Final Product & Evaluation

Evaluating and reflecting

At the start of my project I was given two options, either make a game focusing on the art side or the mechanics. I chose to go down the art route, this decision was definetly the right one for me since I have past expirence with modeling that I have gained from this course. My aim was to create all of the art then revisit and add mechanics if I had the time, which I soon realised I wouldn't. 

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After deciding which route I wanted to take, it was important to consier what game I was to make. I had a few ideas, but none of them really appealed to me. Then I came across a subway tunnel envrionment, it bought me back to a few childhood memories and so I decided that was what I wanted to make. A subway tunnel would also prove to be rather convenient considering our brief explained that we were to make our games as a walking simulator and with tunnels being long and running for miles this seemed like a good choice. The aim and context to my walking simulator would be that the character has lost their way whilst walking to work, they would then fall into an old subway and must walk around to find a way out. 

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To make all of my game I would be using a simple combination of software, to create my assets I would use Maya 2022. To texture them I would use Substance Painter and put everything together in Unreal Engine. This simplistic workflow seemed to be a good choice since I have a sufficient amount of experience in each.

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As mentioned previously, we were able to create our games in whatever theme and genre we wanted, as long as they were able to fit the critera for a walking simulator. I had heard of this term before, but that was as far as my knowledge went. It was clear that I had a lot of research to do regarding this topic. Before this I had to complete the context portion of my blog. For me, this inluded a SWOT analysis. The aim of this ancronym is to get you to discuss your Strengths, Weaknesses, Opertunities and Threats. Using this I was able to get a good idea of what my main focusses would be and how I would deal with any problems that arose. An example of my weaknesses would be my inability to stick to the plan I have made for myself. Although listed as a weakness I don't believe it affect my project this time. I also completed a Project Proposal form, this covered my rationale, project concept and the evaluation methods I would be using. 
 

After the context I moved onto to one of the most important parts of any product, the research. The first peice of research I conducted was into what a walking simulator actually is. During this stage I was able to explore different types of walking simulators as well as the key things that make them what they are. During this research I learnt the must haves when creating a walking simulator, this meant I was able to generate further ideas for my game. Despite this being useful research it wasn't something I massively enjoyed. After this portion of research I moved onto discussing what my idea actually was, here I briefly mentioned where my idea came from and how it would be made. 

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A useful thing to do as a part of research is creating a mindmap, this allows you to gather all of your thought into one place. I found it easier to use a website for my mindmap, this way I wouldn't have to worry about losing it. This online approach was effective because I could easily add and remove part without messing up the rest of the map. In a similar way, I also created a mood board. This was made up of a combination of different tunnel images, both real life and art versions. The aim of this was to show the bigger picture to whoever looked at it. This would allow them to see the vast amount of tunnels there are, instead of that one they remembered from the last time they were on a train. This also allowed me to explore the possible locations and themes of my tunnel.

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Next I moved onto who my game was for, I discussed which demographic fits the target audience however I failed to address why I had chosen these people to be the target audience. As a part of my formative feedback I was advised to do this, however was too focus on my practical work that I rank out of time to include it. In future I will ensure this doesn't happen by setting myself stricter deadlines. After this, I explored two great examples of what I first wanted to create, this included discussing the good and bad parts of each. To further benefit my research I could have done this a third time with a more different example, however this worked fine. 

I then then onto discuss what makes a good narrative and the lighting I would want to impliment within my game. This was done by simply documenting my work in the classic way of typing, looking back on it I should have included a lot more example of what I wanted to achieve and how I would do it. For example I could have shown other past example of tunnel environments with lighting that inspired me to do the same, I could of also added a diagram to show where my lights would be placed and what kind they would be. In future I would like to have more primary research however this wasn't possbile for this project. 

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Moving on from the research, the next section of my work was the Pre-Production. Looking at the example project brief we were given a list of ways we could carry out this work. I chose to use a moodboard, asset list along with mapping out my game using an online website. I did also break down some of my narrative, but I should have written more for this part as well as the Pre-Production as a whole. Despite not having loads of pre-production I do believe I wrote about that parts I did complete in a way that is effective and comunicates what I wanted it to. I think my asset list was layed out in a way that is easy to read, this was very helpful during the production stage since it allowed me to glance over to see what need to be made next. When I do this again, I will order my list to show the importance of each asset. Overall, more pre-production work would be nice. 

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Now it was time for the practical portion of this project. This part I had been looking forward to for sometime, so was glad the time had come. To start off I opened unreal and selected the default scene. This was a mistake since I would need to go back and add the correct atmosphere later on. From here I couldn't do much in the way of a block out so i created my tunnel walls asset. This was easy was I figured out how to do it correctly. Overall this was the case for all of my models, they went a lot better than I first thought they would. This was probably due to doubting my abilities. Unlike some of my classmates games I didn't have a need for any characters, this was one less thing to worry about. During this stage I struggled the most with UV mapping, it is something I must continue to practice so I can improve even more. I mentioned in my SWOT analysis that I needed to improve my texturing, I think that is has definetly improved from the last time I did it. After completing the practical I am glad that I didn't do the machanics, I think I would have found this very hard and too challenging. After finishing all of my practical work, I am proud to say that it turned out how I wanted it to. Adding to this, although happy I would still like to better my work in the future. 

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After completing all of my research, Pre-Production & Production I am very satisfied with everything I have achieved throughout this project and in my final game. I managed to get all of the essential parts of my work complete before the deadline. There are still a lot of this that I could have improved on, this would include my time management. This could have been inproved in the first place by creating a Gantt Chart or Trello to track my progress. It would have been great if I could have got some more low priority assets created such as more signs. I would have also liked to include some additional interative elements, but this was veyr far down on my list. I did mention that this was to be the starting portion of my game, so in future i would be able to coninue this, so I am happy. If I were to recreate all of my game, I would make the tunnel a lot longer to further fit the walking simulator theme, I would also branch off in other directions, this would give the player more areas to explore and discover. I would also look further into what needs to be adding in the way of assets. This is due to only having around three assets within the game so far. 

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This project has come to an end, but I have learnt a lot and would like to continue expanding and adding to the current state of my game. 

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One of the key points bought up by classmates was that the game looks to be from the mystery genre. Having heard this feedback I am happy that I have achieved my goal I set for myself. Overall I am happy with everything I created.