Evaluation

How I felt this project went

Overall I am rather pleased with how this project turned out. I was very apprehensive at the beginning when we first received our brief and I was certain that I wasn't going to be able to produce all the work given in the amount of time that we had. But I believe this worry pushed me to work harder this year then I did in my previous projects as I really wanted to do a good job on everything as a lot of things we had to do were a first for me. I did struggle in a through areas of the project. This was mainly in the area of scripting my games mechanics in Unity as I had absolutely no experience with either the software or coding in general so there was a lot of new stuff for me to learn there. The second issue was my time keeping, I spent far to long researching into my concept and designing my level and characters that I certainly didn't leave enough time for everything else which is something that I need to work on for the next project.

On a more positive I think I learnt a whole bunch of new skills, especially to do with creating a game and the documentation that would go with it which is a really important thing to know how to do for the future. I also really enjoyed going right from the basics and actually having a playable game at the end of, it was a really satisfying thing to complete.

The process of making my prototype

What has been built, scripted and changed so far



Now that I have a prototype that is as complete as I can get it and with and has working game play I decided to post a full timeline of the creation progress below.


 During the first week of creating my prototype I was really stressing myself out about how I was going to be able to produce a working game in the small amount of time I had given myself as I had been spending the previous weeks working on my games designs and artwork. After I felt confident enough that my artwork was as strong as I could get it I began to start creating my level prototype in Unit. Following the notes I had made in the previous lectures on how to use this new piece of software really helped me get to grips with the interface and basic processes of creating a 2D game. Placing the painted background and sprites in Unity was a fairly simple process and I got this done quickly. Unfortunately when it got to the part were I actually had to start scripting things to make what I had built so far work I started to struggle. I give it a whirl and immediately kept coming to deadends with what I was doing. I tried again and again to insert the scripts from the 'kit bash' level we had experimented with previously but I was obviously doing something wrong as nothing was working.

Luckily I was able to sit down and have a 30 minute talk to my tutor George about the different assets in my game, it's concept and what I want each element to do. As he is a whiz with Unity he was able to fix every scripting problem I had been stressing over in about 5 minutes. He explained each process to me as he did it and manages to get my game to the were there were inserted collision meshes on the platforms and my sprite was able to jump around the level.



First feedback and iterations

After George had assisted me with my scripting I knew that I needed to talk to my classmates about whether they would be able to play test what I had of my prototype so far otherwise as a important part of the creation process is getting peoples feedback and then making changes due to their suggestions and they may be able to see areas of the level that has faults that you have over looked. Due to my level being very basic and fairly awful at that point in time my feedback from my peers wasn't excellent but I did have one common suggestion and this was that I should make my level longer as it just cuts off sort of half way and doesn't lead to anything at the end. This was a fair point and so I quickly started tweaking the background I had created to make the level longer and to have room for a final goal at the end. Below is what my level looked in my first prototype and how it looked after the iteration work.

Original level

New level

Once I had re designed my level to create a longer prototype and added in the changes I received in my presentation crit session from my tutors I was able to start re working and tweaking my prototype. On my own from what I had learnt from George, I was to add new elements to my level and be able to create collision meshes around all of the platforms (which can be seen in the image below) but I knew I would have to start working on adding in new mechanics to my game to improve it's playability. This, of course, meant more scripting which George agreed to help me with.

After having the two extra 30 minute sessions of scripting work from George I was able to start to improve my game by adding in a large amount of mechanics which made the level play through work far more smoothly than it did before. The new mechanics that were included after these sessions were:

• Being able to collect orbs and when you do, they disappear from the scene. 
• After collecting 5 out of the 5 orbs that are in the level Light will be sent back to starting position
• setting up the camera so that it follows the Light as the player moves them through the level. 
• Falling into the shadows or hitting the vines will instantly kill Light and sending them back to the beginning of the level.
• Adding a script to the henchmen that allowed them to hit you if you come in a certain radius of them. 

Second feed back and iterations

Now that I felt a little bit more confident with the work I had produced and how my prototype had progressed I went to my class mates and, once again, asked them to play test my game to pick up on any flaws or make suggestions as to things I could change. Luckily no one really said that I needed to change anything drastically design or platform wise which was nice to hear but they did have a few inquiries about possible 'bugs' in the prototype.

The most common thing I heard from people was "isn't your game meant to be set in the dark? Are you going to include this or is that not possible?". This was a absolutely essential part of my game that I knew I needed to get done otherwise my prototype wouldn't be remotely similar to the game play I had been writing about. Even though George had created a rough version of this process which I could always use if worse comes to the worse, I did want a full working script otherwise it would make my prototype look shoddy and actually completing the game would be near to impossible.

Another point that was raised by my peers when playing my prototype was the fact that the henchmen was able to hit Light but Light couldn't do anything to hit back and would just instantly die, not allowing the player to progress in the level. This unfortunately is another bug within the game that I wasn't too sure how to fix and I did a little research into what the problem might be but I couldn't find anything that would help the situation. So this was something else that I knew I would have to fix otherwise the player wouldn't be able to reach the end goal. An example of the area of the level were you encounter the Henchmen is shown below.

The only couple of things that my peers told me to change so far in my prototype were just very small tweaks that I needed to do on my sprite. The first was to do with the size of Light. People thought that the sprite was a little too big for the environment so I took their advice on board and slightly changed the characters sizing until I was comfortable that it still suited the scale of the level. Secondly I was told to change the elements of the characters jumps height as it was just all over the place when people were trying to manoeuvre around. There is a area of the level, depicted below, where if Light's jump is too high then they will hit the thorny vines every time but if the jump isn't high enough then they won't make the jump down to the lower platform. After this mini crit session I spent a little time editing these elements and then getting people to test the different options until I found a level ground were each 'obstetrical' was no longer and problem. 

Final tweaks and scripting for my prototype

After adding changes to my prototype that had been suggested by my peers I decided to start working on my final prototype, trying to get it as good as I could for submission. I started off by trying to work on the fade effect for the prototype because if I didn't get this element down then my game would have no representation of the memory aspect that I had been focusing on since the beginning of the design process.

I started off by creating a dark rasterized layer I could place over the top of the level with that areas that I wanted to have glowing, for example the orbs, cut out so you would be able to see the background beneath it. With this new layer created I was able to import it into Unity and place it in front of my original background so that the orbs would show through the blank spaces. An example of the layer I created and how it looked when added to my prototype are shown below.

With this element created and imported to my scene George was able to look into and fix the scripting error that had been causing us some trouble which was fantastic! We spent a bit of time tweaking elements of the effect so that it was finalised and worked in game. So basically at the beginning of the level the player gets exactly 10 seconds to see part of the level all lit up until it all gradually fades to black with certain sprites in the level giving off the steady glow. An example of this process can be seen in the images below.

Unfortunately there were two mechanics in the prototype that I wasn't able to include due to not having enough time or knowledge to complete them. One of these mechanics was for the scene to completely zoomed out to begin with so that the player would be able to see the entirety of the level so they could memorise the path before everything slowly faded to black. The scene would then zoom in on the sprite so that player gets a closer look at what is happening as they move through the level. This is quite a big bit of the aspect to have lost from the game-play as now the player can only see a small chunk of the level before the level turns black which is a tad frustrating but, luckily, due to the glow that the orbs give off, they manage to make a path for the player so I am really happy that that design element worked.    

Secondly I wasn't able to create a glow around Light as it would have had to be a constant black rasterized layer that would be seen when the level was still 'lit up' which wasn't exactly the effect I was going for. In the real game Light would give out a soft glow which would allow navigating around the level to be a lot easier for the player but this is just something that I had to move away from. Also the images I used weren't being shown great quality for some odd reason but this was another element that I just had to step back from. 

Luckily I was able to sort of the 'scripting error' with the Henchmen so that Light is now able to hit and kill the enemy and the player can move on through the level. It was as simple as lowering the Henchmen's health down from 100 to 3 as Light would have had to hit the enemy 100 times before it was killed which made me feel a tad silly for over looking this simply element but at least it was fixed. Below are some examples of what the prototype now looks like when in game mode but ignore the yellow line. I have no clue why that is there.

Editing games design document pages

The final tweaks 

Today I attended a feedback session where, as class, we looked at each others presentations and received critical feedback from our tutors George and Mark. I was really pleased with the structural comments I received as they really helped me get some more structure to my games design document.

One of the main things that was pointed out to me was the font size I was using varied from page to page, and that the writing under the storyboard was hard to read. I decided to make all my written pieces size 10.5 font and made all the titles size 18. This allowed me to keep all the information I wanted on my pages without it looking crowded or too small to read. Another thing that I changed was adding a grey border around the title page because as it was being viewed in a PDF format it simply blended into the background so I tweaked it to make it stand out a little more. I was also told to change the title of the page from 'Game overview' to 'Game summary' which I completed.

The changed pages can be seen below.

Working on my GDD

What I have been working on for the past few days

Over the last few days I have been knuckling down and getting on with creating my games design document. At the beginning of the process I was honestly fairly worried about completing this part of the task as I had never had to make a GDD before and I wasn't too sure how it was meant to be built up. Luckily after a few sessions and lectures on layouts, content and font work I felt a lot more comfortable with the thought of building up my pages so I got to work.

Below are the final designs and layouts for my GDD pages. Originally I had stuck to just using a dark grey background but it ended up looking a little dull so I added in a border to make the pages stand out a little better.  As I have a session coming up tomorrow which will be reviewing our GDD's and getting feedback I may have to make changes to the pages and if so I will post the edited ones at a later time but for now, this is my final games design document.

Extra details about GLOW

Thinking about the music and audio used in game

For another part of our games design document we can mention what sort of music or audio we had in mind for our game or what sound effects we would want to use. I had already decided very early on in the process of character designing that as well as my characters not having genders, they wouldn't speak throughout the entirety of the game. I wanted to give this effect to Light and Dark as it allows the player to envision the character how they like and almost make them their own.

Sound effects wise I knew I wanted little pieces of sound to give off when Light interacted with certain objects so, for example, if Light picked up an orb it would make a shimmering sort of noise, or if they touched a toxic mushroom it would make a squelching noise. To be honest it is rather hard to explain in written terms so I hope that I am making sense.

For the music of GLOW I knew I wanted to stick to a classical composition rather than a modern piece as I wanted my game to have a calming feel to it and I thought something too upbeat and fast paced might change the mood of the game completely. I listened to a few pieces I already knew and also had a browse to see if I could find any new classical music that I found soothing to listen to and that I thought would work nicely with the mood I was trying to set. A few examples of what I found are in videos below. 

Out of all the pieces I listened to, I really favoured all the ones that were in a music box style. There was something quiet simple and calm about it but also mixed with ever so slightly sharper tones than the piano which I really enjoyed listening to. Also whenever I hear a piece of music from a music box It always sounds quite childlike and sweet which is an element I would love to try and bring to my game. I decided to have a little look into free audio files to see if I could find anything that was remotely similar to the Studio Ghibli music box tracks but unfortunately I couldn't seem to find anything longer than 20 seconds or of any good quality.

 The only one I did manage to stumble across that I thought would suit my game is the track below. As it is a free audio file I may look into downloading it and putting it in my misc folder for submission once I've read the terms and agreements of the file.

Creating a storyboard

The opening sequence to my game

As we are now on the stage of our project were we are thinking more about our games design document there are different elements that we should be including in it to give people a clear idea of our game. One of these included a storyboard of some kind. I had an idea of what I wanted the opening sequence of my game to look like but I hadn't actually drawn anything to do with it yet. I did start off by drawing a rather rough and awful sketched out version which I wasn't very pleased with so I decided to work on a clean and neat version of it in Photoshop were editing would be so much easier. The final storyboard can be seen below with annotations on each scene.

Thinking about the build up of my game

Designing an interface

Once I had a very clear idea of what I wanted my games style, level, characters, and objects to look like, along with font I will be sticking too, I decided to move onto my interface design. These were important to include in the games design document as it is all well and good showing what the game play will look like but you also have to think about the other interactive part that builds up the game and helps to make it what it is.

I began by planning out would we be the four key interface scenes I would need to include in my game to make it function properly. The first was a title screen (the first image seen below) which would give the player a brief 'introduction' to the game and the main protagonist, Light. The second was what the player would see in game and the different options they would be able to interact with. So, in the second image, you can see an example of what the level design and in the top right there is an icon that shows how many orbs the player has collected and in the top left, you can click 'pause' and it will take you to a pause menu. The pause menu, image three, shows different options that the player would be able to interact with or different customisations you can make to the game so for example the display or audio options. Finally image four is an example of what screen will pop up when the player has completed the level. It will give the player information of what their progress was, so for example, how many orbs they collected or if they were able to save the lost creature. There are also two options available for the player, to either replay the level they just completed to collected all the missed items or to move onto the next level.

Briefly looking at the design of sprite

Angles and actions of Light


When I was thinking about my design of my character Light, I began realising that in my game design document, the reader would want to see more than just one image of Light and that they would need to see variety in positioning and angles, instead of just sticking to a plain quarter turn. One of the main things I really needed to design was how Light would fight off Dark's henchmen, I knew that I wanted Light to be able to 'hit' and destroy them and I had a idea in my head but I really needed to get it down digitally.

The idea was that Light would shoot out little orbs of light energy that would hit the henchmen and cause them damage. I had a little trouble coming up with a design but I finally came up with the idea of a multiorb looking ball that would spin round when fired and would only be able to travel a certain distance so that the player wouldn't be able to fire it from miles away and hit the henchman. Also I wanted the player to only be able to fire 3 orbs at a time before there is a 5 second resting point and then can fire again. 3 hits will be able to kill the henchmen and release the orb they have eaten.

Starting on my GDD

Choosing a font and creating a cover


As I started to progress further with my prototype, concept art and tweaking my level I knew it was time that I began focusing on my game design document which is a crucial part of our BA4 brief. I already had a rough idea of what I wanted to document to look like, colour scheme wise I planned to stick with black and white and possibly different shades of grey to keep with the theme of the game and make sure that the document looked neat and as professional as I can get it.

The first thing I had to get sorted was the different font I would be using throughout the document.
We had been reminded countless times that a font alone can really set the feel of the game we were designing and that we must stick with something that is atheistically pleasing and easy to read as having a overly complicated or unreadable font will put people off. I began by going through the different pre set fonts available in Photoshop and making a list of them, which is the first image seen below. I didn't think any of them really suited the style of my game so I went on the hunt for new downloaded fonts from '1001 free fonts' to see if I could find some new designs. The ones I found and liked are in the second image below. These all seemed far more stylised and less plain compared to the pre set fonts but this did now give me a large amount to choose from.

After downloading a load of new fonts and struggling to choose one, I moved onto creating my game design document's front cover. I had an idea in my head to have a image of Light facing away from the view and looking into the darkness, where, just ahead of it, would be a floating orb and then the title would sit at the top of the page. I did try and attempt this layout but unfortunately as Light has such  a simple design, this positioning really wasn't working well as you only got a vague idea of what the protagonist looked like but, as they are such an important part of the game, I wanted their image to be seen more clearly so I had to think about something else. I then began working on a design that would show Light in the centre of the page but also kept with the simplistic design of my game. The finished result can be seen below with my chosen font.

Iterations of my work so far

Changing designs and prototype aspects


Throughout this project, I know that it is a key element to make sure that your ideas and concepts aren't written in stone and that you are free to explore and experiment with different designs. I have now gotten to the stage of the process where I am showing my designs and partly done prototype to my classmates to try and get useful feedback and criticism about my game and what I could do to improve on it.

After my presentation I received some really helpful feedback from both of my tutors who were present at the time. They described two different visual designs that I should think about changing which would make their purpose a lot clearer to the player. The first one was to do with the thorny vines I had drawn into my level which at as a object for Light to avoid as the player moves throughout the level. They pointed out that, as it was a dangerous object, it shouldn't look so soft and have a relaxed curl to it and that it should look jagged and angular. This would help to portray to the player that it something that they should be avoiding, not approaching. So, in the first image below, you can see the changes I made to the vines and I honestly think they look a lot better.

The second thing that was suggest to me was to change the style of one of the orbs I had designed. My tutors pointed out that a size difference between the small orbs (point orb) and the Large orb (power boost) was not enough to differentiate the two so I would have to do something to make them a little more obvious. I didn't want to completely change my designs so I had a quick look into different 'point' objects in games to try and find a way to make the orb I had look different. A current theme that came across was a simple object with a icon in the centre of it, for example, the bright yellow boxes in the Super Mario series of games have a question mark in the middle of them. This helps to signify the player that the object should be interacted with so this is something I decided to incorporate into my design. I added a 1 onto the point orb so that the player knows how many points each orb is worth and it helps to make the designs not look too similar.

As I started making my prototype I was using the original level design I completed as I wanted to show what one of the simplest levels of my game would look like but, once some of my peers began to play the rough prototype, they told me that the level was not long enough and it just needed a little more to make it seem more complete as well as adding in a goal for the sprite to reach and a few more interactive objects. I took the advice on board and started to add onto my design, making the level a little longer so the prototype would have more to it and give a clearer understanding of the game play. 

Also, one of my tutors in the presentation mentioned that their maybe two many ways for a the player to die in game, for example jumping into the thorny vines, getting hit by an enemy or falling off a platform. This was a fair point so, in my design, I checked it over to make sure there weren't too many gaps between platforms for the player to fall down as this is one of the earlier levels and it isn't meant to be too difficult whereas in the later levels there will be far more difficult jumps for Light to make, making the levels more complicated than before. Even though this level is simple and there may not be a big enough gap for the player to fall down, I kept the leering darkness at the bottom to show that the threat is still there. It was also suggested to me that I add a thin layer of shadow to the top layer of the level to show the boundaries that the player can reach throughout the game. The larger level can be seen below with the added interactive sprites.


Older version of level

Newer version of level

My 3 minute presentation and feedback

My slides 


Today, after a few days of preparation, I completed a 3 minutes presentation which was me pitching my game ideas and concepts to two of my tutors, Mark and George. Below I have posted each one of my slides to show what my presentation would have looked at, I did leave one out though as it was a video of how the fading effect of my level would work but the slide just looks like a plain black so it was pointless to add it in. I was a little nervous about presenting by the whole thing was over with fairly quickly although I did forget to mention a few things about the game that my have confused my tutors a little bit but I hope not to much. They also mentioned that their were a few aspects that I needed to change in my design so I got working on making the changes right away.

Continuation of character concept art

Enemy and creature designs

As a continuation of my character concept art I began working on different possible designs for the recurring enemies of the game, Dark's henchmen. The henchmen are identical beings that have been sent out into the darkened forest to snuff out every trace of light that can be found and they began to do this by consuming any floating orbs of light they can find. Light will not be able to see these creatures in the level until the glowing orbs they have eaten gives out a faint light which will make the creature visible for a few seconds before they melt back into the darkness. The henchman are able to inflict damage on Light, three hits is enough to kill the player and bring them back to the most recent save point, but however, If Light is able to inflict 2 hits on the henchmen then they will fade away and leave behind a orb for the player to collect.

The first image below is a sketch sheet I completed with a few rough character designs for Dark's henchmen. I tried lots of different varieties of the character but I wasn't particularly happy with any of them and when I asked for feedback on the designs, I was told that none of them really suited the feel I was trying to give them which I completely agreed with, there was just something not right with them.  After a drawing rest period I went back to my designs and decided to give drawing something digitally instead to see if I could come up with a better concept. The second image below is my final design which I feel a lot happier about and I think it suits the style of my game a lot better than my previous designs did.

Also throughout the different levels, there will be a bonus task for player to complete which is completely optional. The extra bonus will be for the Light to find the frightened creature hidden somewhere in the level. This is simply added in as a extra task for the player to complete but also securing the representation of hope that Light brings. Below are some concept drawings of what some of the creatures will look like.