Game Jam 2019
Brief for Project
Initial Mind Map for Project
For game Jam under the theme of what home means to you I have created a moodboard that shows lots of what I think is associated with home some of it being good and some of it being more negative, there are things such as security and having freedom as well as general enjoyment, but also more negative things such as robbery and crime. While this does seem negative I think in a game it would show a good contrast, for game ideas itself I have gone for more of a literal idea of creating a home initially and building lots of props to go inside that tells a story. You can see that I have listed lots of different rooms and spaces that could be put together, you could have some warm and safe places such a kitchen or a bedroom but then some room intimidating and scary places that brings tension such as a parking garage and a garden at night. Other idea I had for this was to create a scene where you have to escape and return home, home being the safe place where you're secure. However if I was to do this I think I would concentrate on the props and then add actions and animations if I can.
Initial Mood-Board for Game Jam 2019
Above, I have created an initial mood-board for game jam, as you can see it is mostly just different rooms that you may find a house, some of them being more futuristic and clean but then images such as the work bench with all the tools chucked everywhere, this is so that I explore lots of different ideas. But for the most the rooms are clean and tidy, however after doing the mood-board and the idea list below, I now more ideas than this now, this involves things such as escaping and returning home or maybe having a street and you can explore lots of different mini houses, each of them being a different kind of house, e.g. one being messy, another abandoned, another maybe be really clean and tidy and possibly even having a haunted house kind of thing as well at the end, the connection it would have with what home means to me would be conveying the idea of community, and being able to make lots of different props in different styles. I was think if I did go with this idea there could possible be a car park as well that could be intimating and make you feel on edge but you would still have your home to go back to for safety.
Game Research for Inspiration and Market Research
Phoning Home
Phoning home is a game about a young robot on a mission who crash landed and has to survive in an unknown land with new dangers and explore around as well as the ship is destroyed you came in, therefore you must find a way of contacting home and getting help.
I find this game really good because it has a good story line and it sound really enjoyable as well, in addition looks quite detailed, I also believe that it fits with the theme of what home means to me as well because to the robot home means safety, so while this game would theoretically be competing against the game I am thinking up and creating a concept for, it also can have a lot of inspiration as well because I really like the idea of an event happening and you have try and find your way home over time but mainly through exploration.
Gone Home
Based in 1995, Gone home is a game where you are a person who has been away for a year, when you left the house was filled and had your family in it, however when you return you find an empty house, but still has lots of stuff in it which they left behind. You have to try and find where they went and what happened to them.
It's odd because there is still everything you'd expect in a house so it really draws you in because you want to know what actually happened. I also really like the idea of the game because everything is really well detailed and thought out and it's also you trying to solve a mystery as well. Which really does intrigue you. I also really like how the rooms looks like actual homes you'd find as if someone lives there.
Theoretically if the game I am thinking up became a real game then I think this would be a really strong competitor because the idea that they have had is very similar to mine and I would also be trying to create a house interior as well as other ones as well. But in terms of inspiration, this gives me a lot of inspiration because it shows that you can create a whole game one space but also keeps you interested as well, in addition I like how they have made a interior of a normal space and people are really interested because of how the game looks but also the mystery in the story.
Initial Concept Art for Game Jam
Game Jam Mind Initial Idea
The idea of my game that I have come up with is to make a few houses and different building along a street to form a town or village, it is based in an apocalypse where the creatures are emerging from the dark forest behind the village from a source. The goal of the game is to survive, kill the creatures and destroy the power source as well. How it relates to 'what home means to me' feeling safe because in the game there will be a small shack where your home is, here the character is safe, can't be harmed at all and can explore around the home, an will also be able to interact with things as well. There will also be more information on my presentation pitch as I have to explain the idea as a pitch.
Hypodermic Needle Theory
This is the theory that an audience that deliberately without questioning whether or not the the information is valid, this means that the people who make the media will think that the audience will all have the same reaction and be interested in what they're advertising, even if they aren't doing it obviously. By this I mean that someone could create a posted about something and not say anything about what's on it but it can still draw people in. However the problem with the theory is that the creators of the media assume that people doesn't filter information, such as what's actually relevant and what isn't. While most people can do this today in the past people would join the army in wars because a poster said they should without any doubt.
While the theory is outdated today, because people are different nowadays, you can still see a little bit in the gaming industry, there are still some gaming companies that still do this kind of thing. A good example of this EA where they don't make you buy games and then add ons, but they make the player feel like they have to be the best so they buy expansions and then there is also the fact they release the same kind of game most years but then change a little bit and people will most of the time buy the new one because they want to have the content.
It is also seen by making controversy in the gaming industry, companies such as Rockstar have been know to controversy just so that they can advertise there game so people can check it out and then more than likely buy it.
The Two Step Theory
The two step theory is essentially a theory that people with big influence can make media popular and relevant. This media could vary from news and tv shows to new games or games in general. One example of this is like how Five nights at Freddy's became really popular from Markiplier playing once on YouTube and after that it got really popular. While this is good for both the game maker, as they are getting their game out there and getting lots of downloads, and it is good for the youtuber as they are promoting a new game and also earning money from it as well as they get paid for views, in addition to this they can also get paid for playing the game on their channel by the game maker benefiting them both once again. However while this is good for both of them, this is bad for big events such as E3 because nowadays companies are starting to prefer getting people to advertise the game through the media and getting youtubers to play their game instead, as it will get it out to more people and a varied audience.
Active Spectatorship
Active spectatorship is the idea that someone either does something, or buys something or even views something and then has their own judgement on it, but the main part of the theory is where that person then goes onto to sharing their experience with others. By today's standards that is generally on social media however some people will bring it up in conversation, so it's very similar to a review but more friendly and generally shared among people you know. The idea of this is very good because it allows people to share what they think of things generally based on enjoyment, pleasure and feelings. For example, if someone started to play a new game, and thought it was very good they would then go to somewhere on social media such as Instagram and then post their opinion of the game even if it's in an update sort of form. This works well because it means people can get honest opinions off people they trust and then it will either encourage them to get it or not get it. If they don't get it then the game designers will know that they need change something about the game to make it more appealing, even if it's just marketing for their game.
Psycho-graphics
Psychographics is the idea that each person falls in to a category based on their, actions, personality, things they read and things they do, this can be anyone based on their day to day life this includes things like their job and even what they want in both out of life and in their current situation. The theory mainly splits everyone down in to 6 categories varying from the low life struggler to the succeeders as you can see in the image to the right. Personally for me I think that I am either a struggler or possibly a reformer this for a range of reasons as I relate to some of the things in each category. Relating this theory to games, certain games are played are played by certain people, for example I think that games such as Call of Duty are played by people who fall in to the strugglers category and maybe a little bit in the reformers but mainly the strugglers, I think this because I feel that the strugglers would play a game like this to get good at something or do it as a hobby furthermore they may not have much else to do, in addition some could even try and gamble over it, there are some examples of this online when they bet how long a person lasts. I think some reformers could play call of duty as well because while they are more socially active that strugglers and are more likely to succeed they would probably play a game like this as a hobby for some of the time while also focusing on their social well being and general life.
Unit 10 Pitch
I think that my pitch went okay and I did go into quite a lot of detail and explained my game out quite well. After I finished the presentation there were some key features pointed out to me that I hadn't considered too much, such as one of them being that I could have more places where the player could recover and there was also the suggestion of making the games 3rd person but looking over the shoulder which I was thinking about but if the game goes forward I would definitely do that because it would look really good. I also need to think more about the audio because that is something I hadn't considered too much either, as well as this I think there are some certain effects that I would like to add if this idea went forward such as fog and screaming in the distance. For the presentation itself I found it okay because I said most of the ideas I had and dealing with the question I think was okay as well because I answered clearly and thought up a response in my head as they were asking it quite quickly which was relevant and could work in the game.
Unit 10 Inital Ideas + Research
Minutes Meeting Forms
These are our minute meeting sheets for the group each week we will have these meetings and write feedback on these sheets which I am going to upload to this gallery, these sheets are made so that all group members know what they should be doing and the different tasks they have as well as what other people are doing so multiple people aren't doing the same thing unless it's something we have to individually. In addition these sheets will also be proof that we do have these meetings and that we all know what we have to do and what we are going to contribute to the work, In addition as we know what everyone is doing this is also a place that we can use as a checklist of things we should have on our websites, because we know who is doing whatever piece of work so we know who to ask the for when it is done and when it is needed.
Group Mood-Board
Having already seen the pitch the moodboard provided for the game has given off lots information and ideas about the game, as you can see from the pictures above the games is going to have quite a simplistic look with a basic colour scheme of red, white and some black colours. However while it will look clean and simple it is going to have a lot of mechanics applied to it, this will mostly be to do with gravity but also some other mechanics as well, while these are not thought of yet there is a plan to have lots as it will be a game that is going to be a challenge to the mind and will confuse you lots.The basic principle at the moment is try not to die and reach the end, while red means bad and green and white means good.
Mind Map for Game
This is the mind map created by Eoin and it covers most of the game's characteristics it varies from puzzles ideas to dangers. After going over the the mind map as a group we started to think about more and more things that could be added. Most of these were ideas about mechanics in the game, such as the way of transporting from level to level. We also spoke a little bit about the enemies because in the mind map they were planned as what they can do however not covering how we can get away from them or how to get rid of them.
Initial Ideas for Group Project
In the initial idea above you can see that we are looking at level design mostly, we want the player to be really confused and to feel somewhat lost, for this we will be using gravity settings which will change the gravity, this will mean you will be able to walk on different surfaces, such as the ceiling and the walls where we can apply objects to, this will make it more tricky to complete the level, in addition to complete the level you have to change your gravity settings so it is actually possible to reach the end. In addition, when thinking about the props for the game we decided to stay simple and clean mostly as the game whole game is simple but yet really challenging as well.
The name of this game made is where the people who made it, made the word up. We are taking this as inspiration and doing a similar thing with our game. For our game we started look at other words for confusing but specifically for words that are rare or not used. We found the Bamfoozle, this word means confusing and deceiving, the word is very rare because it is an old Cornish word. The Cornish words are never really used anymore as Cornwall is in England and everywhere is generally just getting more modern and using the same modern language. I think this is a good word as no one is really going to use that word because not many people know about it so it also creates a sense of mystery as well.
This is a video is where you can see the initial level, that was used in the presentation of the game idea. As you can see the game uses a odd gravity system that means you can walks upside down and on the walls as well. In addition every time you touch something red you have to start at the beginning again. The concept works really and advertises the game well. Of course because this is just a demo the enemies were just red poles moving across, however after looking at the mind map that was made in the actual game there would be real enemies there instead in the shape of dogs, cats and walkers. In addition in this demo you also get a good idea of what the gravity does and somewhat of how it works as well.
Technical
Research
This word document shows some different technical research, these functions are things we can and probably will use in our game for different and varied purposes. Under each of the function titles there is a description of how we would use each thing and what they are. There are lots of thing we will use in this document, for example I think the button feature would be a good because we could have it controlling lots of different things depending on the room, props and the different functions as well. One of the main things to do with this document is the level transitions because for this we would like to do a seamless one, we have discussed a way of doing this and we have the plan of going to a room and the next level loads and you walk through a door into the next level. So you don't have to go through a loading screen and it's really obvious you're transferring levels.
Weapon Ideas
For the project we decided that we needed to have some sort of weapon in it, this could probably be used for a range of purposes but mainly for taking down enemies. We decided that we wanted to go for something similar to portal in the sense of making it look kind of space like. So these are some other ideas they are mostly all similar being futuristic deigns, and the one in the top corner is there because we are going for a low poly style as well so this could be a good option to go for something similar. The bottom right corner is 2 models that I made, they were styled for different uses, however could be used for this project or I could model something similar to use as it would work well and I feel confident with modelling weapons now after modelling lots now.
My Level Idea
For our group project we each have to make a level design based around a room in a house, for this I am doing a level that looks like a garage in the sense of props and style. The rooms will all have the same colour as the rest of the game, however my level is based around a garage, that's why there is cogs and a tool box, the tool box you will be able to unlock by collecting a prop and going up to the tool box with it, however if this ends up being really complicated then I may just have the tool box there as like a prop, likewise with the garage door. This could be some kind of Easter egg to another room which could be fun for the player. The rest of the level will be gravity reliant heavy because you will need to change the gravity to complete the level.
In our group we had the idea of possibly having a weapon for the player this would be used for the player to take down the enemies rather than just avoiding them. By doing this the enemies will die rather than them still being alive and still able to kill you. The game will be very simple as I have spoken about above, with this in mind the gun should be that style as well, but could be quite futuristic styled as well or modern. All the bits of the concept art that I have done I believe demonstrate this through the idea of having space age guns, like portal, as it is one of the games we take inspiration from. I think these are all pretty good however when they are on paper they don't look that good but I think if they were made as actual 3d objects in 3ds max they would look really good because they're all really interesting shapes and each one could have a different use. I think the best ones on here are middle 2 or the modern revolver at the top because they look the best in my opinion and these are the ones I can really see would go well with the rest of the game, in addition the colours could be varied depending on the colour choice we choose for the final game.
UKIE Statistics towards our game - Audience Research
For our game we are thinking that the game will be aimed towards most ages as the game isn't very violent, and isn't graphic either because it only consists of 2 or 3 colours. So with this in mind I think that the game will be probably be from the age of 12 and up because you can still die. As well, if you look at the demographics to the left, you can see that there are lots more adult gamers than young children ( 8 to 15 year olds) so I think that while that anyone can play the game I think we should aim the game at young adults who like problem solving. In addition as you can see in this data there are more female gamers across the UK, however as this data was recorded in 2014, there are now more male gamers, despite this statistic I think that we should aim our game at both genders because the game is kind of neutral it wouldnt suit one more than the other and the same with enjoyment, I think it's really for anyone who enjoys puzzle games or survival games.
In terms of what platform we are going to base the game on, there are a different options to go for, the most difficult being phone gaming, while this would be good because most people nowadays have smartphone and can download games at the press of a button, because our game is the type of game that it is I think it would be better on console or PC because this way the game would work better as there are lots of controls and functions in the game, therefore you would need something that can actually run the game, if it was on smartphones then we may need to change the game and it may even be only available to people with higher end smartphones so they can play it and then that limits it down to people who have one of these phones, where as with console many people already have them, being the most popular way of gaming in the UK and then with their controllers, there would be more than enough buttons for the game.
In the UK the game is and has been growing vastly with 32.4 million playing games in the UK and that being statistics from 2017, while I cannot find any statistics from this year I imagine it has grown with more and more people starting to play games. In addition the statistic of people spending money in games is 59% of gamers across the UK, with the average spending being $206 per player, as you can tell eventhough it is only 59% of the players are spending money on games, that is still a lot of people. In addition this also tells us that there are lots of people in the UK that are prepared to spend money on games, with this in mind I think that our games should cost money if it was to be sold this is because it tells people more so that the game is worth playing. In addition I don't think that the game should cost very much either because this way it will show people that it is worth playing but also that ir is a cheap game so that most people can actually play the game and enjoy it. In addition as you can see from the top image there is lots of competition across the UK with 2,261 active games companies making games, who will also be trying to get there game out there and sold to people as well, so by having a cheaper option people will consider our game or in this the cheaper option because it is inevitably less money.
Custom Gravity Blueprinting
To get the gravity that we have in our levels there was a lot of blueprinting involved, this blueprinting was nearly all done by Eoin, the blueprinting consists of many functions allowing us to move about in an anti gravity environment but yet still with gravity, this also allows us to jump from one wall to another wall so we can do things such as walking on the ceiling which helps to make the whole game so complicated. The blueprinting also consists of the movements as well as respawning and many other things. While being very complicated when it was finished it did mean that we could all starting working on our levels in a way that meant we could use the ceilings and the walls as well, with the ability to walk on pretty much every object.This resulted really good because it means we can just get on with our levels, however we do still need to figure out a way of making it so that as soon as you touch any red across the whole game, you will die and respawn, I feel this will be very difficult.
Custom Physics Blueprinting
This is the blueprint that Eoin also did for the team, this is a blueprint controlling some of the physics in our game and levels. I think that this blueprint controls the physics mainly of the gravity and how everything moves in the levels, such as what happens when you hit something it's more than likely going to move then this controls the way it will move also using the gravity. But as well as this it also controls the players gravity as well. This controls what the gravity is doing and how it works, it links to the gravity shift in the other blueprint which means that we can gravity shift from one wall or surface to another. Again while this is very complicated the whole basis of our game wouldn't really work as we need to have gravity changes to be able to get through the levels such as my level, without this you couldn't physically get through the level
My Level Design Run Down
This is my level that I have made in unreal that will eventually go into one place with the other levels and be made into our game. My level is quite confusing and somewhat difficult if you haven't played it before as many of the colours are the same so it's difficult to stay on the surfaces that you are allowed to work on. In addition at the start of the level there are some cogs that you have to walk over in order to get to the rest of the level. After this there is then the engine block which you have to walk through however is there is time I would like to add some more obstacles inside as well. Then there is the big jump where if you don't jump far enough you'll have to restart then the next part gets confusing as you have to navigate your way through the next section going from wall to wall and then finishing by jumping on platforms that may be moving and then back into the teleporter back to the main section of the game. In my level I have made loads of props as you'll be able to see below and done some blueprinting to have some extra features like spinning cogs.
The Spinning Cogs
This is my cogs obstacle in my level this is the obstacle that you face first, to make the cogs I created a star spline in 3ds max and then extruded it after editing it. The to get them spinning was also quite easy after making the blueprint to the right below, this allows the cogs to spin at certain speeds and rotate in certain directions, this is really good because when the cog's weren't moving it was fairly easy however now that they are moving, you have more of a challenge especially since some of them are set so fast they are able to fling you off, in addition if you don't land on it right you may also jump through the centre. So this makes you really focus. In addition if you fail at any point over the level you will get reset and have to do the cogs over and over again.
Props for Garage Level
In terms of props for my garage, as well as the moving cogs, I also made a big engine block since this is the garage level and this is for the player to travel through after they have completed the cogs and this will lead on to the main part of the level, the idea is that instead of seeing all these kinds of things lying around everywhere instead you will walk through them. Likewise with the tool box, the tool box is something you walk on after going through the engine block, while you may not realise it, from far away you can see it clearly. As well as this, similar to race starting lines, I have massive pistons to each side of the start of the level so you can tell that it is the garage level and that it is the start line, as well as this it is also makes you look up and see your next step. The other props, which are mainly tools are scattered around to make the level really feel like a garage, tools such as spanners, hammers and screwdrivers.
Teleporter
This is both the teleporter and the blueprints for it, this is a simple piece that will allow the player to travel from one place to another place. The main purpose is for the teleporter to take you from the main level, place where you select the level and then the teleporter will be able to take you into different levels. This prop seems to work very well and is very easy to set up as well, the only issue we have found with this is the fact that the collision on it is very weird. This is because you can stand on the centre of it however after a little bit of time it will push you off, this can be sorted by changing the collision though in the future.
Main Level Development
The main level was modelled by eoin, and is the centre of all the levels. By centre I mean this is the place where you can selects the different levels. However as well as this, you will also be able to learn how the controls work, how the enemies work, and how you can be killed by them, in addition to seeing a preview of the levels in poster form on the wall as you can see in the last few images. In terms of the images, you can see the first few the lighting looks really bad as this was before the lighting was redone and you got the last picture quality of lighting. As well as this in the first few the colours were a bit boring, again because they needed redoing. In addition in the last few images you will see our teleporter for level travelling , this came out well because the floating logo above them can be changed pending on the level.
This is the final centre level. As you can see it is very high quality compared to the other images. In this final one there has been cogs added floating around and some other blocks and things, which really emphasises the gravity we have and the facts that it's low gravity. In addition to this you can see all the different teleporters when you really look around at everything, some of them are more hidden because the whole game is about being challenging and confusing so you go in one teleporter and then come out another somewhere completely different. In addition the last big change we had to build was a room that you teleport into before teleporting in to a level, this is because the level has to load up so the player will go to a loading screen in a small room underneath this level that just looks like a block so that when the player just loads in to the level they don't know that they went to another room first.
Lighting for Level
For my level I decided that the lighting had to be good and well lit so you could clearly see where you're going however I wanted my level's lighting to also look good go with the rest of the level so I played around with the skysphere until I got the effect of having bright starts across a fairly dark sky. Then I also had quite a lot of point lights for lighting back up in other places like for the cogs, I also have a skylight to light a lot in general but then I have some other objects that are self illuminating to look like big lights you'd find in a garage. I think the lighting looks good however it may be a little bright in some places, so there may be some stuff to adjust.
A.I. Enemy Creation
+ Function
For our game we have gone with the enemies being dogs and humans, these designs for them are very simple and designed to look very geometrical, you can see this mainly in the dog's face and the fact that human looking AI doesn't have a human head, instead has a diamond on their head. The enemies can function 2 ways, one way is that enemies will chase you when you get in their eye line and they will follow you around exactly where you go. The other setting that we can use is using patrol path, this means we can points to decide where the AI walks and if you walk on it's pathway you have the possibility of getting hit by them. This is the same for both the dog and the humans, the only drawback to the second way is that the enemies can only start moving as of when they see you, so if you go a way so that they won't see you the AI may not trigger. I have mainly used the AI on open parts of the level where this is barely any obstacles, so that even when you think you're safe you're still in danger. I have mainly used both the chasing AI and the path AI together so it's much more difficult to get through. The AI in this case works especially well because they're not violent because they can reset you just walking in to you and they are appropriate for all ages as they aren't scary at all.
Font Ideas for the Game
The fonts above are all the possible fonts that we have came to the decision of fonts that we could use and could be appropriate for this kind of game and would look natural. The game is called gravitivity and obviously being a game heavily based on space attributes any of the fonts above would look good. However when you consider that our game will be for people of all ages pretty much then we need to have a nice font for all ages as well so it looks eye catching to people such as children but also people who could be middle aged, these would have very different tastes so if we pick a font fit for everyone then it will look generally. I think the best font for this is the 13_Misa.TTF because this looks like it could be a professional logo somewhat and it defiantly fits the game and it also would probably looks good to everyone in the sense of being a name for a space game.
Engine Block Tunnel Obstacles
As the rest of my level is very difficult and it's meant to be one of the more challenging levels, I decided to rebuild the tunnel through the engine block.This is because the engine block just contained a pathway so instead I added up some split up pathways so you have to jump from one to another, in addition they are just under the maximum amount you can jump, so if you don't jump at the right point on each platform then you will die. Then I have also added 3 cogs into the tunnel as well, the first one is stationary, however if you jump to high or not far enough then you will touch the red and reset. After this cog, the other 2 are rotating and you have to jump between them without actually touching themM this is the most difficult bit because if you don't jump at the right time you will hit the red and then obviously reset.
My Level For Final Game
For the final game I have been making this level, the level is very difficult above are the processes of production and how I made everything. The level is mainly difficult because the level includes places where you have to gravity shift in order to complete the level, these can vary from gravity shifts to the ceiling from the floor or onto different walls. It's also very difficult because there are only certain surfaces you can touch and while you're worrying not to touch them, you also have to worry about the enemies walking around, of which a lot of them chase you. As you can see from the images above the level looks very difficult and hard to understand, in addition this particular level is styled after a garage which has allowed me to include lots of obstacles that you may find in a garage, things such as cogs, pistons and nails and much more. I think my level maybe one of the more harder levels in the game because of there being so much going on at once however after you have completed a few times it becomes much easier as you know what to expect and you know everything will be.