Game Studio - Reflective Journal

Week 1:

Our team has welcomed a new member giving us a total of 6 members, 3 programmers and 3 artists. Our project still has the same goal of creating a visually appealing platformer, with some yet to be decided mechanics. Currently our build has seen no major changes as we are still finalizing our choices but i have started putting together a document so we can finally move in a proper direction. 

Week 2:

We have struggled with finalizing decisions for a large portion of our development time and saw a lot of unsteady progress throughout the first trimester. I made a document meant to better showcase each members ideas for the project, covering everything from gameplay focus to story beats. 

We all completed this document separately and discussed our ideas during our meeting. Together we chose mechanics and story elements we liked most and discussed further what our project build would ultimately showcase. 

Our Build will consist of a tutorial like beginning with jumping challenges and some enemies to engage with. We plan to have some simple puzzles and ultimately end with a boss fight against Pegasus, the winged horse. This level will start the player at the foot of the mountain or emerging from the forest. The player will have access to their abilities, and they will climb a mountain and explore caves springs before facing the final boss. The boss fight itself will have two stages. One atop the mountain, and the second half in a large cavern below. 

I also discussed the idea of changing the player's animation style to sprite sheets. I find the animation of bones to be tedious and unsatisfying to view. Our team has decided to give it a go, and i've begun some test animations. 

This is an Idle animation with only subtle changes to the chest and head to animate the characters breathing. 

Week 3:

I've finished most of the player animations. Idle, Running, Jumping/Falling, and Wall-sliding. 

 

We received feedback and were told to work on games feel as it came off as clunky. This also refers to the animations, particularly when transforming. I was asked to prepare a controller for the sprites sheets so we could better see the differences or any advantages to the switch. 

Week 4:

This Week I finished the Sprite Sheet Animations, adding a Hit, Death, and Dash animations. The Dash animation allowed me to better understand the Sprite Library feature and should be useful for the attack animations later. 

I began work on enemy sprites and animations. Enemy sprites are using bones and some extra sprites. I've chosen to animate them as such because its faster and was apart of my original pitch that enemies would look like puppets. While we are no longer going for such exact look, it still works fine. 

I've finished animating the boar enemy and have finished the sprites for a flying harpy enemy. The harpy uses extra sprites for its wings to allow for a more pleasing flapping effect. 

In today's class we showed off the new build and given feedback about changes to animations that could give them more weight and reduce their floaty effect. Adding "Juice" like kicking up dust and adjusting the timing might allow for better feel. I'm going to work on having more frames for our jumps and adding an animation for our wall climb. 

Its apparent that switching to a whole new animation style is both unnecessary and beyond my abilities. I'll be now working to fix and better transition our current animations attempting to use sprite libraries to add the needed substance currently missing from the rigged animations. This method can be seen in mobile titles where animations often switch out parts to create "rotating" effect. With enough time I should be able to make some plausible animations that allow for interesting effects and transformations. 

Week 6:

- Sprite Libraries

- Wing Dash

Week 7:

- Attack Animation

- Apollo Animation

3118GFS - Ross Hay - s5176168 - Assignment Critical Analysis

Fallout 4's Synthetic Persons: Representation Of Social And Technological Contemporary Issues - A Critical Analysis by Ross Hay

Fallout is a series known for its unique and immersive setting in an alternate post-war America, home to mutants, robots, and not least of all humans. Its fourth main title installment, Fallout 4, covers many contemporary issues and among them is the discussion of synthetic life, or Synth as they are referred to in game. A Synth is a robotic humanoid most commonly referred to in today's media as an 'Android' or even a 'Replicant' in the case of those familiar with Blade Runner (1982). Fallout 4's presentation of synthetic life, through the use of real-world inspirations, how it interacts with the player, and how its major factions view them, leads to subtle and very deep take on today's contemporary issues of Social Justice and Technological concerns.

Part 1: Real World Contemporary Issues.

The modern world has a strong belief in social justice and to the rights, equalities, and representation of today's people. There is so much belief in these values that we begin to see further development in the rights afforded to creatures outside of humanity, such a livestock and native or even invasive species. The common factor between both humanity and other animal species is that both are undeniably living creatures, and therefore given rights to fair treatment and protection, allowing them to thrive or escape the threat of extinction, especially when such threat is brought upon by human activities.

With the ever-rising milestones of technology, artificial intelligence has also seen great advancements. As recent as the last couple of years, artificial intelligence has managed to carry out exceptional displays of complex behaviors and shown great compacity for further self-learning. These advancements bring to question, just how far off is artificial intelligence from being considered or even accepted as a living entity, and whether or not it will be afforded the same rights as that of a human person.

Additionally, trust in Artificial Intelligence remains to be earned. Technology requires both faith in the technology and its creator, with the latter first building its reputation as a result of their productions. Three characteristics can be analyzed in order to assess a technology's trustworthiness. (1) the performance of the technology, (2) its process/attributes, and (3) its purpose (Cutter Business Technology Journal, 2018). However, technology's ability to replace the workforce can result in affected persons losing their jobs and therefore showing distain and becoming distrustful of such technology. 

In the case of the Synths from Fallout, players are told early on that The Institute isn't a trustworthy faction, and that their synths are very dangerous, being almost indistinguishable from a human person. The synths are used primarily as a military force and to kidnap and replace persons across the commonwealth, leading to distrust and fear amongst the populous. The Brotherhood would go as far as to destroy the synths, viewing them as too great a weapon and a threat to humanity as a whole.

Part 2: The Player's Interactions 

Throughout the game, players will encounter three types of Synth, generation 1, 2, and 3s. The most common of these types are the generation 1's, which act as generic enemies for player to fight, and are viewed by the majority of people in Fallout 4's Commonwealth as no more than humanoid robots showing no clear signs of free will or emotion. 

Generation 2s offer an interesting take as they have the likeness of a generation 1, appearing more robotic by appearance, but have memories installed into their brains from a living human being, making them a strong case for a 'living' being as their behavior and personality are a continuation of the being their memories originated from.

Unlike the imported memories of the Gen 2's, Generation 3 Synths are the final and most controversial of the Institute's creations. Both built and programmed to be indistinguishable from humans, Gen 3s are used to intercept and replace people across the wasteland, acting as spies and sleeper agents to spread the Institutes control.

Part 4: Factions Views and the Railroad's Shortcomings

Fallout 4's factions each hold unique perspectives on the synths and their impact on the commonwealth. Among these factions are the Brotherhood and Institute, both of whom view synths as powerful weapons that have the potential to completely control the wasteland. The brotherhood's reasoning boils down to their view of technology and how humanity will end up destroying themselves again, as seen with the nuclear end to the Great war. The Institute on the other hand, are the creators and masterminds behind the synthetic threat, and use them to kidnap individuals and slowly eliminate the irradiated and impure remains of humanity. On the smaller end of the conflict, The Minute Men and Railroad hold less power than their army sized rivals, but both offer their own views on the synth dilemma, The Railroad in particular creating their faction around the goal of helping the synths escape their enslavement by The Institute. 

The Railroad comes from a similarly named real world inspiration known as the "Underground Railroad", a group that helped over 30,000 people to escape slavery through underground railway systems under America in the 19th century (Historica Minutes, 2010). Like their post-apocalyptic counterparts, the Underground Railroad used discrete routes, code words, and call signs to move affected people to safety.

While the rescue of slaves is in itself a noble action, Fallout's Railroad fails to capture the same sentiment on account of their use of mind wipes to give rescued synths a new identity. This idea most likely refers to the possible providing of a new identity to an escaped slave in order to better evade capture by becoming officially a new person, one not associated with their enslaved past. Where this fails is the Railroads contradictory ideology of viewing Synths as sentient persons while reducing them to only their machine body by erasing their memories and personality, essentially killing the original and birthing a new person into an empty shell. 

Concluding Thoughts:

Fallout 4 has given players the opportunity to explore and exercise their own perspectives through a role play experience inspires players to engage in discussions and to come to their own conclusions on AI and synthetic life. The real-world parallels serve to ground the experience and allow players to better sympathize with these groups all while remaining neutral to allow players to decide for themselves and not undermine the achievements of their inspirations. 

Refs

Sources found through Wikipedia's references (--):

- (49) Historica Minutes, July 6, 2010 - Underground Railroad (archive.org)\

- Keng Siau and Weiyu Wang, Cutter Business Technology Journal, 2018 - Building-Trust-in-Artificial-Intelligence-Machine-Learning-and-Robotics.pdf (researchgate.net)

3118GFS - Ross Hay - s5176168 - Reflective Journal

Disclaimer: images currently not uploading

 

Week 1;

In our first week we discussed the meaning of Contemporary Issues in games design. Contemporary is used to describe current issues in today's world. 

We discussed in a small group the meaning of Identity in games, firstly by discussing what that even requires us to explore. I proposed 3 games that all covered what i believed Identity could mean. Firstly, i mentioned Dragon Age: Origins and how i provided many different starts to the story depending on what race and gender you choose. I thought it also worth mentioning that despite the game's director claiming that the game treated both male and female characters equally, many scenes play out very differently depending on the players choice, potentially leading to uncomfortable scenarios. According to a paper discussing the inequality in Dragon Age Origins, they highlight that in one of the potential starts of the game, in this case an elven noble, the player character is the bride/groom of an arranged marriage. They talk of the differences in scene depending on whether the player is male or female, that after being knocked out cold they'll either awake in the temple where they were assaulted or in the case of the female character, awake alongside other kidnapped women (Willy Novianto Wuntu, Abdurrosyid Abdurrosyid, 2022)

Paper discussing gender equality: 

GENDER DISCRIMINATION IN DRAGON AGE: ORIGINS GAME NARRATIVE, Willy Novianto Wuntu, Abdurrosyid Abdurrosyid, 2022

GENDER DISCRIMINATION IN DRAGON AGE: ORIGINS GAME NARRATIVE | Wuntu | PARADIGM: Journal of Language and Literary Studies (uin-malang.ac.id)

Secondly, i brought up Saints Row (2022) and its decision to keep the player characters gender unmentioned, instead allowing players to build a character purely cosmetically. 

(Saints Row (2022) character creation: How to customise your Boss | Rock Paper Shotgun)

Thirdly, Assassin's Creed Odyssey, set in Ancient Greece, allows the player seemingly equal opportunity regardless of sex. I realise that identity cover more than just one's sex and preferred pronouns and these examples are just the first three games that came to mind. 

After this discussion we looked into details about our assessment pieces. Our first assessment piece requires us to critically analyse and discuss a game of our choosing and how it covers a contemporary issue. After some thought i have arrived at Fallout 4 and it's depiction of what makes us human. Similar to Blade Runner, Fallout 4 tackles the topic of synthetic life and how humanity views it. This topic has been one I've been passionate about for some time and believe fits in with the contemporary issue of one's identity.

Week 2;

what issues do i want to cover in Fallout 4

could 'hero is dead again' serve as influence for a game idea? Jobless reincarnation, displaced persons forming a group to look for others. 
- one strong character, many weaker minions?

We discussed in what ways game designers could design thought provoking and impactful experiences for their players. As groups we discussed what games used narrative, mechanics, and character presentation to explore contemporary issues. I brought up Fallout 4 and its discussion of synthetic persons, and while remaining a big portion of the game's narrative, it remains subtle enough as not to overwhelm players. We also talked about gambling in video games and how deceptive some titles are, going as far as to fake player interaction in order to trick players into replenishing their resources through micro-transactions. 

Later, we were prompted to come up with a game idea that covered one of the discussed contemporary issues. My group first explored the idea of gambling and fine print security issues, then face the problem of having no intrigue save for maybe giving the player character promotions for each successful signing. We then came up with the idea of being a content creator and signing brand deals while also attempting to increase viewer counts. The stress would build as players were faced with more demanding adverts and greater online presence. 

For Assessment 3, we need to design a game that covers a contemporary issue. My current idea is to take inspiration from two stories, 'Hero Must Die. Again', and Jobless Reincarnation. In Hero Must Die, the player is at the end of their character's story, having defeated the demon lord, the hero perished. However, they are revived by divine power and given the opportunity to set straight their affairs and help rebuild the kingdom. The catch to this revival, however, is that the hero only has a set time to live and grows weaker as they reach their demise. This creates a unique gameplay loop of upgrading your new party members with experience and flashier equipment, while your character loses levels and must settle for weaker and weaker equipment. 

Jobless Reincarnation has plot point in which a many people are displaced from their homes and randomly found in other parts of the world. I find a potentially interesting idea here where displaced persons work together to find other lost persons. Together with Hero Is Dead, i believe a unique pairing of the two could result in interesting gameplay and narrative while coving a contemporary issue like that of Refugees or Slavery.

Week 3:

formal, general discussions with friends, video analysis'. 

Week 3 covered the topic of critical analysis in video games. We discussed the what formats this could take, with one being textual, one of the most recognisable means of analysis. Looking at the game's use of narrative, mechanic, aesthetic, and player experience, we can dissect and write a formal document analysing most every aspect of the game. This approach certainly seems thorough but i worry it'll come off long winded and serve better as a reference and proof of understanding.

I've watched a good few analysis and retrospective videos covering a range of titles, and while i can't remember all the details in them, i found myself very impressed with the well spoken nature of the creator. These days I believe my perceptive abilities and attention span to be quite fickle, so i enjoy watching these longer videos that manage to hold my interest. I often think of one video in particular that made me better appreciate thought out and diverse mechanics, particularly enemy design. In this video the author highlighted that in Fallout 4, while many enemies could be considered generic, in contrast to the previous games in the series,, they are a huge step in mechanics. For example, Death Claws in Fallout 3 and New Vegas were basically fast melee units with high health pools, while in Fallout 4, They could grab, yell, and throw objects but most impressive to me was the highlighting of the hunched stance they took, intimidating yes, but most importantly and in conjunction with their zig-zagging run, it let them hide their soft bellies which was their weak point.

Sorry, i'm treating this like an actual journal. Back to the point of assessment, I plan to cover three main topics of Fallout 4 in regard to the Synths. One, the player's window into the Synth problem, covering both the synths they fight as well as befriend. Second, Faction perception of Synths and in particular their treatment towards them. And thirdly, the relevance to the real world with both its Social and Technological messages.

Week 4:

- potential ethical dilemmas when designing games around social justice

- consider the ethical balance between artistic expression and potential harm. Provide your thoughts.

This Week's topic is Social Justice, and the failed attempts at representing them in games design. We covered games that attempted to address topics such as immigration, war, and slavery and how they failed to capture the necessary tone and respect needed to properly convey these issues. 

Escape from Woomera, covers the issue of how immigrants have been treated in Australia. The real life inspiration is that of the prison-like camps asylum seekers are forced to inhabit against their will. The game fails to properly address the issue as in greatly simplifies to the struggles of affected persons, and promoted leaving these facilities unlawfully. Escape from Woomera lacked the budget needed to cover the scope of their chosen issue. 

These games fail to capture the complexity, differing perspectives, and necessary tone and respect needed. 

 As game designers, its important to balance artistic expression with the potential harm of their work. The dangers of misrepresenting the chosen issue can result in a wide base of people adopting a misguided and gross understanding of the topic, leading to the potential of even further harm. These struggles may be a result of lack of development or inappropriate tone, both leading to a harmful choice of mechanics and representation. In Escape from Woomera, their lack of budget led to a use of very simple mechanics to represent a very complicated issue. 

Week 5:

Sending in a draft i received good feedback about cutting down on some of the less relevant information i discussed and expanded upon the the real life contemporary issues. I covered the topic of trust in both a machine's abilities and how that may evolve to include the technologies intent, and the potential of job loss . Both of these are explored heavily in Fallout as a series. 

Week 6:

I consider Assessment One to have been mostly a successful submission. I have some concerns about the later edits i made according to feedback as editing isn't something i'm confident in. Synthetic person's as a contemporary issue is something I've thought about for some time and assessment one made for a good reason to right about it. 

Ideas for assessment 3 are so far not too fruitful. I've briefly thought up ideas revolving around a potential party system, with both ethical and technological contemporary issues like my first assessment. Slavery and Artificial Intelligence are a mix that i thought i could challenge players to think over but i myself find i'm not so interested in pursuing these issues. 

Week 7:

Games with political themes that i have played include titles such as Fallout: New Vegas, and Far cry 4. I don't often find myself interested in these themes as i prefer to keep away from controversial topics, however, this class asks that we try to think critically of the subject. Designing a game around political views potentially allows players to evaluate their own political values but particularly with this subject may result in them feeling like the subject or values are being forced upon them. 

Fallout New Vegas is an example of creating enough world and atmosphere that compliment each other while keeping the depth of their themes. One Faction, the NCR, are a more typical government styled faction, where politicians decide laws and taxes, and a military protects its valued aspects. 

Far Cry 4 has a prominent Dictatorship but its take on the ideologies of tradition and innovation

More References

Week 8:

- how can games reflect cultural perspectives through narrative, characters, aesthetics and mechanics?

- what games do you like that promote cross-cultural empathy?

- As a game designer, what are the challenges and controversies related to cultural representation in games?

- how would a game dev avoid these issues when creating a game on specific a culture?

Narrative is an important means to exploring a setting and can help explore why certain cultures are the focus for a game. For example, Shadow of the Tomb Raider explores some the cultures found in south and central America, including Aztec, Mayan, and Inca tribes. However, after brief some brief research, the game potentially misrepresents some aspects of these cultures, almost blending aspects of their architecture between each other. (source below)

Does Shadow of the Tomb Raider portray native american civilizations better than the last pre-reboot games? : r/GirlGamers (reddit.com)

paper on archaeology and architecture in video games

Beyond Tomb and Relic : Anthropological and Pedagogical Approaches to Archaeogaming | Near Eastern Archaeology: Vol 84, No 1 (uchicago.edu)

The Assassin's Creed series explores allot of time periods and cultures, with its own spin of fantasy sprinkled into the deeper story. However, the game-play loop of these titles almost overshadow the minor details of these cultures, with targets more or less boiling down to people in power, their roles in society acting more out of story context than enriching the setting. This does not however, impede on the immersion of these games, if anything the game-play loop helps these new setting be easily digestible with any extra facts being found through cut-scenes and notes. 

Games unique ability to engage players with interactive experiences 

Game developers should research and consult those with backgrounds in the culture they wish to explore. Doing so reduces he possibility of appearing insensitive 

Week 9:

- games with ethical dilemmas

Games are a powerful medium for exploring ethics as it allows players a hands on experience with potentially controversial scenarios while remaining in a safe environment. Player's may take it upon themselves to replay games to explore different ethical paths, while others may find the idea of being a chaotically bad person in a fictional environment an enjoyable experience.

Spec Ops: The Line, a third person shooter that built its reputation on being a controversial military shooter, doesn't shy from deceiving players and attempting to make them feel responsible, if not entirely at fault with the methods of warfare and the casualties they may cause. 

Bioshock's choices mainly revolve around the decision of the 'Little Sisters', and whether or not players decide to spare their lives or sacrifice them for more upgrade points. These choices however are somewhat redundant as sparing all the little sisters periodically rewards you with just short of the amount one would obtain through sacrifice.

Infamous is a series that has plenty of black and white choices, often being along the lines of sensible or unnecessarily evil. The first game in the series had some difference in rewards for sticking to an ethical side, but you were pretty much picking your alignment from the start of the game.

Fable, a beloved series of mine, also explores ethical dilemmas and despite its cartoon and comedy appeals, many of these choices end up being quite heavy. Unlike other stories, Fable's world is split between acts of good and evil, with neutrality rarely being an option. 'Heros' are born and their acts and abilities can have great consequences on the world, so their alignment is often of great concern to the general populace. This alignment is communicated both through appearance and NPC's reactions. 

s5176168 - Ross Hay - Game Studio Blog

 Week 1 

-  Game Pitch

Week one of our game studio required us to each come up with a unique game pitch that we would share with the studio. This pitch included a number of topics we needed to cover ranging from our game's concept to the overall scope of the project. 

- My Concept

My game's concept was a tower defense title with RPG elements. Players would play a variety of levels consisting of a path leading to an end state, defended with towers and traps placed along the track's route. Atop this, players would control a "hero" character, able to freely make their way through the map acting as the player's means of interacting with all the tower and trap features. 

This hero would feature a unique set of abilities tailored to a specific playstyle, ranging from close quarters tank to high damage marksman. I've sought inspiration from a range of similar titles including the Orcs Must Die series, Dungeon Defenders, and more importantly, Death Trap: World of Van Helsing, being the game that sparked my love for the genre. 

Together, these elements work in tandem to create a strategic defense experience with the engaging playstyle of an action adventure. This genre has appealed to me for some time, and I wanted to use this opportunity to express my desire to make one of my own.

- Scope

Scope is a new idea for me and required that I consider the potential time, resources, and manpower needed to create a finished prototype or final product. The game is intended to make use of a 3D environment and fully modelled characters. 

- Unique Selling Point

As I've already mentioned in this journal, this pitch aimed to sell the idea of a fusion between tower defense and action RPG. Titles of this genre appear to be few and far between and I used this opportunity to propose we add to this underutilized concept.

- Platform

My game's platform of choice would be PC with a potential release on consoles once the game had received a majority of its content and updates.

- Publishing Details

The game itself should be making use of fully original assets and some purchased tools, potentially adding the game's selling price. Being a new studio however it would be likely that the game would instead be showcased on Ich.io as was proposed by other pitches on the day. Both Steam and Epic Games could also be considered with Epic games being the likelier of the two now that the University is considered a partner of Unreal, an extension of Epic.

Week 2

- Game Pitch

some slides from my presentation

Week 3

- Job Applications

I prepared a simple resume by hand and covered aspects such as experience learned through schooling and personal projects I had worked on. I ultimately expressed my interest in working as a 2D artist but remained open to the idea of working as an animator or 3D artist.

The Interview overall was successful; however, I should present a professional portfolio showcasing my work and bring all documentation in the event they misplaced their copy. In terms of speech I could better sell myself with more confidence and better framing of my skillsets

Week 4

- Response To Brief

In week five of our first trimester, my group presented a pitch for a Metroid-Vania title based off the prompts we received before the break. During this break, my team and I brainstormed and went into great detail about our potential pitch and what exactly we were working with.

Our prompts included the use of silhouettes/shadow puppets, and a focus on lighting and scene presentation. This meant a focus on the environments not looking flat but vibrant with plenty of depth to present a unique and beautiful visual. With these prompts, we needed to come up with a story and gameplay focus. 

At first, we worked with the idea of an interactive story where the player's decisions would grant them different forms reflecting their actions. These transformations would allow them to solve certain puzzles while limiting some routes of gameplay. 

Later, we worked with the idea of stories about light and dark as it suited the visual well, and expanding on this we decided on the use of fairy tales that gave us plenty of material to work with. I had presented a potential story and adjustments to the mechanics we had decided on with more of a focus on the fairy tales and action, as opposed to the player transformations and choices. By this time however, we were moving on with a new direction and setting.

We ultimately decided to focus on the concept of transformations and what we could do with it. We turned to Ancient Greece and found a plethora of inspiration and material to work with from mythical beasts (in particular, the chimera), and pottery painted with its unique use of black pigment to tell stories. 

As one of the artists of the team I suggested the use of two distinct animation techniques to give a unique feel to the game. I proposed the use of sprite sheets for our main and supporting characters to give them a responsive and familiar feel, while on the other hand, using bones to make our monsters appear unnatural and as if they were being fully retold through story. These monsters would better resemble the original shadow puppet aesthetic design we were given and, in my opinion, create a unique visual feel for our players. 

Week 5

- Redesign Pitch

After presenting our new pitch, we received feedback and later sat down for a more in-depth look at how our team was performing so far.

The feedback right after our presentation suggested that we better define our cultural goals and make certain of our source material. Again, we were encouraged to put great emphasis on the visuals of our project and work to make a prototype that captures the proper aesthetic. 

With the pitches concluded, all groups received an interview checking in on our progress and relationship as a team. Our team seems to get along easily and was suggested to perhaps organize outings so we might better understand our project. This included the potential of organizing a bonfire and shadow puppets to get hands on experience with our aesthetic goals.

Week 6

- Beginning Production

With last week's feedback we began working on some of our basic ideas. Firstly, I decided to draw up some potential concepts for our character. We are still discussing story direction, so I started with some further research into the origin of the Chimera and looking into simple designs ancient Greek attire. I discovered the Chimera is referred to as female, so I began looking into women's fashion at the time.

The Chiton is a basic cloth gown with shoulder clips to and a waist high belt or sash. 

As with most armour, it's mostly a unisex design and focuses on covering vital parts of the body and limbs not hidden behind a shield. 

I also created a simple silhouette so we could get a feel for what our character might look like in game. 

Week 7 

- Enemy Design

We've decided to label our game as being a Metroid-Vania title complete with upgrades, puzzles, and combat. I've started on some simple monster designs and how they scale next to the main character. I researched some ancient Greek monsters and applied simple enemy design theory to them. My thinking is that the player would start with simple enemies like a human soldier with short range and medium defence to get a feel for combat, and as they discover new abilities, they would find these enemies easier with new ways to combat them. 

so far, I've thought up three potential enemies.

Human Soldier: Whether through their fear of the player character or through possession, human soldiers act as an introductory foe that serve as a semi decent threat to the newly formed Chimera. They would consist of two types of soldiers, one with a short sword and buckler/small shield, and the other 'heavy/Hoplite' type that wields a spear and tower shield. 

Minotaur: The Minotaur in mythology is a single being and mightn't work as regular enemy but might work as a boss fight if we decide to take on some creative freedom. 

Harpy: lastly, the harpy could serve as a low threat creature that supports other creature types by using long range attacks while keeping its distance in the air. 

I've been working with the impression that we might be able to work with a story focused on Orcus, god of the underworld also named Orcus. We could have a scenario where powerful monsters have escaped and our character, the fleeting soul of the Chimera reduced to human form, could regain her strength to combat these monsters before seeking her revenge on the man that killed her. 

Week 8

- Character Rigging and Animation

Our redesign pitch stated we would be using two distinct animation styles where our player character would be animated using sprite sheets and our monsters would use bone rigging. We decided instead to change the character to also use bone rigging as it would allow us to more easily swap out limbs for the chimera mutations. For this we would use the Sprite libraries plugin to swap out the sprites for each affected limb.

We needed to decide on our exporting method for our character. Ideally, we would use the photoshop PSB. files as it keeps all layers of the image so we can construct our character before importing them. However, I don't use photoshop, so I've instead started to use the traditional method of importing a sprite sheet and constructing the character in engine.

This method is slower but its functional. I've constructed the skeleton for the test character and begun simple animation of a run cycle.

Week 9

We decided that the photoshop PSB. file type would be the ideal choice and discovered that by changing the file type name in the computer file explorer, we could convert regular PSD. files. GIMP, my image editor of choice, can export as PSD files easily.

We have decided to move away from combat for the moment and begin designing more traditional platforming and puzzle mechanics. I understand the need for appropriate expectations but do hope we eventually move back towards a combat focus as I believe our setting lends us allot of creative freedom with is potential for monsters and player abilities. We are still discussing story ideas and what mechanics we need to begin designing and implementing. 

Week 10

Week 9 I focused on giving our character a new design and made adjustments to the skeleton to allow her new hair to be animated. With the updated sprites and skeleton, I have begun work on the final animations for our human character. 

It took a couple of attempts to move the skeleton from one rig to the other as the background space determines the pasting location of the imported skeleton. I needed to do this a couple of times as I kept making mistakes with the new sprites. Ultimately, our new character design fits well in the scene. 

I designed the Character to lightly resemble the lion part of her transformation, with hair that looks somewhat like a mane. I also did some of her human form evolving into a more monster like form.

Week 11

Further animation work has seen some inconsistencies as we discovered that animations don't record the entire model, so when switching states, our character's head tilts forward as well as other strange positions. This becomes a tedious ask of recording every limb and joint to ensure nothing overwrites our other animations during gameplay. 

I've managed to complete the characters animations and begun work on designing our character's Chimera transformation form. This form requires its own set of animations as well as a transition animation for both skeletons when they transform. 

Week 12

- Vertical Slice 

Week 12's Vertical Slice presentation required us to showcase our build so far and to discuss our successes and challenges. Crunch time ultimately fell short, and our build continued to surface new bugs, and so our plans began to shrink in scope. Despite this, our group was very proactive during this faze, and together we did our best to solve problems in a timely manner. I continued to work on animation and discovered some more complications with consistency, as well as some fixes and quality of life techniques.

During this week, my focus was mainly on animations for the Chimera form. This included a full set of animations covering running and jumping, as well as a death animation among others. I was also asked to prepare both skeletons with transition animations between each other to help develop our transformation mechanic.

Idle - 2 Keyframes

fall - 4 Keyframes

Running - 13 Keyframes

The presentation was met with two guests, both from the games industry and overall took some hours to complete. Many of the builds presented were a nice surprise and showed promise of further meaningful development. 

I enjoyed seeing the other 2D platformer and its Ori-esc visual style. My understanding of their approach was to use a premade engine and build from that. It could certainly be beneficial to discuss their findings with animation and platforming. 

Our presentation wasn't as ready as some others with not everything being covered, and few questions about our development. However, we were assured that peers were impressed with our visual style and later told that we needed to start moving in a direction that focused on gameplay features. 

Over the break I'm inclined to work on some more animation research to see if our game would better benefit from sprite-sheets. I've had trouble with the use of rigging and believe that looking into my original idea of using full drawn sprites, while time consuming, may simplify the development process. 

Hay_Ross_s5176168_InteractiveCharacterProject

ushorty2@outlook.com
ross.hay@griffithuni.edu.au

2733 Interactive Characters

Week 1:

A game engine is the very core of a game of which it runs on. The engine manages and displays everything the developer imports and arranges. The developer's choice of engine is the very first step in making a game.

A Game engine is used to manage, organise and ultimately create a world in a virtual space. layout rules and perspective are all interchangeable to suit the needs of the designer/developer. Unreal in particular can be used to create and alter realistic environments in real time (as seen in The Mandalorian).

using the interface:
- inbuilt Grid snapping tool (different from base unity)
- a different control scheme in terms of camera movement
- largely similar to other interfaces such as unity or blender

Following Tutorials and generally using the engine has highlighted its attempts to streamline the tools available to designers. Unreal's Blueprint system attempts to simplify the coding/scripting process into a more easily digestible layout through the use of nodes. This method has also seen use in other programs such as blender in order to control the materials and textures of a 3D object. C++ is still available however to those with better understanding of it and who would rather control their code.

Week 2: Story Telling 

Myths, Legends, and Fables has had such a large and lasting impact on story telling as they have lasted the ages through all manner of record keeping from word of mouth to written page, live performance to animation. These tales in particular usually hold some cultural significance and often carry some lesson to be learned. They serve to inspire or warn of dangers, often through heros and monsters or great trials to overcome, and in this they remain memorable and familiar. 

Story Concept: Little Red; and the Woods of the Witch,
Little Red wanders the wood in search of her Grandmother's cottage. She is stalked by a fearsome wolf. Finally making it to the remote cottage her Gran welcomes her. Before Red can give her the mysterious basket the wolf intercepts, crashing through the window and planting itself between red and the Grandmother, Protecting her from the now obvious witch. Still young and nieve, red is reluctant to flee but her demise quickly approaches. The cottage door explodes into splinters and a tall rough brute of a man stares down the witch. Outnumbered she flees, leaving only the Huntsman, Great Wolf and Little Red to form an unlikely trio. (apologies for the corny writing, not alot of practice).

This Story coveys the Theme of deception through appearances. At such a young age, red could never have anticipated that her own grandmother could be so horrible.

As a Game Concept:
Little Red finds its inspiration quite forwardly from Little Red Riding Hood, a popular children's fairy tale. There is a lot of intrigue from "Grim Fables/Fantasy" as it takes what is often a familiar and friendly story and turns it on its head to reveal a darker tone. This take on Little Red Riding hood is nothing new but i always found it amusing none the less. Alice in Wonderland also makes for a fun Grim story to tell.

The Provided story concept could easily serve as an opening cinematic (comic like design maybe) to a game about a more grown up Little Red. The Huntsman, now nearing his older years trains Red to hunt the Witch in his stead. We would learn of his distain for her and what lead him down this path. The wolf could serve as a companion, maybe even mount or summon, players often enjoy an animal companion. 

Game play wise, a 2D, light hack and slash with some platforming, and moody comic esc visuals, could make for a beautiful and stylish walk through grim fantasy. 

Interactions: 
Red and the Huntsman would make for an interesting dynamic as Red might still show reluctance in slaying her Grandmother, but the old huntsman would share with her his desire for justice and revenge.

Red and Wolf; a companionship built on unspoken trust. Red may never quite know why the Wolf hunts the Witch but she is determined to repay the wolf for saving her life all those years ago.

Red and her Grandmother; Red continues to feel her Grandmother's pull and throughout the game might even hear from her. Being user of magic it is likely many of the games challenges will stem for her. She may be able to speak to Red through small animals like rabbits and crows, while enticing larger more dangerous creatures to pursue her.

Week 3: Interactive Characters and Genre

What Genre does my Project idea fall under; Little Red easily falls under 2D platformer with maybe some horror esc art direction.

Technically speaking, my Project will require some staples of platforming such as jumping, strafing, and falling, all of which are already covered in Unreal but may see some adjustments. On top of that i would like to add both hit and hurt boxes so i can have some combat or danger available to me. I would also like to experiment with basic enemy AI capable of seeing, following, attacking, and jumping in order to reach higher ground. 

right: Simple character concept for Little Red.

Week 4: AI Path-finding

Using the example of 3D path finding i will attempt to use it in a 2D setting and work on having a jump ability so enemy AI can follow the player throughout the level. 

I worked up till Part Three of the advanced tutorials, which has helped me create a reliable chase mechanic with smooth animations. The Behavior Tree should make it easy to recreate AI characters with different jobs. For example, one character might attempt to get close to the player character in order to bite them while one flies high up and shoots projectiles. This may also allow the play character to utilize a friendly summon that attacks pursuers.

Week 5: Character Animation

After Completing the tutorial I would note that the animation was not complete as the character cannot turn its body separate to the camera. This was brought up in the video however, and would likely be easily fixed. 

Following the advanced tutorials i imported a 3D character and gave it appropriate idle and running animations. Unreal Engine has many functions and importing assets seems to almost work out the box save for some appropriate file references and directions. As discussed in the tutorial, it is possible for multiple 3D objects to share the same skeleton rig. This is works for models sharing similar characteristics like two arms and legs. If proportions are off slightly it is still possible to alter rig without making a new skeleton. Extra Items such as Tails and more limbs are also possible. I would imagine this is how "skins" work in games like Fortnite, some skins appearing quite different but able to share a rig and animations while also being able to showcase new ones.

For my Project i am using 2D art for characters so some of these mechanics won't be utilized, however i may experiment using 3D animations to take key frames and use them as references to make the production of 2D sprites easier. Environment details may also benefit from 3D by allowing for potential wind physics on foliage. 

As for Character animations, I will attempt to work with Unreal's Flipbook function animated my characters with key frames made from 2D art. I aim to take a stylistic approach to this assessment but am open to alterations is it suits my interests.

Some Research into 2D animation in Unreal has highlighted a couple options such as skeleton rigging and flipbook. I have used rigging before in Unity however i intend to work using sprites through the use of flipbook as it better suits the style i am pursuing. So far i have managed to get the player character to display different sprites by performing running, jumping and returning to idle.

above: Character in Game, and blend tree used to blend Idle and Run animations.

Week 6: The Player Character

This Week's Tutorial discussed how to create a character controller from scratch including controls and movement values. With the finished controller the Player can walk and look around in first person, as well as jump, run, and crouch. The running could be easily altered to be as fast as needed and jumps could behave as if suspended in zero gravity as long as you held the button.

Running and suspended jumping will both play key roles in Task 2's creation. Building on these mechanics it may be interesting to experiment with more traversal options such as double jumping and sliding. Such actions will require more sprite work and understanding of character states.

above: Character Controller made using video tutorial by Ben Ormstad.

Above: Senji game concept. 2D shooter with switchable characters

Above: Little Red character concepts and basic mechanics 

Below: Temporary Character Sprites

week 6 discussions:

Through the tutorials I aim to create a game that allows the player to interact and/or talk with NPCs through popup dialogue windows, attack enemy NPCs inflicting damage as well as receive damage, and switch Player Character States allowing the player to change to character with potentially different abilities. 

Simple Dialogue System:

The final project version contains a Simple Dialogue System (SDS) used to give basic information. This system can be used to get one off, repeatable dialogue from an NPC akin to an "info dump" or as a tool to communicate simple environmental details, for example, by interacting with points of interest and displaying your characters internal thoughts. Below is an example of the SDS being used to display two different lines of text with each "E" key press.

Advanced Dialogue System: 

An Advanced Dialogue System (ADS) would allow the Player to interact with NPCs and environmental cues in more depth than a singular button prompt. On activation the player would have access to a popup menu much like the SDS but with the addition of labeled buttons. In its simplest form this would allow the player to move through text much like the SDS using a single button to reach the end of dialogue at their own pace. However, with the addition of more buttons, developers can allow for multiple endings to dialogues or events. Through the use of ADS, a player might be able to learn more from NPC characters or make choices in the game that lead to different outcomes.

In Little Red, these interactions may allow Red to speak to the Old Woodsman and learn of his history with the Witch. On the other hand, she may be able to interact with a puzzle that requires her to place certain items in different spots through the use of dialogue, or perhaps she can speak to her would companion and ask him to interact with items for her. 

Currently Little Red uses only the SDS as Development time was used elsewhere to explore further character interactions. This system will suffice and was the original intended system with the Advanced Dialogue being a potential route of interesting research.

Environmental Interactions:

A simple animated door uses a lock feature to remain closed until the player character steps on the button to unlock it. Once unlocked the player character will activate the opening animation whenever they approach and the closing animation when they move away. Using this set up it would be possible to set up interactions to create bridges and mazes, and alongside the Dialogue and AI interactions, could make interesting level designs. 

Attack Interactions:

The third interaction intended for the Interactive Characters was for the inclusion of a simple combat system involving the use of Hit Point (HP), Attack Animations, and Enemy AI.

A HP system is not currently in game but would be applicable to both the Player Character and Enemy Characters.

In practice I could not get an Attack Animation to work as the Blueprint was set up in a way that prioritized the Idle and Jump animations and seemingly did not allow the attack animations to play while they were running. 

Enemy AI is currently a simple system of moving the character left and right. This could be repurposed as an environmental hazard or simple enemy creature. Further Development could see the AI tracking the player and being able to jump to higher ground.