MID PROJECT REVIEW
PEER REVIEWS
Mid Project Feedback
We received feedback from 3 other students who reviewed our websites to comment on what was good and what could be improved. The feedback I took from the review was to include dates in my practical skills updates, ensure my bibliography is up to date and expand my practical skills updates with information on other parts of my project.
Please note Review #1; I believe the reviewer was not aware of the practical skills page and so marked the production log as missing.
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Project
Evaluation
EVALUATION
Project Evaluation
When we were given the task to create a walking simulator, one of the first ideas was to create a level I had wanted to create previously in my spare time. When I realised that I could use this project to complete that idea I decided that it was what I wanted to do. Although visuals are quite a big part of the level, I decided that I would focus more on the mechanics as a horror should have a fair amount of interactivity to it. I'm glad that I chose this route as I feel i was able to create the level that I wanted to create by the end of the project. This was because my goals were clear from the beginning. I wanted to create a horror which was set within an underground subway. This varied from the original concept which was a old fashioned style train interior. I do feel this may have made the level more visually interesting as there could have been more differences in each carriage, however, It would have required me to fully model the interior myself and make several different models too. Perhaps this could be a possible idea for a project within the second year. Overall I feel that the end product that I created was close enough to what I wanted to make in the start of the project.
In order to do this I needed to ensure my research was thorough and detailed. Especially within the areas that I needed and wanted to expand my knowledge on. I already knew quite a lot about the horror genre within games and how they were made. I already knew a lot of different techniques that developers and writers used in order to incite certain emotions and create good scares. This said, I still had a lot to learn and was always open to new knowledge. After I had decided where my level was to be set I was able to more accurately decide what kind of things I would need to research for my project to ensure that I would be able to plan and create it without having to jump back and do more research. I broke the level down into different categories and figured out what I needed to learn in each of them. I separated them into; technical, visual and emotional. Technical things would include blueprints, knowing the basics and how the function, I ensured I knew how to do basic things and that I knew enough so that I would be able to teach myself and naturally learn more complicated things as I worked through the project. Visual things included the modelling, lighting techniques, the layout and how to direct the player without needing to point an arrow. Lastly, emotional things were perhaps more specific to this genre, I needed to know how games developers created a scary environment, how they could quickly change that environment to feel safe, or back to scary.
I feel that I researched enough as I didn't find myself going back and needing to research many of these techniques excluding technical things. Early on I also created a survey which I collected opinions and feedback on different ideas that I had for my project. This allowed me to see what people felt about different aspects of my idea, If my idea was good or not and what I could do to improve my ideas. I was able to use this research and information to create something that I'm happy with and something that I think is quite unique within the horror genre. I feel my planning was very thorough and I knew almost everything I needed to know before going in to the project.
This allowed me to plan the project well by combining the ideas that I had, with what I had learned from my research. I found the project proposal form to be surprisingly helpful within the planning stage as it allowed me to compile all of my ideas and detail my intentions within one place. As well as create a plan and timeline to organise all of my tasks and keep myself up. After reviewing my project proposal form towards the end of the project I'm happy to say that I completed and added all of the mechanics and ideas that I originally spoke about and several additional features too. I did however, encounter some issues towards the end, I simply could not decide how to end the level. I discussed this within the Horror Evaluation section of this page, it slowed the end of the project down however, it was an issue that I eventually overcame, In the future I will be more thorough in ensuring that every aspect and part of my level is fully planned out prior to beginning work on the practical. For example I would create a full level layout which would include labled events for each stage of the level or game, detailing what happens, where, when and how it happens. This would make the production a lot easier as I would be able to look at my concept and immediately know what I need to create without ending up stuck.
This ability to quickly solve problems helped a lot throughout the project. There were several times where i encountered an issue within the level, mostly in terms of a blueprint or some code not working. Many times I would try to solve the issue myself, trying different techniques and using things that I have learned previously. However, there were times where I needed to ask for help. One of the largest issues that I encountered was when after returning from an Easter break, I found that two of my blueprints no longer functioned properly. This was a big issue as one of the issues was the arrival of the train that you board. For some reason, despite working before the holiday, the train would never stop at the same spot despite nothing changing within the code between tests.
In order to work around this issue I eventually had to simply remove the blueprints. I ended up having the train that the player boards be static and at its final spot from the moment the player spawns in. The second train which previously arrived in the station, waited for a few moments before leaving again would now simply pass through the station without stopping. It was an unfortunate compromise but I looked into the issue a lot and couldn't find a fix. I attempted to entirely remake the blueprint and even tried different techniques however, the result was always the same.
My final project was presented via a recording of the gameplay. This allowed me to fully show all of the features that you would see when playing the level. I'm happy with the final product, I feel that I have done everything that I wanted to do as well as more. I feel as if one of the strengths is that everything that I intended to do was done. It feels functional when you play it and I've managed to iron out a lot of bugs and issues that made it feel otherwise. I do feel that there of course is room for improvement. I feel as if I could have spent more time making mechanics, making the level longer, adding additional tasks and creating a better ending. One of the biggest changes that I made was the introduction of a monster. I wanted to have something to scare the player but I realised that I didn't have enough time within my level in order to provide a story and create sufficient tension build up. So I ended up going with a monster to scare the player. I feel this made it better and worse, partly better as it allowed me to more easily create scares and to give the player something visual and real to fear and look out for. I do wish that I had introduced the presence of this monster sooner and then revealed it later. On the other hand I feel it made it worse in some aspects as it went against one of the things I wanted to do which was avoiding jump scares.
Because of this, I feel that the product is surprisingly suitable for the audience that I intended. Originally I didn't expect the end product to be very scary due to the lack of textures and that It was going to be much more of a mechanical demo. However, the end was able to induce a darker atmosphere and likely cause a scare or two. It certainly isn't incredibly scary. I've said before and I'll say again that it is not a masterpiece, The level wasn't long enough and I don't feel the project was long enough for me to have created enough tension, build up and set the pacing to create a proper horror atmosphere without the need of jump-scares. I don't expect that horror fans would enjoy playing it very much due to it's length and the amateur level of it's creation, But i do think for my first solo project that it's setting the first step at a good height.
For this reason I was actually quite surprised with the responses I got from the people who played it. I only received 4 responses although the average rating was 4.75/5 stars. Half the audience saw all three of the scares, half only saw two and 75% of people felt there was enough guidance and clear objectives. This was a lot better than I expected considering I originally didn't expect there to be any genuinely scary moments due to it initially going to be solely a demo.
Overall I feel as if the project was a success, I feel that I completed everything that I originally proposed to do and more, I feel the looks and feel of the level were as much, and more than I expected and as a whole I believe that I made a level which was better than what I thought I would create.
Environment Evaluation
EVALUATION
Environment Evaluation
The environment and visuals of the level obviously were not my primary focus throughout this project due to the fact i was focusing mainly on mechanics, however, I do think that the environment was of a decent quality. The starting area and the exterior train model work well with the scene and they fit in together well. The interior of the train was a pretty decent quality and actually was near to the same level of detail to the rest of the models despite the interior being downloaded. I did however, add in additional light fittings to the model as it did not come with any.
I will however, critique myself with the lower consistency with the interior section of the level. The first few carriages have the light fittings slightly spaced out however, when I needed to make the emissive cylinders which gave the actual light effect dynamic, I decided to redo how I placed the light fittings, instead choosing to move towards a gapless design. I believe this did look better however, I didn't have time in the end to go back to the first carriages and replace them with the newer models.
Remaining on the inconsistencies; some carriages have low poly "posters" in poster fittings provided in the original model. I made these by combining several different boxes with different materials for different colours in order to create a very simplistic poster. At first I created them with all the lines the same thickness however, it didn't look or feel like a poster. After playing some indie games with low poly model styles I realised i could create different thicknesses of the black stripes in order to suggest a title with text below, this made the final model look convincing enough to believe it is a poster.
Horror Evaluation
EVALUATION
Horror Evaluation
The horror element of the level was very difficult to implement. This was because the level was very low poly, and more importantly, the models were mostly left untextured and only had a material applied to them. Visuals are one of the biggest elements in horror and so it was a difficult challenge to create an atmosphere which felt like you were in a horror game.
In order to do this, I had to use several different methods in order to tell the player they were in a horror without telling them. One of the methods I used was audio. One of the first things you hear is a sudden train passing the player, this contrasts the mostly peaceful and quiet visuals that the player first sees. I also triggered an ambient sound that would be set to play throughout the level. This was an ambient horror sound created by "NachtmahrTV". (Credit) I set the volume multiplier to 0.1 which lowered the volume to be barely audible. This combined with the mostly subtle nature of the ambience allowed for a very discreet feeling of horror.
The objective sounds also use quite a harsh scratchy pencil sound effect created by "newagesoup" (Credit) This adds in a semi-regular harsher sound to the level to break up the quieter parts. It also works well with the font that i used, simply named "HelpMe", created by "GGBotNet" (Credit).
At the point the player is teleported on to the interior model of the train I also trigger a second sound effect which is set to loop. This sound repeats and is the sound of train wheels slightly dampened to give the effect the train was moving. I will admit that this effect was largely thrown out due to the player being able to look out of the window and see that the train was not actually moving. This was an unfortunate technical limitation as i would have had to create some sort of animation loop of the tunnel which would not have added a lot to the project overall.
The flashlight also is set to randomly decide between several options before coming on. This is to create a sense of uncertainty. Encouraging the player to be uncertain that the flashlight will always work and that it could break or run out of power at some point. Of course there isn't actually any code that could run these scenarios (However, I heavily contemplated it.) the player simply would fill in the gaps for you.
The scares of the level aren't brilliant. This is no Resident Evil but I do think that Some of the scares, at least the first ones do come quite unexpected. The first one especially I think is quite out of the blue and it also provides me with a good time to show the player how to use their flashlight. The second one is more of a subtle scare to show that the creature is still watching you.
The ending of the level isn't great. I personally could not decide on how to end the level, Originally I planned to have the player "wake up" and it had all been a dream. There were several variations of this, the first one I would have made it so they wake up in the train, now with all white textures and bright lighting arrived at their destination. The second was that they would wake up in their home and the entire thing was a dream including boarding the train.
I didn't choose these options as they both would have required me to create several more models and would simply have been too much work for the time I had left. The ending at the moment is pretty cheap however, it does have an ending. The black screen with the HUD text was done by teleporting the player to a black room and adding the widget to the display. The train can still be heard too along with the jump-scare audio until it ends. This is because both of the audios are set to play at the players location rather than a fixed spot.
Overall the Horror element of the project was a decent success, It may not be what I originally envisioned for the project but its at a quality and a state that I am happy with. (Despite the ending.)
Gameplay
Evaluation
EVALUATION
Gameplay Evaluation
The gameplay throughout the level is pretty good, The objectives which I am quite happy with were a good feature to add. I think I did well with the placement, colour and font size. The text wraps well and words aren't separated too if the objective needs to take up more than one line.
On the other hand, the "1X Fuse" HUD item which shows when the player has the fuse. This was more of a placeholder to display the feature rather than what I would have liked to have. If I could have I probably would have made an icon which would have shown in the same spot.
I did think about increasing the movement speed whilst the player was in the first platform area or adding a sprint mechanic, however, it was only a very small part of the level and I had to prioritise features. If I had additional time I I may have decided to increase the movement speed just by 10-20% only in the first area.
The sway of the light and flashlight are also two things that I was quite happy with. It caused some issues initially as the offset that the movement would count when the flashlight would be "put away", meaning that it would add a relative location to the lower location that the flashlight was at due to the sway. I was however, eventually able to get it to a state where this is extremely uncommon, at least I haven't experienced it in my many test playthroughs.
Early on in the project I also thinned the collision capsule of the player in order to create a more realistic collision for the player. With the default settings the player can't get very close to walls. Due to the poles and benches within the interior I felt it was necessary to change this. I also disabled the ability to jump which was a good decision as it took away from the horror element which controls the movement more closely. The movement overall for the project had a good outcome. I did experiment giving the player camera the same swaying animation as the torch and flashlight however, this simply didn't work very well and would effectively remove the visible sway from the flashlight.
The footsteps were one of the last things that I added. I am however, happy with the result. The blueprint will randomly select one of 3 footstep sounds to play as the character is walking. This lowers the chance of the player getting annoyed or frustrated by an overly repetitive footstep sound. I would have used more sound effects to increase the variation even more however, I simply couldn't find more with the same sounding surface.
The ambience was done quite simply, firstly i found a sound that could be repeated and i simply enabled looping within the sound after importing it into Unreal. There are two ambient sounds used in the level, one for a general horror atmosphere and one for the sound whilst the player is within the train, I would have also liked to add an ambient sound for the station however, I could not find any sounds which sounded right for me. It's very difficult finding audio of abandoned subway stations when they are usually quite crowded. I also may have liked to add an additional sound of the train leaving once the player boards however, this would just have been a nice addition rather than anything crucial.
The door sound effect is actually quite interesting. I used a sound of a Snake attacking for the doors. It was surprisingly difficult to find a sound effect for sliding doors that weren't futuristic sounding however, I randomly stumbled across this sound and it worked very well. The sound was created by "Jamius" (Credit)
There are also several triggered sounds which play as a result of the player interacting with something or using a certain button. The flashlight sound is the most obvious, but there is also a sound effect for the fuse box door opening. There is also actually a separate sound effect for when the door is closed. There is also a near inaudible sound when the player picks up the fuse too. These all added quite greatly to the gameplay as silent interactions often feel very alien. I think I did quite a good job of choosing sounds which would fit well too and nothing feels out of place.
Lastly the horror sound effects, used for the jump scares primarily were chosen with a specific prejudice towards the traditional painfully loud sudden sound scream used too often for cheap scares. The final jump scare is semi guilty of using this kind of sound however, I believe the volume is low enough and the sound builds sort of gradually too.
The lighting of the level was quite difficult to get right. I went with a sort of green-blue light for the interior and the station. This was taken from the research I did into creating horror atmospheres and how horror scenes, movies and games are generally lit. I also used light to indicate where the player needed to go at the start of the level, with the red light shining on to the door where the player boards.
The flashlight colour and brightness was quite difficult to get right, I ended up with a sort of mid level brightness and a more yellow-orange colour to the light. Originally I went with a more white light for the flashlight however, it didn't light certain areas very nicely.
There aren't many bugs throughout the level however, there are some known issues. Most notably there are a few areas where collision boxes collide and it can sometimes be quite difficult to trigger certain things. For example when the player opens the fuse box door the trigger box is almost head on from the fuse box, whereas the trigger area for putting the fuse in is closer to the door that is opened. Originally the area for both of these was larger and overlapped a little bit but it ended up causing issues with the wrong things triggering and other things not working at all.