#xb1000

This post is not designed to be some sort of woe is I sort of thing or in any way shape or form to try an “guilt” people into a better marking. I feel this is a necessary post to explain myself and lack of attendance and how this shaped my design. If this comes of as anything else I do apologise and will remove if requested. 

During my first attempt at this class back when Simran Whitham was in my first year class I was beginning my transitioning process and back then that was enough to stop me from carrying on with the course. I had hoped to take a year and a half to get it sorted and return with a clear mind. This however was not the case, I had returned with a mind full of problems that affected my concentration on my studies and my ability to provide a total and undivided attention. I feel this may give the impression of me being a lacking student and someone who cares very little about this degree and what it offers. I can assure you this is my dream and if I don’t pass this year I will keep coming and coming until I do. 

Unreal was the thing I was most exited about learning. I desire greatly to be a level designer and want to learn programming in as many shapes and forms as the world offers. Unfortunately when it came time for Andy to begin teaching I was at my lowest on multiple anti-depressants and waiting for my autism test. But the biggest issue was the Sheffield gender identity clinic refusing the assist me in my transition. I had a plan on how I wanted to do this and they disagreed and told me it was their way or the highway. I am not one to cave to pressure as I feel if I had followed the path they offered I would most certainly been pushed farther than my mind would allow. 

With all this extra stuff and a great deal of family issues I was at a point I couldn’t get our of bed to attend what I consider some of the most vital and exiting lectures. But with talking to Lorraine in student services and my Dr’s I was able to balance myself compared to simply retreating to what I knew was safe last time. This year is not Matthew William Rimington and I will better myself and my understanding of unreal in preparation for 2nd year. I am not content with passes and will strive purely for distinctions on the coming 2 years. 

Again I cannon stress enough how much I feel this is important to my work as it shapes who I am as a designer and the work I produce and I have no doubt if this were some sort of guilt trip it would not affect marking anyways. But I am just a open person who believes emotional struggles outside of university are important and are as much apart of what forges our work as much as the engine itself. 

Now I had my plan drawn out I could go into unreal 4 and begin the level. Going into unreal 4 without much of any knowledge was at first overwhelming and I had to watch a lot of tutorial videos to get a bare bones understanding. Using maya for 3 years now was very helpful as I was rather attuned to the controls of unreal and could adapt a few skills over. But with the plan drawn out I managed to build the box itself rather simply, the blueprints and making simple things like doors functional was not only time consuming, but overwhelming. 

Now I was committed to a walking simulator, I could begin the planning phase of my design. I got out the pen and paper to draw a basic outline of how I wanted my level to go. I was inspired by the design choices made by “Alien Isolation”. Very tight and compact hallways and a mixture of well lit areas leading to much darker ones. 

(6/#)

Creating floating text for NPCs

I will use NPCs speech to be able to add some form of story to the game and later on be able to create a new Blueprint for a Quest giving NPC.

I have included screenshots of the blueprints used to allow the Farmer NPC to talk when the player is in range, and for the NPC to then stop talking when the player leaves the range of the NPC.

I created a trigger box around the NPC which will be the range that the payer must be in to trigger the NPC to begin speech, alongside the speech animation.

Textures - Games Jam 2018

One of the other jobs I have been given during this Games Jam has been to texture the “Neon Urban” themed levels in our game. 

They’re low poly models, and we were aiming for a simple block-style colour system. This area has an 80s retro vibe hence the slightly tinted purples (which would match with the bright purple/pink skybox in the level.