Unit 06 Application, Exploration and Realisation in Art and Design - Final Major Project

Proposal

Project Introduction

For this project I have been given free control to create a prototype worthy of showcasing to public. So that would mean that I would have to create a professional product that can persuade the viewer to use and feel that they like it. For this unit especially I will need to take all things into consideration and put 100% effort in the design for it to be successful.

Constraints of the project

Constraints I could think of for this unit would be my lack on knowledge within Unity that I would need to learn in order to create what I envision, Corruption of files that are due to different versions of Unity as this has happened to me before nearing the end of other units, which had cause me to nearly loose out on marks when reviewed. In order for this project to be successful I need to make sure that these problems do not occur as it could effect the overall quality of the product.

Context of the project

Many games have been created before, but it is through learning about how these games work as a product that will help me create my own. Through analysing currently existing products on the market I could efficiently work towards an idea of how to process and show my game to the public.

Early inspiration comes from concepts of third person based games as they have a lot of potential to display a story whilst also being entertaining to the user. I have noticed from all games that even though that they are based upon action or types of puzzles there is always a lore behind it that not always is made aware to the user, but keeps them interested. It is possible for me to create this type of depending on which direction I go on.

Contextual influences of products that have already been made are a variety of different aspects from different game genres. Video games such as; Jak and Daxter, Devil May Cry and Metal Gear Solid have had this huge impact in the aspect of my inspiration due to playing these at a younger age and has allowed me to flourish on possible ideas that I could make with similar machanics.

Jak and daxter 2(JakII) is a game set in the future by a few hundred years from the original game. The reason I chose this for one of my examples is due to it's artistic style and how it portrays it's story through the use of scenery to allow the player to assume that the future for this game has not been kind. The use of animation as well is unique to the game, which has not been seen much around other games. The games use of all components is what made it a rather successful game and awarded it four games within the main series. I believe if I could make something to this standard that it would also be possibly successful title that could lead to more designs in the future.

Devil May Cry is another 3rd Person game, which is focused around the main character Dante, who slays demons for a living. This mythological setting has a strong portrayal on how the game is set in terms of artistic style and perspective. This game is inspirational to me due to its structure of story and the amount of progression that can be achieved through it.

Metal Gear Solid as a franchise is well known for it's deeply rooted story that seems to entail a lot of betrayal, scandals and even scientific and political references. This game series has been the more inspirational thing for me as I had been following the series ever since the release of 'Metal Gear Solid(1998)'. The amount of detail and research that is put into this game is very through and thought about clearly in order to create a well referenced game.

Initial Ideas for the project

I have a few ideas on where I can take this project, as I have been keeping notes on my phone every time I come up with an idea that I believe has potential.

My most strongest idea is based upon a young adult/teenager who has a power, which he yet has come to understand. We see the character unleash this power by one day and whilst having no control over it accidentally burns down a village, this causes him to hide away in a cave where he attempts to come to understand what has happened to him. This story is highly inspired by mythology and has a great potential to become a fully fledged game, if I had the ability to craft it. His power changes every 24 hours and at random time within that time window, so the strategy would have to change a lot. His powers also have an appearance; with his eyes iris changing colour depending on said power (This also effects the aura around him), changing of tattoos on his arms which is also based upon his current power. This game would be structured upon a third person character that is melee based, so I would need to code a fighting system that works effectively.

I had this idea of a game based upon you having to fight gods and the only way to defeat them is to climb upon them until you reached their weak points. This idea became near scrapped as it sounded too similar to the game "Shadow of the colossus", which is a very popular game and works very well for what it based upon. For this idea to work for me I would need to craft it differently, as to create it under a new genre, say if I created a cyberpunk game where you had to scale up data streams in order to reach the target, but this always poises the question whether it would be considered copyright for it's similarities. It would be a difficult constraint that I would have to think about during development, and possibly, think of any ways I could adapt my idea in order to clear these risks.

My next idea had came to me in a day dream once of a futuristic district which uses the colour platte of purple. This game would've been heavily based upon parkour in third person, which would allow for the player to customise their character to the way they see fit. This idea hasn't been developed quite clearly yet so I am not sure what kind of story I want behind it, but I believe it has potential for a small indie game.

After being shown a tutorial from my year group, I had come together with the idea to incorporate Android Cardboard VR into a video game. How I will do this is yet to be though of, but it has some great potential for the future of video games and could provide me with a head start into that market.

Deliverables

I will need to make sure I set myself several targets throughout the course of this project for myself to keep track of how well I am progressing through out. These types of targets will be based on research and personal production within Unity, it is imperative that I make my targets on time so that the game will be finished and up to a professional standard.

This game will feature third person mechanics that will have the players take the role of the character. This game  will feature mainly action based combat between the player and AI(Artificial intelligence) characters. The game could feature an inventory system that would allow for the player to storage key items that would help in the future.

Targets and Milestones

16th March (Unit 06 Brief issued) - Begin working on the proposal for potential ideas that I could use for the creation of a video game.

24th March - Proposal document to be presented for approval, begin researching into existing video games and review them to find out what makes them effective.

28th March Easter break 1 - Follow up on research and begin building draft characters ready for design in Cinema 4D and Unity.

4th April Easter break 2 - Continue working on Cinema 4D models.

13th of April - Begin design within Unity editor

20th April - Possible design in Unity editor & Cinema 4D

27th April - Possible design in Unity editor & Cinema 4D

4th May - Possible design in Unity editor & Cinema 4D

11th May - Possible design in Unity editor & Cinema 4D

18th of May - Possible design in Unity editor & Cinema 4D

26th May - Possible design in Unity editor & Cinema 4D

30th of May (Whitsun holiday week) - Review what condition the game is currently in and begin building a plan to work on finishing the game on time.

8th of June - Polishing up the game to showcase to a wide audience

16th June (Deadline for Unit 06 Final Major Project) -

Evaluation Methods

To correctly evaluate my work, I will create prototypes through certain parts through the course of the project in order to allow people to play my game and then give me feedback on what they think about the game and tell me what doesn't work. I will also present my work in front of the class where I will ask various people to play it and then give their opinion on it. From there I can take notes and then show evidence via the blog to make decisive evaluations of my own work.

What makes Third Person games so effective?

Video games have been around for quite some time now, but have only become increasingly popular in the past twenty years. Video games come in a variety of different genres and styles ranging from: Action, Horror, fantasy, Adventure, first person and third person. But what really makes video games in the third person perspective so effective?

In terms of difference between First Person and Third Person is the perspective of where the player views the character. In video games such as 'Half-Life', 'Timeplitters' and 'Mirrors Edge' the player travels around in the view of “First Person”, which essentially means that you view the world through the eyes of the character that you are playing. Seeing through their eyes means that you would probably see their hands in your view, in some cases as well the player would have the ability to view their body too by looking down.

Meanwhile in Third person, you take control of the character from behind the character with a camera that differs position with every game, with the possibility of a 'shoulder view' perspective or and overhead perspective, there are also more perspectives like 'Room-to-Room view' that have been used also. Whilst different to First Person perspective it still retains similar ways to how it presents story telling through the use of cutscenes, but the effect they give us are different due to our viewing of the character. In First Person I would feel as if I were a character that is based around me as the player and you soon to feel that immersion, but with Third Person control you are always reminded that you play as a character with a detailed background, where you can come to like their personality due to the way you play as them.

As to First Person perspective, in Third Person you can also look at your character in a great amount of detail and get a feel for who they are, which can give you that sense of immersion, to make yourself believe that you are the character and that you have an impact on that persons journey. This can work especially effective for fantasy type games which are very fictional allowing for a huge variety of objects to look at which do not exist in the real world allowing for that immersive feel towards it. A great example of this is Sqaure Enix's new 'Final Fantasy XV' which shows of it's huge open world in a recent trailer.

Overall I believe that third person would be a better platform for me to work on due to my ideals being more story driven based. Also I believe that it would allow me to branch out my knowledge further in the use of Unity on a third person platform. Also the knowledge that I have gained from doing this research has helped branch out to create my designs.

Design stage

On the first week, I had began working on a character sheet to develop and evolve the look of the character. I wanted to make my character look young and from a tribal background to get a fantasy feel from him in order to allow for players to like him due to an interesting background.

Afterwards, I started to build a script for my voice actor, James Andrews, who has voluntarily applied to voice my character.

I have been very ill for the past few weeks, which has effected the progress of the project meaning that I am behind on tasks that should of been ready. For me to catch up I will need to start working on a plan

I began working on the main menu for my game, as it is the first step towards creating my game, the spinning camera works really effectively to show off the game world. I have yet to finish the buttons and logo for the game, but I believe it will become a very successful step once it is finished.

After finishing the main menu I began working on the game itself, here below is what I have been able to create using both C# and JS (JavaScript) coding.

I had come up with designs for what my character skin changes would look like when he receives his powers. I have planned to have his skin/material change for when he switches power.

I have created a monster who will be the last enemy to fight in the game. This monster will explain the backstory to what has happened to your character, it will allow for progression through the game and allow for further plot development.

I had also created wildlife to fill the world game, allowing it to not feel repetitive.

I started creating the model for my character by using the paper references in the background. 

Using symmetry allows for me to create a model in half the time as I am essentially creating both sides at the same time.

After being happy with how the model has come out I began working on defining the facial structure of the character.

I attempted to give him eyes but they had not given the effect that I had hoped for so I had deleted them.

Afterwards I began working on clothing that the character would wear. As stated before I wanted the character to be wearing a kimono type of clothing that would sway to the side, using Dynamic physics that I would have to code in unity.

After being happy with how the model had come out, I began working on hair, but I had great difficulty making any working hair. So I began looking for tutorials that could help me.

I came across this one, to which had stunned me on how good it was. I began experimenting with it within Cinema 4D

I practiced with it within Cinema 4D to see how it worked, in my opinion I really liked how it worked realistically, but did not suit my characters model style and that I had doubts about it working within Cinema 4D.

After finishing my model, I used a website called "Maximo" in order to get some animations that I could use for my character.

Afterwards I began creating buildings that the player could walk around, I started with a rectangle and began cutting into it with the knife tool. Afterwards, I would expand or bevel certain parts in order to achieve a certain shape.

After tweaking with the model for some time I had come up with a suitable model that I would use within the game.

After finishing the first building I began attempting to create different versions of the building and had come across a weird shape, that I did not think was suitable for a house, but would work very well for a statue of some sort.

In the end I had come up with this shape, which looks rather odd, so I believe it'd make a great monument type statue.

The player is going to start off in a small camp area, so I needed to begin creating some tent like objects that would care for the players needs. This idea started off as a cylinder where I cut some loops into it to make different shapes.

The ending result of both buildings are shown within Unity.

During the development of my character I began working on a item that could be used for a score based system. I had liked the idea of creating elemental type gems that the character can pick up.

After a few cuts and distortions I was able to create a rough looking ruby. This would be the end result of my item.

Here is the showing of my final game, I had fixed all major problems that I seemed to have previously, like being unable to move the character or being unable to pick up the score.