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.