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[arremaster]

Playlist (25/01-31/01)

This week a group of me & my friends tackled Phasmophobia speedrunning, we did this because the game has became a little too easy for our group, since the horror tactics employed by the game do not affect us anymore (its not a scary game...) and we wanted to test ourselves to see how fast we can 100% a round. There have been some golden moments though, like the ghost constantly hunting us, which made completing the round quite a challenge but was very fun (in my opinion) and someone dying from the ghost never gets old and always causes our group to burst out in hysterics especially with how the corpse just goes full-on-ragdoll after death. IF there is one thing this game does correctly it is its ambience though, which its quality is absolutely incredible for a small indie game, the loud droning sounds you hear whilst your inside the house and the sound of the rain outside add to the fear you’re supposed to feel whilst searching for a ghost. Due to the different ghost types and behaviours seen in the game every round is not the same since each ghost type forces you to play the game differently, for example: A Shade is VERY shy in Multiplayer so its ideal that only one player from the team tries to get the evidence needed, this is also puts them at a bigger risk of being hunted by the Shade though or there is the Revenant which is the fastest ghost type in the game (able to move twice as fast than any other ghost type) even though I say my friends and I are immune to the scares in this game, there is still a lingering feeling of dread we get when we find our evidence and discover we’re dealing with a Revenant, because when it begins a hunt, the game is on, you either find a hiding spot immediately or someone is going to die.

In terms of music, I’ve been listening to a lot (like usual) but this week something special came out. A long awaited single from one of my favourite artists came out. On the 27th of January, Look at the Sky by Porter Robinson, was released and to say I’ve been addicted to this song is an understatement. Ever since I heard it during his Secret Sky set in 2020, I have been patiently waiting for it to be released fully and I have not been disappointed. The song, like most of the other tracks Porter released last year, carry a powerful message, this one being about a having a bright outlook on the future and being able to appreciate the small things in life, knowing you can make “something good” from it. 

Porter himself said:  “ I see “Look at the Sky” as a mantra to remind myself that there’s good reason for hope, and that people can meaningfully improve themselves and the world.”

Also with the release of this track, Porter surprised everyone by announcing his second album, Nurture, which is set to be released in April of this year. It has been a long wait for Nurture, since it has been 7 years since his debut album, Worlds, which critics didn’t rate too highly but is now a cult icon within the electronic music scene and the source of many artists inspiration. To say I'm excited for Nurture’s released is also another understatement, I honestly cannot wait but I know that Porter will give us at least one more single to sink our teeth into before the full album finally arrives.

[arremaster]

Recording Feedback

Im fortunate because I have a lot of stuff featured in my game that I can get feedback on, whether that be the music, the levels or the style / theme of the game most of this stuff can be judged by another person to get solid feedback in what areas I should improve upon. I can share my work with people from Discords I am in, because I might be able to get some unbiased opinions if I share it with people I’ve never talked with before, most people in the discords I’m in are around my age range so they can fit the target audience. I believe with the amount of feedback I will be able to get, I can create some new solid ideas and get some valid constructive criticism which will help to improve the game or change something. I will go about getting this feedback by using Google Forms, just like the last the time I worked on this project, I might ask the same questions like: “how does the car feel.” and create some entirely new ones as a lot has changed since last time.

[arremaster]

A Theoretical Problem

My game is just a singleplayer racing experience but if I was to upload this to a platform such as Steam, I could run into some issues with players not finding any replay value within in the game. A good way I could think of, of solving this would be to add online features such as Leaderboards where a players time will be documented against a leaderboard of friends or worldwide, this would encourage players to get the best times they possibly can to be able to show off to their friends or even the world, this would add a lot of competition and cause players to learn the game in and out to achieve the fastest times possible. Maybe I could even add like co-op head to head races where you and another players compete against each other in a non-contact race to beat the other (I chose no contact because the race I currently have in my game would have NO chance of fitting 2 racers at the same time that could physically affect one another)

[arremaster]

Weekly Reflection (Week 3)

At the end of this week, I came to the conclusion, I hate working from home, I much prefer working at college / an actual work environment rather than my bedroom, in my opinion there are just so many distractions at home whilst at college you are in one room surrounding by others doing the same thing as you. This was an issue I had in my FMP last year and something that I’m starting to feel now, but I won’t let it drag the quality of my work down.

In this past week, I have managed to finally make my timer in my game work as intended and also polished up a few more of the coding so its not all over the place and producing errors, but I also now have an issue with my second race I was gonna do, which now crashes Unreal every time I try to open it, but this may be due to how my Unreal at home is on .26 whilst the project itself is in .25 so I may need to downgrade to work on my second race but this would also mean having to redo all my new coding, as a result of this I have disconnected the button that opens the second race level as even pressing it in game will crash, so until I get it to work it’ll remain disconnected. The game is basically at a point where I could upload it onto itch or gamejolt (or similar platforms) this would allow me to get information and feedback from my peers or maybe even people from around the world, which could be really beneficial to my project. 

My next steps forward are gonna be to work on the main menu and finally incorporate a settings menu, because currently it just opens a menu of nothingness and you also can’t get off it. I aim to add more detail in the menus and not just have be a black screen with some white basic looking text. Now that I have access to photoshop at home I can get around to make some stylised buttons, images or text for my game in order to make the menu carry the same level of quality the rest of my game has.

[arremaster]

Test Presenting Something

Firstly, I got the image of my attract screen of my game and set that as the cover image so that is the image that viewers will see if they find my game on itch.io. I left the “Short description or tagline” area empty because I just did not know what to write and its optional anyways. I set the “Classification” of the project to Game, for obvious reasons. For the “Kind of project” I set that to downloadable because compared to the other options it seemed the most suitable. I set the “Release status” to In development, because I'm still working on adding stuff to this game / project. For “Pricing” this screenshot is wrong, I actually have it set to “No payments” because it’s just a project for college and I don’t want to earn any money from it, at least in the state it currently is.

For “Description” I added a short description of the project and what it is about and what inspired it, I also added some gameplay of the race within the game, so viewers could watch it and get an idea of what the game is like and finally I set “Genre” to Racing because that’s what the game is.

All together the final result looks like this.

https://virtualsafari.itch.io/tokyo-nights

[arremaster]

Test Making Something

One of the main things I wanted to add when I revisted this project was a timer that was actually visible on the HUD, since before a timer would time the race but it was hidden and wasn’t shown to the player. When I did eventually get it to show there was a slight problem, the timer would still go up even though the race was finished, meaning you couldn’t get an accurate time of your race. At first I panicked quite a lot because I didn’t know what I could do to fix it, but then when I calmed down and thought logically of the situation, the fix was VERY easy:

I have a custom event which is already restarting the level after some delay so I thought to just attach my “Stop Race Time” event (which I forgot I made) this means the timer now stops exactly when you cross the final checkpoint and finish the race.

I put the image in Photoshop to show what my leaderboard would look like, if I knew how to make one and for it it work properly

[arremaster]

Playlist (18/01-24/01)

Over this week, me & one of my good friend have been playing Stardew Valley, a cute game about owning a farm, this game has stolen my heart with how charming and relaxing it is. Although the main gameplay loop may get a bit repetitive, there are so many long term goals to work towards that you have motivation to put the time the dedication into completing, at least in my case. The music as well is marvellous, many times whilst we’ve been playing me and my friend have both commented on how good a particular track is, which is good because a good game should be accompanied by a good soundtrack in my opinion. My favourite part of this game is fishing, I don’t know why but fishing in games always grabs my attention, I’ve always wanted to go fishing in real life, but have never had the chance to, so to live one of my “dreams” in games feels amazing (I guess that what it is?) I’ve spent many hours in-game just wasting the days whilst I fish for rare and valuable fish, it is honestly great fun.

In terms of music, I’ve listened to a lot but I’ll talk about the most standout tracks I’ve been playing and they all come from ONE artist, Burial, especially his 2007 album, Untrue. Untrue aims to build upon the sound Burial created within his debut album by its more prominent use of pitch-shifted and time-stretched vocal samples. The sampling on this album is the work of magic, each track is able to convey this emotion of sadness and their atmosphere is incredible, for example in the second track of the album “Archangel” Burial uses a piece of music sampled from Metal Gear Solid, particularly from a scene where the main character jumps from a bridge with there arms spread like an angel (hence the name of the song) this mixed with the warm reese bass below the vocal samples which are about missing someone and not being alone, makes from a incredible first impression. In a 2017 Pitchfork article they called this album “the most important electronic album of the century so far” which I can honestly agree with, Burial not only created a second album which blew all of his previous works out of the water, but even managed to sort of create a new genre “Future Garage / Post Dubstep” which takes the influence of Garage Music and 2-Step. As a music producer myself, this album holds a place in my heart and has inspired my own attempts at making similar music to what is portrayed on Untrue. If there is any album I would recommend listening to, it would be this. Untrue by Burial

ALSO, I’ve started watching Gotham on Netflix, which if you don’t know takes place within the DC Universe and is set before Bruce Wayne becomes Batman and follows the journey of James Gordon through the Gotham City Police Department. I honestly did not think I would watch this series after the first episode but I was captivated and just needed to watch more, I guess its because I like Batman and the media around him. It’s a pretty good series in my opinion, the writing sometimes falls flat but there are so many diverse characters to accurately portray that this is understandable.

[arremaster]

Win & Lose States

My game doesn’t have a Lose State in all honesty, there is no AI for you to race against so you cannot “lose” a race, there is no time limit to how quick you have to beat the race, the only goal in my game is that you HAVE to complete the race eventually and you do but racing around a circuit and driving through every checkpoint for a set number of laps until you finally cross the finish line. If my game had AI to race against it would be easy to implement a failure state where you lost the race, but since it is just a time attack game and all you do is drive around a race and hope you get a better, you only lose state I could think of is if the player doesn’t beat their personal best, but this is not necessarily losing because you would still be completing the race to disappointing results.

[arremaster]

Tool List

(1) The main tool for this project will be Unreal Engine, this is due to the original project of Tokyo Nights being made with it, but also I just prefer this engine over Unity as I am more comfortable using it and having a more expansive knowledge.

(2) The second tool I will be using is FL Studio, this is what I use to make music for my games, with 4+ years of experience with the program, I think I can safely say that I am able to create tracks to a high standard. I will use this to create tracks that are fast paced and match with the theme and aesthetic of my project.

(3) My third tool I would’ve used is Photoshop if I had access to it (but COVID-19 kinda ruined that idea) so I will have to compromise and use some free alternatives online such as GIMP, Paint.net and Pixlr.

(4) I might have to learn how to use Blender for this project as I do not have to access to MAYA, so if I want to export some models this will be the way to do it, although this idea is not a 100% and is just a “maybe” right now

[arremaster]

Further Audience Research

INERTIAL DRIFT

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AqjhzJZQa5A

This game use of a cel-shaded vaporwave aesthetic really helps it to have its own identity, it also causes the game to be full of a mix of blues, pinks and purples which all combine to create this great gradient and contrast. This choice of colour is definitely kid friendly, as bright colours are attractive to children. 

The story in this game is very light-hearted and is presented in a visual novel, with each character having their own route and progression (this will alter the difficulty of the game due to the racers cars) All characters get along with each other and a lot of the dialogue is used to help the player learn about the different cars and how they handle and work.

The main theme of Inertial Drift is Drifting and learning how to master it, which when done by the players make them feel so cool and they swing their cars around the tight bends of a mountain pass or the night streets of the city.

HOTSHOT RACING

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

Hotshot Racing has a low polygon art style, so all the colours appear very flat and do not have many details, but as a result makes the game really colourful and saturated and also acts as a throwback to the 3d racers of the 90s

The characters featured within Hotshot Racing aren’t anything remarkable and do not interact with one another, but each have their own heart-warming backstory which gives you insight to their personalities.

The story within this game is almost non-existent, the main focus of this game is to just race and win all the grand prix, which in a way I like, short and to the point.

HORIZON CHASE TURBO

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oYw16hAeHA8

The sheer abundance of colour and style this game has to offer is mesmerising, it really does pay homage to the classic arcade racers that inspired such as Outrun and Top Gear. The artistic choices for this game give it so much character and life.

There isn’t any story but rather just progression, in every race you are tasked to earn points which will earn you more countries to race in and more cities, new cars and upgrades.

The music in this game is nothing to ignore as well, as the developer managed to get Barry Leitch who worked on classic games such as Top Gear, so this adds to that feeling of nostalgia.

[arremaster]

Playlist (11/01-17/01)

Recently, I picked up the rebooted Wolfenstein series for around 30 pounds, which was a great offer considering the full priced for the whole series is somewhere around 70 quid, I began with playing the first game in the rebooted series, The New Order. This has to be one of the most enjoyable FPS games I have played in a while, in most combat scenarios you have the option of going loud or quiet (although going loud is very much pushed due to weaponry you acquire in the game) In my opinion, the guns are really satisfying to use and sound like they should deal the amount of damage they do to the enemies, which added with the gore and dismemberment make for some intense action. This is all backed up by the soundtrack composed by Mick Gordon (this was prior to his breakout work on DOOM 2016) with his gritty, distorted industrial sound which works wonders with the dystopian setting of Wolfenstein, at points you can have heavy synths and loud guitar riffs blaring in your ears as you take out hoards of enemies and sometimes you can have droney atmospheric noises which builds suspension and tension. I have plans to move on to the sequels / prequel in due time but for now I’m having a break to not burn myself out on the series, but in my opinion The New Order IS A VERY GOOD GAME.

In terms of music, I have a very WIDE range when it comes to my taste, one second I can be listening to country and the next I can be listening to harsh noise (i do not advise listening to this if you value your hearing.), but recently I have been listening to a lot of electronic music, especially in the genre of Synthwave / Vaporwave, something about this style of music really resonates me and gives me the feeling of nostalgia, although I'm not sure what of, I think it has to with the collection of warm synths that gives off an 80s vibe as well as the retro sounds used within and the use of analog basses. One of the artists that pioneered this genre is HOME who's music holds a very special place in my heart due to just how much memories I can tie with it. The art associated with Synthwave / Vaporwave are a huge inspiration to me, the use of neon blues, pinks and yellows really captivates me. This style is what I am trying to use in this project (Tokyo Nights)

[arremaster]

Similar Works

https://supersystems.itch.io/driftstagealpha

Drift Stage is a project on itch which caught my eye due to its outstanding array of colours and overall aesthetic, I adore games and artwork which pay homage to homage to the culture and cars of the mid-late 80s and early 90s. I also think I was attracted to this project because the game has some similar themes to my game, with the use of a Japanese inspired style as well as the use of the tuner culture which would have been prevalent during the late 80s and early 90s. 

The way this page is presented on itch is very cool in my opinion. Firstly, the world record for the game is linked on the page, implying the game has some loyal and dedicated playerbase https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D1JbweW54wI&feature=emb_title (althought this WR is probably outdated by now.) The second link on the page is some gameplay of the game, it allows a viewer to get an idea of what the game is like and if it will be something they enjoy. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vjOp6wGaeTY&feature=emb_title

The final thing on the page is the controls, it is common for developers on itch to let the players know of the controls before they download the files and start playing. Overall the project is just a little under 90 MB on a Windows and Macintosh system, whilst the Linux version is 90 MB.

https://orand.itch.io/neon-highway

Neon Highway is a game that was made during the Hungarian 1GAM jam of 2020, the theme of this jam was “infinite” so the creator made an endless racer, similar to OutDrive ( https://store.steampowered.com/app/441870/OutDrive/ ) due to this game just being an infinite stretch of the road the creator said they focused more on giving the game a distinct atmosphere, which at a consequence came with less interesting gameplay.

In my opinion, the game looks REALLY good especially for being made under a time constraint a jam gives, so this is really impressive that game looks the way it does. It also nails the synthwave / retro aesthetic. To achieve this in the short time span the creator used a lot of assets, but they are not afraid to deny this and go so far as to the link the sources of where they find the assets.

I don’t think its a problem to use assets in games especially when under such a strict time limit of a game jam and that fact that they used assets does not take away from how gorgeous the game looks

The final Itch.io game I am looking at is, Initial Drift, a clear reference to the anime Initial D which the game is obviously inspired by.

https://voxel-fun.itch.io/initial-drift

https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=9&v=AOYwShbotis&feature=emb_title

The developer of this project, does not provide a lot of information on the itch.io page other than the features in the game and a couple of screenshots and videos from the game itself.

I think the implementation of a highscore leaderboard in an arcade game is a very idea as it encourages players to master the controls and learn the tracks in order to obtain the best score / position, which boosts replayability. I will also give this game another “point” for being a fairly faithful remake to what is seen in the anime, Initial D. 

[arremaster]

My Thoughts On The Multiverse

Due to how big space actually is and how many different galaxies there are in our universe I do believe that somewhere there is intelligent life similar to us, but to say that there are exact parallel universes to ours is a bit of a stretch in my opinion, I just cannot wrap my head around the plausible existence of the “Multiverse.” Even if there was evidence leading to there discovery, I think they’re something that should be left alone as we may never know what encounters would be like.

[arremaster]

Academic Sources

(1) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wZrjEuS24-A

This video is essay looking back at Need For Speed: Most Wanted (2005), a classic within the racing game genre and the most popular entry in the NFS series.

(2) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cc6eVUpNgOA

This video is an interview with the developer of NFS: Heat from Gamescom

(3) https://ukdiss.com/examples/research-on-game-mechanics-in-racing-games.php

This is someone’s thread on game mechanics for Racing Games

(4) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xz8RRxYwrhg

This video compares how cars perform in real life to their counterparts within the game “Crew 2″

(5) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UyseIBitxpg

This video talks about how our mind thinks differently when we are playing racing games

[arremaster]

Cultural Sources

(1) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Initial_D

Intial D is an anime focused on street racing and drifting, 

(2) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Fast_and_the_Furious:_Tokyo_Drift

The third instalment of the Fast and The Furious series is “Tokyo Drift” this is probably my favourite since it focuses on the tuner scene in Japan as well as the street racing that goes on within the city of Tokyo.

(3) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x7AMAoItJyQ / https://twitter.com/InertialDrift/status/1304909913836191747

This video is gameplay of “Inertial Drift” a game that I am taking inspiration from, also linked is a thread showing the games development throughout the years, which I find very interesting

(4) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Circuit_de_Monaco

The Monaco Circuit in F1 is probably the most unique out of all the other races, since this one takes place within the streets of Monte Carlo and La Condamine causing it to have narrow straights and tight corners.

(5) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=adu385DwO5I

This video is gameplay of “Need For Speed: Carbon” another game i’m taking inspiration due to its setting

[arremaster]

Target Audience

The Target Audience for my game will be primarily English speakers and gamers, due to the game having English text and I won’t be able to create translations due to time constraints. I think the main demographic will be children and young teenagers, since fast cars and racing games appeal to them, but that does not mean older gamers won’t find some enjoyment from my game. The main locations the game will be played in, is the US and the UK, as English is native for them, but any gamers that can understand / read English will be able to play the game without issue. The PEGI Rating for this game will be PEGI 3 as my game does not include any of the PEGI Warnings or explicit imagery and strong dialogue, also a game that I'm taking inspiration from, “Inertial Drift” is rated at PEGI 3, so it seems suitable for my game.

[arremaster]

Presenting Final Outcome

To present this game I will be using itch.io, mainly because I have already set up a page on the website for Tokyo Nights (since I was gonna upload it to the site a couple of months ago). I also might use YouTube to showcase new features that I add to the game as well as new races / levels.