Evaluation

Evaluation:

In my project for my core idea I decided to go with an idea that the player has to use their instinct rather relying on the game to tell them what to do as the game would lie to them through the use of arrows and lighting which I showed in my final product by placing arrows on the level but couldn’t get the lighting to function as there was a light limit that couldn’t be changed.

In the drawing stages of my project I decided to focus purely on doing environment designs and asset designs as characters would not be visible to the player in which I did some initial designs of the corridors and one or two of the rooms to which I then did some development sketches of the reception area and a final design after looking at various pictures of existing receptions as well as pictures of furniture that is used in these areas and then sketching them out to get a better perspective of them. I also looked at some reference of other games to see how their rooms in levels were set up and to look at how the lighting and textures were done effectively. Using reference allowed me to draw objects more realistic and to make my level look more interesting rather than using boring place holder like furniture from my head. But for my research I wish I looked more into each image such as looking at orthographic views to get a feel of how they would look and then sketched them out.

My final product I ultimately decided to do in Maya but I wish I would have stuck to doing it in UDK; however in the end I was both pleased and disappointed with my final product as I like the design and textures placed in my level as they made the level look gloomy which is what I was trying to do but due to issues with the lighting I couldn’t fully get my core idea into the level which was disappointing as well as finding my research and sketches disappointing as I knew I could have done better with these.

In the end I think I should improve upon my sketches by doing more practice at home and looking at reference both primary and secondary when doing my work and I should also improve upon my thinking such as by not changing my product halfway through like changing between UDK and Maya and should stick to my ideas better. As well as looking at other artists to see how they got their ideas through using techniques.

Image Research

I looked at this game while I was debating to myself whether to have a black and white stlyed in which I looked at L.A Noirse to see how the style looks.

I looked at Mirror's Edge becuse I wanted a similar sort of style in my level such as the the big bold colours as well as the bitmap textures on the surfaces of the enviroment.

I looked at the Indie Game Only If as research on how to do puzzles that are a bit abstract compared to the more main stream games as well as looking at the Portal franchise for research on puzzle game as well.

Design Process & Research & Evaluation (Project1)

Things to do:
Sketchbook - Annotate, Do more develpoed drawing and final designs, Use refrence thumbnails
Research - x
Engiury and Experimental Work - x
Developed ideas and concepts for own differentiated gaming experiences - x
Finished Design Work - Annotations, More Development and final designs x
Finished Prototype Level - Maya Work - Need to do Render Shots x
Evaluation - Self Refelection x


Ideas:
For my ideas i started of by thinking of three core ideas which had different themes that the level would wrap around.
The first one being the idea that the player would start the game dead and wonder around as a ghost and would mess with the environment to tell NPC's things or to just annoy them by wrecking havoc to homes and the like. But i decided that this idea wouldn't work as it would consume much time creating the different NPC's in a 3D environment but i will leave it open to a 2D level idea.

The second idea is that the game environment will lie to the player in an attempt to get them down the wrong paths as well to make them think on there own and not rely on the game to tell them what to do. I thought about idea for a while and decided that this one might be for the best out of three.

The third idea is that the player can only move through mirrors and jumps to different ones to get around the level but i decided against this as it would require a lot of time to make the mechanics in both 3D and 2D.

Information:
Setting: Abandoned Lab/ Research Centre (Scrathed)
Underground Passages (Current)

Core Idea:
The final core idea I had for my product was that the player has to rely on their instinct rather than following the game as it tells you where to go as everywhere it tells you to go is wrong and will continue to point the player is the wrong direction while navigating a maze that i have explored in my research. This can be done by misdirecting player to go down by using simple arrows and lighting that would them down the wrong way.

Mechanics:
As A 3D Game:
The main mechanic of the game is that the player has thing what the most rationally idea would be in their situation while trying to find the exit while trying to figure the way out as the the level trys to confuse the player.

A also had an idea on how to do my textures as I wanted similar ones to Mirrors Edge with big bold colour bitmaps in which i found out how to do bitmaps for Maya and used them across various assets as well as also having to choose between doing the level black and white or to do it colourful. But ultimately I decided to do colour textures mixed in with a black and white design like having the funiture textured in wooden textuen texture like brown but having the rest of the level in black and white so they stand out more to the player which i did as it looked like intresting idea and worked out pretty well.

It could not work out if the maze is too dark from the dark walls and limited lighting as it could cause players to become frustrated abd give up on the game completely.

As A 2D Game:
As a 2D game the game would function as a 2D top down view game where the player has to navigate a dark confusing and strange maze with a small light. But the maze would attempt to confuse the player by having bits of the maze disappear and reappear as well as trying to lead the player astray with arrows that lead the incorrect way while he attempts to find the exit. The game would use black and white graphics similar to Limbo with dark and creepy atomsphere with repeptive music in the background that would be done to annoy.

How it would work is that the play would have to find the exit but during the game is lead on by the game into going in the wrong directions and getting them lost within the maze until they start to rely on their instinct to navigate the maze instead of relying on the gane to tell you what to do.

It could not work out as the top down maze idea could not work as players could see over walls into other areas.

Research:
Objectives in Games

 In games the player can be directed through games in a variety of ways from the obvious to not so obvious as well as being hidden so well the player doesn't notice. An example of obvious directions is having an arrow on the screen telling you which way to go or an objective marker on the Mini map an example of an arrow can be found in games like Bioshock where it is placed on top of the player's HUD and directs them to each objective. An example of a directive appearing on a mini-map can be found in most present RPGs or MMOs like Borderlands or Neverwinter that tell players which direction the objective is in or it's general location.

Another way to direct plays to objectives that is not so obvious is by using words and voices which I mean by having a narrator or a character in game tell players some sort of landmark or location in which players will then start locating so they can figure out where to go. Similar to this players can be lead through a level without noticing they are being lead through the use of in game textures or lighting such as by having a room that has lights off and have the player navigate it but as they pass through the room random objects turn on causing players to investigate therefore leading them through the room (this is an example from Dead Space 2) or in Amnesia The Dark Descent at the start there are small blood trails heading off somewhere which the player will then follow as they curious to what it will lead which will also progress them through the levels.

Another way a game leads you through levels is by having the player encounter enemies an example is that the if the player has killed all enemies in there general vicinity and can't find anyone the game will then make sounds of monsters or whatever to direct them towards new enemies an example of a game that does this is the DOOM franchise as in the DOOM II the player will kill as he progresses through a level and after following a level full of monsters they reach the end. Anotherc example of this is in rail gun shooters (House of The Dead) where players have to kill all enemies in front of them to progress which is the only objective the player knows.

Another way games can lead players through games is through very simple and linear designs like having limited space to explore which i very common in rail-gun shooters like House of The Dead or ones found in arcades as you can't control your movement the game leads the player on more or less a straight path withy maybe a few choices of direction to go but will ultimatily lead to the same end which links into the paragraph above where you can only progress after killing all enemies in front of you.

Some games do an optional help like objective marker which players can use if they get lost but is completely optional and varies in appearences fitting the setting its in or looking out of place an example of one that blends in the objective path in the Dead Space series in the player can call a line from ther hands to see where they are supposed to go which is an optional thing to do but does make the game easier to navigate.

I will adapt this to my game by having the player follow the lights and arrows but the player is not supposed to go that way and is supposed to eithier follow the darkness or simply try to leave the building as that is what any persons instinct would tell them to do.

Confusing Levels and Mazes in Games
Disorientation in games can be achieved in different some simple and some more complicated. An example of a simple way to get lost and confused in games is by having small in closed tunnels that are set up like a maze while trying to find an object or way out an example of a game that does this is The Moon Silver which the player at one point exploring under ground passages which can be confusing to navigate as all walls have the same textures and there is a thick fog covering your vision so it's difficult to navigate and caused me to be lost for over 10 minutes despite not being very big.

Mazes in games can be both confusing and annoying as they can use many featrures to throw of the player from the basic confusing maze to disappearing walls and other strange happenings.

An example of a game that uses a confusing maze is Tomb Raider Anniversary that has a large maze in the game that is difficult to navigate as it has no clues as to where the exit is and has a lot of areas that are the same, within the maze so it makes you feel as though you have no idea where you are and which way you just came from which leave you stuck in the maze for hours at a time.

Another example of a confusing maze in games is the maze from Only If that is quite small but can be quite confusing as you pass through it such as some walls will disappear then reappear as it leadfs players astray by random passges and will then box players in a small areas of the maze not telling players anything causing them toi become confused.

Mazes in real tend to foicus on the classic hedge runner type maze where all the walls are hedges and have lots of dead ends within them to confuse people who venture into it; an example of a maze like is the maze in Hampton Court, England which is maze constructed in 1700s where parents would place thier children in the maze to test their orientation skills as a rite passage and was the fdirst designed to have various dead ends and unexpected turns. An example of a maze thats feels a bit different from the normal hedge mazes is the Fortress of No Hope, Japan which is a indoor maze at Fuji-Q Highland theme park where participants must navigate confusing passges and areas ranging from simple puzzles to the bizarre.



I have adapted this to my level by having many paths join together to one path causing the player to go round in circles and eventually losing their way as they try to follow the lights and arrows that point them in the wrong directions.

Textures (Bump Maps/ Black & White)
Black and white graphics are used in games to create more of a horror effect as it is harder to see objects or areas in games if you can only see in black and white an example of this is in the 2D game Limbo which is a fully black & white game that this to create a unique atomsphere and teriifying gameplay as it hard to see where objects are and with no sound in game it creates a gloomy atomsphere the fits the game perfectly.

Normal maps are used to bring depth to normal textures like brick walls or carpet in a game engine like bricks the bricks out more in a wall so it looks and feels more real. An example i found of this is in the 3D game Mirror's Edge that uses them mainly on walls to bring out depth so it feels like the player has better interaction will the game world.

I have adapted this to my level by having bitmapped walls and floors that are all black so when rendered will light they create a black and white like affect.

Procress Log:
At the start of my project i started by creating a basic idea that would be my core idea and then moved onto the doing the top views of my level in which after making three designs (over the course of the project) i came up with a final design which i used in my final product. Then i did sketches of real life funiture that i would use in my product that would be modelled in maya and give me an idea on how these assets would look. As well as deciding want it would be in and after a few weeks of UDK as the level was 3D i moved it to Maya as the level wasn't going well and i was running low on time.

After this i began designing the room and corridors that would be present in the level in which i started by doing an intial design of all the basic rooms and corridors and then expanding on this by looking at refrence and doing some development sketches of the reception area as that was going to be in the final product until arriving and a final design which i spilt into 4 images so you can see the room from all 4 directions.

Then i began making and putting down the assets from the sketches earlier which at first where rather basic and didn't stand out much in which i then remade to look more realistic and fit into the model better. In which i went back to the drawing i went and designed some more corridors and scarped some of the rooms that would be present in level and changing one of them to fit into the level better as well as expanding the level more to look more like maze and to more confusing as well as doing some final designs of corridors and the secondary room.

After this in Maya i started making my level while using the top down map as refrence as to where everything would be place and made while taking some rendered shots after i had placed all the lighting and textures (used bitmaps made in photoshop) that would be used on the boards at the end, as i ran out time to use a camera.