Thursday 2nd February (12-3 PM)
Myself, Aaron and Kyle communicated with Ollie over Discord to discuss prototype ideas. We had also discussed what areas we were strongest in, with Aaron and I taking on the roles of being the lead artists, Ollie being the lead coder and Kyle being our sound engineer.
- Horror – The player is a demon that has to deliver souls to the devil whilst resisting being exorcised by religious figures.
- Electrician – The player has to reroute wires, resistors and various other electrical items to solve puzzles.
- Loot boxes (Hank’s Happy Hour) – The player completes challenges that slowly increase in difficulty as the player progresses. The player is resisting buying loot boxes that may help or hinder the puzzles, creating the incentive to resist.
We decided to use “Electrician”, “Horror” and “Loot boxes” as the three ideas for the game pitch assignment, with the agreement to take the “Loot Box” idea further.
Monday 6th February (10-1 PM and 7-8 PM)
Myself and Aaron created a list of assets that would need to be created for the prototypes. As Aaron and I are the artists for the group, we split the asset creation between ourselves based on our strengths in sculpting and 3D modelling.
I started working on the shape of Hank the Presenter’s desk in Maya before exporting it as an FBX model to add detail within ZBrush.
Tuesday 7th February (10-2 PM)
Myself and Aaron arranged to meet up and develop Mechanical Madness further, building on the mechanics implemented by Ollie yesterday and creating a small blockout. We discussed how the wires in the prototype would ideally be numbered to indicate different resistance and would be connected to the resulting socket.
Saturday 11th February (10-2:45 PM)
I created some UI concepts for Mechanical Madness to include in the game pitch assignment, showcasing potential screens that the player could see. Additionally, I made a mock-up of what the HUD would look like as the player navigates the space.
Monday 13th February (10-5 PM)
Aaron and I used the workshop time and the time between the sessions to work on creating a block out for Hidden Horror while Ollie worked on the mechanics. The file was zipped and uploaded to OneDrive to allow for additional elements to be added from home. I also shared a PowerPoint file into our Discord group to allow for some of the slides to have information added; As the PowerPoint was uploaded to SharePoint, we could all work on it at the same time rather than one person making individual changes.
Wednesday 15th February (7-10 AM)
I created a mock-up of what the HUD would look like for our second prototype. As we wanted this prototype to be narrative-driven, I wanted the HUD to be hidden whilst the player is navigating and moving through the space and would reappear when the player is stopped, which would be non-invasive to the player’s experience.
Thursday 16th February (12-3 PM)
Myself, Aaron and Ollie attempted to download the horror prototype to university computers, but the download failed multiple times for unknown reasons. We used the remaining time to work on designing floor plans for Hank’s Happy Hour and creating an asset list based on the rooms.
Sunday 19th February (10-2 PM)
I created some concept art for Hank’s desk and how one of the challenge areas could potentially look as supporting material for the Game Pitch Assignment. As Aaron’s model of Hank is small in stature, I included books for him to stand on, giving the impression that he is of average height when behind the desk.
Monday 20th February (10-5 PM)
As I had created concept art for one of the challenge areas in Hank’s Happy Hour, I started to recreate it within Unreal using BSP brushes. Once complete, the level was transferred to OneDrive to allow for Ollie to add the mechanics.
Thursday 23rd February (12-3 PM)
At this stage, I started working on creating camera assets for Hank’s Happy Hour. As Hank’s Happy Hour is set as a gameshow and sites such as Sketchfab and CGTrader did not provide the type of camera we were looking for, I began working on creating some.
Monday 27th February (10-5 PM)
I finalised the Game Pitch PowerPoint with the team and assisted with adding detail to the script. Furthermore, I made variations of currency for Hank’s Happy Hour in Photoshop with normal maps to capture the details.
Tuesday 28th February (10-1 PM)
I modelled two variations of loot boxes and created textures for each respective box. Lootbox icons were also created for the inventory system in Photoshop.
