Slip'n

Techniques Learned

In my game, I have included different features that make the game fit the genre that I have based it off. For example, I have created AI with 3 different collision circles. There is a large collision box which triggers the AI to follow if the player is running inside of it. A much smaller sphere collision box to test to see if the player is walking inside of it and a smaller sphere collision to trigger the jump scare. I have also added a feature where if the player touched a object (the bins around the map), then the AI in that radius will come and inspect it. If the AI finds the player on that inspection run then it will chase after the player. To make the game more “terrifying”, I have also make most of the corners tight so if you are trying to escape from a AI, you might encounter another one or get caught. I had to take information from a range of different games to get a Idea on how they work and what makes them scary. In my opinion, I think i could have made my game a bit differently to fit this however for my main design and the fact im using voxels I think I did a good job. To create a horror feel for the game, I have made the lights turn on once the generator turns on depending on the distance they are from the player. I have also included a start menu which allows the player to either play the game, play the tutorial world or leave the game. It also includes a strange video playback of the real game to give the player an idea on what the game is like. I have also included a npc that the player can talk to…. A strange animation.  I wanted the game to be funny but also horror-like so I made the npc do the macarena.

The purpose of my game, Theme and concept

When creating my game, I had to decide what modelling software I will be using. At the moment of creating my game, I feel like I did not fully understand Maya, so I created my project using magicaVoxel. I also know a lot more when it comes to voxel’s so this did help me alot with my project. However, I think it would have been better if I did maya so I could improve on my 3D modelling skills instead of using something I already know. When making the design plan of my game, it was going to be a parkour game where the player must complete levels but cannot stand still. If the player stands still then they would fall through the ice. The name for the game was called SlipN as you had to slide around to get placed. This changed a lot when I was thinking of ideas that I could make the game better. This idea changed when I needed to make the game based on the theme which was theme. (thx chris). To fit this, I decided to make the player slide around stalls in the fog whilst snowing. To also add to the game, I decided to add AI to make the player have to navigate around them. Then I decided to create a level for this. This is when the sliding ice idea changed. However, there is still a sliding feature in my game when the player presses ctrl when running. As the game was starting to turn out like a horror game, I thought it needed a torch and and generator just to finish this off. This idea was from slenderman, however the torch power does not decrease when you look at the AI. 

Outcome of the project/game

Overall, I think the game definitely didn't fit my first ideas, however I do like how it has turned out to be. For that reason, this has met my expectations for the game, however I do wish I spent more time on the 3D modelling aspect of the game and not entirely code.

Conclusion

Today I ran some playtesting to gather information about my game and what people like/dislike about it. Here is the results :

Q1

For my first question, I wanted to ask my play testers if they thought the game was funny at all? This is due to the fact that funny games normally are more fun to play, so getting this information is quite essential.

By looking at the results, we can see that 4 people gave high scores for how funny the game was and one person gave a score of 1. During my playtest, I recorded my screen to get a better understanding of what scores they put down. For the person who scored one, I noticed that they where struggling to play the game. Due to this, I will make my game easier to play and remove features that are not needed.

Q2

For the next question, I asked if the game was scary to get a better understanding if my PEGI rating would need to be changed and if it fits the genre I have put this in.

By these results, I can gather that the game for most people is not that scary, however the range of the results is quite high. This means that some people might find it scary and some may not. I noticed my play testers where not using headphones during this so the results may of been higher.

Q3

For the next question, I made the play testers able to write whatever they liked. The question was "What is your opinion on the game". This is to get a good idea of what is wrong with the game or what is good about the game.

As you can see here, 3 people said it was okay and the other 2 had issues with the game. I believe both issues link with each other due to the fact that the torch in the game is a bit dim, so I will be increasing the brightness of the torch to fit the players needs.

Q4

For the next question, I asked what they disliked the most about the game. This is to get a better understanding on what they want and do not want in a game. Here are the results:

By looking at the first answer, I can tell that the controls are a bit hard to understand. To fix this, I will make the controls easier to use by describing them better and making it easier to use the different features in the game. For the 2nd answer, I don't have any plans on adding jumping as there is no need for jumping. The rest of the answers are based on the darkness that I have already changed.

Q5

For the next question, I try and get a idea on what the players opinions are about the movement controls.

From these results, I can see that most people like the movement controls and some are unsure about the controls.

Q6

For the next question, I gave them a option between a 1-10 score or a written score. 3 people did a 1-10 score and 2 people did a short answer. Both where about the design of the game.

By these results, I can say that my game is not lacking in graphics and just needs work on the coding part of it.

Q7 and Q8

The next 2 questions are about the AI and NPC I have created for the player to interact with or to be killed by.

Here is the results from the questions. As you can see, the players enjoy the AI more than the NPC. However, if you look at the mean scores for these two then both are the same. Both of these results tell me what the player wants to have in a game and what they do not want in a game.

Q9

For the next question I want to get a Idea on what the players opinions are about the camera pan and the teaching bit of it once you start the game.

This tells me that this was very helpful and therefore should be kept in the game as it helps the player know what to do.

Q10

For the final question, I asked the players if they had any other comments to do with the game, here are the results:

You can see here that apart from 1, everyone thought it was fine. It also means that the questions I have made in the form answer all of their questions. The 1st answer I know about. The only reason you can edit it is because I used a widget called "multi line editable text" which allows the player to edit the text. To fix this, I will change it to multi line text instead of the editable version.

Today I will be working on height maps and how to create them. For starters, you will first need to find yourself noise in a png e.g. perlin noise that you can then use for your terrain. You can get this from here :

When that png is exported and saved on your computer, open up photoshop and use these settings :

This will make it perfect for height maps to be imported into. The most important details/settings here is the grayscale and the 16 bit. Not having it on grayscale will ruin everything. Once all of that is put into yours, then press the create button. Once that is created, drag and drop your noise png into photoshop and drag it WITHOUT SHIFT to fit the entire square.

It should look like this. Once that is done, go to file at the top left and click quick save as PNG under export. Once you have saved that, head into unreal.

Next, click the landscape mode via the drop down at the top left of your screen :

Then press Fill World and Create

Then go to the manage tab and press the import tool.

Then press the checkmark next to "heightmap file" and press the 3 dots and select your noise file output from photoshop. Next press import and your done.

For my next project in unreal engine 5, I will be creating a high quality game using nanite and landscapes. It will include alot of different features like height maps, normal maps, noise maps e.t.c. Today we will be working on terrain in ue5.

1st Step

For starters, you will need a area for the terrain to be put on, it can't just be put on nothing. It must be on a specific surface for it to work. To get this surface, you first need to change from the select mode at the top left of ue5 to the Landscape mode.

2nd one down from the list.

You should see something like this:

Next, in the landscape tab on the left hand side of the screen, at the bottom of it all there is a button called create. Press the create button:

Once it has loaded, it should look something like this:

If it looks like this, then its correct so far. Next is the terrain tools. At the top of the Landscape tab, there is a large range of different tools you can use such as the sculpt tool and the smooth tool. You can interact/pick any of them by just clicking on them.

You can also change different parameters of the tool underneath such as the strength, size and falloff. The strength is just how fast or harsh the tool will be. The falloff is how much of the strength will fade around the edges of the area and the brush size is just the size of the area.

Sculpt Tool

The sculpt tool is one of the most important tools in the landscaping area as it allows the terrain height to be increased and decreased.

Smooth Tool

The smooth tool smooths out the terrain you have created. For example if you just made terrain like this:

And your looking at it going "I want to make this smoother and not look soo messy" then just use the tool and go over it all and this is what it would look like:

Nice and smooth. Great for terrain around your level.

Flatten

The flatten tool just flattens the terrain to the height that you click at. Used to make a plateau.

Ramp

Used to create ramps.....

First you drag and drop where you want the ramp to go.

Then click the "Add Ramp button"

And there you go, you have made a ramp for whatever you would like to use it for. You could use it for cars or just for walking on.

For my game, I had to take inspiration for the graphics that I will be basing it off. So for that reason, here is a list of games I have taken inspiration for for graphics.

Trove

Trove is a open world RPG world based of voxels. The terrain in trove is make up of large voxels however the characters are made out of smaller voxels. The large voxels for the terrain makes the game look different compared to other voxel games.

The Touryst

The tourist is a game where you do different activities and complete challenges. The voxels are smaller and therefore make the game seem more realistic and better looking than trove. I really like the art style this game has and therefore I have kept this type of art style in my game.

Minecraft

Minecraft is a bit different, each cube is a voxel made out of voxels. To explain this better, each cube has 16x16 voxels inside of it. This feature of the game does not fit my game that well so I will not be including it in my game.

Lego worlds

For my game I took inspiration from a large range of different games. This is to get a good idea of what people like about the games and what I should include in my game due to that. Here is a short list of games I took inspiration from and a description of what part of my game is from these games.

Slenderman

Most of the idea of my game is based off Slenderman. A monster is following you and you must collect/complete puzzles or items to escape. There is also a generator in Slenderman which is also present in the game I have made. However, the AI in my game does not teleport around you and there is more than one in my game. You can also avoid them relatively easily in my game as well compared to Slenderman. There is also a torch in my game that does run out of battery like Slenderman.

Teardown

My game takes a lot of visual inspiration from this game. My entire game is made from voxels using a program called MagicaVoxel. This gives my game a unique feel and look which I like. Teardown also has amazing graphics with good lighting, which looks very similar to my current game. Once the lights are on in my game, the reflections and lights looks similar/identical to teardown.

Doki Doki Literature Club

My AI character takes inspiration from this show, just look at him. This game is also horror so it relates to my game a bit. The game also deletes the game files to remove characters, which is what the pickups do once you pick them up (delete actor node). There is also a NPC which is a security guard that wont attack you but you can talk to them in my game. This is slightly similar with Doki Doki as there is one character that stands out in Doki Doki that eventually kills everyone. The NPC at the end of the speech will call over the other security guards to come after you. You can talk to npcs...

Escape the backrooms

The backrooms greatly inspired the stall area of my game as the corners and the atmosphere in the stall area links greatly with the backrooms. There are also monsters walking around in the backrooms which is also present in my game in the stall area. They will chase after you once they see you.

There are multiple versions of the backrooms over all platforms due to the simplicity of the game as well as how stupid you can get it. Like this Roblox game (Shrek in the backrooms):

Budget cuts

This game has wandering AI that go around the map that you have to avoid whilst still completing objectives. This links with my AI as the AI in this game only attack you if you get close to them or get in their line of sight.

For the AI in my game, I had to create some parameters that it must follow or ideas for it to do. For my final AI, I have made it so that it inspects bins if you interact with it or touch them and will come after you only if you are in eye sight. The AI also patrols around the map within a specific radius. Here is the code I have made for the hear noise

Noise - Bin interaction

For starters the custom event is called from the bin script once the player has touch the bin. Then it goes into a state machine that just tests if this is allowed to run or if something is blocking it. Then it goes into 2 set variable nodes that tell the rest of the game that the AI is going to the bin. It increases the walk speed after that like if it was chasing you. Then the "AI MoveTo" node gets the location of the bin and moves the AI to that position. The location of the bin is the blue line going into the AI MoveTo node. It is just a object variable of the specific bin that was interacted with which is then read by the move to node and translated to a location. Then once the move to is a success, it waits 3 seconds and sets the variable to false.

Patrol

Here is the blueprint for my patrol script:

To make this easier, I will be cutting out the delays and branches. They are only used to keep the signal going instead of disappearing if it went into a empty false/true output.

Thats better. So for starters. the location of the security guard is gathered and a random point is gathered within a radius of 1000 around the security guard using the "GetRandomPointInNavigationRadius" node. The vector variable is then outputted into the AI Move To node to move the AI to that location. Once that is finished, it calls the patrol function that starts from the beginning. During the patrol, it also sets the walk speed to 100 instead of 800 when it is chasing after to. This makes it feel more realistic and also makes the animations fit better.

Found Player

Here is the nodes I have created to figure out if:

If the AI is able to see the player

Is it the player the AI is looking at.

For starters, a event tick is inserted into this collapsed node which then goes into a branch. The branch is dependent on the torch battery.

So if the torch battery is 0 then the AI will skip the trace and instantly run towards the player.

Starting from the bottom left, I have created a variable called "Sight Variance" which is used to make a slight spray on the trace, like with a gun. The variable is inverted and put into a "random float in range" node. The min is the inverted variable and the max is the normal variable. The random float is then put into a addition node for X,Y and Z and put into the float inputs on the line trance. The x y and z which goes to the addition node to add with the random float is the actor location. I made the variation in the line trace due to the fact that the player could hide behind a pole and even though their torch and shoulders are showing, the AI cant see the player. Creating variation allows the trace to go around the pole and see the player. The trace then goes into a cast node to test to see if the AI is tracing to the right object and then it sets a variable called "Seen Player" to true.

I will need to create some code that will allow the player to pickup the hotdog. So, here is what I have created :

This is the entire code which includes the rotating "press e" sign that points at the player as well as actually adding on the score. For starters, the player first triggers the overlap and starts the blueprint off at the bottom left :

Originally I used the "other actor" and put it into a cast node instead of a actor has tag. I changed this however due to the cast node being intensive and resource heavy, so I added a tag to the player and used that method of testing for the player. If the player collides with the object then it will set the variable to true and if it leaves the collision then it will set it to false.

Next is the rotating "press e" sign to indicate that the object can be picked up. For starters, I made a design in Asprite for the floating sign and then imported it into unreal. Then I created a Paper Sprite and put the image onto it.

At the start, it is just testing to see if the player is able to press E. If the player is not able to press E, then it will go to false which sets the visibility to false. If the player can press E then it will set the visibility to true and start the rotating nodes.

For rotating the Paper Sprite, I have gathered the location of the player character and the Sprite. Then I used a node called "Find look at rotation" that finds the global rotation from the sprite to the player. Then I broke the Rotator and rotated the sprite -90' due to the fact that it was sideways. This is then made into a rotator, excluding the Y axis, and put into the "set world rotation" node.

Finally, the actual set bit of it.

(using a boolean variable and changing it)

(using a Int variable and changing it)

Today I have been working on a hotdog pickup for my game. This will be used as a quest for the player from a security guard for the player to be given a fuse. Here are the models of the hotdog I have made :

1st version

2nd version

It is quite easy to create 3d lines inside of MAYA. For starters, you first need to draw a line using the pencil/pen tool. This can be found under the Curves and surfaces tab :

It is the 4th across from the left.

Next, you just need to draw a line anywhere on the project.

Then to make it 3D, go into the poly modeling tab at the top and press the spring button to the left of the TEXT button and right of the STAR shaped button whilst having your line selected.

And there you go, you have created a 3D line. You can edit the properties of this line via the popup on your screen when you make the 3D line like what is shown below

Importing fonts for MAYA is alot more simple than unreal. When downloading fonts from dafont.com, you only need to open the tff file and press the install button. Very easy, very simple. Here is my step by step process I did to create 3D text in MAYA :

Step 1

The first thing I did was pick a font I would like to use on my MAYA project on

Step 2

I downloaded my chosen font and extracted the file. Then I extracted it and opened the .ttf file inside. There is a button at the top left called install, press that and then it will be installed.

Step 3

Open up MAYA and under the poly modeling tab you will find the 3D Text option, click that.

This will create 3D text on your project.

Step 4

Once you have clicked the text button, a attribute box will show up like this :

Here you can change the font type to the one you want. Click the drop down that says "Lucida Sans Unicode" - the default font for the project. You will get a large range of different fonts you can use, but you only want your one. You will find it will be difficult and long to search through that entire list for your font. So simply just start typing the name of the font in that drop down and it will auto select the font.

For my game, I will be using the keyframe editor to create animations for my game. This will allow me to make the game more interactive and more enjoyable to play. Here is a step by step process I made to create my first animation.

Step 1

For starters, I will be using a cube as it is easier to animate for my first time.

Next, I changed the workspace to animation via the top right of the screen in the drop down. This changes the layout of MAYA and brings up the animation windows to fit the most user needs. Here is the new view :

Step 2

I added a keyframe to specify a starting position on the timeline for the cube. I made sure this keyframe is at frame 0 as it will be the first one.

Then at the bottom right of the software, I changed the default 24 fps to 30fps due to the fact that animations in games are normally 30 instead of 24fps. Then I moved the bookmark to 30 frames and moved the cube to another location like this :

Moving it to a new area will tell maya where to move the cube to and at what time.

---- Completed ----

The PEGI rating system is used on games to classify them into different age groups that they are intended for. This is enforced by the law and anyone under the age of what is displayed playing or watching the game would be considered illegal and the parents will be taken accountable. There are different types of PEGI ratings starting from 3 to 18 (3,7,12,16,18). Here is a showcase of all of the images/icons you might find on a game :

The coloured boxes on the top are the typical things you might see and the boxes below are a couple or a single reason why it is quite high. Like you can see in the image, it could be bad language or gambling. All games will include a PEGI number but not all of them include a content descriptor. If we take GTA for example, GTA has all of these content descriptors in its game, making it for sure a PEGI 18 rating.

PEGI 3

PEGI 3 technically means that it is made for young children and has nothing inappropriate or any type of fear. It could include a very mild form of violence in the game in a comical context of childlike setting.

PEGI 7

Anything that is more frightening than a PEGI 3 would be here. It also includes a very mild form of violence as well but non-detailed and non-realistic.

PEGI 12

Games that show more violent and more graphic scenes towards fantasy characters or non-realistic human like characters would fall in this category. sexual posing can be present in the game as well. Non-realistic violence only though.

PEGI 16

PEGI 16 is real life violence or sexual activity with bad language. The games could also include drugs, alchohol and tobacco.

PEGI 18

For my game, I have had the idea to make my level a carnival. The reason to this is because it seems more spooky and would be easier to make as it is only stalls and a ride. Here is a screenshot of the stalls I have placed down and made :

When you are actually in the game, you cant see much. You can nearly see about 5 meters in front of you. This creates a scary feel for the game, making it more enjoyable to play. I have not got music for the game yet, but I plan to add that to make it seem more spooky. Here is a screenshot of what you can see in the game :

Like you can see, not much can be seen. Most of the screen is dark which limits the viewing angle of the player making it seem more spooky and unpredictable.

RESEARCH

For my game, I made a lot of research to see what most carnivals have. I know that a carnival has a Ferris wheel or a ride like that so I added one. When making this, currently it does not move however that might change in the future. Here is a couple pictures I took inspiration from when making my level :

Out of all of the different types of games, arcade games are my least favorite to play. I know they where amazing and very popular when they first released but if you now compare it to things today, it cant compare to them. However, some arcade games are interesting such as pac-man due to the "AI" the ghosts have. I do like how simple the controls where for arcade games as it makes it more simple to play if you have never played a arcade game before. I don't really like the art style of arcade games so I will not be featuring any of it in my project apart from the cube design from most arcade games.

LOVE HULTEN

Love huten is a company that specializes in creating arcade game consoles to bring back the feel of a arcade game for the people who love them. They are not cheap however they are well made and look quite nice. Here is a link to his/their website :