Unit 10 Engaging with an Audience in Creative Media Production
Global Game Jam 2019
After reading through the assignment brief for this unit, I have looked more into what is required for a submission into the Global Game Jam 2019 such as themes, concepts and ideas. My initial thoughts on this unit were that of the overall theme of what home means to you could mean several things to multiple people depending on their background and how their home life could affect their decision making on this project which in turn would achieve a different outcome based off of whoever's pitch is accepted by the team. After querying my peers about what their rough ideas are regarding this project I have come to an understanding that my approach to this has a much broader scope in terms of what home means to me and how I will be implementing these ideas into a suitable product within the given timeframe as I will be needing to choose the key components required during which I will be compiling a ten minute pitch that I will be presenting to my peers to try and win their vote to use my idea for this project.
As for the group work that will be involved in this project, I look forward to working together with my peers again as the group work we had completed last year was a great insight into how development teams can work together to produce a viable product, although working collectively can have its downsides as everyone involved in the project has to be on the same page as not deviate from the plan as this can cause problems further on in development and extend the time required on this already limited deadline.
As this project is intended to last only 48 hours, I intend to keep the mindmap and any additional ideas included to a minimum as not to overpopulate the development process and to achieve a clear vision as to what I want to create for this project. This was done not only to keep time to a minimum but to also increase the time spent developing a prototype to be used for my initial pitch as the gameplay mechanics involved will be requiring additional research into how they would be implemented.
Project Pitch
I used this script for my presentation as I did not have a powerpoint prepared for my pitch but rather a prototype level that would be playable by a member of the class to demonstrate the concept as shown below. For my script, I had to be precise and to the point, this is so that I could focus primarily on the core mechanics at play along with additional information such as the influences towards this project and what market strategy would be. Other elements like the direction that I will be heading this project if chosen and what challenges I may have to face during this project will be included then followed up with a questions and answers segment where I will be receiving feedback.
Pitch Winners
After presenting my pitch to my peers, we were given a few days before the winners and their teams were announced. I had not really worked with my team previously and because of this, I had decided on allowing my team to have creative freedom over their assigned roles as I really want to see what they have got to offer. I felt that this would be a better way to understand what their capabilities are and what area of development would suit them best during the timeframe of this project.
Team Structure / Roles
For this project, my idea is to have every member of my team creating their own level to be used within the final product as I feel this would be a great way to extend gameplay and give everyone on the team a chance to develop their own level in their own way. This would allow the team to better progress their skills in their chosen areas as well as allowing me to focus more time on further developing my initial concept, giving me the opportunity to manage my team more efficiently.
To begin with, the job roles are going to be based on who feels confident working in their chosen area of development as one member might not be suitable but another member would be and as such these are the positions that my team will be starting with.
Ed - Technical research/character design/mechanics research
Rachel - Modelling/level design/audio research
Cameron - Modelling/level design/weapon research
Eoin - Project lead/Core Mechanic/levels structure
With these positions now set, development can now begin with each member focusing on their set targets whilst working together as ideas may change or new discoveries to the project as a whole will assist us later on in development.
Audience Theory and Effective Marketing
The Hypodermic Needle Theory
"In the hypodermic needle model, the concept of conditioning was applied to the mass audience who were seen as passive recipients of whatever message that was injected (or shot) by the media, and who can be manipulated to react in a predictable, unthinking and conditioned manner."
Opentextbc.ca. (2019). The Hypodermic Needle – Media Studies 101. [online] Available at: https://opentextbc.ca/mediastudies101/chapter/the-hypodermic-needle/ [Accessed 13 Oct. 2019].
This theory is based on the fact that an audience will not question the validity of the information presented to them by mass media and simple belive in what is provided to them, an example of this can be that of a radio broadcast of The War of the Worlds during Halloween, 1938. This broadcast had supposedly convinced the population that an invasion of the extraterrestrial kind was afoot however it is noted that no actual data exists to back this up and it is theorised that mainstream news outlets had a part in creating this propaganda suggesting that they could be exaggerating the overall impact on the populace. This was during a time of tension between countries as the world attempted to recover from the first world war and the second one was only months away and as such many of the world leaders had put in place systems that would produce propaganda to be used within the media to persuade their nations in their favour.
However, with the gaming industry, some companies still use this as a method of advertising to generate profit and to garner more sales. Take for example Blizzard and their recent Blizzcon where they announced their new Diablo title with many participants booing the reveal as they had hoped for a sequel that tied with the PC version of the game rather than a new mobile spinoff. This is where Blizzard had predicted their fans reactions wrong and has produced a product that has checked more boxes for their investors rather than providing players with a game that has had more time and effort put into it for the players. In terms of how this theory comes into play is with Blizzard teasing a new Diablo release with fans expectations being held high and drip-feeding them with leaks and small nibbles of information to keep them interested additionally, this will be in Blizzard's financial gain.
Two-Step Theory
"The Two-Step Flow Theory acknowledges that audiences are composed of individuals who are part of an active society and that they actively interpret and relay media messages that are influenced by the people around them. When you think about the different types of modern communication, it’s almost certain that there are more than two steps in the flow of communication."
Lamb, B. (2019). The Two Step Flow Theory | VCE Media, Victorian Curriculum, Media Arts, digital literacy, media education, filmmaking. [online] Lessonbucket.com. Available at: https://lessonbucket.com/media-in-minutes/the-two-step-flow-theory/ [Accessed 14 Oct. 2019].
The Two-step theory is a more recent example of how media can be used to influence and persuade an audience, but, unlike the hypodermic needle theory, the two-step theory counts on the audience is an active participant throughout this more complex process of information. This process is as follows;
Media > Influencers > audience, with the audience communicating with these influencers during this cycle as a feedback loop where information is shared between platforms and varying demographics which in return can assist the media in reaching out to more individuals. As stated in the above presentation, social media has more of an influence on how we perceive information today unlike in the past few decades were the number of social platforms was limited and not everyone had an internet connection being only restricted to simple forms of communication such as letters or newscasts.
With more and more social platforms to choose from, we are more connected today than ever before and corporations heavily rely on these platforms to spread the word. An example of this theory can be applied to how EA advertise to their fans through the use of social influencers with FIFA 20 Wrong Breaks New Ground trailer in which EA has used multiple influencers throughout the trailer who in return have showcased this game to their followers in posts to their own accounts.
The example shown here is that of Lisa Zimouche, a freestyle football player who has over 2 million Instagram followers.
Active Spectatorship Theory
The idea of active spectatorship is that the audience has their own judgement/opinion when it comes to consuming media of their choice as they may alternate choices to satisfy their needs. This option of free will can allow the audience to decide on what media suites their wants and goals and how it may affect them which is based on the uses and gratification theory.
This can be summarised into five categories.
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Information and Education
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Entertainment
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Personal Identity
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Integration & Social interaction
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Escapism
Social media has had a huge impact on how we share and consume media as its ease of access and worldwide coverage has conquered our day to day lives as many people use these platforms as their news source, entertainment and as a way to integrate into a group or part of society. With this, the active part of this theory comes into play as social media influencers can influence an audience in a variety of ways including, but not limited to, advertisements, reviews, podcasts and entertainment content such as short videos. As users of these platforms continue to share and comment on this content, a wider audience is reached thus communicating the opinion of the influencers and persuading others to either buy a product or support a cause or a number of other options based on the influencer.
Psychographics
Psychographics is more about how a persons personality, actions and experiences may influence the type of media that they consume which in return can place them within a category based off of this. Many businesses use this as an effective way to market their products or content to a particular group or individual. An example of this based off of my own experience is how I recently attended an opening day at a University where afterwards I was receiving more advertisements for competing Universitys whereas before I was receiving adverts related to videogames as I had recently visited EGX.
As for the categories, there are six that are widely used ranging from the Aspirers to the Strugglers and the Resigned to the Reformed. Each has its own criteria and point of entry but unlike the theories mentioned above an individual can freely move between each of the categories and even come under multiple categories as time moves on and their social situation changes.
The use of this theory within games media tells us that gaming isn't just a thing you can play anymore. It's also a thing you can watch. It's this evolution of content consumption that has businesses focusing more on who is playing/watching their content as the use of psychographics in this situation helps developers plan and implement content and features into their titles as a way to increase their player base and gain more playtime/viewer numbers.
Another example of this is how Epic uses Fortnight to advertise the intellectual properties of Warner Bros and Disney to market their game to a wider audience as they know from their player database that a majority of their players are within the age range that fits Disneys/Warner Bros demographics with the use of crossover events and player cosmetics as you can see from the videos below.
For the category of people that would be interested in this type of content, Fortnight has a wide player base spanning across all of the aforementioned categories and as such, this "crossover" event would initially grab the attention of multiple demographics and in doing so would provide Epic with more user data determining what their next content will be and how they be marketing it to a wider audience alongside providing additional marketing opportunities for the businesses involved.
UKIE Demographic
According to UKIE, the UK was the 6th largest video game market globally behind China, USA, Japan and Germany in 2018 and it's estimated that around 35 million people in the UK play video games.
The target demographic audience that our title would be most suited for is ages 12 and up as the gameplay contains no Sexual content/Nudity, no references to Alcohol, Drugs & Smoking nor Profanity. Although, there is a form of Violence as the player can come under attack by NPC's that have been placed throughout the levels as they have been programmed to chase after the player if they are in their line of sight, after which once the player is caught by one of these NPC's the player is then forced to restart the level from the level start. Finally, when playing this title the player may become uneasy, as Intense Scenes such as the element of gravity shifting may cause the player to become motion sick as the level moves around them and their plane of gravity changes.
However, when thinking about the target platform for this project, we need to consider what type of platform that our game would initially be released on as different platforms have varying numbers of players and the ability for a release across multiple platforms would be ideal, but this would have its implications as if you were to take into account the size of our team and the limited budget that would be available to us would make a multiplatform release slim to none.
Take the release of Portal 2.
Released way back in 2011 Portal 2 instantly was a success amongst gamers across all platforms that the title was available on, reaching almost one hundred thousand concurrent players in its first week alone (A). Throughout the first three years after the release, the player count had increased when key events such as the perpetual testing initiative game mode released on May 8th, 2012 (C) which introduced the concept of multiple alternate universes by using testing chambers created by the Portal 2 community on the Steam Workshop.
2, P. (2019) Portal 2 · AppID: 620, Steam Database. Available at: https://steamdb.info/app/620/graphs/ (Accessed: 16 December 2019).
A - April 19, 2011 – Now Available - Portal 2
B - June 16, 2011 – Razer Hydra Motion Controller compatibility
C - May 8, 2012 – Portal 2 Perpetual Testing Initiative
D - January 21, 2013 – Portal 2, 75% Off
If we want to release our game across multiple platforms, we need to make sure that there is Game-ready infrastructure in place, in order to have a wider audience. Ofcom reports that 88% of UK households have access to the internet, an increase of 2% on 2016 and that there are 25.3 million fixed broadband connections, half of which can be classed as high speed.
This can expand our reach with our game to new and evolving technology such as the newly released Google stadia, which currently has a small player base due to a slow adoption rate, however, this will change over time as fixes and improvements to the service are added but the player base will continue to grow as time moves on.
Kickstarter Marketing Campaign
Here is our Kickstarter Campaign overview, this documents our goal of £20,000 with the individual reward tiers ranging from a custom amount to £500. Along with these rewards we also have included key funding milestones for if our project receives more than our initial funding goal before the deadline, with these milestones, they add additional features such as time trials, multiplayer and VR support.
A trailer will be accompanying these rewards in an attempt to persuade our audience to help secure funding for our game.
Due to Kickstarter being a worldwide platform, we can easily reach other markets across the globe in an attempt to further increase our audience, which if our project is popular and receives enough attention would garner the attention of popular media outlets who would in return publish articles about our game to their respected sites. This would mean free marketing for our project further increasing our funding.
Inspiration and Market Research
Mcescher.com. (2019). Most Popular – M.C. Escher – The Official Website. [online] Available at: https://mcescher.com/gallery/most-popular/ [Accessed 17 Oct. 2019].
Here is a selection of M.C Escher works that have inspired me to create the project that I have due to the abstract nature and yet organised chaos which reminded me of home. As the home I come from is not your average home where there is order but rather a form of organised chaos which can be challenging at first but once you find the right flow, you can easily navigate. Another note is how these pieces of art make me feel, where I feel like I can relate to what is happening due to my chaotic home life and this resonates with me on a personal level.
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Portal on Steam. [online] Available at: https://store.steampowered.com/app/400/Portal/ [Accessed 17 Oct. 2019].
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Portal 2 on Steam. [online] Available at: https://store.steampowered.com/app/620/Portal_2/ [Accessed 17 Oct. 2019].
Next on my list is the Portal series. These two games have really allowed me to experiment and understand how games can not only be used as a form of entertainment but as a tool to get the audience to learn about new and interesting sciences by means of a great narrative and core gameplay. Additionally, the overall aesthetic of these games is not like any other as the player is put to the test in multiple purpose-built test chambers mimicking those found in science fiction to eventually go on to discover who and where they truly are and what is their destined purpose.
SUPERHOT SUPERHOT SUPERHOT... Superhot is a game about time and how to properly use it in a John Wick -Esque manner but that's not why I took to this game for inspiration but rather the overall appearance of this title with its limited colour palette. The stylings of superhot are unlike any other game and after looking at the developer's website I found out that this game was also made during a Game Jam way back in 2014!
SUPERHOT on Steam. [online] Available at: https://store.steampowered.com/app/322500/SUPERHOT/ [Accessed 17 Oct. 2019].
Finally, Outlast, this game really creeps me out where I can only play it with my girlfriend as the atmosphere it generates is too much to handle on your own if you don't play many horror titles. My main focus on this title was that of the enemies found within the horrifying asylum as there is no fight or flight system only a flight as the player must run away as not to be captured and killed. This prompted me to consider adding similar enemies within my own project as a way to encourage the player to think outside the box and evade these threats as their main goal is to try to find their way home by any means.
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Outlast on Steam. [online] Available at: https://store.steampowered.com/app/238320/Outlast/ [Accessed 17 Oct. 2019].
Each of these titles has its own way of marketing themselves in different ways across various audiences. Such is the case with Portal 2's Potato Sack alternate reality game or ARG for short, for this promotion Valve had been working in secret with several different developers to develop assets in the form of puzzles based off of Valves own IP's to be used within their own games as easter eggs that would tie into the release of Portal 2 as finding these would result in the game being released ten hours earlier than intended. I see this as a great opportunity to engage your audience as the hype generated from people finding these secrets caused more and more people to report on the event, which in turn would further increase the number of potential players who would then go on to purchase the released title.
Superhot was just a prototype originally made for the 7 Day FPS challenge, which after great praise and attention launched on Kickstarter where it surpassed its goal of $100,000 and ultimately gained over $250,000 in pledges and during this time the developers decided to release the prototype to the public.
"... and then - the Internet went crazy. We have been featured on Kotaku, The Verge, Rock, Paper, Shotgun, and WIRED among many others. SUPERHOT made it to the front page of Reddit (twice) and went through Steam Greenlight during a single weekend." Kickstarter. (2017). SUPERHOT. [online] Available at: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/375798653/superhot [Accessed 22 Nov. 2019].
From this, we can see that the overwhelmingly positive coverage of this game not only provided the developers with free advertising but also a much wider audience for them to market to, which shows that if your game is good and people like it then people will support its development and eventually buy it.
It's this approach that has me interested in how we would market our game to our target audience as we are working as a small development team. We would be investing our own time and money into this project and as such would want to make the best game we can and get as many people as we can to play it. This is why I feel that the only way to market our game, to begin with, is to advertise it on social media and other platforms such as YouTube and to just let people play the prototype for free and let them decide with their wallets through Kickstarter or the other means of funding as mentioned in my funding options, whether or not to support and buy our game.
Funding Options
The idea of our game is to challenge players, but this does not mean that funding our game should be just as challenging as there are many options available to us. I believe that the best way for us to fully embrace our game and to grow our audience is to allow influencers from platforms such as Youtube, Twitch and Mixer to play early development builds of our game to review them and as a way for us to find any bugs that may pop up during gameplay. Other methods of funding such as Kickstarter allows for funding through backers who can donate as much as they like and would be rewarded for doing so. The last method would be a grant from the UK Games Fund, by using this grant we could hire new staff and extend marketing for our title which would result in more sales during the release.
Kickstarter
Known for assisting in the funding of Elite: Dangerous which is developed by UK studio Frontier Developments. By using Kickstarter it allows us to communicate with our audience and to receive funding for our game, along with any news or updates to do with our games development. Additionally, by using milestones we can add additional features such as multiplayer, time trials mode and VR support.
UK Games Fund
UK Games Talent, who are funded by UK Government help early startups by using the UK Games Fund that can help grow the UK's games development sector and is working to support the startup games development community to create jobs, promote diverse new teams, enhance skills and increase the number of new games created in the UK.
Priority Tasks
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There are many tasks ahead of me that I will be completing during this project and as project lead, I must adhere by these tasks by prioritising them in their respected order however this may change as new challenges arise and as development continues to move forward.
As you can see I have been using a To-Do list as a method of keeping track of what needs doing for this project along with other projects, I use this as my personal list as I can access it anywhere as it saved online, I feel that this method of task keeping suits my workflow as I have a set due date then the various sections following after.
When it comes to my teams work, I will be checking up on them periodically making sure that they have met their targets from the minute meetings. If their target has not been reached I will be encouraging them to continue to work on that goal as this should increase the quality of their work and give a more polished final version of our game to be released.
Mindmap Ideas
With the mindmap from this project, I had aimed for it to be a quick simple game with basic gravitational principles and a little bit of narration. This was done to achieve the timeframe set in the rules of this game jam where after the basic interactive gameplay standards had formed and as I was able to spend more time working on this concept, I had found that the inclusion of dangers/enemies was beneficial to the overall experience that I wanted to give the player where a sense of urgency will compel the player to keep moving forward throughout the levels in this project. Additionally, by including collectables the player will have to navigate through these levels and be rewarded with a prize for finding a set amount in each level. This could either be concept art that can be unlocked or a fun cheat simular to those round in older games such as a big head mode on all of the enemies.
Moodboard
This mood board also works as my game research for inspiration and market research as I had a clear focus on what type of game I wanted this project to be. Additionally, using this as an opportunity to understand what the aesthetics will be and how the levels will be designed as understanding these details early on in development will enable my team to create content with time and ease.
Project Planning
The method used for planning our approach to this unit was with the use of meeting minutes that would be made once a week to make sure that the team are meeting their targets during development. During these meetings we will be discussing and exploring any issues, ideas and grievances made or found during the week and discussing as a team how we can fix these or apply them to our work. After which they will be noted and new job roles will be assigned based off of what work has been completed and what needs to be done, this approach of involving all members of the team to be included in all aspects of development is required as I want every member to have their own input into the whole project rather than a particular element.
Technical Research
One key factor that I will be needing to research will be that of the gravity mechanic as this will be the main focus of this project and thus will require time and effort in order to get correct. The way in which I have approached this for my prototype was to find out how I would implement such a mechanic which has proven to be quite the task as this meant that I would be needing to experiment on the gravity physics used within the unreal engine which would involve the use of C++, a programming language that I am not yet familiar with as learning this would require weeks if not months of education. After searching around the internet for any help or tips on how I would achieve this, I discovered ue4resources.com which had a sample project with a similar gravity mechanic that I could use as a way to showcase my idea for this project with a little bit of altering as to get the desired effect.
By using the provided project sample I was able to create a short demo showcasing the key mechanic of this project, this was the easy part as most of the provided code was ready to use with only a few minor tweaks required in order to achieve the desired effects. Such as altering the player's camera position and removing the floating animation included in the sample, after which the prototype level was created and the kill zones added as the player must navigate the level to avoid any dangers, plus it made the level more challenging to the player.
Technical Documentation
Sources for Ideas and Research
Changing Gravity of Objects Using Buttons
https://youtu.be/NfX14Y0Eyks?list=PLwTgWExWtHBfizjFQQTSmF4zG44wzpRZ5
Free Gravity Character Movement
Dynamic Gravity for Characters
Movement and Interactivity Features
When thinking about how any of the mechanics would function in our game we had to compile a list with all of the possible features that could be implemented, this list would later be used during the development of core features and mechanics.
I had tasked Ed with this important document as his previous knowledge of similar titles would prove useful for the type of mechanics that would be involved or included. This document would give a brief description of the type of mechanic along with how it could be used within the gameplay. Not only would any mechanics be included in this document but also any other technical features that have come up during any brainstorming sessions that our group has taken such as the possibility of including a VR element that would be toggled on through the menus. This type of technological development would take place towards the end of development as the game primarily has been designed to be played on a monitor or TV, so the inclusion of VR would be a great addition, however, would take additional time to develop, time that our team does not have.
Finally, one element of game design that I wish to include in this project will be level transitions as I want everyone in this group to have some input in the level structure so each member has been tasked with creating their own levels to be used in our final version.
Audio Research
Bibliography
RNIB – Audio games
https://www.rnib.org.uk/rnibconnect/technology/audiogames-and-playing-videogames-without-sight
Portal Gameplay with sound effects
Game Narrative
The role of sounds in games
Next up on the list of things to do during the development of our project was audio and what would need to be taken into consideration when developing the audio for this project. Such as any music to be produced that would be used throughout the levels to the sounds of the player's footsteps on the ground.
This research was performed by Rachel, as during this early stage of development I was still learning the talents of my team and I needed someone to work on the type of audio that we would be using and how we would be using it effectively during our project. This proved to be useful as the research has assisted us in being able to provide a better experience for any players that might have a hearing impairment or eyesight issues. Along with assisting players needs for our project, the way in which audio would be used as a base soundtrack for our levels has been looked at as players respond differently to the different tracks used as referenced in the document where players achieve more points in one game with an audio track compared to another game where the audio has been muted but the players still achieved top scores.
Ed has been tasked with creating the soundtrack to be used in our project as his experience with audio production software has an advantage over the rest of the team.
Prototypes & Experiments
Above is footage captured of my sister playing the original prototype level, I choose to record this as my sister is not someone who plays videogames regularly. She would be considered a casual gamer as she would be inclined to play the occasional game or app on her phone/laptop such as The Sims, Solitaire and may also play on console. Additionally, I have recorded notes on others who have played this prototype with regards to the gameplay, player input, and level design.
My reason behind this approach is to look into how someone not familiar with this type of game might approach it given the early prototype state and abstract mechanics. With this data, I was able to gather a greater understanding of how I could make this title more accessible to a wider range of audiences along with a more simple way to explain the mechanics to new players.
Experiment 1 - Player Physics
My first experiment was to see how the player physics work as my prototype was using a custom C++ plugin with additional blueprints, the classed hierarchy chart to the left shows how this system would have worked.
The first step was to understand how the plugin would affect the project and its dependencies, this involved breaking down the provided blueprint and reconstructing it in a new project with the plugin disabled. This way I was able to cross out and remove any additional code that would not be required for this project as I would only be needing the core mechanic code. Unfortunately, I was unable to recreate the sample project without the plugin as there is a piece of referenced code used within the project that requires the extra code from the plugin and as it is made using C++ I was unable to fully breakdown the code.
Additionally, by breaking down the code and reverse engineering it I was able to insert some new code into the blueprint such as a respawn system for when the player dies and an interaction system where the player can grab/drop objects which will be useful later on in development as the player will be required to place objects on switches in order to continue through the level.
Experiment 2 - Object Physics
The second experiment that I will be implementing into the project is a type of object physics where the object that the player has interacted with keeps to the player's orientation then stays in said orientation until the player interacts with it again thus breaking the original gravity orientation. As the gravity component used for the player has different references used the implementation of this system to be used on select objects will prove to be quite the challenge. An example of what this would look like can be seen below with an original sketch on paper and a freeze-frame in engine showing a similar concept.
Version 1.05a
Experiment 3 - Level Development
Over the course of this project, my level structure has changed as new ideas form and the overall scope of this project expands with my team's development within their given roles and own levels.
Initially, I had created a simple blockout of the level that would be the hub for our project within my prototype level by using the geometry tools that are available within the Unreal Engine. By using a similar workflow as to when I created my prototype whilst producing this early level design, I was able to quickly alter the overall scale and layout which enabled me to experiment with possible player routes and challenges at such an early stage. After experimenting with the layout of the level a few more times, and being unhappy with the results I moved onto a new level layout without the platform in the centre as you can see in the first version of the level.
Version 1.0a
Version 1.1a
In this second iteration of the level, I experimented with the possibility of having the physics-based boxes be used as an integral part of the level structure. By allowing the player to use them on any surface that they were on similar to those found in Portal, but with the difference being the physics of said boxes reacting to the players' orientation in the level. This did not work as well as I had originally thought as the player's physics system worked in a different way to the boxes and as such, I was unable to troubleshoot the problem and instead just used the boxes as interactive props for the player to work with. However, I did begin to think that having the player bound to a room made the experience feel rather cramped and would at times become confusing as you couldn't see a horizon that would remind you what way is down.
So I thought outside the box, and removed it altogether.
Version 1.2a
As you can see the level has changed drastically from version 1.0a to 3.0a with the main focus on the removal of the confinements of a box towards a more free, open level.
Environment & Assets
World Overview 1.3b
When designing the layout of my level I had planned on theming areas that the player would traverse based off of my team's individual levels. With this in mind, as the level layout was being finalised I included key assets that would be used to identify what level the player would be transported to. This is because I wanted the player to navigate the level freely and to learn the mechanics at their own pace, but there is some linearity to the level as the player would at first find it easier to navigate to the first level which would be the easy level with each level afterwards becoming more and more difficult to complete.
Easy level entrance
Medium level entrance
Hard level entrance
Controls and hints
As this level is intended to be a HUB containing teleports to other levels, I have included an area that will always show the controls to the player along with hints as to what they must do as to make the level more like a tutorial level without enforcing the player to endure a mandatory tutorial that they cannot skip. However, If given the time this would be a great way to add additional levels to our project thus increasing gameplay time.
Teleporters
The teleporters are a key element of this project as they serve as a means to travel between levels. When designing them, originally they were meant to be doors that the player could walk through but due to a persistent bug which will be explained in my Bugs & QA section, I had opted to use these instead which meant I had to rethink how I was to use my team's levels and how I would use the teleporters effectively.
Teleporter versions
During the modelling process, I had taken inspiration from titles such as Portal and Ratchet and Clank with their use of similar teleporters and models which look like they could be a teleporter as I had planned on the base of the teleporter being the only physical object with the arms being particle effects like waves instead of what they are now. However, whilst developing this asset I had chosen to use the arms as I was unable to get the desired effect from the aforementioned wave effect I wished to include. Although, I was able to add a small sparks particle effect to the base of the arms which gave the object more of an impact within the world space.
Finished Asset with animations
When creating the blueprint for this teleporter the design allowed for the use of teleporting within a level which suited my original plans of having the player teleport between sections of the level this did not originally work as intended due to the physics causing the player to be launched out of the level after entering and exiting the teleporter. I have not removed this feature as I may want to use it in a later project where the physics will be set to the engines original settings and not the one ones that I have set for this project.
The blueprint is set up as follows, a player enters > checks whether or not teleporter is set to level or object > executes the open level command. From the blueprint below you can see that I have also included a loading screen, this, however, is not in the final version as I have created a separate level containing the loading screen as this was done as a way to eliminate any additional bugs that may be caused whilst simulating a loading screen within the level.
Teleporter Blueprint
The loading screens are set up using a separate level with nothing in and a widget overlaying the player's view whilst disabling their input. As for the loading screen widget, a simple animation timeline is used to display facts and hints to the player by changing the opacity of the text along the timeline, I have included this as many games have a similar loading screen setup which can tell the player important information while they wait for the next area to load.
This is the structure used for moving the player to a new level.
HUB > Loading level > New level
Here are a few assets from the team. (Clicking on them takes you to their page)
Ed
Rachel
Cameron
Bug tracking & QA
There have been numerous bugs and problems during the development of this project some worse than others but as each member continues to work on their level some of these bugs may be fixed.
Here is the reported list of bugs and problems that have occurred;
-Teleporting launches player when using teleport within the level
-Fixed by spawning the player into a new level
-Level audio overlaps during a loading screen
-Fixed by creating a new level containing a loading screen
-Player not colliding with AI
-Fixed by allowing the player to overlap AI collision sphere
-AI not knowing what to do when the player is respawning
-Not fixed
-Level bounds not working in select levels
-Not fixed
-Menu camera spawning out of level bounds
-Fixed by removing the menu level kill volume
-Player HUD not displaying correctly
-Not fixed
-Player colliding with teleporter arms
-Fixed by removing collision on arms
-Objects rotating incorrectly
-Fixed by setting the rotation to object rather than the world
-Boxes not behaving like boxes
-Fixed by setting gravity to default
-Gravity being normal
-Fixed by switching branch nodes within physics blueprint
-Some UV mapping issues
-Not fixed
-Select objects pivot off-centred
-Fixed in updated asset versions
Most of these bugs have been fixed by a form of QA which requires continually testing in various ways to try to break the game. This has proven a useful way to fix and improve any remaining problems or issues that may ruin the user experience and that is not intended for a finished final release.
Development Team Evaluation
During this unit, my team had an opportunity to create a really creative piece of work as the tasks I had given them, allowed creative freedom for each member as they were tasked with creating their own level to the best of their abilities based off of their chosen theme within the home. I felt that the roles I had presented to each member suited their desired skill set as I noted this from each of their pitches and what skills they had previously shown along with discussing as a group who should focus on what during the course of development. Each member would be able to have their say regarding any possible changes during development, this ensured that any problems, issues or ideas can be acted upon quickly as to not disrupt the overall development schedule of our project.
The start of our project was really strong as once roles were given and foundations were set, every member went to work on producing the technical documents that would be used later on to assist in the development of our game. As some of my team was still unsure about the concept of our project, I had tasked them with researching similar concepts found in other titles, this could be either by watching gameplay or playing. This proved useful as everyone would be on the same page and understand how this concept would work, which allowed us to move forward and focus on creating the concepts of our levels.
It is during this time that the enemies and their animations would be created to be later implemented into the engine which after some guidance and pointers to ensure that the quality would suit the final product was well made to the best of my team members ability. Afterwhich, what audio would be used and how it would be implemented was also started by this member of the team as they could complete this task quickly as their previous experience of creating audio was beneficial to our project. This was because each member would have their own theme music for each of their levels.
Speaking of the levels, during the development of these levels, I had to provide guidance too frequently for half my team as they didn’t take initiative to investigate how to fix any issues that they may have had and this resulted in my own workload increasing which in return had a domino effect on my work and others work towards the end of this unit.
However, towards the end of this unit, my team really started to fall behind in their work. This was possibly due from lack of sleep and having certain members falling asleep during the lesson and very poor communication on their side, it began to feel like more of an individual project rather than a group one which made it increasingly more difficult as our deadline grew closer. As this deadline was looming closer and closer, communication completely broke down within the team, I felt as though no one else was taking initiative to take on any extra workload that could have improved points in our project which resulted in having very uneven amounts of work between us, some having done a large percentage of it and others not so much. There was some effort made to communicate on my part, but unfortunately, as most of my time was spent focusing on the tasking that I needed to get done, I relied on my team members to communicate with me independently towards the end as I did not have time to sit with them to conduct a one to one with them on a daily basis.
Overall, working with my team has had its challenges as each member has their own strengths and weaknesses to overcome and where some have grown during this process others still have yet to come out of their shell. I would not recommend working with some members of this group in future projects due to the lack of initiative and communication which are a vital part of any industry let alone one which requires so much teamwork and communication and is an absolute necessity for a group project.
Personal Contribution Analysis
My role was to design and implement the core gameplay alongside managing my team ensuring that they meet deadlines and communicate with one another. As this project moved forward, I found myself doing more work than was originally planned or required, this was because I felt that our project could do with extra features such as a loading screen and a more functional menu screen.
As this project was based on my original pitch, I fully understood where my area of development would fit into my team’s work as my focus was mainly on getting the mechanics to work correctly. Once the tweaking of the gravity mechanics was finished, I sent the project files to the rest of my team for them to start developing their own levels as during this time my team was working on creating the concepts for their levels. For my level design, I had gone through multiple variations as time moved on, this was due to certain ideas and concepts being incompatible with the final design of my level and the overall finished game.
For my involvement as Project Lead, I helped to organise my team’s efforts and to coordinate their work so that it would fit into our game. Throughout this time, I had assisted my team with the various stages of development that they were working on, this could be helping with blueprinting and setting up key stages of the level to tips and tricks to make animations smoother and assets work correctly in the engine. The correct coordination of my team allowed me to pinpoint key issues and keep up to date with our development to ensure a smooth process from designing to fully functional assets and levels.
However, in my contribution to this project as a whole, this has enabled me to get a better understanding of the different processes involved in games development. From a Project Lead point of view to a view on how to manage the marketing of our game and how we would get our game into the hands of our audience, has taught me much about how working as a team towards a bigger picture is essential for quality-driven work.
Analysis of final game
The result of our final game in its current state is ok, as my team and I have put a lot of work and effort into it considering that the concept of the game was quite the challenge to overcome as it was different to those found on the market. My idea was to have a game that would test the player and make them think about how they would navigate a place so confusing and chaotic as when thinking about what home means to me, this is what it means.
The game does have elements that are great, such as multiple levels, assets and themes but it’s the overall quality of elements in the game that has left many questions unanswered, like model quality and level design as I feel that not enough time was spent finetuning and adjusting assets to improve their quality, but rather time spent waiting to be told what to do next.
Compared to my group work last year, this is most certainly an improvement over quality and quantity, it’s just let down in other areas that I wished to improve upon. If this game was to be made in 48hours I would be amazed as the amount of work that has gone into a project of this scale as its ridiculous idea as its idea is entirely abstract from whats found currently. I would like to develop this concept further, provided I was given the time and team members as I feel that this game would work commercially and not fail completely, it just needs more time and resources in order to develop a fully functional game with no bugs and is complete.
Personal Reflection
This unit marked my second time leading a team as a project manager, I had previously worked as a team to create a single level. Because of this, I wanted each member to be responsible for creating their own level so that they can learn more about level design when developing around a particular game mechanic. This was harder than I had initially thought as some members of my team didn’t fully understand the concept, so time was spent at the start of this unit researching similar games as to aid my team in the creation of their levels.
Additionally, I found myself having to intervene too often with my team’s designs which did not help in the development process as it took valuable time away from other areas which required work on. Such as Funding and the Kickstarter document which had to be completed toward the end of this unit due to members of the team not offering to assist in the creation of these documents and would not communicate a great deal with the team. Due to the lack of communication and effort put in from other team members, I was left feeling quite frustrated with the situation as a lot of extra pressure was put on to me which wasn’t necessary, this then put a strain on my work as a result of it.
After all of my experimenting with this project, I have learned a lot more about how the Unreal Engine works and how working with a team can both be good and bad from a communicational standpoint. With all this in mind, I do feel as though I was heavily relied on to do the majority of the work. I understand that my role within the team was to help guide and direct the team in the right direction, but I’m not sure that the team fully understood this as it seems they were relying on me to do a lot more than was required despite it being a group project that we all needed to participate in equally.
Personal Development Plan
Moving forward, after this project I plan to develop many of the skills that I have used and picked up throughout the duration of the unit such as team management, 3D modelling and especially coding using the Unreal Engine.
I will be developing these skills further by any means necessary, this can be either through personal projects that I will be attempting throughout the year or through means of online tutorials, hosted by Epic and a variety of others that can help teach me in the ways of 3D modelling, Unreal Engine production and Animations as this will increase my portfolio depending on what I decide to create.
As for working as a project lead, I will be continuing to work on my efforts towards managing a team by asking my manager questions on how to effectively manage a team as well as trying to lead a group of friends during gameplay as I feel that this would be a great way to experiment with team leadership.
Furthermore, as I intend on applying for university I will be continuing to work on producing a high-quality portfolio, this will enable me to showcase my work and skills for my application to any university that hopefully will consider me for a position.