345 Project 2

'My Girlfriend is a Ghost?!'
By Jovanny Castanedo and Cameron Wetzel Hillman

Genre: Horror/Comedy/Romance
Synopsis: Dave unknowingly moves into a haunted house, but sometimes true love overcomes vengeful ghouls.

Animatic:
Dropbox Link to Animatic

The animated storyboard was very simple to make. I used Da Vinci Resolve, a video editor, and stole countless sounds from YouTube, which is much better than using Photoshop's awful timeline editor and terrible free stock sounds. It is the culmination of weeks of not doing much.

Storyboard:
The precursor to the Animatic. For this, I used Adobe Flash CS13. Compared to Photoshop again, it is much better at managing a series of frames with multiple layers, as well as drawing simple graphics that can be manipulated quickly. The most difficult part is getting a shot to look right, in terms of angle and detail.

Character Models:
Before I started on character modeling, I made the beat board. The script was already written and it was simple to just start the beat board. I didn't feel like doing the character sheets in the slightest, so I dumped it on my partner Jovanny. He took some designs I had made for the beat board and other rough sketches I did.

Beat Board:
As stated before, the beat board was made before character construction. The preliminary creation stuff is stupid and I hate it. I started out shortly after finishing the beat sheet with Jovanny, and liked the first panel I drew so much that I had no reason to try to design other characters.

Script:
This was pretty easy to do. Most inspiration came from The Ring and The Grudge, with

Beat Sheet:
The idea for the story came about pretty quickly. When we were assigned a project and had to find a teammate, I dragged my feet because I don't know anyone in the class and no one approached me. It didn't take long for me to come up with the idea, as I read a lot of weird horror stories and always enjoy this specific kind of story. Jovanny provided very little in terms of structure. He did sort of help with the script, though.

Story Project 1

In this assignment, we went through several tasks that led to the creation of a short animation, including a script, storyboard, and animatic. Restrictions applied, such as no dialogue and characters had to be inanimate objects.

Title: 'The Lumbering'
Synopsis: Three log police officers arrive at the property of a suspected cult populated by pine beetles. Things get much weirder.

Animatic:
Dropbox Link 
Most if not all of the sounds in the animatic are taken from videos found on YouTube, which I then opened in Audacity and cut the specific clips I wanted. There are sounds from Twin Peaks: The Return, Team Fortress 2, Dark Souls, Bloodborne, Dead Space, Diablo 2, and The Thing. The first draft was well over a minute, forcing me to remove several shots and cut others' lengths in half.

Storyboard:
When creating the storyboard, I frequently reused assets through different frames, as well as from the beat board. There is not a large amount of detail because I typically spend far too much time on extraneous elements and end up taking several hours to design only a few slides, so I made a very conscious decision to only put the bare essentials and cheat whenever I could.

Beat Board:
As I was thinking about what certain shots were going to look like, I removed many parts that appeared in the script due to not being able to express them in a strictly visual manner or a lack of time. At this point, it was incredibly apparent that my story was completely insane and probably unworkable.

Character Construction:
 
Of my three character models, my peers seemed to be most interested in the log cop. None of these had much thought behind them. I essentially didn't know what I would do with any of them past the initial idea.

Script:
When writing the script, I frequently stopped to imagine what a psychiatrist or federal investigator might think about it. Half of the events in it were not included in the storyboard because they took too much time.

Story:
During the process of collecting reference images and writing beats and a synopsis, I had to struggle against thoughts of how the general idea was nonsense and my peers most likely would not understand it. I also do not recommend researching cults when it's dark out and you're all alone.

373 Game Scene - Final Presentation

Here is the presentation my group had prepared for the final class session. It details the minutiae of the scene we had put together, highlighting who did what. At the end is a walkthrough video that shows everything in action.

Each part of the buildings is made with modular function in mind. The various parts, such as corners, doorways, and roofing, are individual sections that can be shifted around at will to create another building. The same is available for the outside walls and staircases; the walls are one generic asset that was duplicated and snapped together to form larger and longer sections.

The terrain, particle and environment effects, and placement of assets was handled by other group members. As I have detailed previously, I was given the task of creating a laundry list of small assets to flesh out the scenery. This includes furniture, containers, decorative items, gates and fences, and so on. In addition, I attempted to unwrap each model's UV data and arrange them in a way that would fit within the limited texture data we were allotted. In the end, my teammates took what I had created and textured and arranged my models how they saw fit.

Creating the models was not difficult. I was given ample polygon budgets, and while initially I attempted to keep my polycounts as low as possible, on later models I focused on providing more detail that the small textures could provide. My process involves a lot of extruding to slowly mold a model into a desired shape piece by piece, and also breaking something down into one specific part or half and mirroring it through the necessary axises when it's good enough to do so. The most difficult and time consuming part was unwrapping UVs. It was unfortunate that I spent so much of my resources on trying to intelligently place all the different UV spaces, when it so happened to be that my teammates found my UVs to be poorly cut and they ended up rearranging everything to fill out available space. It made me feel as though I had not contributed in a meaningful way.

Going forward, I would have liked to have a project of this scope with no other distractions to take up time and energy, so I could really make something fantastic. I imagine that, in the industry, people aren't constantly having to worry about other simultaneous projects that aren't directly related to their main field of work in a tangible manner. I found that my group seemed to have created more professional materials than I had provided, which again made me feel less than enthused in my work.

3D Level 2 Playtest

For the final project in my 270 course, we were given a set of assets in Unity and tasked with blocking out a full level. The theme was supposed to be a 3D stealth-platformer. Among the assets were some simple pickups, a variety of environmental detail, robot enemies that followed a set tracking path, and scripting for ending the level.

My level was initially based on a concept for a different assignment. I liked the idea of it enough that I reused some elements, namely the waterfall sequence and the underground parts. Some things were not able to be recreated in Unity due to my lack of programming knowledge.

I also didn't really know a way to make what I was given into what was assigned. I ended up just using the patrol robots as platforming obstacles and made a series of short courses that would be combined to create a semi cohesive level.

Players responded favorably to my level. They liked the use of robots as obstacles and the steadily ramping up challenge of the level. They appreciated how I split the level into sections that were completed individually to prevent them having to repeat parts they already got past. They were compelled to get past the challenge and did not find it to be unfair in most cases. 

A few players did not respond as favorably to the challenge, finding the player controller too unforgiving and ill-designed to use. Some players opted to skip levels after dying several times in order to see what the other levels offered, rather than wait to do so after completing what they were currently playing.

Players said that, in order to improve the level, I should change the lighting to make the level more pleasant to look at. They noted it was fairly dark in important areas and hard to see obstacles. Another way to make the level better would be to seamlessly transition between each segment as they are completed. This is possible to do in Unity, but requires me to do some scripting that I probably cannot do. Lastly, the platforming could be a bit tighter to account for the player controller's limited movement ability.

The biggest failure of the levels I created is that they don't exactly fit what was supposed to be, which was a stealth-focused platformer that encourages exploration. I just made a straight platforming challenge. At this point, with the feedback I received, I doubt I could add anything meaningful to the level besides tighten up what is already there.

In conclusion, more players enjoyed playing the level than those that did not. I hope it is seen as fun and interesting.

Yet Another 373 Final Project Update

All of my current models have been UV'd and are placed within the same UV texture spaces in preparation for texturing. This was very taxing. I also have centered everything at the origin, although the scale is considerably different for each model. It is a good thing that Unity allows models to be rescaled in-engine.

During the week, I will try to help my team get the models textured, as well as create some more models for them to utilize.

370 3D Level Feedback 1

The final part of the 370 course involves utilizing the Unity engine and its default assets to design a short 3D level. The assigned theme was 'mad science', but I completely ignored any aesthetics and focused entirely on how the level played.

When players tested my level, a few things were apparent almost immediately. The first was that the placement of the camera behind the player was disorienting. I found that it helped judge distances between jumps, but players disagreed. Another issue was that jumps were spaced with little leniency and ended up being too restrictive. Players all too easily missed the next platform and fell into the void. Third, there weren't enough safe spaces a player could fall onto when missing a jump to prevent requiring a restart of the entire level. I didn't anticipate players would fail in certain spots and so did not place anything underneath.

Playtesters also voiced their enjoyment with the level. It provided an adequate and interesting challenge, and had a critical path that was easy to follow. They also noted that it could be exciting at times, which is always a good part of feedback.

Many problems arose from the default player controller provided by Unity for prototyping purposes. It has a very short jump height and poor turning controls. These values are able to be changed in order to perform much more smoothly, but we were not allowed to do so and had to design the level with such controls in mind.

The reason many jumps in my level were outright missed by playtesters involved how the player controller's collision is represented by a capsule. Such a collider affects the nature of jumps in a negative way, especially around the edges of platforms. To explain further, standing on an edge means the rounded bottom of the collider is sliding downwards due to gravitational forces. While this is slight, it prevents the player from reliably jumping off the edge to another platform as they are technically not fully grounded; additionally, the player can hit the edge of a platform and end up sliding off.

In a revised version, I have widened many platforms to give ample room for the player to navigate and give off less of a cramped feeling. I also added more safe spaces to prevent instant failure, and streamlined certain platforms to ensure the player can continue forward without unintentionally falling off or getting stuck on geometry.

Another 373 Final Project Update

Most models have been completed. There are a few left, like some jars and pillows. The setpiece for our scene, an ornate fountain, has been modeled as well, though it needs more polish. Many items have had their UVs unwrapped and are ready for texturing.

The fountain will continue to pose a serious and threatening challenge. We need to have water, sound, and make it more detailed. None of those tasks will be easy, especially this late into production.

Some extra models I made include some torches (or braziers or whatever). These were much more interesting to make than things like sacks and candles.

I am well within my limits for the tri-count. The most difficult thing to look at will be getting everything into limited UV texture space, as we are restricted to a few different maps for all our textures for all our models.

373 Final Project Update

I have completed a majority of the models I was assigned by my team. This includes multiple types of pots, sacks, baskets, shelves, different collections of hay, fences, a table, forge, mill, key, and wood lattice.

What is left to complete entails the fountain set piece, and a few different combined objects, like collections of jars and different types of rugs. Once I complete all the models, I will be working to unwrap all their UVs and eventually texturing them. I hope my team is happy with what I have at this time.

Here are some pictures of my entire collection:

If I complete the assigned objects with time left to spare, I can focus on making a few extra models that can be used to add flair to the scene. What I had in mind ranges from small paintings to other knick knacks.

I foresee the fountain set piece to be quite difficult, as my time is under considerable strain from multiple other projects in different classes. Tri counts are also quite difficult to maintain!

2D Maze Lv1 Version 2 - Feedback

I did not make very many changes between the previous version and this one. The main issue was the level was much too long, so I just grabbed some tiles in Photoshop and pasted them to cover up the superfluous sections, and blocked it off with invisible tiles in Gamemaker. I also made the foreground and background into one image, since separating them caused some hiccups with all the graphical elements.

Among those who tested the new version of my level, they all seemed to appreciate the streamlined path to the goal. People also previously noted the graphical hitches, and did not make any comment in terms of that, as I had fixed it. Since the level is quicker to solve, there was less anyone could really say about it.

2D Maze - Feedback

A recent project we started in class is working with pre-made GameMaker assets to create our own 2D mazes. After working to make the level, everyone showcased their level to everyone else for playtesting. In this post, I will be detailing my own level as well as recalling the feedback I received from those that played it.

The assigned theme is 'western' and we have been provided with both art assets and game objects that make the level function. The player character has their movement limited to 4 directions, adding an extra challenge that must be kept in mind as to not make a level that is frustrating to navigate due to hitting walls and barriers.

As I was thinking about the limited movement, I decided to double the size of my level from the initial dimensions. This allowed larger hallways in my maze, as well as a more complex layout. From start to finish and without going through wrong paths, it can take over a minute to reach the goal. Since the intended difficulty is 'easy', many wrong paths are very short and always have a defined marker to indicate its end. I also placed coins on wrong paths that were visible from the main path as to make the player second-guess their choices and play with them a bit.

Players who went through my maze typically enjoyed it. Out of 8 people, only 2 had non-positive responses. Generally, they liked the layout of the maze, with clearly defined boundaries and paths. The two people that did not like the maze found it too complex and that wrong paths led them along too much before revealing their nature. Despite the mostly positive responses, there are areas that need improvement. Those would include reducing the overall size to make navigating the maze quicker, and cutting wrong paths to be less time-consuming.

Next, I will be taking the feedback I had received and making the necessary improvements.

Asset Creation - Final Project

The current project we are working on is going to take a large amount of effort. A group consisting of 3 other people and myself is tasked with creating a functional game scene based upon a preexisting game product. Our team is decided on recreating an olive farm from Assassin's Creed: Origins.

Here is an annotated map that highlights points of interest and the main path a player would take through the scene.

My job will be to create a plethora of models that will be used to decorate the scene. This will be anything from candles to pots to bundles of pots to wooden frames covered with rags. Here is our proposed list of models that serves as my guide for creation.

As our project is meant to recreate elements from an existing game, our team has many references taken directly from AS:O that will be very helpful. Here is a small helping of the images from our library of reference.

The project is due in the beginning of May, so the team is focused on getting each of our tasks completed through April. As of now, I do not have anything completed. Other projects have been drawing my attention, as they have much closer deadlines. As soon as I can devote full attention to this project, I believe I can reasonably complete many of my assigned tasks.

DnD Tiered Map Feedback

Last week, a team of 4 people, including myself, each created their own level. The project they were created for specified that we make our levels link together and be able to be played in a sequence. This meant that our team had to coordinate and utilize a previously prepared rule sheet to generate a sequence of difficulty and stat boosting that theoretical players would experience as they went through our set of levels.

I took on the task of creating the first level, which would serve as a sort of introduction to mechanics and the setting, as any first level should be. Players start with basic stats for their chosen class. The setting was an alien prison in a post-apocalyptic world, so players also start in a prison cell and work their way though the cell block, or the sewers. The level itself is littered with items and enemy encounters, not to mention two different boss encounters.

There are three paths that the player is able take through the level. Each has a slightly different diversionary encounter before linking up to the exit. For the most part, the level is designed to provide a series of interesting setpieces rather than a very difficult challenge. This is due to how players have no items or abilities, so I felt it was better to have something quick and fun to give players a few helpful items and get them to later levels where there is more intense gameplay.

During playtesting, I had two players go through my level. The first few enemy encounters went smoothly, although the enemies blocking the main path proved a bit difficult and quickly managed to kill a player whenever one was encountered. 

The players chose to take the left path to the sewers. An item available right before entering allows a character to walk through water without restrictions, as water limits movement by a few spaces. The encounter involves a giant monster gator, which speeds down in a straight line every turn and kills anything in its way. The player with the item sped through with no problem, while the other player had to take numerous turns to circumnavigate the boss. To make things more interesting, the boss starts to change their path to follow the player directly after a few turns.

After passing the gator boss, players are given a healing item. It allows one full heal and can be used to revive a downed player to full health, and recharges at each checkpoint. This helps the player immensely, as they lack any healing spells, as well as being given a guaranteed source of healing for the following levels.

The level ends with a little timed minigame. The switch opens a door, and in front of the door is an enemy that wants to play a game of rock-paper-scissors. If the player loses, they must reactivate the switch. Winning allows them to reach the exit and complete the level. My playtesters found some novelty in ending a level in this manner.

Here is an annotated version of the level, displaying the main paths and providing simple explanations of the various elements.

The two players that went through my level enjoyed themselves. There was not very many issues other than the very difficult enemies right at the beginning. In the future, I would spread things out more, perhaps cutting out multiple paths for a more unified sequence of events.

Modular Hallway

This project involved creating various pieces that are wholly separate but able to be placed in a game engine to emulate a hallway. The requirements included two individual hallway pieces, two turns, a set of 'floaters' to create detail, and trim that sat between pieces to hide gaps.

The project only had a week to be completed. Unfortunately, I became quite ill and was that way for several weeks. This limited my ability to adequately work on the project. I only got some elements completed, and without much polish.

I faced difficulty in generating a UV map, as the project parameters limited it to one UV map for all pieces. As a result, I believe I got the bare minimum of detail I could place on the textures.

I wish I had had more time and energy to put more effort into the project. I am not satisfied with what I have completed, and I hope this experience has a lasting effect on me.

DnD Map 2 - Feedback

This week, I created another Dungeons and Dragons level. It is a lot like the previous level I had designed, although with different parameters and specifications. It has a specific setting (post-apocalypse alien invasion) and location/task (prison break).

One aspect that needed care and attention was the addition of checkpoints. Earlier levels were created in the manner of being a tutorial level that intended to teach players various mechanics in a minimally-threatening environment.

For this new level, such a restriction was not applied, so it is possible and expected for players to be able to die under normal circumstances. As a result, I just placed several checkpoints at what I believed to be fair locations while providing acceptable challenges as well as interesting setpieces.

There exists two main paths. At the start, the player faces a simple enemy and an early opportunity to pick up an item. Leaving the first room leads to a large yard with another simple enemy and another item, dynamite. Each turn after entering the yard, another enemy enters from the lower room, meaning the longer it takes the player to complete the objective the more enemies appear. 

With the dynamite, the player has the choice of blowing up one of two doors that lead to completely different encounters. The upper path goes down into the sewers, fighting some mutant alligators and their king in a straightforward encounter. The bottom path also has some combat encounters, but also has an additional item and a more difficult boss encounter.

Two individual players tested my level. They both chose the lower path after getting dynamite, which leads through the upper levels of the prison. They faced few issues getting through many of the enemy and environment encounters, and generally enjoyed themselves. As a conclusion to the level, players are faced with a difficult set piece. A boss-tier enemy fires upon the player as they attempt to jump across a pit of fire. Falling into the pit equals instant death and boots the player to a previous checkpoint, which is located incredibly close. It was designed to be more ridiculous and entertaining over fair to give the ending a bit more oomph, but is not impossible by any means as directly killing the boss with ranged attacks leads to victory.

It is unfortunate that both players went the same direction, as I would have liked to see the other path in action. In the end, I believe this level is a lot of fun for whoever plays it, if not too short.

Blacksmith Scene

A recording of the scene:

This project had two different phases. The initial phase involved creating a small variety of models with strict specifications. The theme was intended to maintain a medieval blacksmith workshop setting, which meant a very particular look. Each model required two versions, one made with a high amount of fidelity and another without. The standard design philosophy in today's modern 3D modeling is to generate detail from a high-quality model and put a picture of that detail onto the lower-quality version for the sake of performance.

Pictured above is the low poly brick forge with materials applied

My scene contains a brick forge, solid-metal anvil, small hammer, and some other wooden objects, including a stool, bucket, barrel, and cart. After completing all models with Autodesk Maya, I created textures for them using Allegorithmic Substance Painter. Unfortunately, I failed to generate ambient occlusion and other required maps, which makes the resulting texture files look poor as well as not meeting the project requirements.

Once the models were finished and textures created, I created a scene in Unity. Later, I added terrain with various textures and heights, lighting, ambient sounds, particle effects, and a camera with movement to complete the scene. Such is available for viewing above if you have not done so already.

I encountered several issues throughout the course of this project phase. Some were able to be solved, such as modeling constraints, while others went without mercy, like severe lighting issues and missing ambient occlusion maps. What I have learned has encouraged growth within the field of game development, and I hope that in the future I can more readily meet demands.

DnD Map Version 2 - Feedback

As a followup to the previous Dungeons and Dragons map I had created a few weeks ago, here I am showcasing the second version that was designed from feedback on the first version.

My main focus for improving my Dungeons and Dragons map was to create a more coherent flow. Instead of 3 mostly incongruous paths, there now exists a singular main path with two highly optional side routes. On the main path, the boss (denoted by the '2' icon) assaults the player with waves of delayed energy. The player is able to roll to block with a forgiving range of success, but failure results in taking damage and being knocked backwards several spaces. It is possible to make a run directly through and fight the boss within a few turns.

From the last version, I had placed alternate routes for players less lucky or aggressive that missed out on the early shortcut and initial main route. However, I mentioned earlier how they were almost inconsequential, depending on the player's luck. The second path was all but useless due to its off-placed and inconvenient location. There was no reason to bother spending the extra turns to follow it over other paths.

To rectify such poor design, I looped the general layouts into the main path. This allows players a greater amount of choice, as even though the main path is the most obvious and quickest path, safer and less demanding paths exist. The spike trap exists in mostly the same incarnation as before, just with less spikes to maneuver. I find that if the player is presented with a challenge and successfully completes the challenge once or twice, proving they understand or at least are able to beat it, further repeating the challenge is nothing short of frustrating and lazy.

Two options exist for taking on the boss. The first is direct assault. The main path leads straight into the boss with no other turns. Side paths allow the player to bypass the boss' attacks until they get within combat range, at which point they have no other option but to fight. The second option is to take an alternate path along a side route, leading through a tough trapped room, and ending up behind the boss. Taking this alternate path allows players to completely bypass combat with the boss and continue on to the main objective of the dungeon.

Players responded positively to the changes made to my map. They saw them as improvements, and commended their well-thought nature. I hope to continue to develop well-liked levels.

Simple DnD Map Feedback

The first assignment that was given to our level design class turned out to be a quick and easy task. My knowledge of tabletop game mechanics and the relevant design theories of an interesting level is limited. I had gained some understanding through osmosis, as many forms of media make reference to or outright borrow mechanics.

For my scenario, the main objective is to reach the end of the dungeon within a certain amount of turns. In the final room is a magic nuclear device that is counting down to detonation, and your group needs to get there before it does. Along the way are a series of traps and encounters, which include a secret path through the dungeon, a trap-laden passage, a health-restoring barbecue, and the boss that must be defeated to find the nuke.

Out of two playtesters, both found the scenario I had created to be enjoyable. The first attempt ended with defeat at the boss of the dungeon, although it was more due to my misunderstanding as to how the boss is played and how damage works. A second attempt was met with victory on the last turn before the nuke blew up.

Most of what went wrong was related to my lack of understanding. All of the encounters and traps consist of a dice roll that doesn't take into account a player's skills. The boss also has what some would consider to be an unwelcome amount of defense, taking much too long to beat. Another problem is the magic nuke, which can be failed though chance as well, possibly upsetting the player through no fault of their own.

As the level proceeds, the encounters provide adequate mechanisms for showing the player how the game functions. The player comes across a variety of encounters that work to get them used to rolling dice and making movement decisions.

Because of how this is intended to be the first level, the challenge is limited to avoiding spike traps and fighting the boss, and then defusing the bomb. I wouldn't expect many players to find it particularly unfair, as the countdown timer can be modified to give additional turns. The level leaves very little to discover other than a few paths that lead directly to the boss encounter, and then the final room. In a way, the level could end up being too simple if the player manages to open the shortcut at the beginning.

In the future, revisions to my level would focus on allowing the player to adequately tackle challenges using their set skills instead of it being all luck-based. That would allow for a greater sense of agency, enhancing flow and enjoyment of the player.