peteryear2fmp

[peteryear2fmp]

Final evaluation

This is my final post about my evolution and conclusion of my project, I have learned a lot and look forward to putting my new skills to the test in future.  

[peteryear2fmp]

reflection on my game (Finished)

Well FMP done and honestly I am a proud of some parts and annoyed at others or lack of others. I made some great cinematics.

These took a while to make but I am happy with the result; however, I failed to make a core game mechanic so my game was more of a walking sim then anything else. I also wanted to decals such as blood and rusting staining the walls to show decay and the world getting worse and worse. 

What could have gone better?

I should have added a core game mechanic because I have become what hate A WALKING SIMULATOR. I should have added either a combat system for fighting the creature. Also I should have added decals and improved my indoor lighting. 

What went well? 

I loved my cinematics and feel like I learnt a lot I also made some lovely particle effects my favorite being the blood.  

I think I learnt a lot about Niagara and how to manipulate particles and their movement. 

I also made a nice hospital with the assets I had access to and I think with the addition of some NPCs looks better than it would. 

Before I added NPCs

Overall I am happy with this because I set out to make a nice map and some nice cinematics and I achieved that so I am happy, yes there are many improvements I could make but I am happy with what I did. I think if I was to do it again now I could make large improvements such as adding a core game mechanic but spending half the project on figuring out what I wanted to do was half the fun.  

[peteryear2fmp]

Silent Hill

One of the most famous Horror games off all time and I think this game inspired many horror games to follow. This game is over 20 years old and still everyone who plays horror games knows about it. 

There have been a couple of good re makes 

These are normally well detailed but lack the gripping fear and the new unique game mechanics which the first game brought in. One of the things which I loved about this game was that they didn’t use many really scary effects and stuff (mainly because they weren’t around back then) but instead had scary gameplay, environment, character models ect. All this meant that the game was scary by itself and didn’t need all that extra. 

[peteryear2fmp]

google sites (presentation)

https://sites.google.com/view/peterfear/home

^ is my portfolio which has work from project presented on it. 

I have now started looking for work and small jobs here and there but displaying like this on google sites I think looks clean and it is very simple and easy to understand. 

This is the first thing someone sees when they see my portfolio, right off the bat there are bright colors and a cool looking particle system which is captures their attention. 

There are 5 tabs which someone can click on and open on my website each containing information and cool content which keeps them interested. 

Each page as 3-4 pictures or videos with a description of what they. This is my preferred way of showing off my work because if they want to learn about it they can read it but if they just want to skim through my work they can watch the clips and see the pictures. I can’t show the whole website here because I would be here all day click the link a the top of the page if you want to see my portfolio. 

[peteryear2fmp]

how blood effects my Pegi rating

My game is currently at Pegi 16 mainly because there are scenes implying torture or abuse and “can” cause fear; however, blood can mean the game has to be bumped up to 18, depending on how gory the blood is.  

Now my blood is self made and I think pretty gory but has not got levels of gore which games like gears of war and other games like that. 

As you can see there are bones, organs and flesh also being ripped apart which is what makes this more of a 18. 

My game would still be a 16 because the blood is not gory and there is not enough to push it over the edge to a 18. 

[peteryear2fmp]

Blood!!

So I have added blood, the main reason is because the game needed something to show the player is injured or hurt. 

I made the texture in photoshop.

First thing I did was make a height map which will be the detail in my blood. I think for my first time I did a pretty good time. 

Then I converted it to a normal map for the height and depth in my blood. All this meant that my blood would have a good amount of detail and have 3D depth. 

[peteryear2fmp]

Missed weekly evaluation (double evaluation)

Well I forgot to do it last week so this will be a double week evaluation.

So I spent last week finishing and fixing the second cinematic. This is the finished product. 

I have decided not to use the other cinematic because I don’t like the way it looks at how it acts with the pulling motion not looking real.  I spend the rest of that week doing some lighting and level streaming things because there was an issue with enemy un-rendering and floor un-rendering from under the player. 

Week  2 

In the first couple of days of week 2 I was making a google forum for people to do after they played my game , the results are posted on the blog somewhere below. 

After that I took some of the feedback and fixed some glitches and a couple of small issues. 

The rest of the week was spent on my portfolio and making and adding to it. 

https://sites.google.com/view/peterfear/home

[peteryear2fmp]

Glitches I haven’t  talked about

So I always try to log problems I have while making a game; however, this time I had not many “big” issues but I have a lot of “small” problems. Now what I mean by that is that I had many issues such as: 

Lighting 

shadows

optimising (was having issues with low fps) 

level streaming

Cinematics

Animations 

AI paths

All this I felt were not worth posting about because I knew the issues and how to fix it; however, I have gone over my posts and seen that I have not posted enough on issues and how I fixed them or got round it. I can not change this now because I don’t want to fake issues but I will in future post about smaller issues. 

[peteryear2fmp]

what glitches were found

SO a couple of glitches were found when people played it but this was the main one. If the player was able to jump on to a desk or a bed and then jump again they could jump out of the render box which meant for about 10 frames nothing would be rendered.  When they get re-rendered this happens. 

FIX: 

To fix this I have removed the ability to jump because there is no need to jump in game. 

[peteryear2fmp]

feedback

Q1 

So my game had mixed feedback some people thought it was good and some thought the game could have been improved. I think I could have done much better but I think I over did it in some areas and lacked in others. 

Q2 

The feedback has been good on my Cinematics but a lot of people have said I should make them shorter. I think this is because it takes the player out of the game. 

Q3 

As you can see most of the feedback is either “make it shorter” or “ add sound” .

Q4

This is a stat I expected to see mainly because there are NO real game mechanics which I normally make the back bone of my games.  If I added a gun or something like a heart beat which gets faster the closer the creature gets closer. 

Q5 

As I just said I think I should add more gameplay mechanics in the future I think I will make a game round a game mechanic because it is easier and more enjoyable. 

Q6 

I like this feedback because I want to improve my particles and stuff like that. I think smaller systems such as a larger use of post process volumes could improve my game. 

Q7 

So 50/50 mainly I think this is because I can’t tell a story and that there was no core game mechanics, which I normally have in my games. 

Q8

All this feedback is good; however, I can’t really do anything massive with 3 days left. I will use this feedback for future games. 

NOTE: The reason the last couple of questions have less responses is because I added those final questions after people had completed the servery. 

[peteryear2fmp]

I fixed it ( the cinematic)

So I tried A LOT of things to fix this but in the end I kind of cheated. To fix it I have got the player blacking out when their “head” hits the floor and then in those 2 seconds of black I make the adjustments which are needed and the player does not notice a thing. I didn’t want this method because I wanted it to be one long scene but this was a last resort. 

[peteryear2fmp]

weekly evaluation

Well the main part of this week was week was making my second cinematic including making the map for it and the lighting. This week I was trying to make it like the gulag cinematic from Warzone but I just can’t get the strength in the pull it just doesn’t quite look right. 

So most of my week has been spent making both these cinematics and the jail its self. 

This is what my week has been spent I am quite happy with it but I am still thinking of remaking the dragging scene because I think I can do better. I also might mess with the lighting a bit but I am not sure. One of my targets for next week is fixing the second cinematic and maybe remaking the other one. 

[peteryear2fmp]

possible solution

Instead of using a animation I could have a object with a camera attached and enable physics and then lunch it and see if this achieves a slimier effect. Now I believe this will course a similar effect to falling but without the issue of moving the collision and looking janky. I will attempt this soon. 

NOTE! this method did not work because the capsule collision still wouldn’t move and almost made me ill because the camera just spins and spins and does NOT look natural.     

[peteryear2fmp]

death cinematic problem

This is in the second part of the cinematic where the creature throws the player into a cell; however, the issue is the throw animation on the player only makes the mesh move and not the capsule collision. This means the next animation the player does drags them back to the capsule which looks horrible. I am going to try find a way to fix this. 

[peteryear2fmp]

death cinematic pt1

So first I want to say that I got A LOT of influence from the gulag cinematic from warzone. 

I loved this cinematic and I thought that the dragging scene would go well with my game and feel and the bit where they through the player into a cell. 

Now I “like” my cinematic but I really struggled to get a pulling feeling like that movement you get when pulling a heavy object. I am thinking of making a possible remake of it but I am not sure if I have the time or the skills to recreate it. 

[peteryear2fmp]

Weekly evaluation

Al most all of my time this week was fixing small problems with lighting and optimizing my volumetric smoke. All this did was increase my frames but it took most of the week. I also experimented with post process which became a pain my ass. 

Now post process are used for many things but I used for lighting and a little bit of bloom and stuff like that.

Next week I want to start making a death scene, I love making cinematics so I want to make something like the gulag.

[peteryear2fmp]