Week Summary

Unfortunately due to some unforeseen circumstances and my power supply unit blowing up - to which I couldn't do any work on my PC. Unfortunately I couldn't work off USB at uni either, as before I could backup my files on my USB, the power supply unit failed. So I couldn't do any work last week nor post a weekly update.  

Moving on:
Whilst at uni, I manage to get started on my game prototype and manage to get some assets done for my prototype. I wanted some environment pieces to look a specific way, which I couldn't do within UE4. I also manage to get started on my pitch document.

Here are some slides from my pitch document. The first slide also display the Dollhouse asset I created for my game prototype.
From last week, I was able to take notes the good 'ol fashion way and I've made some choices about what my I want game prototype is going to show.

For my prototype I am going to base it within a dollhouse, which from my research I want to have the player led into a false sense of security and so the player can grasp the basics of the game's controls.
When the player will start within the dollhouse and think they are normal size, however once the tutorial level is competed (this is where the prototype will end)they will end up in the toy shop, which they will be small and the enviroment will be big , to make the player feel insecure.

Research for Prototype

To further my research that I've have already done, I've been looking at more playthroughs of Among the sleep, Five Nights at Freddie's, Affected: The Carnival and Alien Isolation. I have also manage to play Alien Isolation to get a feel for the mechanics myself.

In addition, I've done more mood boards for the aesthetics of my game prototype. This mood boards depitc the tone I want for my game, the demonic toys I want in the game and lastly how I want my main character (Ziggy which I am now calling my character) to look like.

From my research into horror games, I've notice that for most horror games the tutorials in horror games or at least the first part of game they leave the player into a false sense of security. So when the scary aspects of the game are introduced, it makes the scary moments more intense. I want to add this aspect into my game prototype. Also from my research, I have gone away the 2D side scrolling game I originally wanted, and instead want to have the game in a 1st person view.

 My experience from playing Alien Isolation:

From playing Alien Isolation, they have an interesting mechanic of being hunted and chased. This plays on our natural fears and which in turns makes us want to run or hide. In Isolation you are encourage to hide, as you cannot attack the alien or you will die. If you make enough noise, they Xenomorph will hunt you down and kill you. Which makes it more scary, as you cannot fight the Xenomorph your only option is to hide.

These are some screen shots from my playthrough of Alien Isolation. These were captured from the PS4 share feature  

More walkthroughs I've been looking at: 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c7RD_a4XjNA

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XU5JJraK7jQ

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

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zHi4SEVAJt8

Weekly Summary

This week I focused on iterations for my character for my game, level block outs so I get a rough idea how I want the game to look I make it in UE4 and done some more research for my game.

From my research for Among The Sleep, I wanted to make my character to look sweet and innocent, which would counteract the horror setting. Which in turn would make the setting look more darker, or at least I hope. In additions to this, I want the character to be small and the level around the character to be big and intimidating, which would make the player feel helpless.
Also during this week, I made level block outs in Maya for the toy shop, which I want the main game to be placed.

I want to base my prototype around the tutorial level. As from my research into Among the Sleep, I want the tutorial be more light and safe, which would place the player in a false sense of security. But also learn the basic controls in a safe environment.

And finally for this week's summary, we have been given our briefing for the research and theoretical side of the project.  For the essay, we have to write a 3000 word essay on creating Coherent Worlds.

Research for Prototype

This week I began to do some research for my prototype, as always I began my research with mood boards.

With these mood boards I looked at Horror games, side scrolling games (as that's I think that's the way I want to follow with my game). I also looked at two different types of horror games: Five Nights at Freddie's and Among The Sleep as they depict the aesthetics I want to achieve in my game. I followed up the Among the Sleep mood board by looking at Krillbite's website, the studio behind Among the Sleep, which has a teaser trailer and screen shots for the game. I also looked at walkthroughs for the game

Among the Sleep website: http://www.krillbite.com/ats/

The walkthroughs I looked at:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gmR_8PMY5rQ
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YDsPGWd6-uQ

I've also been looking at Limbo so I can look at it for the mechanics. It has a creepy feel to it due to the dark eerie setting and the eerily sound track. I would love to add that feel to my prototype.
These screen shots of Limbo are taken from my playthough of the game. I captured these with the PS4 Share feature

Weekly Summary

During workshops this week we looked at how to add UI into a game; looked at pickup which effect ammo count and health bar and when you take damage the health goes down. 

Outside workshops, I have finally chosen an idea which I want to follow up on for the game prototype and began to do some research, which I shall talk more in my research post. I'm going to follow up on my haunted toy shop game, which I'm now began to call The Little Toy Shop of Horror. 

BA2a: Weekly summary

During my workshops this week we began to look more in to UE4.

This image below was the end result of this week's workshop. We looked at blue prints and different nodes of blue prints. During this session we looked at simple blueprints such as movements and we looked at different nodes such as actor, pawn character etc. At the moment I still don't understand blueprints. On the plus side, I manage to create a trigger box for an explosion

Also this week I manage to come up with some ideas for my game prototype from using a random word generator.
These ideas consist of:

Binding Inventor
Playing a mad professor/inventor creating weird inventions
This would be a mobile app game that you could play on the go


Gage brigade
A steampunk flying game
Steampunk airships
Task lead a squad of steampunk ships to take down enemy ships
Bigger this ships you destroy the more points you get

Liberating Empire
Steampunk fantasy RTS
You must liberate you and repressed souls of the empire, from a tyrant
You take control of a liberation group

Intruding Utopia
Task of the game is to create mischief, play pranks and annoy the individuals of a utopia as it's become grey, mundane and dull. There is no such this a fun here.

Haunted toy shop
An old haunted toy shop
The toy shop is filled with ghost and demons that are possessing the toys
You play as a little toy
Aim of the game is to save the other toys and escape the toy shop

Penguin Sledges
Penguin racing game
Console multiplayer game

Shrimp Sabotage
Shrimp ninja sabotaging people whom are trying to eat shrimp

Daydream kingdom
Simplistic puzzle game
Play on the phone and on the go, or just to relax
Happy relaxing atmosphere


Outside of workshops, I looked a little bit of UE4 in my own time and looked at how you can set up lighting within a project and getting use to the controls of UE4

Aims for next week:

• Decide on an idea for game prototype
• Get some iterations down for prototype 
• Research