Week 5 II - Ring the Bells

It's deadline day today, and over the past 3 weeks I've been researching, developing, testing and developing some more.

Here's what I found;

Many people had many different ideas as to how the game should play, little mechanics here and there. One person suggested a slow decline, one person a double jump, another a dash attack. After all these suggestions and more were implemented into the game, I found that although they were all different suggestions they were, in fact, different pieces of the same puzzle.

One thing that varied, however, was the actual control- Which buttons should fire what input and should multiple inputs be mapped to the one controller?

I feel this is something more to research into. Do more buttons with multiple functions give the player more control? Or does it over complicate things and detract from the overall feel of the game? Are there many benefits to either?

All for another time. At the end of this week I have a small playable platformer that according to feedback is floaty yet very fun to control. I added a dynamic camera that would adjust behind the player in air to make landing easier. As well as that I have an enemy hooked up that will chase the player along the water, and drag them below, respawning the player at the last bit of land they traversed.

So what's next? What did this 3 weeks help me to learn about my direction of Masters?

Well, in short, feel. I want to know more about how a players physical input can alter feel overall.

Week 5 I - Some Unreal Updates

So since my last post, Epic Games have updated the Unreal Engine with a preview of 4.14! I've been working ever since in this engine to hurry up and get an enemy working properly, after 4.13's horrible issues with the AI.

So what have I got that's new?




This is a Lurker, and they inhabit the deep waters of the world.

Anything that skitters across it's home will be dragged down to the face the cold embrace, and join them as another.

Here's how it functions;

The world is constructed of islands, so naturally there is a lot of water to move about on. If the player starts moving on it, the Lurker's are made aware, and begin their approach. When they're close, they burst forth and try to grab the player, resulting in a loss of health and respawning at their last checkpoint.

I've also added in a dash ability in the air, allowing players to combat certain enemies, however the Lurker isn't on that list.

Week 4 II - Float like a Butterfly

So I've had a lot of good feedback so far, and it's helped shape the game with much tighter controls, making the game flow more. Although today someone played and described it as "Too floaty", which is obviously not a great response.

So where do I go from there? It's a difficult call, because if I get more weight on the character then the flow suffers greatly, but if I do nothing does that mean that it's too much?

It's a conflicting result with what I've been told by many others, and while majority rule means what I have is nice and responsive, could balancing weight and flight make the game feel better?

Very brief testing today proved the idea wrong, but I haven't given enough time to it yet to settle on a verdict. I'll go the route of rigging up separate weights and playtest, as I know I'm FAR too biased here.

Week 4 I - Testing, Results, Testing, Testing, and Sleep

Today last week I make a small level in UE4 using the landscape tool, and began trying out the controls of the project.

The response to the controls were riddled with things to adjust, including:

- Release of the controlling movement should halt mid air velocity

- When charging up for a jump, the player should be in control of when to jump, rather than it firing regardless when fully charged

- Holding gown the jump button in air should allow you to fall at a slower pace

- Double jumping

- Ground movement felt sluggish in comparison

- Short jumps should be effective without the necessity of the double jumps

So here's what I've done; All of that.

I made the character move faster on the ground, which also made the shorter jumps better as there was more of a launch going into them.

I added a double jump that you can fire up to 3 times before landing (A Quad jump).

I removed the auto jump when it became fully charged.

I slowed down the movement to a halt in mid air if the player wasn't putting in any input.

I added in the slower falling while gliding, and to balance added a 3 second usage to the ability, forcibly reverting to the default fall speed if the entire bar is expended.

An interesting term has popped up while I was testing, that has come up in 100% of people I asked to play; Floaty.

Whenever I've heard a game described as 'Floaty' it always felt negative. A game that can't really let it's players feel any weight to the world, seeming as if everything is loose or flimsy. However here, after hearing this term, one of the playtesers (Who is a VERY big fan of 3rd person platformers) found no errors with the jumping/flying mechanics, and said it "Felt really nice". They went on to mention they especially liked the application of the double jump, a mechanic that if anything makes the game MORE floaty.

With this all in mind, it seems I'm beginning to crack more into Game Feel from a real time response perspective, even if it's not what I intended to do for this 3 week project.

In terms of my original goals for the 3 weeks project, only 1 person decided that the running animation was superior, and the rest were very settled on the skiing animation. In fact, going back to the last playtester, when I switched they proclaimed (And I quote) "What the fuck are you doing? Put it back!"

I feel there's little more to explore in the area of a character's aesthetic movements and feel, as from this single project I've discovered that a vast majority of people prefer to have more fluid movements. However, there are plenty of other variables to consider, like if Marcus Fenix from Gears of War began skiing through the levels, would that be preferred to him chugging away with his hunched running animation?

No.

However, from this I've learned a lot more about the feel of a game, and how the project I'm making can reflect the tone just in how it controls, evidence by everyone having varying suggestions, yet agreeing that all of them implemented make a better feeling game.

Something I could look into more?

The door's open.

Week 3 Update I - Change in Format

Day 15

So today I realized I'm not posting as frequently as I hoped, so I'm changing how I go about blogging. From now on I'll 100% post weekly, and mark down however many updates I post in that week.

Why did I bother with the whole day thing?

God, I'm an idiot.

But today was spent well, because I've finalized the control scheme for a character I've made where I'll be seeing how I can change feel without changing how the game functions.

Here's the video of the movement and a set of animations in action.

Day 12 - Feeling Animated

Today I've finished all the animations I'll need what I have planed in the next 2 weeks left of the brief. What I need to do now is create the animation blueprints and rig up a nice control scheme for the character to work around.



This is Fredic (Named by James), and he's ready to go on an adventure.

Day 10 - Setting up

At this point I planned to have all the animations finished, but error after error with Maya in the studio means that I can't export joint rotation at the University on my profile.

Bummer.

At least yesterday I managed to (With a LOT of help from James (Like, 90% James teaching me new practices)) rig the model and set up proper constraints (Seriously, THANKS YOU James!)

Right now I have a few animations finished and exported into UE4. All the animations I have left to do are:

- 1 jumping animations
- 2 falling animations
- 1 running animation
- 2 jumping build up animations

All of these won't take long, and when they're done I can get to UE4 and start plotting out the characters movements

Day 8 - 3 Weeks From now

So we've been given a sort of mini-brief, a little something to help push us in the direction we want to go for Masters.

I have a vague idea; I want to research into flow, and the ability it has on immersion, as mentioned in the book I referenced last time.

I'll be running a few different play test, because I want to see if a characters aesthetic movement (Running, walking, gliding) can have an effect on how flow, and by extension immersion. As a result of me looking exclusively into how the character moves around, I'll only be setting up a project in UE4 that involves nothing more than small platforming.

So far I have created and rigged a character with an idle animation and a running animation, by the end of tomorrow it should have all animations done, and by next week I should have a mock level set up to begin playtesting.

I'll also need to conduct a survey, I'll probably put a link to it at the end of the playable.

Day 6 - Feel

So today was spent with me researching more into Game Feel, and so far I've found a source that describes it in 7 different categories, not denouncing any of the other types but holding one in particular above all others. One that combines Simulated Space, Real-Time control and Polish.

I'm gonna re-read a lot of it, but it was an interesting read- whether or not it was legal using Wordpress to read it all, but here's the source of the book for any interested: https://gamifique.files.wordpress.com/2011/11/2-game-feel.pdf

Day 3 - First Lecture

Today I had my first lecture as a Masters student, and it what you'd expect for an opening lecture.

We mainly covered what the course would cover, how we'd begin research and what the future lectures would follow.

We got there just on time, but seats were gone and we managed to just about snag some for the hour and a half lecture. Here's the copy and paste of the notes I made as part of an exercise.

Learning Agreement

Outline of project (what?)

1. Look into Simulated Space as an aspect of game feel

2. Look into sound in games and how it cam be used to direct or influence player decisions

3. Use game feel and incorporate it into design

Context/ Rational

I want to look into these things to give myself a greater understanding of design in games. Looking into game feel will help me too, as it is, in laments terms, the theory of fun. If I can learn to manipulate this theory and incorporate it into a design choice, then itwill further my skills exponentially.

Key areas of research

I'll be visiting real world locations to grasp a concept of architectural design, allowing me to further my knowledge in Simulated Space. Parks will also be a great location, as it will allow me to look at how nature can almost be man made. Trough of Boland would be an amazing place to visit, too, as it is almost untouched by man in some parts.

In terms of game feel, I would look to written work on the topic, as well as looking at games such as Bloodborne and Journey for how their use of game feel.

Intended outcomes

I will have collected data from primary and secondary research and used it to create an experience in game that will show the application of game feel as a design choice. I will also have multiple iterations of the same project with varying layers of game feel, showing the importance of each aspect of what I'm studying.

Of course I expect this is ALL subject to change, but for now I feel like I've beaten out quite a sturdy path.

Later on I'm off to an Unreal Devs meetup in Preston, so I can show off my portfolio and hope to get some feedback and useful tips on my proposed Masters idea.

Day 2 - Research through Preston and it's Areas

So like I said yesterday, I want to look further into design. Today a classmate and I walked throughout the local area, going from the Victoria Building studio all the way to Avenham Park. Here are some pictures I took for reference of space and layout of natural and man made locations.

I began taking pictures around the university building and library, looking at how space is populated in a more urban setting; Narrow roads littered the area for traffic to flow, and there were plenty of open areas to allow huge crowds of people around the university to move freely.

However when we came to the main roads, the juxtaposition changed. Now the pavements were tight, be it due to bus stops or construction work, and the roads were more open. It was interesting to see how turning a corner showed a huge change in priorities.

Moving closer to the heart of the city, the two actually began to merge. Distinction between path and road became nothing more than the odd lines of cobble in the floor, and priority of travel belonged to whoever was on it at the time.

When we approached the Museum the road was gone, only a courtyard paved with old stone brought us into the heavy fort of a gallery. Inside, I fell in love with the use on the entrance, the design showing a natural flow into the main hall.

After the museum, we headed for Avenhum Park. In the lead up to the area I took more pictures of the busiest streets of Preston, running from the A6 all the way past the train station and beyond. It was interesting to see how the roads almost functioned as a gallery of Preston itself, as travellers may use the road frequently go skip through Preston onwards.

After the bust roads we were on our way finally to the park, and took some back roads to her there. It was nice to see how Preston used it's main road as a gallery, and appeared to use a 'Good enough' attitude towards the lesser areas behind the hustle and bustle of the city.

Once in Avenham Park I was greeted with open fields, use stone structures and winding pathways. It was a lovely area that showcased a lot of natural terrain, with man made influence. Although it doesn't have the meticulous attention to detail that the city did, it's brimming with a different kind of life.

Day 1 - Induction

My name is Elliott Thewlis, and today, like many others, I have become a Masters Student in Games Design.

Last year I decided to develop my skills in both technical and level design, creating 2 games throughout the course of the year.

The first project was Flint, a game inspired by old school Legend of Zelda, taking on a top down view to solve puzzles spanning across floating islands, all in order to relight Braziers at the end of each level.

It began as a game concept, as I didn't want to pursue anything that didn't involve design, taking me away from my goals.

In the first few weeks, I managed to create blueprints in UE4 that showed off the bare bones of the proof of concept beginning to form, with puzzle elements all working and communicating with each other. I also managed to make enemies, although I was still stuck on how they would play; For the start, they would roam around specified points and chase then wound Flint when he got too close.

After a few levels were sketched out on paper, I took them to the engine, where play testing showed a solid concept execute really well, with very minor issues. At this point, around November-December, I was pushed by my tutor Josh to begin creating more life for Flint.

Art styles didn't work out too well at first, but I was later inspired by the art style of the mobile game Monument Valley, and began work again. It stuck, and the art style was set. I spent the next few months taking all my blueprints and applying art to them, changing the design of a few of the items to accommodate the art style, for example the clouds that appear in the game are named "Bats" in the original files, because they were to be hanging from branches and swarm down on Flint, blocking his path.

I can't draw bats, though.

This also changed the function of the Bats, as they were originally supposed to only affect Flint. Now, they would also serve as a trap if enemies walked over them, locking them into a thunderstorm.

As time went on, I was also able to decide how the enemies would harm Flint. When Flint geth too close, rather than simply subtracting from a value, a sort of "Battle Mode" would begin, where the camera would zoom in and Flint would be rendered near immobile. Flint could combat the enemies, slowly draining his health, by shooting fire and erasing them, sending them back to their original spawn point.

With a lot of support from all my tutors and friends, I managed to finish Flint with 3 fully working levels, and was awarded a grade of 89.

The second game I developed became known as GRID, a twin stick shooter set in a data space, taking artistic inspiration from the likes of Tron. Starting as a group project, it was set to be a 2D isometric game, set in Ye Olde England, following the adventures of a character named Murdock. I was able to prototype the beat 'em up quickly, and from there the project just kept growing.

The game was set to feature a morality system, where the player could choose to either save a village or destroy it, wielding the most powerful weapon on the face of the planet. The game would feature side quest to help level up the character, too, being the beginnings of an RPG.

Running up towards Christmas, the game moved far from what we began with; Retaining the idea of being a 2D styled beat 'em up, we moved a little further to hack and slash, still keeping the isometric theme. The art shifted accordingly, and the artist began making new designs for characters. With the change in style, we also had a change in setting,

This didn't stay for long, however, as we were quickly to change the style again, although this time the mechanics weren't too different.

I added in a ranged attack to the game, and it quickly became very popular with playtesters, so I added a second. After a while it was obvious that no one wanted to use the melee weapon, and it was more of a hindrance than a feature. We removed it, and shifted focus to entirely shooting.

More time passed, and my artist decided on his final art style; Crystals. It would feature gems rising from the ground as walls, enemies that would shatter when defeated, and particles to really bring it all together.

As time went on, the mechanics grew and grew, and by February the games mechanics were in a persistent state of polish and debug. I got a little tired of it, though, so added a local co-op option, after taking inspiration from other students working on a multiplayer game.

In late March, my artist hadn't delivered, and so we were separated by the tutors for the better of my project. I had 2 months left to create new assets, playtest and debug, so pressure was on.

In the end, with plenty of help from friends and tutors, especially James, I had a fully functioning game, paired with nice visuals.



That's what I did to get here, so what are my interest?


I really enjoy playing games, which is a given. Zelda, Pokemon, Elder Scrolls are the most prominent ones that I play, although I do enjoy most anything.

I also took an interest in writing music after discovering Musescore 2, a software that uses sheet music to compose, and being an ex music student it felt much easier to pick up than other sound creating softwares.

After watching a lot of Gordon Ramsay recently, I've taken to cooking as a hobby. It's fun, and food tastes great, and considering I'm eating every day why not make it great?

More than anything, though, I love doing my work. It's hard to call it work, but I look forward to it every day, making games is great!


So Masters?


I want to research into fun. I want to look into the use of Simulated Space as an aspect of game feel, I want to know how much sound can influence a player's direction, I want to learn how to utilise every bit of space in a level design, and I want to know how context can make an objectively boring or pointless moment something memorable with weight.

That's the idea of what I want to learn, and getting started can't start soon enough.