CGD Year 2 Project 1

Bottled Up

Ty Armfield

Idea Generation/MappingWhatSimulation of emotionDifferent levels and colours for corresponding emotionsDrastic changes to highlight thisWhereSingle test subject facilityAI ControlledAged/RustedWhenFuturistic SettingNo explicit indication of timePassage of time is vagueWhyFollow the simulationBe rewarded with context shown through glitched screens that leak informationEscape the facilityWhoPlayed through the eyes of the test subject

Test chamber

First-person perspective

Emotions

Abandoned

Anger

Desire

Happiness

Fear

Basic Animations

Pulse/Heartbeat

Screens

Red/Aggressive colour association

Breaking mechanics

Last level to break out of and escape

Yellow/Horror colour association

Paranoia with use of sound

Resistance vs Giving in

ParticlesSunshine

WornRustic

Level for Fear, Mood Board

Research - Implementation of fear

NarrativeThe game follows the narrative of a single test subject in an unknown testing facility controlled by AI studying the effects of emotional changes to extreme measures, making the subject go through various tests and emotions over time, the subject must reach the end of the simulated testing environment and escape.

Generally, fear can be grasped from fear of the unknown, common fears being sparked from the use of darkness and shadows in various shapes, these ideas are typically implemented in the horror genre in both games and film, using darkness,shadows and sounds to create discomfort and anxiety, followed up by a sudden ‘jumpscare’. Showing fear and invoking fear are different in how they work as fear is mainly psychological. General aspects of fear being shown include:

● Dark areas● Eerie sounds● Shadows

Physically in a mechanical sense, fear can cause various bodily differences and impulses, the ‘fight or flight’ response to a situation, pumping a person full of adrenaline to lead to them moving faster than normal, having to take caution to slow down and avoid attracting unwanted attention. A person’s vision and other senses could be affected by fear at the same time.

CV and Cover Letter Job Role - Lead Programmer

The lead programmer is responsible for leading, managing and developing a team of programmers whilst collaborating with other teams of a project. With job responsibilities of:

● Determining technical needs for the project

● Assisting in setting up practices for coding

● Planning and evaluating the work performed by the team and the impact of the project

● Lead and manage the programming team personally and technically

● Overviewing the overall process of the project’s programming

Unit 12: PO2 - P3, P4, P5

Initial Game PitchPresentation NotesUnit 12: PO1 - P1,P2, M1, M2

Personal Development PlanSkill Area Current Level

(1-5)Timeline to improve Measure of Success

Mechanic Implementation

3 4 weeks Have various mechanics running in sync, changing to fit with the appropriate level and have a playable prototype.

Level Design 3 End of first sprint Design a level pre-determined with my chosen emotion, using ideas that will make the emotion clear and make the player feel them whilst also adding a challenge.

Sound Design 1 End of Project Be able to understand, record and develop sounds for use in suitable in-game scenarios.

One SheetUnit 12: PO2 - M3

Level for Fear, Initial DesignEntrance - The player enters the room, then the camera will change to show the bridge falling as they walk towards it, to the left of the destroyed bridge is an alternative path, the player will need to jump to, when the player lands on it the platform will fall.

Section 1- The player lands in a dark hallway, a light is flickering at the end, drawing the player attention

to walk towards it, revealing a dead end. As the player turns around, an enemy/shadowed figure

appears and approaches them, the player must run to the path to their left to get away. (This path is either not accessible prior/should not be noticed

until then.)Section 2- A more patience based area to attempt to stay calm and cross platforms with retractable

spikes that damage the player.Section 3- Using the initial scare from Section 1, this area is a similar hallway with enemies that cross the area suddenly, prompted with sounds to force the

player to turn around, SHIFT will slow down the player’s enhanced speed from the level, meaning

they need to hold it and avoid running to complete the level. There is a section to the left for the player

to hide in as a bright red light/alarm sets off (alternatively, the enemy from Section 1 appearing)

once done, the player must resume and avoid running even as they escape through the exit.

Unit 9: PO1

Level for Fear, Initial Mechanics

Original MechanicsTimer, the panic from a fight or flight situation creates more weight to the situation, shown through UI and in story, a form of poison gas.

Speed Boost, the adrenaline going through the player causes them to move faster than normal (effectively constantly sprinting, where SHIFT alternatively slows them down.)

Vision Blur/Blackout, the main effect shown through each bottled emotion that adds a colour border around the player’s vision to indicate the effect/emotion at play.

Optional, Additional MechanicsMemory, fear can affect a person’s

memory and initial thought process, this could be emulated through paths that

reveal later on.

Imagination/Delusion, this is to create the effect of it all being in the player’s

head and them thinking of the thing that is scaring them.

Unit 9: PO1

Unit 9: PO1 - P1, P2

SIDE ELEVATION

Unit 9: PO1 - P3

PHYSICAL ELEMENTSSOUND

Unit 9: PO1 - P3, M1, D1

AI PATHINGLIGHTING

Area to hide from AI/Threats

Unit 9: PO2

Mechanic Showcasehttps://youtu.be/jUewNXbSPVc

Speedrunhttps://youtu.be/d-ziyFFOqDQ

Level Blockout - Fear

Unit 12: PO3 - P6, P7, P8 Week 3 Start

Unit 12: PO3 - P6, P7, P8 Week 4 End

Unit 12: PO3 - P6, P7, P8 Week 5 End

Unit 12: PO3 - P6, P7, P8 Week 6 End

Unit 12: PO3 - P6, P7, P8 Week 7 End

Unit 12: PO3 - M3 Unit 9: PO3 - P7

Contingency

In some parts of the project, aspects of the game have had to be changed due to time constraints and ability to produce, this includes various mechanics, level design aspects and assets that were intended to be used in the game.

The layout of my level was cut down in size and shifted around to make the level feel more enclosed and fit with the representation the level was to portray, as well as have less gaps that made the level take longer than it felt it should, this was built from feedback generated during the project.

A mechanic that did not get made or added into the game was that for generating random spawn locations for the objects in the level representing desire, due to time constraints.

Original Level Blockout following 2D designs

Modified Level Blockout following feedback

Unit 12: PO3 - M3

Contingency - Version ControlIn the event of a critical failure in the project, such as multiple scripts failing or assets being deleted and progress being lost, the game version can be rolled back using the Unity Collab version history, so that files can be reverted and restored.

Further details and changes could be checked using the Unity Dashboard so changes could be checked remotely even when not using the Unity engine, contributions to the project’s assets could be managed and checked.

UI - Initial Designs/Version 1Main Menu

Pause Menu

Options Menu

Health Bar

Death/Gameover Loading

UI - Version 2Main Menu

Pause Menu

Options Menu

Health Bar

Death/Gameover

Button (Empty)

UI - Implemented in engine - Main Menu

UI - Implemented in engine - HP

UI - Implemented in engine - Pause

UI - Implemented in engine - Settings

Scripting

For the levels for Fear and Happiness, I created the scripts that would activate the effects where in Fear - the speed of the character is increased and decreased when holding shift (a reversal of the sprint controls) and for Happiness - I increased the jump height using the boolean to activate it in the FPS_Controller.

Fear ScriptHappiness Script

Unit 12: PO4 - P9, P10, P11

Scripting

The doors in the level are activated using Levers, the player clicks on the lever using raycasting and this unlocks the door, trigger sensors in front of the doors activates the door animation. For the final door this is done using a key and key reader where the player must collect a key object in order to open the final door.

Lever Script ------> Door Sensor Script -------> Door Activation

Lever Animator

Door Animator

Unit 12: PO4 - P9, P10, P11 Unit 9: PO4 - P10

ScriptingThe player’s health system in the game uses a slider to represent the health bar with a numeric display, with a seperate damage script for the player when interacting with dangers such as AI, falls and spikes. Each time the player dies when HP hits 0, the scene is reset, and the player loses a life. The player has 4 lives in total, 3 lives are displayed in the UI and the player can lose and reset the scene, the 4th and final life will show a game over UI and load the main menu after a short period of time. When a level is complete the amount of lives is reset.

Unit 12: PO4 - P9, P10, P11

Scripting

When the player lands on a moving platform, in order to make the player move with the platform, a trigger box collider is attached to the platform and the object is tagged as “platform”, when the player leaves the platform trigger it is no longer childed to the moving platform.

The platforms move by utilising the Unity Engine animation controllers.

Unit 12: PO4 - P9, P10, P11 Unit 9: PO4 - P11

Scripting

At the end of each scene their is a trigger called “EndDoor” this makes the UI fade to black by using opacity and load the next stated scene whilst resetting the life amount.

Unit 12: PO4 - P9, P10, P11

Health Pickups

In the game, as the player takes a lot of damage over time, there are health pickups to heal the player during the level, the script is attached to the trigger object that is the health pickup, when the player walks into the object and has less than the maximum amount of health, the object will heal the player and then destroy itself.

Unit 12: PO4 - P9, P10, P11

Modular Pack Implementation -Starting Corridor

Modular Pack Implementation - Platforming Area

Modular Pack Implementation -Central Room

Modular Pack Implementation -Central Room

Modular Pack Implementation -Side Room

Modular Pack Implementation -Final Corridor

Modular Pack Implementation -End Door

Error ReportMechanic Incident Resolution

Moving Platforms The platform was moving so quickly that the collision was not detected and the player would fall into the death pit.

Slowed down the animation of the platforms.

Moving Platforms The collider was not detecting the player as it was being moved into a different place in worldspace as both the collider object and the platform has the animation attached.

Removed the separate collider gameobject and added it to the original platform.

Modular Assets In some circumstances, the player would walk up to an asset piece and get stuck, being unable to move in any way.

Made the mesh collider of the objects impacting the player convex, with some objects having substitute box colliders.

Lever 3 in Level Fear

The 3rd lever was intended to only activate when the second lever has been activated, even when the second lever was activated, the lever would not activate.

Altered the 3rd lever’s interaction in the raycasting script,

Key Reader At the end of the level, the key reader would not activate the door even when the player had collected the key.

Changed the raycasting interaction to activate when the object was tagged as a reader instead of named as one.

Laser The laser object would not be avoidable as it was not always visible and would not collide or damage the player effectively.

Replaced the laser with a turret that would shoot at the player.

Unit 12: PO4 - P12

First Build - Feedback ReportLevel Fear (1)

● The level of the lighting was bugged and inconsistent, causing the player to be lost and wander aimlessly, as well as causing players to not be able to jump onto platforms.

● Drastic differences between walking and danger creates uncertainty and inconsistency.

● Pacing of the level is slow and there is no sense in the final area where running is punished, more dangerous elements could increase the pacing.

● The health system decreasing upon death and confuses players with a lack of checkpoints/life systems, causing the player to restart the entire game.

● This makes the game tedious to play as each death causes them to be taken to main menu.

Level Happiness (2)● Platforms were too difficult to see and colliders not

fitting the platforms correctly.● A lack of checkpoints made the level harder to

complete towards the end.● Lasers did not always collider with the player/damage

the player.● There were no proper doorways in the level at the

end.● Health pickups would have been helpful since you

lose a lot of health.● Wasn’t consistent with the other levels.

Level Desire (3)● The purpose of the timer is not established and

doesn’t kill the player once it hits 0, the game also does not restart.

● No clear objective.● Hallways could be marked/numbered so players know

if they have been there.● The exit of the level is not made clear.

Level Anger (4)● Has no purpose, clear objective or ending.● The controls were not explained● Most players did not reach this level due to dying

earlier on in previous levels.

Unit 9: PO3 - P8

Mid-Point Presentation and Follow Up

Follow Up Presentation - FeedbackUnit 9: PO3 - P8

The feedback collected came from a group presentation of the game during the development process, and a showing of what still needed developing in the game.

Some common points included:● Inconsistent and poor lighting● A lack of prompts/goal to the levels to guide the

player● A lack of visual assets in the game● The scaling of the first level (fear) was not

effective to the intention.● The last level of the game had no

purpose/gameplay.

First Build - Feedback Implementation● Adjusted level layout slightly and repositioned lighting,

as well as adding lighting to the moving platforms.● Adjusted the threat elements around in the level.● Implemented a life system to the game.● Added health pickups to levels● Fixed moving platform colliders● Ensured doorways were implemented into each level.

Unit 9: PO3 - P9, M4

Follow Up Presentation - Feedback Implementation

● Imported assets to the levels of the game, improving the visuals by doing so.

● Adjusting the scaling and layout of the first level to fit the purpose and create a better atmosphere when adding modular assets.

● Added prompt UI’s to guide the player.● Slowed down the speed of the moving platforms due to high difficulty,

making the level flow better as the difficulty of the platforms did not reflect the rest of the level.

Final Pitch

Collaborative EvaluationIn the project, a good end product was produced, however, as the project started, communication was slow and not immediately ready for producing the game, from this I have learnt that I must go into a project ready to work and communicate clearly with the team. Whilst using progress tracking software, I should log my contributions with more consistency and clearly state as a comment what I have done when completing the task at hand, this also applied to my contributions themselves as I should be able to pass on any assets or scripts without too much additional explanation as I should annotate and comment on how the scripts work and are intended to be used so that my other team members can use these even if I am unavailable, this can help prevent errors in the future and give the team more time to work on other tasks. When communicating with the team, there needs to be more direction in terms of specifically what tasks are needed to be done and make priorities more clear, making sure that the game can develop at a steady pace without major faults. With team members being able to know key information about the game and be on the same page.In the event of the team presenting a pitch for the game, we should meet up and be together or all be communicating when creating the presentations and practicing consistently to know where to go with the pitch. Each of us need to know about what the game is about and be on the same page with each other’s progress to provide answers to any questions provided.

Previous PDP

Unit 12: PO4 - P13,M6,D3

During the project, production of sound assets took longer than expected and became rushed towards the end as focus was shifted to other parts of the game’s development, with the scope of the game’s mechanics and level design being too large and required parts to be cut from production. The modular assets for the interior of the levels was being worked on for a long period of time during the project, leading to burnout and issues arising from the lack of visuals in the game. The mechanics were completed quickly with keeping simultaneous use in mind whilst this was not entirely necessary but required being revisited on various occasions for easier use between developers. The blockout for the level should have been done sooner with a base framework and then focus on making technical aspects later on to have the level completed sooner.

New PDP

Skill Area Current Level (1-5) Timeline to improve Measure of Success

Mechanic Implementation

3 4 weeks Have various mechanics running in sync, changing to fit with the appropriate level and have a playable prototype.

Level Design 3 End of first sprint Design a level pre-determined with my chosen emotion, using ideas that will make the emotion clear and make the player feel them whilst also adding a challenge.

Sound Design 1 End of Project Be able to understand, record and develop sounds for use in suitable in-game scenarios.

Skill Area Current Level (1-5)

Timeline to improve

Measure of Success

Management/Communication

3 End of project Keep communication consistent between team members and have aspects from each area translate clearly from person to person.

Level Design 4 End of first sprint

Produce a design for a level fitting narrative and mechanical aspects at a appropriate pace to be translated quickly into a playable blockout.

Sound Design 2 End of Project Be able to take previously learnt skills into dialogue recording/editing/syncing.