Pre-Production 

Today I created my own idea for a game for the theme “Glass and Metal”.  My initial game was about a sailor trapped in a glass bottle and the goal was to survive and escape.  This was the idea that I wrote down to show other people.

 

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In the end, me and my group chose a different idea that I like a lot more because it’s more unnatural.  The game is designed on a fictional planet that we made up and the player has crash landed their ship.  The player has different abilities that they can use to defeat the enemies along the way.  They have to collect metal components to repair their ship and get back on route.

Seed: “Planet Artemis, Crash landed with Brobot (Hologuide) and you have to collect the metal components from the three different environments to fix the ship.”

On our plan we have gave each member a specific role that they can focus on and a role that they can help with but spend less time on.  We need to create a trello so we can organize our time management which will help us keep on track.

We are also going to have voice lines for the players hologram and it’s going to be a jokey character but also helpful to the player.

 

Planning

Today I wrote the Technical Specification for the group.  I wrote about most of the stuff that the group will use and how we will create the scene/game.  I wrote most about software as that’s the thing we will be using the most.  I described why we were doing what we were doing such as why we are using Unity instead of Unreal Engine etc.

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Update on Game Document

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Today I updated the game document will a logo and added in a brief environment description.  I updated this to make the document a bit more understandable for someone who doesn’t know the project and wants to know a bit about it.

 

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Our group has a clear brief that everyone understands and can follow.  Our brief consists of who needs to do what so that everyone can work all the time and be as efficient as possible.  We have made great progress as a team as we have finished the pre-production and have started to create some models that will be in the game.  Our communication is good as we have regular meetings to make sure everyone is on track.

Play boards

The overall goal to the game is to kill the enemies in each level to finally get to the boss.  The boss will have the metal component you need to repair your ship that crash-landed and you need to kill the boss to get it.  There will be 3 bosses total in 3 different scenes and all scenes will work the same apart from having a different layout and enemies.  The player can interact with the robot at the start of each scene and the robot will give information on that particular level.  Attacking the robot will first warn you not to attack it again and then finally kill you if you keep attacking it (it’s friendly).

Research Images

These are the first images I saw that made me want to do a voxel style game.  I like the basic yet detailed look of the characters so I wanted to create a game that looked similar to this.

Production plan

This is our starting assets that we need to be able to create a MVP.  These assets are the the basic assets that we will need to create in order to get the game into a working stage.

Audio Plan

For the audio we are going to keep it fairly simple.  We have 3 areas in the game, therefore we will need 3 different music audios.  For the first area, it will be a softer, relaxing type of music until you start to fight enemies and then there will be intense music.  The music when you fight enemies will stay the same throughout the game so that it it clear to the player when when they are fighting.

The next area will be a cave so it will have a eerie feel with water drops and squeaking noises.  The music will have a gloomy feel to it.

The fire area will have quite intense music all the way through the scene as it is the most dangerous  area and the player will not really be safe at any point.  This idea is to help the player with the audio so that they know whats happening in the game.

Finally, we will have weapon sound effects as well as character sound (footsteps etc…) so that the player will be immersed in the game and they can hear all of the normal effects.  There will also be a few voice lines that the robot at the start of each scene will say to tell the player the mission of the scene.

Concept Art

Blueprint

For the blueprint, we have colour coordinated each aspect of the level.  This makes it easier for everyone to see how the level will look.  See the Key Below:

Blue = Starting Area

Green = Environment

Pink = Objective

Yellow = Different altitude in environment

Gray = Boundaries

Orange = Water

Block out

Character Design

This is the start I made on our main character (a cyborg).  I have started creating the main character for our game.  It took me a while to think of an idea to start, but I think I am slowly getting there with it.  After I create the whole model, I can start to mess around with the emission to get it glowing and looking better.  This is only the start of the first model and I could change it in the future depending on feedback and my own opinion.

 

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Scrum Sheets

Asset list

Production schedule 

 

Burndown chart

Roles

I am the lead voxel artist within the group.  I create assets as well as tell other artists what need creating for the game.  I try to manage the time and work between each member of the group so that the work gets done efficiently.

Max is the VFX artist and Level designer.  He created the world layout for the game and placed items in specific areas for the player to find accordingly.  He has also created the VFX for the game such as campfires and the boss room.

Jack is the coder and has created nearly all the scripts for the game.  He has made the game come together from health scripts to the AI and combat, he has made it all work.

David is a voxel artist and has created assets for the game.  He has created some asets to fill the world such as animals and plants.

Dividing the work load

In order to work efficiently, we had to split up the jobs and assign them to everyone evenly.  We tried to give everyone a role that they were strong at so that we would enjoy working while working efficiently.  Everyone in the group made at least one asset as they took the longest to make and this makes it flow better as everyone has input.

Scheduling   

We tried to schedule jobs and roles with what people wanted to specialize in.  We wanted everyone to enjoy being part of the project so trying to fit them into what they want to do was important.  We managed to do this which made people stay interested for longer and help develop the game.

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Documents

Technical Spec

The technical spec is there to let anyone, who hasn’t heard of the game, know what the game is going to be and they should be able to create a game very similar just by reading the description.  It also lets people within the group know what exactly needs doing by reading the document.

Asset list

The asset list is used to let the group know what needs to be created and modeled.  There is a priority list within the asset list to the the group know what need to be done sooner rather then later.

Production schedule

The production schedule is used to set deadlines for each segment of the project.  It lets people in the group know a date when a asset for example needs to be done by so the game can come together as intended.

Burndown chart

The Burndown chart is an estimate of how much work is getting done and roughly how much should be done per week.  This helps with the production schedule and helps keep the project on track.

SCRUM sheets

SCRUM sheets lets the group reflect and fix problems in the group.  It also helps seeing what we have done well.  Having SCRUM sheets is useful as it gives the group motivation and keeps everyone in order so there is no mix ups on what people are doing.

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Post Production

In post production we plan on play testing the game and fixing any bugs we encounter.  The main objective is to make sure the game works as intended; and the game play plays out as intended.  We will get someone to play the game so we have a outside opinion to see if they play it differently to us.  This will also give us feedback so we can change anything that we didn’t notice or didn’t think about while developing the game.

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Coordinating Project with pre-production 

Our coordination with the pre-production was not as strong as it could have been.  Our pre-production was quite weak and we kind of fell off the goal of the game.  We had a strong idea to begin with but didn’t expand it enough in the pre-production which lead us to run out of ideas quite early on in the project.  The pre-production we had went really well as we followed it well (apart from making a few adjustments).  I think next project I will make sure the pre-production is fully expanded before diving into the practical work.

What I have been working on

Overall I have created models for the game environment such as characters, enemies and assets for the world.  I also helped with the map design; I gave input on how I think the player will move around the map and when they would come across each challenge.  This is important as we needed to lay the map out so that the player would come across environment in the right order.  I was also trying to lead the group in the right direction in terms of what is priority and what can wait.  Some of the games priority assets were not added into the game due to lack of time.

Game Video

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=svNdzSdzJkY

 

Enemies 

 

Character

 

World Assets

 

Weapon Assets

 

 

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Agile and Scrums

Agile is a way of developing a project with a set goal; the project and requires more teamwork and communication.  Agile also encourages a big leadership role and is a more rigid type of work style.  If the agile method is used, there will be minimal changes made to the project to make the product exactly how the customer wants it.

Scrums are slightly different to agile, they are a more for self-organising, cross-functional teams.  They are also flexible and makes it quick and easy to make changes.  In scrums, there is a regular meeting whether that’s daily or weakly.  This lets everyone in the team give progress reports and also lets them see what they need to improve on for maximum productivity.  The scrum master will rotate regularly and that person leads the scrum for the whole rotation.

How they help the project

I think that the scrum was the most effective way of helping the project.  We had a weekly scrum that let the whole team reflect of what has been done and what needs to be done within a time frame.  We found agile to be less effective as we made frequent changes such as the combat system; we completely changed the combat system from using guns and weapons to a melee system.  This helped us stay on track and get the work that needed doing done.

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Team Organisation

Our team organisation was good overall.  There was a few times people had little to do which made the project slow down a little bit.We had scrums every week which helped us keep organised.  Each member stuck to their role while giving feedback on certain aspects of the game.  With each member sticking to their role, it helped keep the work flowing as people did what they had to do.

Communication was a key point in keeping the team organised as well as using trello to keep on track.  Although trello is a good tool to be able to see what needs doing, I think that talking and communicating with the team made sure everything was organised properly and make sure there was no confusion.

Interacting with the team

Interacting with the team was very easy as we all knew each other before the project.  That means we can discuss problems within the team and with the project.  Because we all know each other, it means that people who wouldn’t normally give their input did.  We could communicate outside of college easily as we were all in a group chat so everyone could give their input before anything was changed.  I put my view in regularly as I think it is important to have a few different viewpoints.

Changes to accommodate team members 

We didn’t have to make many changes to the group as we made the group according to what people wanted to specialise in.  The one change we had to make was not having an animator as no one was really interested or great at it.  Some people also wanted to model certain assets so they modelled that while doing their main role.  We mainly just fit people in when they wanted to different things.

Production Schedule

We had 2 production schedules to keep on track.  We used trello to have the broad assets list and a different list for more specific list.

Our team effectiveness and time management

 

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How I created assets for the game

Our game is a voxel style game so I used magicavoxel throughout.  Magica voxel made it easier to create all the assets as we could make the canvas a max size and that helped keep everything in proportion.

I started out with some concept art for the assets then started to model them in Magica Voxel; I chose the colour pallet while creating the model as I didn’t quite know the exact colours that were going to be in the game.  I wanted everything to blend in so once I chose a colour pallet I tried to stick with it throughout all the assets.

Once the characters were modelled, we did not have a animator so we mainly used mixamo to get the animations.  Using mixamo also saved time on the animations as one person could have spent hours on one animations whereas mixamo is like an art gallery with lots of options.

How we used sound for our game

We used sound to create a feeling of security or danger in the game.  We mainly used music to create this effect.  When there was no enemies in the area, the music was clam then got more aggressive when enemies where visable.  This will alert the player that there is something changing in the environment.

The dialogue from the hologuide will be recorded by us either at home using audacity and voice modifications or here in college and Max will be doing the voice lines.

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Diegetic and non-diegetic sounds

For diegetic, we have footsteps and we will have dialogue from the hologuide that will talk to the player.  For non-diegetic, we have music in different parts of the environment and we have sone interactables such as a statue in the boss scene that will have a voice over on it.

How they enhance games

They enhance the game by letting the player know what is happening.  The sound is 50% of the game so having it is essential.  The audio brings the game to life and it helps the player fell satisfaction while preforming an action.  If the game is multiplayer, audio is really important because a lot of information is gathered from sound; things such as footsteps and what type of weapon they are using is all key points that can be picked up from sound so having sound in a multiplayer game (especially competitive) is essential.

Evaluation

We created a 3rd person combat exploration game that focuses on melee combat.  The game requires the player to complete a number of quests in order to get the the final boss stage.  The player needs to kill the goblins in each camp then explore each camp for gold and a key that is randomly placed each time the player starts a new game.  The gold can be spent on a upgrade system that allows you to improve your stats such as movement speed and damage etc.  The primary goal is to defeat the goblin king in his temple and the player has to defeat his minions on the way.

I think over the 3  month project, the game has came out pretty well.  I think the boss temple is probably the strongest part of the game as it looks the best.  I think the particles in the temple makes it look great.  There is also sinister music playing which suggests to the player that there is something different about the environment.  The boss is bigger then the goblins and there is a healthbar which tells the player that this is going to be a harder battle and that the boss is a lot more deadly then the first encounters they had.  The game is a progressive game where the enemies get harder the further you get into the game.

I think a few things could improve if we were to redo the project.  At the start we didn’t really have a full plan for the game; we had an idea that seemed good but didn’t really expand it fully such as a storyline or the actual end goal of the project.  We had an idea of what the game was going to be like but not how or why it was like that.  I think a storyline would of helped us develop the game faster and a clearer vision of the game.

Another issue is the artstyle.  Voxel seemed to be a good choice at first as it was basic and could be easy to use however we found later on in the project that it looked too basic and we couldn’t really make assets have depth to them.  To fix this, I would change the game art style to either low or high poly depending on the combat style.  I think once we had a good idea of how everything was going to work, the style we chose held us back with the complexity we could have.

I think motivation was another thing that was not so great.  Since we didn’t have the end goal in view, many people in the group, including myself kind of fell off near the end.  I think if we had planned the whole game out the the fullest then everyone would have been motivated until the game was completed and as we didn’t have a set end/finish, we didn’t really know when the game was “done”.

At the start of the project, we stuck to the plan pretty well and everything went as it should have however, about halfway through the project we started to steer away from the planning.  We started to move away the concept we started with and started to add and create random things that were not necessary.  This meant that the assets that were priority took longer to make as less important things were being made instead.  Near the end of the project we reflected on the planning and realised this and it took a lot more work fixing and adding them instead of creating the assets when they were meant the be made.

I think the main thing that we need to do for planning next time is do more planning and have the clear image of what we are going to create instead of a big idea that people can interpenetrate differently.  I think our planning was too vague and that let to confusion on what we were creating.  I also think having more scrums during the planning stage is needed to we all keep on track on whats happening before we start creating things.  I think having more scrums/agile s would counter the problems we faced.  We definitely underestimated the planning and jumped into the practical work too fast.

There was a lot of things that went good within the team.  I think the strongest part of my team is the communication between each member.  As we are friends outside of the project, we could give feedback without problem as some people may not do so in another group.  Having good communication really helped the project flow in and out of college as it was easy to message each group member.  Overall, most of the members in the group had a similar vision on the game and just knew how the game would work.  Obviously there was some things that people disagreed on such as the combat system but overall most people had the same vision for the game.  The overall workflow worked; whenever someone had something to do they would do it to meet the dead line.  For example, if assets needed to be created that day, they would be done for that day, the team could meet deadlines really well.

To improve the cooperation next time I think we need to all have input in the planning stage to make sure that everyone is happy with the product and we can tackle any concerns that anyone has.  Making sure everyone is going to enjoy making the product is probably the most important as they can quickly become de-motivated if they aren’t enjoying it.  I think making sure people have enough work to do for the time frame is also important and making sure the project is suitable for the time frame given.  Although the project is not as finished as I want it, I think it was a good learning curve and enjoyed working on the first group project I have done in the games industry.