my blueprints list, as well as coming up with a solid character design.  

Essay Lecture: Creating Coherent Words

At the End of the week we got our first lecture for the CS side of this project, the goal is to write a 3000 word essay about how games create these worlds, their history and how it's relevant to the story, historical games and how they are used to create these worlds.

We looked at a number of games such as 'Kingdom Hearts' which is based off a number of Disney Films, that come from stories and fairy tales.  Another game we looked at was a game called 'Charlie's Circus', this game was influenced by circus's which shows off the excitement and old thrills of a circus (plus the soundtrack reminds me off a circus vibe).

After that we where given a few minutes to think of other games that used early forms of entertainment.  A couple of ides sprang to mind such as 'Assassins's creed' which looks into various historical parts in time, 'Witcher 3', with all it's myths and legends, but my strongest idea was the game 'Red Dead Redemption' where you play as a hired gun hunting down your old crew in the wild west.  This game link's back to what cowboy's did in the old wild west, such as bounty hunting, gambling, and stand off's.  Some of these and many other forms of living and entertainment are factored into this game.

Humans have the passion and desires to create for various reasons, entertainment, challenges, storytelling, e.t.c:  Children are able to create imaginary worlds much better than adults can, for example they pick up a big box and it becomes a fort (A Box Fort).

Whereas today I learn to increase on my little ideas and turn them into whole worlds of imagination with different characters. On a side note as a cosplayer, I'm always trying to figure out how to create my costume and props from various supplies like foam and cardboard, below is a picture of a keyblade (Weapon in Kingdom Hearts) that someone created for their cosplay.

To get a better understanding of the task set for me, I need to research more forms of early entertainment and see which video games have used ideas from them.

Week 3 Summary!

In week 3, I understood the roles and the amount of work I had to produce, In the workshop I learnt how to shoot and create jump pads, I knew immediately I wanted shooting in my game and various other mechanics, so using some of the free assets provided by Epic games I started to build my prototype level for my game. 

Pitch Documents 

Pitch Documents is basically showing your design/game idea to buyers/audiences/investors.  It's covers a number of areas that go into creating a game in short and simply slides and gives the audience an idea of what game your creating.  Most pitch documents go over such topics such as:

1. Title and Cover art

2. Synopsis

3. Narrative

4. Characters

5. Mechanics

6. Levels

7. Audio

8. UI

e.t.c

A GDD (Games Design Document) in an ongoing and cooperative bible about design, it is a large and longer version of a pitch document, but more detailed and highly descriptive, it is meant more for designers, or programmers and artists who are working on the project the GDD is about.  This method has slowly gone out of date due to various reasons such as it being out dated before you start working on it, or that it's too rigid.

All the info and research needs a class to display them in, for example:

1. Moodboards: Characters, and environments

2. Level Design: Paths, Objectives, Events, Layouts
3. Mockups: Mechanics, Visuals, Camera, Movement,
4. Storyboards & Animatics: Action, Narrative, Cutscenes, Progression of story
5. Colour Scripts: Thumbnails, Schemes, Tone and Mood

e.t.c

There are a number of ways in which you can make a pitch document stand out, one tip I learned that would be useful in making my PD is using less text, if I just put text up on the slides instead of using pics and describing them, my audience will lose interest in me as they are trying to read the text.  I'm going to try and use a few ideas that where shown in the lecture to help get better results, such as setting it landscape instead of portrait to get the full effect of the screen.  Another idea would be helping it get a sense of realism, like if I managed to get my prototype on Steam or something like that.

Plan:

from here on I have set an idea of how I will complete this project, and that will help me to see what I have left to complete:

I plan to start and do all my mechanics before creating my environments, but at the same time having a good idea of what the level build may look like. Once the mechanics are finished, I'll do some quick sketches to get an idea of what I want my level design to look like, then create that using the assets in Unreal Engine 4.  In week 4, I have to pitch a document on what I have completed, this will give me a chance to get feedback and figure out what I could do to make the game better.

One everything is complete, I make my Pitch document and rehearse what I plan to say when pitching it to the tutors. 

Moodboards

After getting my idea of what type of game I was going to create I needed to start my research and get references, so bring on the moodboards.  I have 2 moodboards at the moment, but will add more when I start drawing.

Robots: I looked a mixture of robots in media to get an idea of combat type robots, I'll keep my design simple, mainly having a human exoskeleton with weapons attached (Mega man, Iron Man) so players will easily recognise who my character is. 

Environment: These designs I wanted to keep a jungle environment with the game progressing towards an old abandoned factory, I felt that this would give the idea of it being a relic from the characters past, as he could have been built here.

Game Concept Idea

Originally I was going to make a game about robot dinosaurs vs dragons, but when I started to think about how I would go about making the blueprints for that I changed my main design.  This is my chosen game idea:

Robot Rescue

Basic Overview: 3D third person combat style fighting game, where you play as a robot trying to save it's creator after he was kidnapped by a terrorist group who want him to mass produce these fighting robots. 
Settings: The environment will be a jungle level with the enemy base an abandoned castle/research facility.
Theme: Fast-Paced combat fighting and skill building points.
Target Audience: Aimed at people who like fighting games, so from teens upwards.
Platform: the platform will be PC and Console based.
How To Play: 3D control space and using different keys/buttons to use your skills to react to your opponents attack. 
Difficulty: The game is reflex based, using your Eye-to-Hand co-ordination skills to combat against any trials you face during the level. The player will also be given a battery that will act as health, further through the game the charger will be much tougher to find.
Meaning: The difficulty of the AI's and obstacles will represent the challenges and trials you overcome when saving someone close to you. 
Selling Point: The Potential to give people the feeling that they are helping someone by rescuing that person.
Mechanics: Health Bar (Enemy Ai's also), Reload Bar, Re spawning, 3D Control Movement Inputs, Jumping, Weapon Switching, Ammo Pickup, Sprinting, and Increased level difficulty.

Examples of 3D Person Combat Games:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iNfd7a3o0jQ
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4TcZL0pin5g
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AVtBhagSKyg
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hnQZHBodpwk
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yKkc4IoMb70

Unreal Tutorials:
https://wiki.unrealengine.com/Videos/Player?series=PLZlv_N0_O1ga0IoRrpI4xkX4qmCrhGu56
https://wiki.unrealengine.com/Videos/Player?series=PLZlv_N0_O1gb5xvsc7VM7pfoRAKLuIcFi

The 'Flow' of the game is similar to the design, the aim is to rescue your creator and survive from enemy's and health depletion.  Awards will be made clear, and finding items will be made simple with your radar (which can be upgraded throughout the game), more challenges will be unlocked as the game progresses, and the main focus of the game will be becoming strong enough to save your creator.

Week 2 Summary!

For week 2, I spent most of my time coming up with ideas for potential games, and unfortunately neglected looking at tutorials or attempting to get a idea of the assets in Unreal 4.  In the second week I was introduced to 'Blueprints', which is one of the key roles in this project, and in creating my game.  

BluePrints

Blueprints are essentially what allows the creator to prototype, implement or modify any gameplay element such as:

Games - set up game rules, tweak gameplay conditions, etc.
Players - create variants with different meshes and Materials or character customization.
Cameras - prototype new camera perspectives or change the camera dynamically during play.
Input - change the player controls or allow players to pass input to items.
Items - weapons, spells, pickups, triggers, etc.
Environments - create randomized props or procedurally-generated items.

The amount of blueprints you can create in a game is endless, and there are plenty of tutorials on the internet to follow, by following some of the workshop tutorials, I was able to get a basic understanding of how blueprints work.

What I intend to do is make a list of possible mechanics/blueprints to input into my game, by using the tutorials found on websites like UE4 wiki page and YouTube, and try to figure out how to fix the problem if the tutorial doesn't work (tutorial done on previous version of Unreal), that will help me to get a good understanding of what kind of game I'm creating.

Here are some examples I learned in the workshop:

Flow

In this lecture, we covered the understanding of 'Flow', Flow in a game is the challenge of making players enjoy the experience and find it comforting enough so it's not to difficult or to boring for them while playing a game, simply put it is the immersion of focusing on the gameplay, while enjoying the challenge for the player.

Here are some videos we watched in the lecture (and in my spare time):

Extra Credit Videos:

1. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rDjrOaoHz9s
2. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5LScL4CWe5E
3. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ea6UuRTjkKs
4. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lyFSbm79uBY 
5. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s9xkfPLJWf0
6. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PeTjr4q_grE
7. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z06QR-tz1_o
8. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dHMNeNapL1E
9. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UvCri1tqIxQ
10. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=on7endO4lPY

EgoRaptor Videos:

11. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8FpigqfcvlM

Flow in Games

Breaking it down to get a firmer understanding, there are four main characteristics of flow that author Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi describes:

1. Clear objective with manageable rules
2. Demand actions to achieve goals suitable for player ability
3. Objective accomplishments and responsive feedback
4. Focus on concentration and little distraction

An example of flow for games:

Being able to successfully create all of these characteristics in a game is what is known as ‘Cognitive Flow’.  When designers successfully create this state, hours can pass by without knowing where time goes… It’s a rare effect that only the best games succeed in.  If this state is implemented into games design, the player concentration and engagement will sky-rocket, which after all is the aim on any designer.

Meaningful Design:

Aesthetics of Play:

From the Lecture, pdf, and video I was able to understand the meaning of aesthetics of play where they broke it down into Mechanics - Dynamics - Aesthetics (MDA) which is how designers look at game genres and how we research, develop, and criticise work.
Mechanics: are the rules and coding that goes into the game we play.
Dynamics: are how the mechanics play out when actually playing the game.
Aesthetics: is the emotional response we receive when playing said game.
In the MDA pdf and the extra credits video, they talk about how there are 8 core aesthetics and how they draw us into playing games.

1. Sense Pleasure - the simplest, it's any game that simulates your senses.
2. Fantasy - To take on a role that would be impossible in real life.
3. Narrative - It's all about the drama and story rather than fantasy.
4. Challenge - About the challenge you receive in overcoming obstacles.
5. Fellowship - Games that use co-operation to complete missions. (MMORPG's)
6. Discovery - Finding new items/places or anything you didn't know was there before.
7. Expression - To express the feelings we have towards our games.
8. Abnegation - To play a game to relax and not care about life tasks.

When playing the game the player's will look at the aesthetics and work there way back, while the designers start with the mechanics, sometimes designers tend to focus too much on mechanics alone, its better to get a good idea of what aesthetics will be in your game, otherwise you'll need to change for mechanical designs, which may force you to restart the entire project altogether. So it's better to make small changes early on to help see what the strengths and weakness are of the design.
If we think about aesthetics look before we create the mechanics for a game, we will be able to get more of those core aesthetics rather than focusing too much on mechanics and limiting yourself.

MDA PDF: http://www.cs.northwestern.edu/~hunicke/MDA.pdf
Extra Credits: Aesthetics of Play: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uepAJ-rqJKA

Mechanics as Metaphors:

This looks at the idea of people's reactions and expressions of their feelings through mechanical elements. The designer must be able to set limits for the player while at the same time letting said player free to explore. Giving the player a reason to look at everything and not just the narrative and it's sub-plots.
Here are a few examples of Mechanics as Metaphors:

Loneliness: (Jordan Magnuson, 2012)
Loneliness is a depression themed game where the character can try to interact with the groups, or avoid them, depending on the players reaction.  The game uses primitive shapes to help make a deep connection with the player, and through these mechanics it causes the player to respond with different emotions (anger, sadness) to how they will be ignored no matter what the player does.

Spec Ops: The Line: (Yager Development/ Dark side Games, 2012)
This game focuses on 2 major elements:
1.Post Dramatic Stress Disorder
2. How different Modern Warfare shooter games are from the real deal.

One of the major points than keeps happening in the game, (more and more as you get closer to the end) is that the game and the characters in the game keep referring back to you as the player, forcing you to think about the choices you make and what the consequences will come of that.  It's level structure forces the player to keep going down, giving the player a sense of being dragged downwards towards hell. This game chooses to focus more on the drama and what will become of the player rather than the actual enjoyment of playing it, the game itself is kinda boring, but it gives a sense of realism that most modern warfare games don't have. Another great feature about this game is the ability to make your choices through the mechanics in this game rather than choosing a text bubble to say, this connects to the player and forces you to think carefully about how you would react if you where in the same situation.

Train: (Brenda Brathwaite, GDC, 2009)

In 2009, at a GDC presentation, Brenda Brathwaite spoke about how she got the idea and developed the game ‘Train’. She explained that it came from the historical significance of the Slave Trade (most of her games came from that genre), Using her game which focused on her cultural heritage with the Irish take-over by the British for land, she then spawned another sequel that got her to ‘Train’ where she chose to focus that sequel on the subject of the Holocaust.
The game focuses on 3 trains and a number of hand made wooden token that represented jews (1 token equals 100,000 jews).  Players have four rolls per turn, the objective is to get the trains to the end of the tracks, certain rolls allowed them to pick a card which each had an action they’d have to carry out, for example derail the train…  The game ends if the trains get from the start of the track to the finish.
Brenda spoke about how players would interact with the game and how when they figured out what it was they where doing, and that they would carry out their own objective to try and save the people on the trains, some try to derail the trains and some would cry knowing what their doing and how it ends, but no one stopped playing the game.
Like with Spec Ops this game and it’s core design are not meant to have fun, it's aim I believe was get the player to see the theme was a sensitive subject and how they would react to playing it. What Brenda has done has created a game with an empathetic symbol where the player is recreating the event without any control of the way it's played.

Game Jam Ideas:

During the first week, I was introduced to name generating for game ideas, while I started this in the first week of term, I didn't really go into this until the second week.  Using the Name generators from the websites below, I came up with a number of ideas for games, how they would be played, what platform, e.t.c....

http://videogamena.me/
http://dopitch.eatcreatesleep.net/

1. Zombie Drug Simulator: A first person shooter where you take control of a stoner who start's hallucinating and seeing zombies everywhere, similar to the rules of CoD Zombies, you have to survive the waves of zombies, each wave getting more difficult.  There is a time limit as you will lose if your head clears up, so to survive, you have to find various drugs littered around the maps, the stronger the drug, the more health you have.  Multilayer support and vs. mode may be available.  
The Platform would be PC/Console, and the control's are simple move, shoot, crouch, and reload.  The target audience would be aimed at teens (15+) and above.

2. Software Wars: 3D camera view person commanding game, (empire at war) where you are the head of a new software company, and you go to war against the other software companies.  This is played by deploying troops (software designers) in squads against enemy bases and troops, the aim of the game is to defeat and control all the rival companies, proclaiming yourself 'King of the Software World'. You get troops by hiring them with money which you win by overtaking companies, the more companies you have, the faster your income, thus building your army quicker.
This will be PC based with a simple objective of clicking to move your troops and for everything else in the options bar, the target audience will be aimed at teens up (12+).

3. Banana on the Road: An endless runner game where you are a banana running against the traffic on a motorway and various bits of litter that have fallen on the road (gum, wrappers), you win by reaching the junction turn off.
This will be a Handheld Platform device where you can only move left, right and jump, and the target audience is for all ages.

4. Violent Spider Warfare: Imagine that you are a Mutant Spider with weapons attached to you, and you broke out of the testing facility, the aim is to escape the facility without dying and by killing a certain number of scientists will open up the door to the next level, this game will be a 3d person stealth killing game.  You only have a few lives to escape or it's game over, so the main focus to completing the game is by using various traps and the shadows to hide in and attack your prey (So Alien?.....) you complete the game by escaping the facility.
The Platform would be a Console/PC type game, using the thread and aiming it at the wall to move about. The target audience would be older teens up (15+), I'd like this one to be very gore. 

5. Robot Rescue: A 3rd person combat game where you a a robot trying to rescue your creator who has been kidnapped by a group of terrorists, you have to use your various weapons and a radar to collect objects, defeat enemy AI's/grunts, and upgrade yourself so you can fight against the boss.  The setting will probably be in a jungle or forest environment, with the final boss being inside a research facility, there will be a time limit for your health, but by using the radar you can locate a new power supply to give you health for the next level, naturally finding it will get more difficult as the levels progress, as will the AI's.
The Platform for this game will be PC/Console, with a variety of controls and mechanics, and the target audience will be aimed at teens up (12+).

6: Robot Beast Warfare: A 2D side scroller free for all button mashing game (similar to Super Smash Bros Brawl) where you fight as a robot beast fighting against enemy AI's and various other obstacles to get to the boss room, where you fight against another robot beast.  Beat it and you unlock it as a playable character (the game design and layout will be similar to games like MegaMan X and the Super Smash Bros Brawl campaign) 
The platform base will be console/handheld devices with simple controls of movement, attack, shield, super attack, and jump.  Target audience will be teens up (12+).

Here are some names that I couldn't really think of how to turn into games but I think their names deserved to be mentioned:

7. Barbie's Batman Mania (Barbie and Batman, a scary combination)
8. Paranoid Beast Rampage (All I Imagine is a paranoid T-rex)
9. MTV's Ninja on the Oregon Trail (This sounds more like a TV series than a game :3)
10. John Romero's Dating Armageddon (?)
11. Disturbing Snowboard Simulator (Perverted Snowboards)
12. Nuclear Jazz Racing (Mario-Kart rip off)
13. Zombie Farming Simulator (pfftttt)
14. All-Star Bob sled Polo (I do love that song by Smash Mouth)

Week 1 Summary.

During the first week of term, I was introduced and given a basic idea of what my project was about and what software we will be using.  When using Unreal for the first time, my mind was amazed at the types of games I could create my putting my mind to the task, it had a lot of options to work from.  For the first lesson I mostly just set the beginning furniture package on fire and fiddled around with the materials and effects.  In that lesson, I learned about using random name generator's to create a game idea from that, one of those future ideas will become the game I create over this project.

Year 2 Begins!!

With the summer holidays over, the new year begins, as does the newest challenge. BA2A 

The project is called ‘Interactivity’. This project will teach me how to use Unreal Engine 4, a software I've never used before, For the project we have to design and create a prototype for a game using Unreal 4's 'Blueprint' mechanics that will be judged on how it looks, sounds, if it's fun and engaging to play with. We have to create a 10 page pitch project that shows examples of our game designs; including imagery, diagrams and theming. The prototype which we create using Unreal Engine 4, has to have polished game play and include representative art work.

The theme of the prototype is: Flow.

By the end of this project I will have:

1. Learned the basics of Unreal Engine 4
2. Created indicative assets/ artwork for use within the protoype.
3. Explored Interactivity through research, playtesting and iteration.
4. Presented my final game concept in a 10 page pitch doc and playable prototype.