Once we believed that everything was pretty much in place, we began finalising the finishing touches to both of our levels. Sophie and I worked together at this point on one machine, ensuring that we went through both levels working out if there were any final details that needed to be added. We then also looked at ensuring all of the sound was in correctly and was triggered at the correct time in order for doors to work and for levers to do the correct animation, and just generally ensuring that everything was organised and ready for the final play testing and submission.
Responding to my Statement of Intent
After everything was finalised I wanted to look back at my original statement of intent to ensure that there wasn't anything I had stated that I had yet to complete and wanted to ensure that I had stayed as true to it as I had planned to all along. This was important for me to look back at as I really wanted to stay focused and on track as much as I could with this project as this is something that I have always struggled with in the past, and felt that it was something that I excelled in this time, ensuring that I had a key driven focus throughout and always knew what I wanted to end up with.
1.Subjects and Themes
Broadly speaking what are you interested in exploring and why?
Original Statement:
The subject and themes I will be exploring throughout this project is looking at creating a new IP for a game and creating a series of game levels that look towards being for a children's audience, focusing on main level areas and also mini games.
If you plan on working on multiple briefs to demonstrate your practice, identify clearly each brief.
Original Statement:
Throughout the module I will be focusing on creating a series of game levels, 3 at most, and basing them on real world wonders of the world. The game levels will be aimed towards a young audience of children ages 5-10 (estimate) and will be a third person experience The game levels will feature a main world, which will act as the hub world and other levels will branch off and also include mini games, which will be simple collection tasks where the player can explore the environment to find everything. The hub world will feature more levels but these will not be accessible as I do not plan on creating the entire game, just a few sample levels.
With this said, I plan on creating a playable game so everything about it will be designed from scratch, looking into the character and their development, the world development, the back story to the character and others that will feature and the game play mechanics themselves. Research will be carried out into existing games to begin with and then design work into everything will begin, looking at the key points above and eventually creating a game document design (GDD) which will be used throughout the entire project to ensure that everything is consistent throughout, and this can then be used to plan out any future levels that won't be created at this stage, but could be created later on. At this stage the character will also be created and fully developed with a unique style that will be used throughout the game. The character will be designed by me and then a character modeler will hopefully be brought in to develop the character in a 3D space, along with rigging it. A programmer will then also need to be contacted to help add in the code to the game for not only the characters movement and actions but to interact with the environment itself.
After the design stage is complete the actual making of the environments will be carried out by myself and Sophie Curwen, we will be making 2-3 environments that will be based on a real wonder of the world, for example, the Pyramid of Giza, and we will be modelling, UV Mapping, texturing and animating our own levels individually, following the GDD so that they follow a specific theme throughout. Once the levels are created there will be opportunity to work with someone that will create the music and sound effects for the game as well, and the whole project will then be playable and shown at Games Republic and the end of year show.
Response:
This was the largest part of my statement of intent that I really had to ensure that I stuck to, and I believe that I really have done this all. The entire game was about creating something inspired from the 90's and be able to bring this into our game and the levels included. As both me and Sophie are primarily environment designers and creators we really wanted to push and challenge ourselves to try and do other things during this project as well to ensure that it all got done.
We were able to successfully create a game that did feature a third person controller, which we animated ourselves and scripted, and believe that it will appeal to a target audience of 5-10 year olds, if not a larger target audience as well. We have created a hub world, that is the home to four characters, again who are all created by us, two each, and scripted into the game world to interact with things and objects there and also interact with Keith, the main character. This world then links, at the moment, to two others, but we have shown the possibilty of having more in the game by including portals to two more worlds on this floor and then including a staircase up to potentially more levels in the future.
The aim of the project was to create everything from scratch which we have succeeded to do, creating a new IP for the children to learn about and play as, and creating an entire back story and world around him. During the different stages of the project we have taken into consideration other games that have influenced us, not only for their visual styles but their game play mechanics and character building as well to ensure that our game world is rich and full of different elements to find. We originally then planned for a character modeler and scripter to come help us with the project but as time went on we decided it was best to give ourselves a challenge and create everything ourselves, resulting in some really nice characters that we feel closer to having been with them from the start of the project.
Music was the only thing that we did not create ourselves and we had fantastic music and sound effects produced for us specifically and this was another way in which we could see our characters come to live before us. I then originally stated that we were going to create 2-3 environments altogether which we did, we create 1 main environment each and then both worked on the hub world to get that looking really nice. Throughout the project we always had the clear focus that this game was going to be based around the wonders of the world which we have retained throughout and we constantly refer to our games design document, which we created at the beginning of our project to ensure that we were keeping a constant theme throughout but also so that we could design the next levels which could be created in the future.
3. Explain how this will be developing your Specialist Practice?
Original Statement:
The specialist practice that I want to develop is the design and creation of 3D environment's for video games, so by completely this project I will be aided the advancement in that along with looking further into scripting in Unity, lighting the environments and developing game environments of my own style.
Response:
Throughout the project this has been the key focus for the game and we have successfully created a new IP for a game in the form of Keith the Koala, we have created his entire world and come up with the necessary backstories for each of the characters featured and given them all their own personalities. The world that has been created consists of a series of game levels and they have consistently been aimed towards a child's audience as bright colours and inviting textures have been used.
2. Specifics of what you want to do, during this module?Throughout the project this has been the key focus for the game and we have successfully created a new IP for a game in the form of Keith the Koala, we have created his entire world and come up with the necessary backstories for each of the characters featured and given them all their own personalities. The world that has been created consists of a series of game levels and they have consistently been aimed towards a child's audience as bright colours and inviting textures have been used.
If you plan on working on multiple briefs to demonstrate your practice, identify clearly each brief.
Original Statement:
Throughout the module I will be focusing on creating a series of game levels, 3 at most, and basing them on real world wonders of the world. The game levels will be aimed towards a young audience of children ages 5-10 (estimate) and will be a third person experience The game levels will feature a main world, which will act as the hub world and other levels will branch off and also include mini games, which will be simple collection tasks where the player can explore the environment to find everything. The hub world will feature more levels but these will not be accessible as I do not plan on creating the entire game, just a few sample levels.
With this said, I plan on creating a playable game so everything about it will be designed from scratch, looking into the character and their development, the world development, the back story to the character and others that will feature and the game play mechanics themselves. Research will be carried out into existing games to begin with and then design work into everything will begin, looking at the key points above and eventually creating a game document design (GDD) which will be used throughout the entire project to ensure that everything is consistent throughout, and this can then be used to plan out any future levels that won't be created at this stage, but could be created later on. At this stage the character will also be created and fully developed with a unique style that will be used throughout the game. The character will be designed by me and then a character modeler will hopefully be brought in to develop the character in a 3D space, along with rigging it. A programmer will then also need to be contacted to help add in the code to the game for not only the characters movement and actions but to interact with the environment itself.
After the design stage is complete the actual making of the environments will be carried out by myself and Sophie Curwen, we will be making 2-3 environments that will be based on a real wonder of the world, for example, the Pyramid of Giza, and we will be modelling, UV Mapping, texturing and animating our own levels individually, following the GDD so that they follow a specific theme throughout. Once the levels are created there will be opportunity to work with someone that will create the music and sound effects for the game as well, and the whole project will then be playable and shown at Games Republic and the end of year show.
Response:
This was the largest part of my statement of intent that I really had to ensure that I stuck to, and I believe that I really have done this all. The entire game was about creating something inspired from the 90's and be able to bring this into our game and the levels included. As both me and Sophie are primarily environment designers and creators we really wanted to push and challenge ourselves to try and do other things during this project as well to ensure that it all got done.
We were able to successfully create a game that did feature a third person controller, which we animated ourselves and scripted, and believe that it will appeal to a target audience of 5-10 year olds, if not a larger target audience as well. We have created a hub world, that is the home to four characters, again who are all created by us, two each, and scripted into the game world to interact with things and objects there and also interact with Keith, the main character. This world then links, at the moment, to two others, but we have shown the possibilty of having more in the game by including portals to two more worlds on this floor and then including a staircase up to potentially more levels in the future.
The aim of the project was to create everything from scratch which we have succeeded to do, creating a new IP for the children to learn about and play as, and creating an entire back story and world around him. During the different stages of the project we have taken into consideration other games that have influenced us, not only for their visual styles but their game play mechanics and character building as well to ensure that our game world is rich and full of different elements to find. We originally then planned for a character modeler and scripter to come help us with the project but as time went on we decided it was best to give ourselves a challenge and create everything ourselves, resulting in some really nice characters that we feel closer to having been with them from the start of the project.
Music was the only thing that we did not create ourselves and we had fantastic music and sound effects produced for us specifically and this was another way in which we could see our characters come to live before us. I then originally stated that we were going to create 2-3 environments altogether which we did, we create 1 main environment each and then both worked on the hub world to get that looking really nice. Throughout the project we always had the clear focus that this game was going to be based around the wonders of the world which we have retained throughout and we constantly refer to our games design document, which we created at the beginning of our project to ensure that we were keeping a constant theme throughout but also so that we could design the next levels which could be created in the future.
3. Explain how this will be developing your Specialist Practice?
Original Statement:
The specialist practice that I want to develop is the design and creation of 3D environment's for video games, so by completely this project I will be aided the advancement in that along with looking further into scripting in Unity, lighting the environments and developing game environments of my own style.
Response:
This project has definitely helped my overall development into environment creation, the abilities that have learned about lighting a larger environment along with making sure that it is still optimised and plays at a good frame rate has been an important skill to learn. I originally wanted to improve just my skills in creating environments, but in the end I found that I not only did this but also improved in so many different areas like character design and creation and generally project management.
This project has definitely helped my overall development into environment creation, the abilities that have learned about lighting a larger environment along with making sure that it is still optimised and plays at a good frame rate has been an important skill to learn. I originally wanted to improve just my skills in creating environments, but in the end I found that I not only did this but also improved in so many different areas like character design and creation and generally project management.
4. Resources and Workshops
What do you need and by When?
Original Statement:
The only resources I will need are access to a computer in college and outside.
Response:
This again was the case, we only used the college or our own computers throughout the model and the only time we considered using other equipment was when we where looking to get characters printed for the end of year show and Games Republic.
5. Will you be working on a group project or brief?
( If YES explain )
Original Statement:
Yes, throughout this project I will be working with Sophie Curwen in order to produce the final result. We will be creating separate environments so it will be simple to show who has done what element of work and we will also be working with a number of people outside of the college for help with sound, programming and 3D character creation and rigging.
Response:
This again was the case, me and Sophie worked extremely well together throughout the entire project and knew exactly what we both had to do throughout our own sections. We have always had a clear and driven focus to get to the end result and this has made us a really good team, ensuring that we help each other in any way we can as we go through the project. The only difference to our original statement here was that we did not acquire as much outside help as we originally thought we would be. We did still get someone to do the music for us, and this turned out brilliantly and the music and sound effects where perfect for our game, but when it came to programming and creation the characters we decided to do this ourselves instead as more of a challenge and they ended up being really good; fitting in with the world around them perfectly.
6. Are there any stakeholders in your project?
If YES, explain who they are and what their responsibilities are? - This is essential if you've got a Live Brief from a client
Original Statement:
No.
Response:
This again stayed the same, we did not make this a live brief, however we did work to make this playable for the end of year show and to enter into Games Republic.
Looking Back at my Schedule
Lastly before I show off my final game I wanted to look back at my original schedule that I had created to show my progress throughout the project to prove to myself that I can stay on top of a project and have learnt to manage my time thoroughly. I feel that the first half of this project went incredibly well and we were completely ready for our research and development presentation. It was in the second half of the project where our progress dipped slightly and concentration was lost, but not completely. Work was steady underway and we only lost a small amount of time at the beginning of the project, it was only towards the end where modeling and animating was taking slightly longer than we had original planned and again we lost a bit of time. Even though despite this my time keeping has definitely been above average, especially for me, and I believe that this project has been my best so far.
Planned Schedule:
Actual Schedule:
No comments:
Post a Comment