BA2b - (Project 2) Week 1 Summary

BA2b Project 2 Brief - Collaborative Game Production

"This project is a microcosm of industry production. Small teams will work together to produce the concept art, assets, environments, and game design required to realise a playable game prototype. To continue the development of employability skills, each team will engage with production pipelines and processes covered to date, collectively work toward a common goal.

You will organise into teams and claim responsibility for roles/tasks within the production pipeline, as demanded by project. You will work to the theme: ‘One-Button Game’. All games must be created using UE4."

My Team Charlotte Lawrence (Myself) - Concept Artist, Texture Artist Johan Lagesson -Programmer/Blueprint Editor, 3D Artist, Level Designer

Natalia Rojek - Concept Artist, Texture Artist

Jack Edwards - 3D Artist, Particle Maker

William (Billy) Machin - Concept Artist, Texture Artist

Thoughts:

I'm pretty happy with who's in my team and couldn't of asked for more awesome people to be in a group with! Me, Johan and Billy live together anyway so communication is no issue there. I am also great friends with Nat and Jack, working very well with them in the past when we were taking part in the course Game Jam (with Johan). Not only that, but I believe we all have skills that compliment each other in different areas which is great!

Production Pipeline and Scheduling we should take into account when making our game:

Idea Generation

One Button Mechanics & Game Design Ideas:

- Endless Runner-esque gameplay / but with an end

- Switching between objects the player can use for a specific purpose

- Obstacle/Running game with a beggining and end (Timed?)

- The 'one-button' would be used to jump and avoid obstacles

- The player uses different objects in each level for a particular environment

(ex. underwater scene = fishing net, mines = flashlight e.t.c)

Jack originally came up with two game ideas, one which would centre around a haunted mansion and another focusing on a mine cart adventure. There was a lot of discussion within the group as to which theme we would choose. Jack quite liked us to create a game around different horror tropes, whereas my idea of incorporating some sort of Egyptian theme into the movie set idea spawned a discussion centred around adventure.

All of us quite liked the second mine cart idea, however maybe slightly too much... as our discussions seemed to always sway either in favour of the mine cart in a particular level or not. In the end we decided to scrap this idea because we all felt it was rather limiting and became too much of an issue when we were talking about its relevance and pacing in the game.

After all our discussions and meet ups, we finally were able to settle on the idea of the player being an actor in a movie set environment. This allowed the freedom of different movie genres and themes, however in the end we decided to settle on one theme which was fantasy. Because we only have 6 weeks on this project, it would be incredibly difficult to achieve a high level of polish if we didn't reuse assets. In addition to this, creating assets and concepting them would require three times the amount of work if we had another couple of themes to iterate. (If we did have a long time to make this game though, we decided that our other themes would be Egyptian and Pirates.)

Group Conclusions for our Main Game Idea:

- Overwatch/Firewatch/League of Legends Art Style (Painterly) - The game revolves around an actor/stuntman on a movie set

- The movies/levels will be fantasy/medieval themed

- The player is an actor - shown in first person with hands and a prop visible

- The one button mechanic (space bar) will be using a shield to block arrows/spells from enemies

- Since the actor is the one playing the role as a hero within the movie, the player will have no control over his/her movement within the game

- However, the player can use the mouse to look around the environment while the actor is moving

- The player will have 3 lives which will be shown as different 'Takes' (ex. 'take 1, take 2, take 3')

- The main enemies for the first map will be goblins invading a rural town, located within a valley

- We will be creating 3 levels/maps, which would be placed within a level select screen

- The level select screen will include 'movie posters' for each one, showing the content of the particular movie/level

Introducing the Game to the Player after a Level has been selected

- The director of the movie/level will step in and address the player/actor with how they're meant to be feeling and what role they're taking on; as well as a small backstory.

- The director will also then hand the actor a prop which will be used throughout the level, as well as explaining the game mechanic. (ex. Using a shield to defend yourself against the goblin attacks)

- We haven't entirely discussed where the 'one-button' (space bar) for the mechanic will be mentioned/shown yet, however it would probably flash on the screen before the level starts properly.

- There will also be a short countdown (around 5 seconds) after the game has been explained, where the director will shout 'ACTION', and then the level begins.

Jack created this image which describes our Game Concept Well

My Concept Art and Process:

Sign post:

Strengths:

- Art Style: The aesthetics of my concept fit well with our desire to create a game that's very painterly and similar to League of Legends/ World of Warcraft. Weaknesses / Improvements:

- Not enough Iteration: Because I wanted to get stuck into designing something pretty and determining an art style, I didn't think about iteration as much. Concept art is all about iteration and design choices, and I feel like I should be doing more for each asset design. Even though I did a few 'sign' shapes, there could've been more iteration on the actual shape.

Stalls:

Strengths

Art Style: The bright colours and aesthetic look playful and very much match the hand painted style we want for our game. Weaknesses / Improvements:

- Not enough Iteration: Exactly like the sign post, this week I was focused on creating concepts which would fit the art style we wanted to go for. Next week I will be creating a lot more iterative pieces to show my thought process more, however not too in depth as we need to create these concepts quickly for our 3D modeller (Jack).

- Perspective: Something I still struggle with is perspective and I plan on improving these fundamental skills during the summer as it's not something I can learn within a short space of time. The buildings don't look terribly wonky but they do in places which I will need to become more weary of in the future when concepting.

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