samgibbsarcadegames

[samgibbsarcadegames]

Evaluation

Now I am going to talk about what went good,what went bad,what could of gone better and what I plan to do to change things next time.

What went well:

Some of the things I think went well in my project was that I got in some decent character models with good animations. I also like how I managed to do well with my painting on the models,Especially the face on my AI character.I also think that I managed to implement and add my sound effects in very well and make them match up with my animations.

What went bad:

One of the things that went bad were that I didn’t get as much of the game done as I would of liked. This is mainly down to poor time management and focusing on the modelling of the game too much.What also didn't go well was my landscape building which resulted in me having to use an asset. I think to improve this I will practice and watch some tutorials to try and get some tips on how to make it better.

What could of gone better:

Although I like how my models came out I couldn't use my final AI character due to the bottom of the kimono.It would of been nice to have had it in my game as I feel like it would of finished off my character better and made them fit the game more.I also could of managed my time better focusing equally on my models and my game.

What I will do better next time:

Next time I will equally split the time between my game and my art/model making. To help with this when making my game I need to make use of place holders as well.

[samgibbsarcadegames]

Adding my UI into my game.

First when I need to do is bring in my PNG of my Hud and add a paper 2d texture to it. I then need to create a widget.

We then need to add our image into our widget:

Here we can make sure it is in the right position and exactly to the right size of the screen:

Inside of the level blueprint all we need to do is create the widget and add to viewport when the game starts.

Now inside of the widget I need to make text boxes so that I can add my timer and round counter.

[samgibbsarcadegames]

Audio evaluation

What I thought went well:

There are a few things I thought went well and that was finding the right sound affects and music for my game. I kept the music related to the Japanese topic.I also think that I did well at putting them into the game properly so they work well with the actions and environment.

What could of gone better:

What I think could of gone better would be that it would of been nice to of created my own audio and footstep noises.Also from referring to my feedback I could of done with making m footsteps louder as well as adding some ambient noises into the background.If I have time I may go back and add some in and change them but currently they are not needed and would only be improvements.

Problems I overcame:

One problem I overcame was my footstep noise problem.I managed to research into it and attach the walking audio onto my animation instead of onto the walk input.I also had some troubles with how the audio links up but with using delays I have managed to make it sync up properly.

What I would do differently:

Next time I would like to create some own audio for my game and try to add in some more sounds so that it all flows together more. Im hoping with the help of my friends who do filming and music that I could learn and develop my skills in audio recording and production so that in the next game I can have my own.

[samgibbsarcadegames]

How to open a random level.

Now that I have 3 different levels we want it so that when we press play it randomly pick a level.Inside the level blueprint of our attract mode we need to add in this simple bit of code.

What this does is that when we click any key to start the game it will get a random number between 0 and 2 and depending on which number it is while decide which maps opens. For example if The int is 1 then it will open the day level.Here is a clip of it working:

[samgibbsarcadegames]

Working on feedback: Times of day

One of my feedback requests was to have different types of day.This is very easy to set up as all I need to do is duplicate my map and change the sky box.First I am going to make 2 more duplicates for my map.

Now I am going to open up the day map and change the sky box to be midday:

Before:

Now I can use the side panel to change it:

After:

I now can do the same to my other map to have a night time map:

[samgibbsarcadegames]

Game character sheets.

I have made some character sheets for my models.

Ninja (Traitor):

Emperor:

I also did 360 renders of my character models:

Ninja:

Emperor:

[samgibbsarcadegames]

Making my Ai take damage.

Here I am now going to set it so that when I attack the AI with my sword it plays out a death animation.The first thing I need to do is set a box collider around my sword.If you make the box collider a child of the katana it will then put it around the katana.

On the box collider we need to set it so that the collision is on overlapAll.

Here is a video that I used to help me do this all:

Once we have this set up we now need to go into our player character.We are going to have a boolean variable called slash.We are then going to set it so that when we attak it sets the boolean to true.

We also have it so once the animation is dont it sets it to false again.

Inside of the Ai blueprint we need it set up so that once the collider of our sword overlaps with the capsule collider on the AI. It casts to ThirdpersonCharacter to check if the Slash boolean is true.If the slash boolean is true it will delete the capsule component on the AI and make them play the death animation.

The reason we have the boolean is so that when the sword comes into contact with the AI it can only hurt them when you attack which stops the sword being able to kill the AI even if they just touch.

Here is a video of it working:

[samgibbsarcadegames]

Adding in my Ai character to the game.

Now I am going to be adding my AI character to the game. Due to issues with the kimono and so I can test and get the coding down I have decided to alter the AI design to wear trousers so that it can go into mixamo for the animations. So first I need to do the usual and put my AI into mixamo. Here it is inside of unreal.

Now the next stage is to have our AI wonder around.To do this I followed along to this video.

Now for my Ai I need to create first create an AI controller. TO do this we need to right click,Go to blueprints and drop it down to all calsses and search up AI controller.

Inside your AI conteroller we just need to leave it black. We dont need to add anything.The next thing we need to do is make our character blueprint.

Inside our character blueprint we need to put our AI model in the skeletal mesh option and also change the anim class to the animation blueprint of our AI. Now for the AI I have gone and create a blendspace and animation blueprint which are identical to the players.

Once we have done this we need to change the AI controller class to the controller we have created.

Inside of the viewport we also need to add in pawn sensing.This is so our pawn can see and hear.

Once we have done this we need to go inside the event graph and creat a custom event. Here I have called it move.To make a custom even just right click and go cu tom even.

Now before we add anything else for the AI to be able to move around we need to add a nav mesh bounds volume to our map.What this basically does is shows and restricts where the AI can move.This means the AI cant move out of the Nav mesh so they cant wonder off too far.

Once we have the nav mesh set up we need to set up the code.If we come off of our custom event we need to get an AI move to. On this we can set the pawn to ‘self’ as we are coding inside of the AI itself. We then need to set the destinations to be a random location within a certain radius of the AI.

Once we have this set up all we have to do is at the begin play we need to call the custom event.

Now we have this set up when we press play our AI should walk to a random location.

Here you can see it is working but the AI is moving extremely fast.All you have to do is turn down the walk speed of the AI in the side pannel.

Now that he walks slower the only thing we need to do is make it so that once he has walked to his position that he then finds a new position to walk to.To do this drag out of the on success from Ai move to and just call the custom event. 

Here you can see it working.

[samgibbsarcadegames]

Working on my player character.

Now another form of feedback I got was that the animations could be better. So I went into Mixamo and got some better animations for my character.Ill add them in like I added in my last once and will show you a comparison.

Before:

After:

Differences:

So I changed the running and idle animation. I changed the idle animation to be more fitting with the character as it is more of  ninja pose. I also changed the running. I needed to extend the arm space so that the sword didn't go through the character. I kept the attack animation the same but changed the arm space so it didn't phase through the character as much (it still slightly does but after 10 attempts of different arm space values and different slash values I have deemed it impossible to solve for now.I also used the same animation but mirror because in the original animation you attack with your right arm but due to the idle animation using the left hand to hold the weapon I mirror the animation so that it attacked with the left hand.

[samgibbsarcadegames]

Adding A sword to my character

Here I am now going to be adding a sword to my character.The first thing I need to do is find a katana model.I would of loved to of modelled the katana myself but due to time running out I now need to get a free to use one from online. I have managed to find one which will work for what I want. First I need to download it and put the OBJ into Unreal.

Once we have it inside of unreal we now need to add it to our character. Now one way we can do that is putting it in a socket. Now on the skeletal mesh of the character we can go in and add a socket.

insert print screen

Once we have created the socket because we want it to seem like he is holding the sword we can move it to the palm of his hand.

Now we have this set up we can go to our thirdpersoncharacterblueprint and add the katana into the scene.

Now we have it inside of our character view port we can now attack it to our socket.On the right hand side there should be a bit that says socket. We need to set it to sword which is what I named my socket.

Once you have done this the character should be holding the sword.

[samgibbsarcadegames]

Fixing my landscape issue

After looking through my feed back one of the clear things was that parts of my landscape weren’t right.Here are a few examples of what was wrong.

As you can see as the land isn’t flat some parts of the buildings are floating and others are phasing through the grass. First lets fix the floating bits.To do this I am going to use the sculpt tool in unreal to rise up the landscape.

This is what it looks like afterwards.Now to move on to fix the other problem.To fix it I am just going to flatten the landscape back down under the model.

[samgibbsarcadegames]

Play testing

Now for my questionnaire I Let people play and wonder around my game to see the modelling and landscape work.I tried to make my forum mainly to get feedback on my modelling and design work due to the game not being finished. Unfortunately most people only cared about the game and that it wasn’t fully playable yet.This meant when asking for improvement most people said to add game play.This means maybe my forum could of been better structured and instead of them being allowed to move around the game I could of added game clips and screenshots to try and keep there focus on the design aspects and not the game aspects.

My results and reflecting on them:

Here I have been able to get an opinion on what people think to the idea and concept of my game. They all seemed to like it meaning that the concept is liked by the audience meaning that they are likely to play the game.

Here I manged to get feed back on the looks of my game which was my main focus at this time. Now I know that people like the visuals of my game but there is room for improvement. It was pointed out to me during the play testing thatt due to the landscape being uneven that some of my buildings either had floating corners or had phased into the grass.This means I need to go in and clean up my landscape to make sure things look right.

Here is one example of how some people started to pull away from the focus of the question.Apart from that I got some good feedback on this one.The way I could work on this is that for example the response that talks about having different times of day.Due to me having a round based game each round could be set at different times of day to give it some variation.

Here I got one really good bit of feedback and that is where I asked what audio I should add and one person said footsteps. Now actually currently in my game I do have a footstep sound which indicates that the sound inst loud enough and noticeable.

Here was some more feedback on my model design.Now due to this being my first time properly sculpting my own characters for my game with Mud box this feedback was very useful so that I can develop my skills and designs of characters.

Evaluation of how the play testing went:

Overall the play testing went Ok. I think to improve next time I need to change how I word my survey and also try to get more response as I only got 5 responses. 

[samgibbsarcadegames]

Adding my attract mode.

Putting my attract mode into my game.The first thing I had to do was inside of my photoshop document I needed to Takee out all of the delays of my animation.I need to do this so that I can add the delay in unreal.The next thing I need to do is export out all my frames as PNGs the best way to do this is to render a video and have iot set to photoshop image sequence and set the format to png. This makes a png of every frame in my animation.

Once this is done I need to take them all into unreal and with the same as Our sprite work. I need to apply the 2d paper texture,Extract the sprite and make the flip book.

Inside the flip book I can then add in my delays.

Now all we need to do is make a new level for the animation.Add the flipbook into the scene with our camera.

Now all we need to do is go into the level blueprint and add in a bit of code. First when we begin play we want out player to possess the camera instead of spawning in a character.We now need a delay the length of the animation before it opens the next level which displays the flashing menu.

What we also need to do and this is the final thing is that we need it so the animation starts on the first frame when we begin play.To do this we need to add a blueprint to our flipbook and put this code in it.

This is what it looks like when you play the game:

[samgibbsarcadegames]

Where I hoped I would be at this stage of the project

Now during this stage of the project I hoped I would of had these things done:

A landscape

A modeled character

Animation for my character

A modeled AI

Audio

AI walking around in my game

My attract mode animation in game

My attract mode menu in game

A working HUD

(All the stuff in bold is what I currently have done)

Now I think the main reason I haven’t gotten as much into my game as I had hoped is because Iv’e spent so much time on the modelling and painting of the characters. I also spent a lot of time on the audio and landscape and haven’t been able to focus on the coding of the game. This is mainly because I thought that once I had everything modeled it meant there was just the coding to do so my focus was all in one place. Unfortunately all the coding took longer than expected.

Hopefully adding in the attract mode and HUD will be doable today as I have it almost ready to put in I just need to export it over to my game.The animation will take the longest to do as I need to make a flip book of all the frames and there are 50 frames and I need to export them out individually to create a flip book.

Why I don’t think I will get the AI walking in my game:

I have had a lot of problems with creating my AI the first problem was creating the clothing for the character. Once I did manage to successfully create my AI rigging it has been absolutely impossible. Due to it being a Kimono it doesn't go into Mixamo and when I rig it inside of maya it goes fine until you decide to add a walk animation to it. For testing of the game logic I might just use a basic plain model just so I can get the walking around mechanic done. I am however going to work on my animation and HUD first.

[samgibbsarcadegames]

How early development went.

While in early development of my game a lot of things went right and a lot of things went wrong.

What went right: The first thing to of gone right was the development of the ninja character. It came out the way I wanted it to come out and all the animations are fully working.Although I couldn’t get a jump animation working I didn't need it for my game so I decided not to waste my time into getting it working and to work on other key elements of the game.

I am happy with how the animations have come along and that thy are working.

Another thing that went right was re texturing my temple models so I had different colour models which mad them a bit more diverse and also made them stand out more.

What has gone wrong during the development:

quite a few things have gone wrong during early development. The first thing was the building of the landscapes now unfortunately I am not good at all at creating landscapes and have had many failed attempts.

The problem I have is that I am not very good at creating an even and good looking flat plane of grass as well as good realistic mountains. I would of needed the mountains for this to restrict he players movement as well as to make it look better.

How I overcame this problem:

To over come this problem I managed to find an asset pack which was free to use that had mountain maps in it.

Event though there are mountains I didn't want them to be so far apart. My plan was to go in and put a wall/ fence around the player area to restrict the players movement but I have not had the time to do it.

[samgibbsarcadegames]

Developing my AI model.

Now that I have the bottom of my kimono modelled I can now put it into mudbox to sculpt onto it just to give it some texture,Add the last details and paint it.

Once I had dragged it into mud box I added some texture onto the bottom of the kimono. I did this by sculpting onto it and using the smooth tool to smoothen it down.

Once I had this done I then went and added a waist band. To do this I used a sphere which I had squished down and placed it in the waist area.I then sculpted some texture onto it to make it blend in more.

Once that was done I went and did the painting for my AI. I used projection painting for the face,hair and skin.I then gave the clothes a basic black/ grey colour.

Then finally I painted the waist band.Originally I had painted it red but after looking at it I thought it was too similar to the ninja and went for a more yellow/old colour instead.

[samgibbsarcadegames]

Game research

Here I am going to be looking t 2 games. One of them is a small very arcade styled pixel art game called double me. In the game your clone is out walking about. You have to find them and kill them. You are given a gun to shoot them with and make sure to keep your distance. If the target gets close to you they kill you an the game ends.Also be prepared to face the consequences if you kill the wrong person. If you kill the wrong person the game ends.Here is a link tot he website:

https://wolderado.itch.io/doubleme

The HUD is very simple It displays your target and tells you what button to click. I like how simple it is and how it doesn’t.

Here is the death screen which is nice and simplistic. I like how simplistic it is and how it isn't over complicated.

The Ship:

The ships is a game very similar to this.Your on a ship where you have to find and hunt down your target and kill them within a certain time limit. The ship has a lot more to the game. Your character has basic needs such as sleep and eating. Also when the game starts you need to go around and collect everyone names. If you dont collect the names then when the target appears you dont know what they look like.It will look like this:

If you have got there name then the target image in the background looks like this:

Here is a clip of the game:

In the game you gain money aka points if you get your kill and the amount of points you get are depending on what weapon you use.Unlike the other game you dont get a penalty for killing the wrong person. But if you are caught with a weapon then you get put in jail and have all your weapons taken away.