Context

Routes to go down for FMP.

The mechanic route, this route is one of the 2 options that we were given to make and it consists of a simple block out level but it has to have at least 5 mechanics or interactable things to make the level flow like a real thing, this could be like picking up an object to opening a door to a new room

The other route we could take is the 3d Modelling and environment art, this route has none or less mechanics but solely focuses on the design side of the FMP.

My initial idea

a rainbow 6 siege type walkthrough game where the player is part of a detective/ clean up squad that deals with the remnants of terrorist activities and try's to figure out the motives behind the attack or accident, for this type of game i think it would go down the route of having mechanics in it i want the main character to have a camera and i want him to take pictures of incriminating evidence to try and find the culprit and why they would attack the place they did when the player takes a picture of sufficient evidence a narration will start about what it is used for but if they do not then the narrator will say something like "why do i need to take a picture of this" to help the player find the right things

Out of these two options I am more leaning towards the mechanical side of things as I loved doing the interactivity stuff in the past units like making a door open or having a sound play when you enter a certain place

MindMap

After making this mind map i realised that my original idea was too similar to rainbow six siege and the idea of a terrorist could be a bit of a sensitive subject for some people but mostly i wanted it to be an original place not like the operations in siege, so this is where just started to write down ideas on the mid map and think of new ones and used the best two i could think of

Explanation of the Mind Map

The mind map i made explores 2 different story pathways i can go down, one for them is where you play as a normal police forensic photographer/detective to find out the clues of what happened and why they would of done the crime. The way the player would do this would be by taking pictures of important things and then that triggers and event and the players character starts narrating about what they think happened. The other route i was thinking to use was was from the point of view of a private investigator where he would have to sneak around a crime scene out of view from a real police officer to get information about for their client and who they are involved with.

The mechanics of the game i want will be mostly the same for both story routes but their will be separate mechanics for the specific routes like for the private investigator it is staying out of line of sight but for the police photographer it is taking pictures or picking up evidence. Another thing i wanted to discuss on my mind map was the idea of when the game was set, this could change the game massively as i would have to do a lot of research to make the be historically accurate, this would be very hard and time consuming to do but in the end i think it would be a good choice as i could use old sounds like the flashbulb camera noise made famous by the Texas chainsaw massacre movies

SWOT

What is SWOT? SWOT is a way to evaluate yourself in your Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats

Strengths

Skills - The skills that I am confident in are, being able to work with Maya efficiently. This will help me a lot in making models as I will be able to make high quality models in a smaller time frame, this then gives me more time to fix things and add more.

A key strength of mine is being able to follow instructions given to me and then be able to repeat them to them to other members of a team, this gives me good communication skills and teamwork skills

Another strength is being able to identify problems and ask for help when I need it, I think this makes me a likeable person with good interpersonal skills.

I can easily lighten the mood in a stressful situation, this helps a lot when a group needs to get things done as i can encourage them to do the work but not make them feel stressed if they cant do it.

A great strength of mine is being able use the mechanic side of unreal to make interactable objects and items, this is thanks to my interest in things like that.

Resources - the resources available to me are, a home laptop, the college computer, google, Maya, Unreal Engine, and Audacity

Knowledge - I very passionate about the technical side of unreal, this consists of making and creating mechanics that will happens in the game, like making a door open or getting the character to pick up a camera and take a picture with it

Weaknesses

Skills - The skills i struggle with when making and using models in my games would be texturing, this is why i have decided to choose the mechanic side for the FMP so i don't have to focus so heavy on the texture side of the unit

Another thing i am not confident in is the making of models, but its not like i cant do it but i just takes me more time than everybody else to do it.

Traits - the bad traits i have developed is defiantly procrastination of what i need to do, this will effect me badly during the making and evaluation periods of the FMP

Knowledge - There are quite a few gaps in my knowledge in regards to Maya and substance painter as there are many symbols and words i do not understand what they do, and if i were to understand these i think it would help me a lot in producing things and quicker and of higher quality

Opportunities

Skills - The skills i can learn that would give me more opportunities would be learning the shortcuts and the in depth workings of Maya

Market - Walking simulators are a relatively new genre of game so i would think that there is a gap and a need for them in the market for the not so hardcore players, i think that their needs to me more on the market as they mostly let the player relax and calm down unlike most fps games that seem to get released every month.

Recourses - the main recourses i have access to are the programs that the school have on the computers that would usually cost a lot of money to be use. but we were also given the opportunity of having a valid student id so we can get student licences for our home computers

Threats

Environment - in regards to the environment around me i can control things but along as i am not ill or cannot walk due to an accident i can come into college as it is only a 30 minute walk away

Assistance - when asking for others help i need to mindful of when people are available and if they want to help me, but i also cant control when someone wants to come into college or if they are out with their family

Time - For this unit we will need to complete this unit in 10 weeks, or the 18th of may, the way i will get this all done is by doing as much work as i can in lesson and then also doing extra research and writing outside of college

Research

What is a walking simulator? A walking simulator is a relatively new genre of game that that has only started to gain traction recently, it explores the concept of just walking through a level and exploring a narrative without the fighting most triple A games have. In a walking sim game the main goal is not to kill all the enemies or beat hard bosses but to learn about the story and the situation the character is in through hints you are given while completing tasks or through narration from the character. A great example of a walking sim that keeps the player engaged is "What Remains of Edith Finch". The way the developers have done this is through the constant unravelling of the story in a way where the player can start to piece together what happened.

What makes a walking simulator interesting?

Because a walking simulator has no core combat like shooting from a fps they have to keep the audience engaged in different ways, some walking simulator games do this by having horror elements that keep the player on the edge and make them keep playing. Other games do this with a mix of mystery to make the player figure out what happened, a great game that does this in a way without the classic jump scares is "Everybody's Gone to the Rapture" this game creates a very eerie feeling by having the whole town empty and having the houses look abandoned with all the clothes neatly folded to add to the mystery aspect, the main goal of this game is to figure out what happened to the residents of the town through the golden light that imitates the people.

What games have the same style as my idea?

The detective genre of games is one that doesn't have many mainstream games with a lot players but there is a few games that still stand out to me like Batman: Arkham Knight, this game isn't a walking simulator but it is still a high rated and praised detective game and most of the reviews aren't about the fighting it is about the story so i think that a game with a great story can be respected and rated highly.

This week we were tasked with using our research to make a project proposal to explain our project in front of people

To start this i wanted to do it on power point as i most comfortable doing it on that rather than other websites with slides and presentations like google slides. after getting PowerPoint set up I then scrolled through all the design options to chose one that fitted the aesthetic of the game I wanted to make. After finding a good one I just started writing about things that I wanted in my game and what I wanted it to look like, when making this list it was in a very messy order so i started to clean it up and put it in the specific categories. After putting it in the categories i started to make more like "Will this game sell well" and started to research off of that to see what i could get and use for my presentation, this researching included looking at games like the game i wanted to make or looking at movies that were in the same genre.

When looking back at the information on my presentation I realised that I reused and said the games story a lot as a sort of a filler to finish a slide I think that if I put more time into making the slide and rehearsing what I was going to say rather than just making it up on the spot, then the presentation could of been much more uniform, I wouldn't of stuttered or rushed it out of nervousness and it would of just been better in general. Another issue I ran into while making the PowerPoint is the amount of content I want to put in it, when making it I really wanted to add a lot of content in but then that would take it over the max limit of ten minutes so i had to restrict myself, this was a bad thing as i think i restricted myself too much because i could of put more information into it but I've also wanted to change the time zone it will be set in as i want it to be mid to late industrial revolution, but this wouldn't line up with the times so i think ill have to make it in a alternate universe where the industrial revolution lasted longer.

Areas to consider with my presentation:

What kind of mechanics?

The main mechanics i will have in my game will be using a camera that takes a picture, an inventory system to hold the pictures and items and being able to inspect items in a way that you can identify the clue

What will the final product look like?

the final product will be a simple block out but it will have all the mechanics mentioned above, this is because i want to focus all my attention on the mechanic side and then do the

What time and place?

the place my game is set will be in London in the 1950, this is close to the time when L.A Noir is set so I think it would also be fitting to have something like that. and i want it to be set in London as I am from England and I have a British accent so it would fit

How can I plan?

the best way I can think to plan my work would be to separate all my things and work on them in groups if they're similar, this would be like working on the pickup system at the same time as a the inventory system as they work together.

the

What things will I research

How to make the mechanics i want what order i should do them in.

What did the houses look like in the area and time period?

What lighting would fit the scene

How to make a working UI

How to do a better and professional block out - what is bsp

How to implement sound and use it effectively

What would the colours of the 1920 look like

what makes a good walking simulator and how can I incorporate them into my work

What camera would of been used in the 1920 and what quality would of it produced

What is and how to write pseudo code

Order

The way I would prioritize what work I would do first would be by looking at what I think would take the longest and then alternate between a long task and then a short one, doing it like this has helped me a lot in the past as it would give me a break from a heavy task when I need it, but in case of all the task being really long I would then put them in order of favouritism. I would then do the least favourite first so I could get it done without the worry of getting side tracked on the later tasks because I have a habit of slacking off and not doing work when the task is near completion but I don't do that if I know that something I enjoy is coming up.

What did the houses look like.

The houses of the 1920 were usually box like houses put in a row next to the factories they worked in, this is to increase the efficiency of workers and to reduce the chances of being late, but due to them being so close to the work place the air quality and the quality of living would be very low, the areas they would have to rest would be very dull and wouldn't have much furniture and if they did then it would be the cheapest they could find and it would break and tear easily, the house plan would be very small for each person as they would have to share the house with a lot of other people but they would still get a room to themselves, they would also be very dull looking due to them being cheap and the cheapest colour to make would be white and black.

This is a floor plan of an industrial era work home, as I explained before the rooms are very cramped and they try to put as many workers in them as possible but another problem with these is the terrible living conditions that can quickly make someone jealous of the higher class

Lighting

The lighting in a video games is one of the most important features this is because without the right mood lighting a game can become very uninteresting quickly, like a horror game that is really bright or a action game where you cant even see the floor in front of you. The type of lighting I want in my game will be a very soft orange yellow colour like a flame as during the time period it was more common for candles or lanterns to be used, I got this idea from old photos as the first coloured photos had an orange tint from the sun exposure and I have already found a YouTube video on how to get the effect I want, this light will also give the feeling of being inside of a picture from those times.

What is a UI (User Interface)

for most games on the market they have some sort of User Interface, a user interface is a system that allows the player to interact with the games story, their is 4 different types of a user interface.

Non-Diegetic

These are things on the UI that the character will not be able to see and is only their for the player this would be things like health bar or an ammo counter or a prompt saying to heal or reload

Diegetic

These are the opposite of Non- Diegetic, these exist in the in game world and that the character can interact with and control like the heads up display in the halo games

Meta

A meta UI is the things that the character can see but doesn't know it is part of a HUD, this would be like wiping blood out of the player and characters eyes. But the player cannot tell the character to do this

Spatial

Spatial UI is what only the player can see to guide them like the lines on the road in a Forza horizon game or a quest marker

What makes a good block out

What is a block out?

A block out is the in-between of preproduction and production, this means that the block out would be the latest thing that you do in the preproduction and the first thing in the production as the blocks are mostly used as a placeholder ready for when the prop and texturing team is ready

Why are block outs used?

They are used in game dev to show the prop team where everything should go in a level, but they are mainly used to show the scale of a level and how the player will make their way through the level, this is obviously a crucial stage in the games development as it is the first thing that you do and it will be used all the way up to the end of the game production stage.

What is BSP?

BSP block out are the use of very simple and pre-created object to make the first iteration of block outs that will then be improved later.

A good block out should be as simple as possible and only using complex shapes when really needed, this is because a block out is only used to show the scale of a level, the size, dimensions, layout and composition, and if the level is meant to be playable like the mine then you should focus on the script writing to make sure all the mechanics work first.

How to implement sound?

Why is sound used in games?

Sound is used in videogames to immerse the player into the game and keep them engaged and on edge in some situations, without sounds games would be very dull and most of them wouldn't have been as successful as they are now without good sound design, sounds are used to create tension and give emotion to a scene.

How will i use sound?

Rather than the tradition sound like ambient music or footsteps my main focus will be on the narration side as the character will talk and give exposition to the player.

What makes a good walking simulator

A good walking simulator is defined by the way it draws in the players attention and how they keep their attention long enough for them to understand the story and want to complete it. because I have a very small time frame to make my game it will be small and if it small I will need to grab the attention of the player.

What is pseudocode?

Pseudocode is a way of writing code in a logic human way of talking that wouldn't actually work in computer code, it help turn actions into directions that someone can follow with little prior knowledge to coding.

Why is it used?

Pseudocode is like the coding version of a block out, it is a sort of placeholder or rough draft that the coders will write up to talk about the logistics of the mechanics, although itself isn't a programming language it is used by most coders with different languages almost universally as it is a great way of locating and solving flow errors in the code that may hinder them later.

How to start writing pseudocode?

As pseudocode is more written more by common sense then actually scripting there are set writing formats that you have to follow when writing, these are always capitalize the initial words, one statement per line and use ENDIF statements

What am I doing over the Holiday

over the Easter break my plan is finishing up on the research that I didn't complete in lesson or on the days that I was off ill, and after that I will most likely try to find some tutorials on YouTube and start to make the mechanics that I will use for my game, like how to make a working inventory system or how to take a picture using a camera and screenshotting. If i cant do that due to my unreal engine not working or i can find a way to save my progress i will then probably start working on small block outs or very simple models that i will either use as place holders or the final product. And if i cant even work on them then i will start making more in-depth mood boards on pureref so it is easier when i come back to college

What did cameras look like and what quality did they produce

The cameras from the 1920s were the first if its kind to use the single-lens reflex build, this type of camera allows the user if it to capture the image of exactly what their looking at by using a mirror and prison system. this time period has also seen the rise in metal being used in cameras as the entire frame and lenses of the camera sis made from metal. The cameras were in a simple box shape and would have a type of iron sights on the parts that you would look at to steady your camera or make it focus on the most important part of the surroundings.

What did the pictures look like?

Most of the higher price and quality cameras from the 1920s would of produced a picture with a slight or heavy orange tint, the detail in the photo consisted of a slight blur in the background but it being clear the closer the camera was to the object, for my game to seem realistic i will have the same orange tint that the old pictures have but i will also the blur feature in the background of the camera

MoodBoards

The main game that I am making will obviously not be in the run down and weathered state that some of the pictures are in I just had to use them due to the time era of when my game is set I cant get a lot of reference photos from that time so I have had to get recreations of the things I want or I have to use the scarce photos I can find, later in i will get a lot more research and reference images once i work out the main shape of the house and some other specific details that i wanted in the scene

A Rat Within

Context