Context & Research

Context

For this project we have to create a small-scale environment with a focus on environmental storytelling. With the ability to be able to walk around the small scene and inspect detail. I also must consider narrative context to these scenes.

For this project, I have a choice of two pathways:

Game Mechanics

Block-out and blueprinting a small block out level with a minimum of 5 game functions and a clear objective. This must still focus on mechanics often seen in games that take players on a journey.

3D Modelling and Environment Art

Example: An interior space with heavy emphasis on scene detail and environmental storytelling. No interactivity needed.

Walking Simulator Review - Everybody's Gone to the Rapture

In Everybody's Gone to the Rapture, the player explores a small English village whose inhabitants have mysteriously disappeared. The game gives the player a sense of isolation and loneliness as they walk through landscapes that are usually very populated only to find no one, contrasting expectations and feeding into the idea that humans are social creatures and isolation creates anxiety.

Slight themes of horror are present through its audio logs and world building of a civilisation that has collapsed overnight, with the small pieces of lore that you find increasing the players unease as people are heard to be suffering and dying from something, almost paranormal. As well as the glowing orbs that allow you to replay conversations between the people in the village before they left.

The game's title "Everybody's Gone to the Rapture" is relating to the Christian belief of "The Rapture" where both living and dead believers will ascend into heaven to meet Jesus Christ at the Second Coming. This implies that everyone else is gone indefinitely and the main protagonist has been left behind to wake up to and explore a desolate land.

The game weighs heavily on the themes of unease, anxiety and isolation that the game presents through its world and lore pieces. Making the player want to solve the overarching mystery of what's going on in this strange, discomforting world.

Idea Brainstorming

Here was a first generalised Mind Map of basic ideas.

Detailed Ideas

Idea #1: A Sinister Underground Egyptian Tomb

An Egyptian themed game where the player explores the tombs and can interact with switches to open more doors and larger areas with more storytelling elements. This game would follow the mechanical/gameplay elements option of the brief. The game would have an inventory system and notes scattered across the game for the player to pick up and read as well as a zoom system and a flashlight. The environment could be quite dark and suspicious with a few horror elements but no difficulty or enemy, only ambience and suspicious terror.

Idea #2: A Medieval Castle that has been Destroyed and Abandoned

A game set outside in the Medieval era where the player can explore the ruins of a castle. The game would follow the environmental option of the brief. The player could explore all around the castle and have the ability to wonder inside and open doors, exploring the ruins of ancient ruins. The game would be portrayed with calm, peaceful tones as the player is free without a time limit to explore a tranquil environment that looks interesting to them.

Idea #3: An Underwater Swimming Game

This game would be set entirely underwater with the player able to swim and explore with fish and sea plants. It would have cheerful tones as the player is surrounded by pretty looking fish and no real objective except to explore this foreign world around them. The game could also be set in a futuristic landscape to allow for more interesting opportunities to create new flora and wildlife that doesn't exist but the player might like to interact with.

Final Idea

I have decided to choose my Egyptian style level as my final Idea. This is because I can make the most interesting project with the least difficulty as the previous modules taught me transferrable skills for this specific map design. This would allow me to do a large variety of content and focus more on the gameplay elements I'm strongest with while still creating something I'm proud of.

SWOT Analysis

- Strengths

Practical Work; Programming.

Music and Audio Development.

Creating a Gameplay Loop.

Time Management.

- Weaknesses

3Ds Max Texturing.

Sorting out scale and snapping of Models when exported to UE4.

Planning work before I start the final product.

Creating detailed maps on objects.

- Opportunities

To develop skills with lighting.

To develop skills with texturing.

Creating detailed environments.

Learning new coding modules.

Developing skills with modelling.

- Threats

Loss of Data.

Missing a Session.

Not being able to find documents.

Holidays.

Modules not fitting together.

Illness.

Contingency Plan

Project Proposal in Creative Media

Action Plan and Timetable

Gantt Chart

Drawn Concept Ideas

These are my two possible designs for the map of my game. Both maps have small tunnels with larger key rooms hidden inside the tombs. Overall I think I will choose the design on the left because the hallways are less organised and more similar to a tomb, allowing me to create a better map with larger walkways for the player. While the left design may be more complicated, having snapping modules for corridors and making a plan with the floor first will make it less difficult to create.

Mood Board

Based on my choice of an Egyptian final idea, this is an Egyptian-style historical mood board I can gain ideas from. They all have similar themes of lighting, decrepit wall designs, room patterns and texture as well as the things specific to Egyptian tombs such as wall inscriptions, Egyptian symbols and coffins (sarcophagus') and mummies.

Mechanics Mind Map

Based on my SWOT analysis and final idea plan I have decided to focus more on the mechanics side of the brief and taking a closer look at the mechanics side of my idea brainstorming. I can implement lots of interactability features, such as sprinting/crouching, note pages with an inventory and a torch that gives off light. There can also be levers around the place that open up another door.

Asset List Mind Map

Ideas Pitch Recording

Peer Review Feedback

This is the feedback I received on my website from 2 of my peers. Overall, feedback was positive with relatively nothing missing. The only things I was told to improve was the aesthetics and design of the website with the main point of both being a lack of background. Therefore, I added Egyptian symbols on both sides of the screen so that the website feels more full, detailed and specific to the project theme. Having this design on the outside means that on screens of smaller resolutions, the only thing that will be removed from the website is parts of the background that wont take away from the site.

Contextual and Theoretical Research

Primary and Secondary Research

Primary Research:

For my primary research I could experiment with my own ideas and creations in 3ds max, photoshop etc, until I find something I like and I can also share those with others and get 3rd party opinions to sway my design using surveys or forms.

Secondary Research:

For my secondary research I could research into the Egyptian era and history to see what are actually inside these tombs in real life and how they look and are portrayed. As well as this I can also research games with tombs such as Forewarned and Tomb Raider to influence my own project.

Audience Data

I wanted to find out information on the type of people on the websites I can upload and share my game too. This started with Itch.io. From the "Similarweb" website I found out that, on average, people have a large enough attention span to go through just over 4 pages and be on the site for just under 4 minutes, meaning catching a players eye from the get go is very important.

Geographically, I found out that most viewers of the website are English speakers followed by German and Chinese. Giving a good baseline of language options.

I also learn that 40% of the viewers are between the ages of 18-24 and 31.2% are between the ages of 25-34... meaning making a product that can appeal between the ages of 18 and 34 allow the product to catch the eye of 71.2% of people who go on the website.

The most popular sites that people would bounce to after visiting Itch.io were things such as the Steam store, Patreon, and Mega. These are all places games are downloaded from Itch.io; so one of these should be my upload platform to give the largest audience possible.

As far as advertising goes, a massive 92.79% of Social Media traffic comes from Youtube (55.97%), Reddit (22.2%), and Twitter (14.62%). So all 3 of these platforms should be used together to give the largest possible advertising.

Gathering all this data I can conclude that my primary audience would be people interested tomb crawlers or history, Mainly of the ages between 14-28 and of any gender. My audience's main basis is on their interests as this genre can be enjoyed by a wide range of people.

Research Sources

Primary Research:

- 3Ds Max experimentation

- Photoshop experimentation

- Surveys

- Storyboarding

- Mood boarding

Secondary Research:

- Forewarned game wiki and gameplay

- Tomb Raider game wiki and gameplay

- Articles on actual tombs

- Videos of people exploring these areas

- Pictures of the inside of the tombs people have taken

- Unreal engine 4 tutorials

- Getting online textures

Forewarned.fandom.com. 2022. Forewarned Wiki. [online] Available at: <https://forewarned.fandom.com/wiki/Forewarned_Wiki> [Accessed 8 March 2022].

Gameplay.tips. 2022. Forewarned - General Gameplay Guide. [online] Available at: <https://gameplay.tips/guides/12766-forewarned.html> [Accessed 22 March 2022].

Zelazko, A., 2022. What’s Inside the Great Pyramid?. [online] Encyclopedia Britannica. Available at: <https://www.britannica.com/story/whats-inside-the-great-pyramid> [Accessed 8 March 2022].

The British Museum. 2022. Egyptian life and death. [online] Available at: <https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/galleries/egyptian-life-and-death> [Accessed 22 March 2022].

Forewarned Game Mechanics Research

Forewarned, going into this project was one of my main inspirations so it seems like a pretty obvious starting point for my research. Since the game is located in an Egyptian tomb, it would be a good place to research mechanics as there aren't many Egyptian tomb crawler games in todays market. I'm going to focus more on the mechanics of the game as the visuals can be looked into detail from other sources where mechanics cannot.

The gameplay loop of Forewarned is as follows:

- A preparation phase where you choose and purchase equipment before entering the tomb

- An exploration phase where you are moderately safe and free to explore the majority of the tomb while collecting gold as well as evidence for the next phase.

- A discovery phase where you figure out the type of "Mejai" present so you can enter the inner tomb and know what you're going to be facing.

- Finally an escape phase where you take the relic from the inner tomb, the entire tomb closes and the Mejai is released, you have to find a blue switch that has appeared somewhere in the tomb to re-open the entrance and escape before the Mejai catches you.

To help with this format of a game, there are certain game mechanics that either help the player or allow the player to collect evidence.

One of these mechanics that immediately caught me eye is the "torch" system where the player is given a normal flaming torch, similar to that of the time period. This torch is able to be lit and occasionally goes out by itself or some Mejai's have the ability to blow out the players torch, upon which the player has to relight it. As well as this, the tomb itself have similar torches on the walls that start unlit - the player can then light the torches uses their own to create more visibility in the rooms.

I can use this mechanic in my game in it's entirety to give a sense of realism as well as an effective way to display progression through the tomb becoming more lit up and also showing the player routes they have already taken.

The player, while exploring the tomb can also open Sarcophagus' that are on their side or on the floor... these Sarcophagus' can contain, mummies, skeletons or even gold. In Forewarned, some of the Mejai's also have abilities to open these Sarcophagus' or even revivify the mummies that the player then has to attack with their torch.

I can use some of this mechanic in my game to allow the player to open these Sarcophagus' to collect gold and see the skeletons inside to give realism and another layer of exploration.

The tombs also contain many puzzles such as having to press 2 levers in a time limit, spike trap puzzles, snake pressure plate puzzles and many more. Since I'm creating a walking simulator, I can use these puzzles in my own game; just with the removal of actual threat.

Sources:

Forewarned.fandom.com. 2022. Forewarned Wiki. [online] Available at: <https://forewarned.fandom.com/wiki/Forewarned_Wiki> [Accessed 8 March 2022].

Gameplay.tips. 2022. Forewarned - General Gameplay Guide. [online] Available at: <https://gameplay.tips/guides/12766-forewarned.html> [Accessed 22 March 2022].

Simons, T., 2022. This NEW Ghost Hunting Game is TERRIFYING - Forewarned Gameplay. [online] Youtube.com. Available at: <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E9lCykpydPI> [Accessed 8 March 2022].

Possible Assets Research

In this research page I will be looking at possible assets I could include in my project by looking at real life examples and inspiration sources.

The first thing I did was look for a large tomb full of Egyptian history that would be perfect to get asset ideas from. This led me to the "Valley of the Kings" as the "Pyramids of Giza" are actually quite decrepit of traditional Egyptian items. The first fairly obvious thing I noticed were the Hieroglyphics on the walls of Egyptian kings and deities. This would be easy to implement into my own game with the use of decals that I can cover over the walls, meaning I don't have to make multiple wall assets with different designs on them.

As well as this, the tomb contained artefacts such as a royal Tutankhamun funerary mask and a headrest. These two things along carry lots of imagery of lions and masks and hierarchy with the people lifting up the person using the headrest as they are royalty and also making their headpiece out of gold and everything else being made of out a porcelain/clay like substance. This gives me lots of opportunities to add assets to my game. I know what material and texture I need to make my designs as well as give them that same symbolism of royalty and praise that the person the tomb was built for received.

Looking on a different source, I found a map of the interior as well as clearer images of hieroglyphs as well as a sarcophagus. There was lots of information on the types of things inside the tomb such as pots and planks as well as clear and bright pictures of walls and ancient Egyptian designs which I can use to inspire my textures as well as assets. I can also use the map of the tomb to make adjustments to my map if necessary or if i need more rooms.

Sources:

Dorman, P., 2022. Valley of the Kings | archaeological site, Egypt. [online] Encyclopedia Britannica. Available at: <https://www.britannica.com/place/Valley-of-the-Kings> [Accessed 9 May 2022].

Lee, J., 2022. Exploring the Valley of the Kings: A Visitor's Guide | PlanetWare. [online] Planetware.com. Available at: <https://www.planetware.com/egypt/thebes-valley-of-the-kings-egy-qena-valkng.htm#:~:text=The%20sarcophagus%20is%20of%20red,the%20Egyptian%20Museum%20in%20Cairo.> [Accessed 9 May 2022].

The Egyptian Theme In Film

The Mummy (1999) is a film set in the Sahara Desert in 1925 about an expedition into an Egyptian tomb to find the treasure inside where they accidentally release a 3000 year old priest that attempts to kill the explorers. The movie's main setting is the inside of a tomb so it will be good to look into and take inspiration for props inside my level.

I started by going on Rotten Tomatoes to source some images that I can analyse.

These were the images I could find on RT. Starting with the backgrounds of these images, they are all very dull and dark with run down and eroded rooms. The walls are also sometimes covered in hieroglyphics and most surfaces look damp and hot giving a humid feeling, you can tell that the walls are definitely full of cracks and damage that allows moisture to seep through, that leads me to believe there are lots of moss and weeds covering the tomb. This gives me some ideas for flora that I could add as well as some decals I could place on the walls to show damage. Props-wise, there are many things I could grasp from the images such as, a torch, rope, firearms, a sarcophagus and planks of wood. All of these things I can add to my level in different places to build realism.

The next place I looked for inspiration and knowledge of this movie is a review website from Common Sense Media.

Once again, these few images emphasise the amount of sarcophagus' and hieroglyphics in those tombs, being the main focus most of the time, therefore, these things should take higher priority and screen time, not only this, if I were to make the game 3rd person, this gives me good insight into the sorts of costumes/outfits the player would wear. As well as this, there is a recurring theme of gold and black metals and carvings, so as far as a palette goes, yellow, gold and black will be prominent.

To conclude, while film research gave me good insight into props, materials, pallet, and atmosphere, it is less useful than realistic sources or gameplay resources as they are more accessible and detailed as you are more free to explore and find the things you want to see rather than what the creator wants you to see.

Sources:

Rotten Tomatoes. 2022. The Mummy. [online] Available at: <https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/1087270-mummy> [Accessed 26 May 2022].

Perry, A., 2022. The Mummy (1999) Movie Review. [online] Common Sense Media. Available at: <https://www.commonsensemedia.org/movie-reviews/the-mummy-1999> [Accessed 26 May 2022].

Substance Painter Research

Adobe Substance 3D Painter is a powerful paint engine with dynamic brushes and projection tools that allows for advanced material creation with smart materials and masks for realistic details on models you export into the program. They keep the model high resolution and allow for effortless exporting into game engines. They also provide VFX support and particle systems.

Some of the key features in Adobe Substance Painter is it's full creative freedom to achieve the goal you want, freely being able to design and paint how you imagined it without having to export texture maps and making them in 2D in Photoshop. It's a user-friendly tool that makes texturing even more creative, non-destructive and easy.

Adobe offers 4 versions of Substance 3D: Painter, Designer, Sampler and Stager. With painter allowing you to pain and create colour and 'texture' over your models, designer allowing you to create seamless materials and patterns as well as image filters and environmental lights, sampler allowing you to easily transform a real-life picture into a photorealistic surface or HDR environment and stager allowing you to build and assemble 3D scenes, set up assets, materials, lights and cameras to create large scenes.

Before bringing a model into Substance Painter, there is little you have to prepare, however, some of the things you should do first is make sure the model is fully completed and isn't broken in any way. After that, you have to unwrap your Model but not as advanced as you would normally, just make sure its been unwrapped fully, the layout doesn't matter too much. The final thing to prepare is if you have sections on your model that will be completely different to one another, give them different block colours so Painter knows to place them on different paint 'layers'.

If I were to use Adobe Substance Painter, I would use it on assets that are very complicated to texture in a 2D environment due to high poly details or awkward to reach angles. Assets that have complicated maps that are hard to follow and align well would also be good to texture in painter.

Sources:

Adobe.com. 2022. Top 3D design software to paint materials and textures onto 3D assets | Adobe Substance 3D Painter. [online] Available at: <https://www.adobe.com/products/substance3d-painter.html> [Accessed 4 April 2022].

Adobe.com. 2022. 3D design software, AR design software, and apps | Adobe. [online] Available at: <https://www.adobe.com/products/substance3d/3d-augmented-reality.html> [Accessed 4 April 2022].

Peer Feedback (Research Piece)

During the production of my game, when the full gameplay loop was implemented, I asked some peers to play my game and give me some feedback on my game. From this I gathered lots of information I could use to improve my product.

One of the first things I found was very important towards the game which is the ability to pause the game inside the menu, when pausing the game inside the menu, it would remove the mouse and essentially soft lock the player on the menu. To fix this I had to make a variable to check if the player was on the menu and if they were, disable the ability to pause.

As well as this, gameplay wise, I got a lot of feedback including adding a minimum amount of gold to collect to finish the game as well as a timer to allow for speedruns (this was added after the product was recorded for the "Final Product and Evaluation" section). Adding a minimum was very easy as I just had to add a branch before the exit lever code to check for at least 1 gold piece in the players possession. The timer was slightly more difficult but involved multiple variables for minutes, seconds and milliseconds and a delay to increase milliseconds followed by lots of gates to check if a unit had reached the maximum, upon which it would increase the following unit and reduce the previous to 0, so it could count upwards again.

The last noteworthy thing I realised was that I was missing multiple controls from the "controls" menu as I developed them very early on and later forgot about them or felt like they were natural (such as sprint) when making the widget later in the project.

UE4 Practical Tutorials

For UE4, I needed to research lots of tutorials for certain aspects of my level as, while some I could do myself, others I had no clue how to implement without finding out how.

Some of the things I needed tutorials to implement were: most of my widget blueprints (main menu, options, pause, etc.), sprinting, a timer, a zoom system, having level music, decals, and a cinematic.

The main source of my tutorials was a channel by Matt Aspland that gave me lots of clear tutorials for this project and the last one too.

For blueprints such as doors and the torch, I could either code them from scratch with previous knowledge or replicate code I already did in a previous project.

Sources:

Youtube.com. 2022. UE4 Tutorial - How to import background music. [online] Available at: <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BpDI3P3qNtM> [Accessed 17 May 2022].

Youtube.com. 2022. How To Create A Main Menu - Unreal Engine 4 Tutorial. [online] Available at: <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K1vVbwMJCTQ> [Accessed 17 May 2022].

Youtube.com. 2022. How To Change The Graphics Settings | Creating An Options Menu | In-Depth - Unreal Engine 4 Tutorial. [online] Available at: <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uLCNedDnWTY> [Accessed 17 May 2022].

Youtube.com. 2022. How To Create A Pause Menu | New And Improved - Unreal Engine 4 Tutorial. [online] Available at: <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bck480UHKq8> [Accessed 17 May 2022].

Youtube.com. 2022. How To Create A Basic Cinematic Cut Scene - Unreal Engine 4 Tutorial. [online] Available at: <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FOS9FMbUtq0> [Accessed 17 May 2022].