Space skape

Space skape. 236681 – Cameron Phillips. Intent & Rationale.

[Audio] The brief has asked for a playable, interactive 3d game that shows progression to the player for the local council. It's required to also show a theme, timer and as mentioned, progression. To appease this brief I've made an escape room set in a sci-fi themed space station where you go through the ship unlocking it as you go through, there will be two timers present, one showing the overall game timer and then one showing one in areas where there is no oxygen, slowly going down until you're back in a safe area (if hits 0 player is defeated). However, throughout the development period I've encountered a few issues. Initially I was going to have npc's around the ship, due to the time frame I realised this was not a realistic expectation so I have changed this to being an abandoned ship, in my opinion this works better since it makes more sense in the 'escape room' aspect. In previous lessons and the first project I learnt how to use different tools and processes, this has definitely aided my production with both quality and quantity, I think the largest impact was learning blender since it helped me create the block out and different assets that are displayed throughout the levels. I believe that I kept to deadlines within reason however towards the end I feel more rushed due to an overestimation in my abilities within the time frame. This has helped me understand what I can and cannot do within similar time frames and will assist with planning in future projects..

[Audio] Prior to the actual development I researched a few escape-room games like 'Escape' by Sweaters and 'Portal 2' by Valve, this helped me understand what makes an escape room fun, having complicated tests and puzzles. In addition to this I looked at visual imagery in the games industry like how well recognisable symbols are used to indicate where to go/ what to do. An example of this is well represented within the 'mushroom city' Mario kart track with imagery like hazard tape where not to jump or hazardous colours based on speed and having lighter areas on the main track, signifying where not to go based on if it is bright or dark. The final game I researched for this project was Assassins creed IV Black flag, the jungle level in particular, I chose this game to research since it is a great demonstration of imagery telling the player exactly what to do and where they can/ cannot go without taking up unnecessary space on the map. I believe that looking at game levels like mushroom city and the jungle level has had the greatest impact as I could locate individual aspects that I wouldn't notice just through a normal playthrough of the game due to being distracted on the puzzle. This leads onto what was the least impactful which I think was playing the games because I don't think that I properly did the task to it's intended effect, instead just playing the games without much thought of why puzzles are made in the way that they are or why the Hud looks a certain way. From my research I obtained various aspects, lighting is a great way to demonstrate where a player should and should not go. In addition I want to have my game be like Portal 2 in the aspect of how the story is explained by itself. However this won't be as well shown as I wish it could be due to the limited time frame given..

[Audio] The Mind map by the side demonstrates my initial ideas and plans for the game. From the beginning I was most enticed by the zero-gravity zone because I feel that it brings a unique aspect to the game and it'd also be a fun experience, especially for the younger demographic, however this didn't become a possibility due to the time frame and my lack of experience within Unreal engine. However, I knew from the start that I wanted to make a sci-fi themed game since I feel that it gives lots of room for development in the future since you can go in so many different ways. As mentioned I scrapped the zero-gravity idea for reasons I prior said. But I also got rid of radiation zones because I think it has the exact same process as suffocation so it would make no sense to have 2 different hazards like that. In addition to this I didn't peruse the translator device since I'm not proceeding with NPC's of different breed so it'd be pointless..

[Audio] My mind map was very much more similar to SpaceSkape however I made another idea based on what my second choice would be since it was another option I'd enjoy making, overall I chose SpaceSkape since I felt it had more room for development and seemed to be a more creative idea. In addition it also seemed closer to the type of game I'd play instead of island of the forgotten. Peer feedback - SpaceSkape is very unique and I'm curious to see how you get a Polar bear a Space Suit. This is definitely the better option, one of the reasons about this is due to how similar it is to games like the forest, giving it an overall unoriginal concept. - If you can talk to the other animals on the ship to learn why you're in space and how to get back to Earth, I also believe that SpaceSkape has more possibility for creativity and expansion in the future in comparison to Island of the Forgotten. My primary feedback was to include hints to why the player is in the space station and learn how to get back to earth. The main difference between SpaceSkape and island of the forgotten received from peer feedback was that SpaceSkape has more room for creativity and expansion in the near future since you could implement different planets to visit, add a function to decorate the space station in your own way etc. For the same reason, island of the forgotten was seen as worse due to its lack of expansion possibility and it's also not unique..

[Audio] These are some of my created mood boards for the project, They show my different thoughts of what could go into my game, some having more impact to my game than others. I wanted to have a certain theme but also wanting to get various different types of images to get the most ideas possible. My mood boards have helped me keep on track throughout my project so I didn't stray away into making mechanics or ideas that were unrealistic and made no sense to the game plan..

[Audio] I created a bird-eye view design for my level plan before working in blender, It shows where you start with arrows pointing the direction of where the player will be directed as each level is proceeded through. My researched helped me come up with this because I ensured that it was very clear what way you're meant to go in order to get to the next stage and my mood boards help plan the layout so that it'd be easy to navigate even during the hazards, giving room for continuation in the future. As you can see in the bottom corner with be the final room available so far, this is where you'll locate the puzzle room where the player is required to locate 5 items to unlock a door and be able to turn the switch on which is linked with lighting and oxygen. Forcing the player to use the prior found flash light to move through it. Visual language was less necessary for this blackout since it's a straight forward hallway with one way forward until you get to the infirmary, however I plan on adding a green cross to symbolise the room being an infirmary, helping them locate the room quickly. When getting peer feedback from my classmate he said "The vegetation room would have had no real purpose for the game and would have taken a lot of time to make. This would have made the overall play through less enjoyable, as too much time would have been spent making bushes." - I agree with this comment since it was an unnecessary addition to the game due to the fact it will not add anything to the game..

[Audio] For my game I've created a glass effect, hallway and a chest so far, I've put them together to make a sci-fi effect with a low poly art style. I think the glass helps significantly as it shows the space scene in most rooms giving it a more real feel to the game instead of it being like looking at a blurry picture of stars. The chest can be used a lot as well since they can be around the ship holding different materials and tools like the flash light but also metal or other materials for puzzles where you need to fix something. All of what is shown on the right was created in blender with different tools explained in further detail on my portfolio. Despite being happy with how my assets have turned out I've had various issues occur, an example of this was to make the sky and glass, at first the sky looked grey and dull through the glass effect but after altering it and using a different method with a Suzanne tool and changing the colour node it worked out well. Overall these assets help the game tie into the original plan of the game since it allows the ship have a sci-fi and futuristic effect without all being about flashy neon colours at every point of the scene..

[Audio] My first custom mechanic shown was how I implemented my flashlight. Initially when I began working on the flashlight function it wasn't working at all and the mesh either wouldn't be able to be picked up or the light would not work. To counter this issue I decided to build the flashlight into the player, having it form at their torso, similar to where a flashlight would be held except the player won't have to drag the light around everywhere. The flashlight will be a necessary part of the third level when the player will be required to traverse through the space station in the dark to locate the key for turning the power back on before the timer runs out. I'm happy with how this turned out since it has a realistic flash light effect with a simple process. Secondly, I created a trigger box in order to turn all the lights off, acting as a power outage. The player will go through this after exiting the second stage at the infirmary. To make this mechanic I used a trigger box, going into the level blueprint and having the trigger box be active from the game starts but will only actually trigger when the player is located within it's collision zone. However I had some issues with this since my lights are all separate so I had to bypass this complication by stacking the lights together in one code and collapsing them together in order to not trigger any significant delay, this change helped a lot with the speed that the code was applied within the gameplay. I plan to continue adding a few custom mechanics like the countdown after the player goes through the trigger mentioned above as well as some smaller functions that add more enjoyment to the player in the future. However, for now I am happy with how the development has come along within the Custom mechanics aspect. Thank you..