This is the last blog post I will be carrying out as I hand in my stuff tomorrow. I am going to use this chance to have a quick reflect on the year and my project.
To begin with I was quite nervous and unsure of what I was going to be doing. I had various ideas throughout semester 1 which kept on changing which I got anxious about. Aspects of my idea were kept throughout - I wanted to design and create a relatively big 3D environment. I wanted this environment to be scary and I wanted it to be situated in a Mental Asylum.
After receiving my grades for semester 1 I was a little disheartened. I felt I had worked really hard and did not get the grades I was hoping for. This nearly put me off even trying in semester 2 as I felt, no matter how hard I try, I won't get much of a grade. However, after reading a book which I was hoping to help me create a story for my game I became much more interested and eager. The book was Sebastian Barry's 'The Secret Scripture'. I thoroughly enjoyed this book and decided to adapt it for my game. The other aspect of semester 2 that really engaged me was using Unreal Engine 4. I had never used this before but when I seen some tutorial videos online, I realized that I wanted to use it so much. After speaking to my supervisor about it, he enthusiastically encouraged me to go for it and download it.
I did so and it has become one of my favorite parts of this project. As much as it is tricky, I enjoy the problem solving aspects of coding and setting the levels up. As my game progressed, and my skill level progressed, I found myself enjoying it more and more.
As for my dissertation, I started that quite late however, due to my constant blogging and research, I did not feel rushed or stressed for time with this. Admittingly each section was difficult to start but once I had stuff written down, I quickly managed to form it into a well structured dissertation. The feedback I have had so far on it has been great. My lecture feels I am good at academic writing and am getting along well with it.
Tomorrow is when I had in my portfolio and blog. Later in the week I will hand in my dissertation. The following week I have my final presentation and then to finish; my exposition. This year has gone fast but I will be glad to be at the end of it. Constant stress gets tiresome after a while! I apologize if this has been a sloppy post but it is currently 3am and I am moments away from finishing my work. One thing that I have always disliked about hand-ins is the preparation for them. I was finished my work around 11pm and it has taken over 3 hours just to sort it and arrange it suitably for hand-ins. I wanted to get it all done tonight so I could move my focus onto dissertation tomorrow (next week).
Overall I have enjoyed myself more than I thought I would through this whole experience. My supervisor Ryan has been a great helped and has helped keep me enthused throughout. I am looking forward to the exposition as a chance to relax and show the work I have completed through the year. I went to last years one and it looked like a lot of fun.
Monday, 27 April 2015
Weekly Update - End Of Week 4 (April)
This was the last major week of work before hand-ins. Here is what was done:
This Weeks Intention
This Weeks Intention
- Polish whole environment and finish up ready for handing in on Monday
- Use Sunday as a last overall check up and prepare everything for hand in on the Monday
This Weeks Results
- This week has been a very successful week. Monday was spent editing my dissertation after receiving feedback from my supervisor. I have not touched this since and will not be doing so until I have handed in my portfolio.
- The main objective this week was to complete and polish the game. I gave myself a room per day which worked out very well. Most of the days I was ahead of myself and managed to get a little more completed than intended.
- Saturday and Sunday have been two difficult days. I did not get what I wanted to complete on Saturday completed so that fell over to Sunday. This then made Sunday much more difficult.
- I did however manage to get everything completed to a very satisfactory result.
Next Two Weeks Plans
As This will be my last blog (pretty much) I will show what my plans are for the next two weeks regarding my other hand-ins:
Week1 - 27th April - 3rd May
- Monday 27th - Hand in Portfolio & Blog. Complete all references in Dissertation. Quick look over dissertation
- Tuesday 28th - Spend all day going through dissertation, perfecting it. Tuesday night, prep dissertation for hand in.
- Wednesday 29th - Hand in dissertation
- Thursday 30th - Design and order: Photobook and Business cards (Exposition)
- Friday 1st - Sort out Posters for exposition
- Saturday 2nd - Create final presentation
- Sunday 3rd - Practice Presentation
Week2 - 4th May - 10th May
- Monday 4th - Present Presentation. Plan further development for Exposition piece. (fixes etc)
- Tuesday 5th - Apply final changes to game. Record Video for showcase. Semi Prepare for showcase
- Wednesday 6th - Prepare everything for showcase set-up. Look at interface. (Maybe set up at night)
- Thursday 7th - Set up showcase - morning. Evening is beginning of showcase (See lecturers)
- Friday 8th - Showcase
- Saturday 9th - Showcase
- Sunday 10th - Showcase
- (Monday 11th/Tuesday 12th) - End of showcase/pack up showcase
Personal Notes
Personally I am very happy to be near done. I do enjoy planning out the weeks like I have above as it gives me a clear indication of aims and goals. It also makes everything feel a lot easier. I will be carrying out one more blog post after this as a big final year review. I am handing this blog in tomorrow so I will not be posting anything more onto it.
Progress Update - Final Game
So I have now completed my game and it is ready to submit. I am very happy with this result. The last couple of weeks have been spent polishing it and enhancing it since the 'beta' version. I went through near enough every single texture and polished them up, adding in normal maps along the way.
Fixed Problems
Audio - I realized that the audio volumes were all wrong once I tried my game with headphones. A lot of it was far too loud. I had to go through it altering the volume of specific sounds in order for a more well rounded game.
Meshes - Lightmaps were all created autmoatically by Unreal Engine. This works but it does not give quite as good effect as creating them manually in Maya. I went back and sorted all lightmaps whilst I was checking through all my meshes.
Restart Function - I managed to implement a restart function in my game menu's. This enables an easy restart of the game
Story - I went through all the story pieces (journal extracts) and did my best to shorten them as I felt they were initially too long which could possible bore the player if they do not find themselves interested in the story element. I am hoping that with shorter articles, reading it can be quicker and easier and therefore, the story can be gathered much better.
I have one and only main issue with my game which I have spent hours trying to fix but was unsuccessful. It relates to the beginning objects interfaces - ID card, Medical Book, internet sheet and journal. Currently, a HUD operates whenever you are in a trigger box and press 'E'. This brings up a specific image on an object onto the screen. The idea is that it is an object you look at. So when you look at it and interact with it ('E') you can view it up close. The problem is that as long as you are in the trigger box and press 'E', the object appears on screen. Even if you are looking in a completely different direction.
I tried fixing this multiple ways. The main being using a line trace, to trace where the camera was looking during gameplay. I could get parts of this to work but overall I was not getting a desired effect. Unfortunately due to time I have had to leave it as it is. It is something I can maybe try have sorted ready for my exposition.
Fixed Problems
Audio - I realized that the audio volumes were all wrong once I tried my game with headphones. A lot of it was far too loud. I had to go through it altering the volume of specific sounds in order for a more well rounded game.
Meshes - Lightmaps were all created autmoatically by Unreal Engine. This works but it does not give quite as good effect as creating them manually in Maya. I went back and sorted all lightmaps whilst I was checking through all my meshes.
Restart Function - I managed to implement a restart function in my game menu's. This enables an easy restart of the game
Story - I went through all the story pieces (journal extracts) and did my best to shorten them as I felt they were initially too long which could possible bore the player if they do not find themselves interested in the story element. I am hoping that with shorter articles, reading it can be quicker and easier and therefore, the story can be gathered much better.
I have one and only main issue with my game which I have spent hours trying to fix but was unsuccessful. It relates to the beginning objects interfaces - ID card, Medical Book, internet sheet and journal. Currently, a HUD operates whenever you are in a trigger box and press 'E'. This brings up a specific image on an object onto the screen. The idea is that it is an object you look at. So when you look at it and interact with it ('E') you can view it up close. The problem is that as long as you are in the trigger box and press 'E', the object appears on screen. Even if you are looking in a completely different direction.
I tried fixing this multiple ways. The main being using a line trace, to trace where the camera was looking during gameplay. I could get parts of this to work but overall I was not getting a desired effect. Unfortunately due to time I have had to leave it as it is. It is something I can maybe try have sorted ready for my exposition.
Final Game
Personal Notes
As this is me at my final stages of hand-ins, I will be producing two more final blog posts - one will be similar to the last few I have done (a end of week update). This will also include my plans for the next two weeks regarding the rest of hand-ins. The last one I do will be an overall 'end of year' review type of thing.
Thursday, 23 April 2015
Supervisor Meeting - 12
Student Name: Christy McLaughlin
Supervisor: Ryan Locke
Date: 20/04/15
Agenda
Supervisor: Ryan Locke
Date: 20/04/15
Agenda
- Dissertation
- Current Progress
- Next Week (Hand-ins)
Progress Report
- Spent all of the meeting discussing my dissertation which helped a lot. Various topics arose however it was primarily Introduction and the contextual review. Both of which were good - just needed some aspects changing.
- We never got round to talking much about the portfolio - just what was linked with dissertation
- Discussed how he would like my portfolio submitted. All that he wants is for it to be well labelled and not too many folders
Agreed Action Report
All we discussed was the dissertation so the aspects of that that needed looked over were:
All we discussed was the dissertation so the aspects of that that needed looked over were:
- Structure of Introduction. It's a good introduction but needs to be structured a little better. It also needs to define aim and objectives clearer
- Main was similar - needed to re-jig parts of that and perhaps input a few more quotes
- The main topic of discussion was the methodology (which I had just sent him that day). It needs most work due to my lack of understanding with it but Ryan has helped make it clearer. I need to work on that quite a bit.
Personal Notes
So this week was all dissertation. At this stage my practical work is pretty much done - just polishing it at the moment. I am spending all this week completing my portfolio however I did spend Monday night, editing my dissertation to the recommendations made. My plan is to get more feedback on Monday and use Monday to complete all the references and make changes to the dissertation. Tues will be spent proof reading and finalizing it. I will then hand it in Wednesday after one last proof read
By the looks of things I will have one or two more blog posts completed before I hand it in (Hand in is Monday 27th). I will do these after I finish my portfolio. I will carry out another end of week review before finishing off with one last overall year review post.
Sunday, 19 April 2015
Weekly Update - End Of Week 3 (April)
Once again, this has been a successful week for my project. Here is what was achieved:
This Weeks Intention
This weeks plan was to complete:
This Weeks Intention
This weeks plan was to complete:
- Complete testing of 'beta' version
- Attempt 'Discussion and Results' in dissertation (Maybe Conclusion)
- Blog out exposition
- If time - complete Main and methodology of dissertation
This Weeks Results
After meeting with my supervisor a lot had changed with regards to my project through is own recommendations. This was no issue at all but here is what was completed this last week:
- Dissertation is fully done - apart from referencing and proof reading
- I have completed the 'Padded Cell' level of my game
- I have researched and blogged about the exposition
For End Of Next Week
Next week is pretty set in stone for what I want to do as it is my last week before hand ins. I am goign to spend a day on each part of my level to complete and polish it:
- Tues = Bedroom
- Weds = Dormitory
- Thurs = Lobotomy
- Fri = Grave
- Sat = Hallway
- Sun = Final touch up, one last blog, double check over hand in specification
I will spend Monday going through dissertation. This will be completed next week.
Personal Notes
This will be one of the last blogs I complete as the next week is purely practical work. Next Sunday I will do another end of week blog as well as an end of semester blog.
Exposition - Poster Plan
I am wanting to have 4 different posters showcasing my project. I have decided to show the Hotel Hallway and the Asylum hallway as this shows two completely different environments which are quite similar. This will hopefully spark some interest into what my final piece actually is. I also want a picture of the bedroom and a picture of the lobotomy scene. Again, these show the two different environments and I also believe - visually - they are the best and most interesting.
Rough Poster Ideas
Rough Poster Ideas
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| Poster's 1 & 2 - Rough |
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| Poster's 3 & 4 - Rough |
Personal Notes
These are my rough idea for posters. Like the rest of the exposition I will sort this out after my hand ins. I plan on visiting the print shop sometime this week or early next week in order to find out some more specific details. I hope to get my prints ordered on Friday 1st May (Maybe the Thursday - ahead of business cards). These will probably require the most time for completion. At the moment my main concern is my portfolio and dissertation.
Exposition Research - Research & Plan
I had a look at last years expositions so have a good idea of what is expected. I have used them as examples to plan what I want.
Looking at these I planned my own one. I am wanting to have 4 large images representing my final piece on my board. I will also have a personal statement, explaining what I have been doing. If there is more room I will write a little more - for those who are interested.
As you can see, I want to have the four posters set up as followed. Two of them will be quite low down but this should not be an issue. The personal statement will be at a suitable eye level for easy reading. If there is space next to the personal statement, I will use this to perhaps write more information on the year I have had.
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| Past Examples |
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| Exposition - Rough Plan |
Exposition Research - Business Cards
I have been looking into what needs to be sorted for our degree showcase. An important aspect is having business cards that we can use to hand out to potential employers or at the very least - get our name out there. I will be designing and ordering my business cards after I have handed in my work. This is to allow me time to focus on the work, hand it in and then focus on setting up for the showcase. There is plenty time between hand ins and the showcase for me to organize and set up what is required.
Last year I attended the showcase and picked up many of my friends business cards. I will be looking at these for ideas when it comes to designing mine. Many of the artists have used their own actual art for the cover of the card. This is something I may consider if there is an aspect of my final piece I think will be suitable for it.
Business Card Information
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| Business Card Examples |
Business Card Information
- Name
- What I do - 3D Environment artist
- mobile number
- linkedIn address
- HEAR address
Personal Notes
I have noticed from these example cards how clear the names are. This is important in order to catch the eye. Once I had my dissertation on Wednesday the 29th, I will spend Thursday 30th, designing and ordering my business cards. This gives plenty of time for them to arrive before 8th May.
Monday, 13 April 2015
Supervisor Meeting - 11
Student Name: Christy McLaughlin
Supervisor: Ryan Locke
Date: 13/04/15
Agenda
Supervisor: Ryan Locke
Date: 13/04/15
Agenda
- Dissertation - Ending Intro/results/discussion/conclusion
- Hand Ins - Blog, presentation and exposition
- Testing my game
Progress Report
- Spoke about dissertation. I have given Ryan a copy and he will look over it and get back to me regarding what needs altered
- I have now found out that we do not need to hand in a physical copy of our presentation and that the blog is handed in alongside our portfolio. As for the exposition, I explained my plans for that and everything seem ok with that so I do not need to worry too much about that.
- As for testing my game, I was made aware that there was no need for participant testing in my game and that this was a waste of time. Especially as it is so late in my project. I already have plenty of criteria to use in order to produce final version of game.
Agreed Action Plan
- Blog examples of how my final exposition will ideally look - some mock-ups can go a long way. As for business cards, a suggestion was made (to save money) to purchase decent ones - which I would keep on me and hand out to those I choose and then have standard ones lying about that people can help themselves too.
- Looked quite a bit into my dissertation and got a better understanding of the 'methodology' section. It was apparent that I had too many different methods. After careful discussion it was agreed that I would remove 'case studies' and merge iterative testing with final testing but change the heading to critical evaluation.
- Me carrying out practice based research was valid for an evaluation process. I was unsure this would be the case but I am now aware and so there is no need for participant testing.
Personal Notes
It was good to get another meeting on the way as it had been quite some time since our last. I did not really get a chance to show much of my work but we discussed my dissertation mainly which has helped a lot. With the main concern of this meeting resulting in me not actually needing to test my game using participants, it means I need to re-plan my week as this was the main intention. This is not a bad thing however as it has saved me quite some time.
Revised Plan
- Go over Methodology
- Complete results (evaluation) and conclusion
- Run through whole thing to a completed state
- Blog exposition stuff
- Plan new ideas for story-telling aspect in my final game
I have a busy week ahead of me due to personal commitments however I am hoping I can achieve the revived plan.
Sunday, 12 April 2015
Weekly Update - End Of Week 2 (April)
Another successful week has gone by - here is what was achieved:
This Weeks Intention
This weeks plan was to complete:
This Weeks Intention
This weeks plan was to complete:
- 'Beta' version of game
- Further development of Intro/Main & Methodology of dissertation
- Plan showcase stuff - prints etc
This Weeks Results
Once again I have had a very successful week:
- 'Beta' version of the game is now complete - This will be used for testing next week
- Main is near on complete and intro is the same. Just need a minor conclusion for intro. Methodology has also been complete. This will be getting checked by my supervisor for some feedback
- I have looked into what needs done for showcase and have got a rough plan of action:
Things Needed for Showcase
Business Cards
Posters/Print outs
Sketchbook
Book (novel)
Video (back-up)
Write-up
As for timing. these can be sorted much later - they can all be sorted after my major hand in's so no need to worry overly. Mon 27th April - Sort Poster Prints. Thurs 30th April, design and purchase 1. Business Cards 2. Sketchbook Mon 4th May Create Video and complete Write Up
For End Of Next Week (Week 3)
- Get testing completed on Beta version
- Attempt 'Discussion and Results' in dissertation (maybe conclusion)
- Blog about exposition
- If time - complete Main and Methodology
Personal Notes
I feel a little stressed with the testing and writing out results. I only really have next week to do that as I want to save last week for polish. I am glad to know my supervisor is back and I will be speaking to him tomorrow so can sort issues then!
'Beta' Version Complete
I have now completed the 'Beta' version of my game. This involved fixing numerous issues that were obvious in gameplay. This game is now suitable for proper testing which I will begin next week. After the testing I have one more week before hand ins which I will use to polish the game.
Major fixes were:
Major fixes were:
- Fire light shining through walls
- Interfaces
- Asylum roof (corners/t-junctions/ends)
- Padded Cell lighting
- Above dorm wall
Personal Notes
I am happy with my results so far - I look forward to getting this game complete and ready for showcase. I need to look more closely at the showcase stuff as time is of the essence for this particular hand-in.
Monday, 6 April 2015
Weekly Update - End of Week 1 (April)
With relation to my blog post regarding Plan of April, I have decided that I will give an update of my progress at the end of each week, as well as what the plan is the following week.
This Weeks Intention
This weeks plan was to complete:
This Weeks Intention
This weeks plan was to complete:
- 'Alpha' version of Game
- Intro, Main & Methodology of dissertation (basic)
- Look into showcase - prints etc
This Weeks Result
This week went extremely well and I managed to complete the list and do some more:
- 'Alpha version of game is complete - I also managed to construct a video to use for the showreel
- Intro, Main & Methodology have been done - a little bit bet than 'basic' too!
- I looked into thing that need doing and here are some notes on the following: Business cards can be printed after hand ins (plenty time), go speak to UrbanPrint Dundee and Abertay Binding about booking slots/prints, showcase template will be sent to us soon, printing a photo album book of final work (sketchbook) can be done after hand ins
Overall it has been a very good week. I have now composed another in-depth plan for next week:
For End Of Next Week (Week 2)
- Complete 'Beta' version of my game
- Refine, Main and Methodology of Dissertation (possibly Intro)
- Decide what to have printed (Maybe Blog showcase research
Personal Notes
By taking each week in turn (and then each day in turn) I am finding it ok to cope with the work. I am slightly nervous about the whole thing but that's just something I'll have to deal with until it's done! Planning like this is helping a lot and forcing me to look ahead and plan appropriately.
Saturday, 4 April 2015
Showreel Submission
So we have been asked to put forward parts of our work that can be showcased in the showreel. I have put together a 30 second video that acts as a trailer to my final piece. It must be noted that this can still be edited by those in-charge of putting together the showreel.
Personal Notes
This was a difficult process, especially with the specifications required when putting forward. I have tried my best to have it with the best possible graphics/framerate, however, it still came out not 100% desired. Having said that, I am still pleased with this clip and feels it shows my work well.
'Alpha' Version Complete
My aim was to have the alpha version complete. I have achieved this although there are still plenty of things that need fixing.
This 'alpha' version is basically a complete working version that can be played. It has some minor issues and needs a lot of polish, but it works. I have recorded a clip of me playing through it (quite rushed) to show how the different events all work and come together. I am aware that it is very dark. I can assure you that the game is in fact brighter. I believe it is due to video compression.
Personal Notes
This 'alpha' version is basically a complete working version that can be played. It has some minor issues and needs a lot of polish, but it works. I have recorded a clip of me playing through it (quite rushed) to show how the different events all work and come together. I am aware that it is very dark. I can assure you that the game is in fact brighter. I believe it is due to video compression.
Personal Notes
This weekend I will purely be working on my dissertation. By the end of next week I wish to complete the 'Beta' version of my game. Issues that I know of and need to address are:
- Fire light passing through walls
- Minor mesh glitches
- Light maps
- Condensing the story (words on documents)
The following week, I will look to test the game with people and hope to discover any last minute issues/errors. This will then give me one more week to polish and finish of my project.
As for my dissertation, after this weekend I will only be working on it Monday's and Wednesday's, before and after work. I anticipate that this should still be plenty of time for me to get it done.
Tuesday, 31 March 2015
April Plan
It is now just about to become April so I have created a plan to help me get through the month and complete all my work at (hopefully) a relatively stress free way.
As you can see from above, I have tried to plan out April as best as I can as I know it is going to fly by. By the end of week 1 I aim to have the basic draft of dissertation done (Intro, Main, Methodology). and have my Alpha game completed. I also want to start looking at my showcase and planning that with regard to business cards etc.
I will organize a meeting with my supervisor this week to help me plan out the next few weeks. I will especially need some help with my dissertation and my exhibition.
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| April Plan |
I will organize a meeting with my supervisor this week to help me plan out the next few weeks. I will especially need some help with my dissertation and my exhibition.
Monday, 30 March 2015
Dissertation Start
So the other day I set out my dissertation headings but it wasn't until today I actually began it. To begin with I finished off my Visual Dissertation Document to a standard that I was happy with to use to prepare my dissertation:
This help me start my dissertation by adding in the relevent headings:
2.0 Contextual Review
2.1 Psychological Horror In Games
2.2 Player Experience
2.3 Environmental Storytelling
I have gone further with this and created a more direct link between my dissertation and visually planning it:
So this shows roughly how the main body of my dissertation will be (the part in-between the introduction and the methodology).
I plan to continue this on Wednesday and finish an extremely rough version of it. I will then speak to my supervisor about help with the methodology before continuing with the dissertation over the weekend.
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| Visual Dissertation Document |
2.0 Contextual Review
2.1 Psychological Horror In Games
2.2 Player Experience
2.3 Environmental Storytelling
I have gone further with this and created a more direct link between my dissertation and visually planning it:
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| Dissertation Plan (Main Body) |
I plan to continue this on Wednesday and finish an extremely rough version of it. I will then speak to my supervisor about help with the methodology before continuing with the dissertation over the weekend.
Personal Notes
At the moment it is extremely rough. I have pretty much just gathered quotes and placed them in semi suitable places. I would like to have a completed rough version done by Monday next week. I am also going to plan the month of April tonight as time is very valuable at the moment and must be used appropriately for all aspects of the project
Friday, 27 March 2015
Media Test - Level Streaming
For a while now, my game has become very slowly which has been very frustrating. I have been trying to figure out ways of fixing this which has taken me such a long time. The frustration has also slowed my progression in development as I have felt irritated. However, I have now found a solution and have finally fixed this problem!
Level Streaming
Level Streaming is an effective method to make a game much more efficient. It enables you to easily load in or out certain parts of your game. This means that if there is an area that the player cannot see, you can save rendering process by loading this part out and only loading it in when the user is going to see it.
Finding the Issue
At first I thought my level was slow due to so much lighting. I ended up deleting a lot of lights to help improve my game. This helped only slightly. Thankfully, it did not effect the ambiance of the environment too much as it was after all a horror game in which, darkness always entices atmosphere. After further reading I read that fully opaque materials can use up a lot of rendering process. With this in mind, I changed all my opaque materials to be fully visible, however, nothing much improved.
I then looked into level streaming and thought that this actually may end up solving my issues. I found this really helpful tutorial on Youtube:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jqdz9n-7H_A
Using this I quicky tested in by splitting my environment in two. Apart from lots of errors to due coding links being broken etc, it worked perfectly. My game was running so smoothly I couldn't believe it!
I then went ahead and decided to split up all the extra rooms I have and have them stream in nad out depending on where the player is (via trigger boxes).
This has helped dramatically and the only issue I occurred was in relation to blueprint references and matinee's etc. The reason being, I could not find a way to call these functions/variables in different levels. It was easier for my to just make the assets in the room that were not referenced in blueprint as the level's pieces. E.g with the levels that are not loaded in (the assets are not there) trigger boxes and matinees still sit there.) thankfully these to not take up much memory so it is ok to leave them there.
Level Streaming
Level Streaming is an effective method to make a game much more efficient. It enables you to easily load in or out certain parts of your game. This means that if there is an area that the player cannot see, you can save rendering process by loading this part out and only loading it in when the user is going to see it.
Finding the Issue
At first I thought my level was slow due to so much lighting. I ended up deleting a lot of lights to help improve my game. This helped only slightly. Thankfully, it did not effect the ambiance of the environment too much as it was after all a horror game in which, darkness always entices atmosphere. After further reading I read that fully opaque materials can use up a lot of rendering process. With this in mind, I changed all my opaque materials to be fully visible, however, nothing much improved.
I then looked into level streaming and thought that this actually may end up solving my issues. I found this really helpful tutorial on Youtube:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jqdz9n-7H_A
Using this I quicky tested in by splitting my environment in two. Apart from lots of errors to due coding links being broken etc, it worked perfectly. My game was running so smoothly I couldn't believe it!
I then went ahead and decided to split up all the extra rooms I have and have them stream in nad out depending on where the player is (via trigger boxes).
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| Media Test - Level Streaming |
Personal Notes
This has been an extremely annoying hindrance for my process (the slow frame-rate). I am so glad that I have fixed this using level streaming. This does mean I am a little behind plan but at this point, I am not overly fussed as I am happy to have just solved this major issue I was having. I still aim to have an 'Alpha' version of my game completed on Monday, as well as starting my dissertation.
Media Test - Linear to Non-Linear Story
All along I wanted this story to be experienced in a non-linear fashion. However, I felt best to approach the development of it by creating it as a linear story and upon completion, converting it into a non-linear story.
Linear
To begin with I created my story events in a linear process, which would result in the playback of these events, happening in a linear process. I had 5 events:
Linear
To begin with I created my story events in a linear process, which would result in the playback of these events, happening in a linear process. I had 5 events:
- Gravity Law
- Mother Issues
- Death Of A Soldier
- Fire At Orphanage
- Family Death
These were created in this order and therefore occured, in this order. I wanted to convert this so that you could experience events 1-4 in any order with event 5 being the conclusion/ending. In order to achieve this I needed to 're-wire' my level blueprints in order to accommodate some complex calculations.
Non-Linear
I got started on attempting to make my story non-linear and was happy to find it not overly difficult. The main concern was that in my linear story, each event, triggered some sort of change in the environment. This worked well, however, if I was to make it non-linear, I would still want the environment change to happen in the order I chose. The order being:
- Environment De-saturates
- Roof changes
- Walls/Floors become a Half-State (Hotel/Asylum)
- Walls/Floors compeltely change from Half-State to Asylum
- Game ends
This required some careful though but it was easily managed after much consideration:
 |
| Media Test - Linear to Non-Linear |
As you can see in the image above, the 'Linear (before)' image shows how each event looked before converting it. They each had a trigger boxes that would trigger the event and change the environment. Very simple and very effective. Now, the two images below that, show how it has been converted into a non-linear story. All the different trigger boxes link into the same switch node. This helped manage what environment change would happen as it would cycle through them in the correct order, alternating the environment correctly.
In order for the correct event to happen (not shown here) I had to insert a 'call function' node just after each 'doOnce' node. Each of these functions were different and would reference the different events that would happen in the story. E.g player hits trigger box ('TriggerBoxMotherIssues01') then this would call that event and play it, and then the environment would change depending on number the 'environment change' was on. So if this happened to be the 3rd event triggered in the game, it would be the 3rd environment change that would occur which is the Half-State.
Personal Notes
I was really happy to achieve this all so easily. I really enjoy using the level blueprints as it is very similar to hard coding which is something I have enjoyed in the past. I am playing a little bit of catch-up with my blogs as things have gotten slower this past few weeks. The main reason being that my games frame-rate has gotten extremely slow and has been frustrating to work with. I have now fixed this issue which I will discuss in the next blog.
Monday, 23 March 2015
Supervisor Meeting - 10
Student Name: Christy McLaughlin
Supervisor: Ryan Locke
Date: 20.03.15
Agenda
Supervisor: Ryan Locke
Date: 20.03.15
Agenda
- Visual Dissertation Doc worries
- Game running slow issues
- Dissertation start
Progress Report
- Do not worry about this too much - it is merely a guide to help with dissertation/research
- Look into framerate options/other techniques to perhaps distract the framerate issues
- Start asap! Look at example dissertations to help get a start
Agreed Action Plan
- Start dissertation - look at other examples to help get started (with headings etc)
- With regards to dissertation - look at Vis Dis Doc to help although change it about so that 'horror' is the main thing to talk about
- As for game - look at frame rate, post process techniques to perhaps mask any issues/enhance game
- Look at UE4 examples and study the material nodes to see how exactly their materials/assets look so good
Personal Notes
This week the meeting took place over Skype as Ryan is unable to get himself into university. This will probably be the process for the next few weeks. It worked really well and we ended up having much more time to discuss my project. We are now approaching the end of March and I am still at a decent point in my project. It is now time to begin my presentation and come April, think about sorting showcase stuff and preparing for final hand ins. I will re-draft a plan of action at the beginning of April but for now, in the last week of March, I have some things I'd like to sort first:
For Next Week
- Start dissertation - headings (perhaps very very rough draft)
- Have game finished to an 'Alpha' level - ready to test, polish and finalize
- Possibly some more research
Tuesday, 17 March 2015
Event05 - 'Family Death'
This is the concluding event of my whole game. This is where the player will understand a lot more fully what is going on and who the people in the story are and their relations too each other. As I polish this up there will be a lot of changes as the story is not up to scratch so far - a lot of changes are needed in the parchments. This scene plays reference to Roseanne's fathers death, as well as me implementing her death and the foreshadowing death of the user, Dr. William Grene.
What Happens
What Happens
- You hear some sort of sound coming from a room (music/voices). You approach door and enter.
- You enter into a room of two closed coffins and one open coffin.
- Upon exploring the coffins, you establish that one is for Roseanne McNulty, and the other for her father - who have been referenced throughout the game.
- You explore the last open coffin and discover it belongs to you, Dr. William Grene. You also discover much more to the overall story
- Lot's of weird things happen at this point as the environment looses control, after a few moments, the game will end and credits will role.
 |
| Event05 - 'Family Death' |
Personal Notes
This is the last week I am giving (in-a-way) to developing my environment. I want to have the level complete by Monday and therefore the rest of March and April to polish it. I am a little behind at the moment but still easily within my target.
Supervisor Meeting - 09
Student Name: Christy McLaughlin
Supervisor: Ryan Locke
Date: 16.03.15
Again, this week Ryan was absent so I was unable to see him. I do have a few concerns regarding my project so I will perhaps email if I feel the need to see him before next Monday. I wish to discuss the practical issues I am having in which the game engine is running slow and frame rate is very low. I am also concerned with my Visual Dissertation Doc as I feel I want to start writing my dissertation but not having this complete is hindering that.
Supervisor: Ryan Locke
Date: 16.03.15
Again, this week Ryan was absent so I was unable to see him. I do have a few concerns regarding my project so I will perhaps email if I feel the need to see him before next Monday. I wish to discuss the practical issues I am having in which the game engine is running slow and frame rate is very low. I am also concerned with my Visual Dissertation Doc as I feel I want to start writing my dissertation but not having this complete is hindering that.
Practical Issues
Just a post to make note of the practical issues I have been having recently which has annoyingly slowed my workflow. The engine seems to be running slow now at a rate that is so frustrating it has put me off working on it. I have reason to believe it is the lighting as when playing the level, it is still stuttery but when you set of a trigger to delete most of the lights, the game runs fine. I will be looking briefly into ways of fixing this or at least, removing some of the lights to help.
This is officially my last week I want to work on my game. Ideally by Monday next week, I will have a fully playable game which only needs polished.
This is officially my last week I want to work on my game. Ideally by Monday next week, I will have a fully playable game which only needs polished.
Horror Video Games - Essays On The Fusion Of Fear And Play - Review
This book was a fantastic read. I pretty much read the whole thing as so much of it was relevant to my coursework. Some essays were of a different subject but this is exactly the kind of book I would recommend to anyone looking into horror video games. I gathered lot's of quotes which may or may not help me but I am sure most will be of some use:
Match Made in Hell: The Inevitable Success of the Horror Genre in Video Games
Richard Rouse III
Game Storytelling works best when the plot is fairly simple...but the plot is something that needs to be immediately understood and which propels the player through the whole game experience...Since horror works best the less that is explained and the more that is left up to the imagination, it maps well to game storytelling. - p16
...back-story in subtle storytelling sections involving dialog over game-play, graffiti written on the walls, very quick semi-animated flashbacks, and cryptic journal entries...This enabled us to keep the story mysterious enough that the player would be left with numerous unanswered questions. - p17
In horror, the way the audience fills in the blanks will be far more disturbing than anything a writer could possibly come up with. - p17
Horror is also ideal for games because it presents a familiar world but with enough of a twist to make it seem fantastic and special. Horror stories are typically set in highly recognizable locations that players can identify but which have been invaded by some evil force. - p17
A horror game can introduce a supernatural element which justifies...Yet the familiar setting of horror fiction keeps the player grounded. - p17
A popular game design device is to give players some information about their surroundings, while leaving a lot out. - p18
In an immersive game, the player actually projects himself into the experience...With the player fully immersing himself in the world, fear becomes much more intense. - p20
...it's important to keep in mind that almost all narrative video games are power fantasies of one kind or another. If too much of the player's feeling of power is taken away, in comparison to what they're accustomed to experiencing in other games, they're going to feel frustrated and hence pulled out of the experience. - p23
...the most cinematic device, the cut-scene, surely one of the most jarring immersion breakers in a game's toolbox...it tends to pull players out of the experience. - p23
Gothic Bloodlines In Survival Horror Gaming
Laurie N. Taylor
In Gothic literature, lost histories are often uncovered through the castle or haunted house in which the narrative takes place, with frequent remarks on the past inhabitants through decorations, paintings, and other elements. In survival horror games...the same elements remain. - p53
Storytelling In Survival Horror Video Games
Ewan Kirkland
...littered with narrative fragments in the form of newspaper articles, lab reports, photographs, diaries, audio cassettes, painted portraits and computer logs, accessible through both game-space and what Aylish Wood labels "info-space"...As Ryan notes, such techniques produce two narratives running in parallel: "the story to be discovered, and the story of their discovery". - p67
Written documents, an audio file, graffiti, all contribute to the foreshadowing of the level's conclusion. - p68
The design of spaces in survival horror games and the manner in which players are encouraged or permitted to interact within them are central to the genre's management of the interactive experience to fit a determined narrative patterm. - p68
To use Ryan's terminology, in survival horror video games spaces constitute the material signs or discourse through which the player mentally constructs the game's story. - p71
Just as a reader or viewer might not necessarily interpret their respective texts in accordance with the ideal interpretation, so players are unlikely to complete a video game in its initial play. - p73
In survival horror, the necessary actions which make up the "ideal sequence" of play are imbued with narrative significance: through the design and organization of avatars, spaces, puzzles, objects, adversaries, and the scattering of info space documents. Games elicit a story produced through game-play by requiring that certain narratively-loaded objects be picked up and correctly used... - p73
Storytelling in survival horror, in common with many qualities of video game narrative, is a process of uncovering not narrating (Grieb 2003: 166), solution rather than creation (Egenfeldt-Nielsen et al., 2008: 182) . - p75
...in survival horror buildings and spaces tell stories, much like the documents which litter them. - p75
The ultimate horror of survival horror is the suggestion that, despite our strongest feelings to the contrary, we are not the masters of our own fate. - p77
Haunting Backgrounds: Transnationality And Intermediality In Japaneses Survival Horror Video Games
Martin Picard
Silent Hill is considered to be more psychological, more about characters and atmosphere, and more about giving a sense of dread, anxiety and helplessness [Perron, 2006: 8-8]. - p96
...psychological horror, a type of horror akin to Japanese horror...In order to build tension, psychological horror relies on the characters' fear, guilt, beliefs, and emotional instability... - p111
Psychological horror is terrifying to gamers due to the tension built up around the story and characters' actions. It creates discomfort by exposing common and universal psychological fears, such as the fear of the unknown... - p111
I believed that our method to invoke the fear in the player's own imagination maximizes the recipient's fear. We do not simply show scary things, but provide fragmental information and create a situation that forces the player to imagine these horrors. I personally call it, "Subtracting horror" [Stuart, 2006] - p111
In Japanese horror, fear is not simply generated through suprise; the silence and suspense in-between the action is important too. This silence makes the player's fear build in his or her mind. Japanese horror is always designed this way [Stuart, 2006]. - p112
The Survival Horror: The Extended Body Genre
Bernard Perron
"the horror genre can easily do away with character and plot; it is the detail of the monsters, the rhythm of the tension and shocks that matter. Plot and characters are things video-games find very difficult to deal with" - p132
...the third [-] person perspective added to the dramatic tension by allowing the player to see things that would otherwise be lost in a first [-] person perspective, such as monsters chasing the player character... - p132
Agency is the second unavoidable concept at stake. Janet Murray has influentially defined it as "the satisfying power to take meaningful action and see the result of our decisions and choices" (1997:126). - p138
Plunged Alone Into Darkness: Evolution In The Staging Of Fear In The Alone In The Dark Series
Guillaume Roux-Girard
It isn't what you see, but what you can't see. It's the suggestion; the subtle teasing of the subconscious; the lonely creaking of the floorboard resonating throughout an empty hallway; the slow advance around the corner; the swelling sense of dread as the ever-present evil that looms near refuses to reveal itself. Fear is not the adrenaline rush. It's the helpless feeling of beign alone in the dark [Fahs, 2008] - p145
The acousmatic sounds - defined as a "sound one hears without seeing its originating cause" (Chion, 1983: 19, freely translated) - populating the off-screen, induce fear because they create anticipation. - p152
As is the case with horror films, the silence...puts the player on edge rather than reassuring him that there is no danger in the immediate environment, increasing the expectation that danger will soon appear. The appearance of the danger is, therefore, heightened in intensity by way of its sudden intrusion into silence [2004]. - p153
To trigger sudden events is undoubtedly one of the basic techniques used to scare someone. However, because the effect is considered easy to achieve, it is often labelled as a cheap approach and compared with another more valuable one: suspense" (2004). - p159
Patterns Of Obscurity: Gothic Setting And Light In Resident Evil 4 and Silent Hill 2
Simon Niedenthal
The emotions resulting from enforced player vulnerability - a hallmark of the survival horror genre - as experienced within the narrative themes, player tasks, and virtual architecture of the game worlds, offer a new venue for exploring the depths of fear, terror, and the sublime that were first plumbed by writers such as Anne Radcliffe, Edgar Allen Poe, Matthew Lewis and H.P. Lovercraft. - p168
One key way in which survival horror games create tehir emotional effect is by maintaining a state of player vulnerability. - p170
...obscurity is one means by which the appraisal period is extended, and the player is frozen in a state of uncertainty, in which action is considered but not yet possible...Often this is accomplished through strategies of visual obscurity related to darkness, atmosphere, and spatial occlusion. - p173
Dark environments are a cliche within the horror genre. Therefore, it is important to reiterate that darkness is only one means of creating obscurity that lends itself to the sublime terror of the survival horror genre. - p176
Hair-Raising Entertainment: Emotions, Sounds, And Structure In Silent Hill 2 And Fatal Frame
Inger Ekman and Petri Lankoski
Regarding the early horror film, Whittington mentions how sound became one of the main tools for maintaining narrative cohesion in films that otherwise would have lacked tension and suspense... - p181
The emphasis on sound has remained important even as the genre has matured. We suggest a reason for this resides in sound's ability to tap into emotional responses in a way that is extremely powerful, yet subtle enough to escape our conscious attention. - p181
They aid story comprehension by selectively attracting attention to events which are important for understanding the story... - p185
Power and Dalgleish suggest that fear relates to situations in which a person perceives that their personal survival, or their objectives are in danger. - p190
...the games further create anxiety by playing noisy and unpredictable environment ambient sounds. - 193
Daniel Kromand (2008) points out that horror games also tend to use "false alarms." Thus, when the usefulness of a certain sound has been established, it is sometimes used in vain, just to make the player more alert. This uncertainty of the functionality and role of sounds contributes to the deeply disturbing effect of sounds. - p194
Our analysis suggests that sounds are essential in shaping fear through goal-related evaluations...A particular sense of unease is created with sounds that cause contradictory evaluations: loud sounds accompany actions that would best be silent... - p197
Complete Horror In Fatal Frame
Michael Nitsche
Upon completion of the game, the player is left with no increased understanding or reward; it is unclear whether survival or a "happy ending" was achieved. The avatar could possibly be dead. Instead, finishing the game provides relief from responsibility and escape from its horrors [Hoeger and Huber, 2007: 156]. - p216
Gaming's Hauntology: Dead Media In Dead Rising, Siren And Michigan: Report From Hell
Christian McCrea
"Horror video games' emulation of white noise, photographic blurring, and celluloid imperfections, produces the uncanny impression of an older, ghostly or undead analog media seeping into, contaminating and enveloping the digital" (Kirkland, 2009). - p222
The Rules Of Horror: Procedural Adaptation In Clock Tower, Resident Evil, And Dead Rising
Matthew Weise
...the process of which I'm speaking is creative, not prescriptive. It is an authored process, by which conscious choices are made in how to change, manipulate, and re-arrange elements of an existing media text so that it conforms to an author's interpretation. - p239
...process of abstraction, by which certain elements are chosen to be modeled in a game system while others are omitted (Juul, 2007). - p239
Procedural adaptation is the term that I feel best encapsulates what video games do when they codify the conventions of horror texts. - p239
Watching someone run from a serial killer and running from a serial killer oneself are not the same experience... - p241
Reanimating Lovecraft: The Ludic Paradox Of Call Of Cthulhu: Dark Corners Of The Earth
Tanya Krywinska
The "cookie-crumb trail" device, as I will call it, provides game designers with a means of controlling the order in which a player encounters events, the predictability of which can mean that that cinema-style shock tactics can be more easily employed. - p274
The trail...can be played with to create shocks, surprises, work up a strong sense of trepidation and in many cases function as a means of acting as both environmental story-telling and warning of terrors to come... - p274
While the sound or other cues in cinema prompt the spectator to imagine they have to act, in games it is incumbent on the player to act on what they hear and see. - p275
...its interiors, is exceedingly dingy and run-down, the overall effect of the decaying-chewed-toffee colours is to give the player a sense of claustrophobia, underpinned by the presence of many boundaries that restrict the player's explorations. - p280
Match Made in Hell: The Inevitable Success of the Horror Genre in Video Games
Richard Rouse III
Game Storytelling works best when the plot is fairly simple...but the plot is something that needs to be immediately understood and which propels the player through the whole game experience...Since horror works best the less that is explained and the more that is left up to the imagination, it maps well to game storytelling. - p16
...back-story in subtle storytelling sections involving dialog over game-play, graffiti written on the walls, very quick semi-animated flashbacks, and cryptic journal entries...This enabled us to keep the story mysterious enough that the player would be left with numerous unanswered questions. - p17
In horror, the way the audience fills in the blanks will be far more disturbing than anything a writer could possibly come up with. - p17
Horror is also ideal for games because it presents a familiar world but with enough of a twist to make it seem fantastic and special. Horror stories are typically set in highly recognizable locations that players can identify but which have been invaded by some evil force. - p17
A horror game can introduce a supernatural element which justifies...Yet the familiar setting of horror fiction keeps the player grounded. - p17
A popular game design device is to give players some information about their surroundings, while leaving a lot out. - p18
In an immersive game, the player actually projects himself into the experience...With the player fully immersing himself in the world, fear becomes much more intense. - p20
...it's important to keep in mind that almost all narrative video games are power fantasies of one kind or another. If too much of the player's feeling of power is taken away, in comparison to what they're accustomed to experiencing in other games, they're going to feel frustrated and hence pulled out of the experience. - p23
...the most cinematic device, the cut-scene, surely one of the most jarring immersion breakers in a game's toolbox...it tends to pull players out of the experience. - p23
Gothic Bloodlines In Survival Horror Gaming
Laurie N. Taylor
In Gothic literature, lost histories are often uncovered through the castle or haunted house in which the narrative takes place, with frequent remarks on the past inhabitants through decorations, paintings, and other elements. In survival horror games...the same elements remain. - p53
Storytelling In Survival Horror Video Games
Ewan Kirkland
...littered with narrative fragments in the form of newspaper articles, lab reports, photographs, diaries, audio cassettes, painted portraits and computer logs, accessible through both game-space and what Aylish Wood labels "info-space"...As Ryan notes, such techniques produce two narratives running in parallel: "the story to be discovered, and the story of their discovery". - p67
Written documents, an audio file, graffiti, all contribute to the foreshadowing of the level's conclusion. - p68
The design of spaces in survival horror games and the manner in which players are encouraged or permitted to interact within them are central to the genre's management of the interactive experience to fit a determined narrative patterm. - p68
To use Ryan's terminology, in survival horror video games spaces constitute the material signs or discourse through which the player mentally constructs the game's story. - p71
Just as a reader or viewer might not necessarily interpret their respective texts in accordance with the ideal interpretation, so players are unlikely to complete a video game in its initial play. - p73
In survival horror, the necessary actions which make up the "ideal sequence" of play are imbued with narrative significance: through the design and organization of avatars, spaces, puzzles, objects, adversaries, and the scattering of info space documents. Games elicit a story produced through game-play by requiring that certain narratively-loaded objects be picked up and correctly used... - p73
Storytelling in survival horror, in common with many qualities of video game narrative, is a process of uncovering not narrating (Grieb 2003: 166), solution rather than creation (Egenfeldt-Nielsen et al., 2008: 182) . - p75
...in survival horror buildings and spaces tell stories, much like the documents which litter them. - p75
The ultimate horror of survival horror is the suggestion that, despite our strongest feelings to the contrary, we are not the masters of our own fate. - p77
Haunting Backgrounds: Transnationality And Intermediality In Japaneses Survival Horror Video Games
Martin Picard
Silent Hill is considered to be more psychological, more about characters and atmosphere, and more about giving a sense of dread, anxiety and helplessness [Perron, 2006: 8-8]. - p96
...psychological horror, a type of horror akin to Japanese horror...In order to build tension, psychological horror relies on the characters' fear, guilt, beliefs, and emotional instability... - p111
Psychological horror is terrifying to gamers due to the tension built up around the story and characters' actions. It creates discomfort by exposing common and universal psychological fears, such as the fear of the unknown... - p111
I believed that our method to invoke the fear in the player's own imagination maximizes the recipient's fear. We do not simply show scary things, but provide fragmental information and create a situation that forces the player to imagine these horrors. I personally call it, "Subtracting horror" [Stuart, 2006] - p111
In Japanese horror, fear is not simply generated through suprise; the silence and suspense in-between the action is important too. This silence makes the player's fear build in his or her mind. Japanese horror is always designed this way [Stuart, 2006]. - p112
The Survival Horror: The Extended Body Genre
Bernard Perron
"the horror genre can easily do away with character and plot; it is the detail of the monsters, the rhythm of the tension and shocks that matter. Plot and characters are things video-games find very difficult to deal with" - p132
...the third [-] person perspective added to the dramatic tension by allowing the player to see things that would otherwise be lost in a first [-] person perspective, such as monsters chasing the player character... - p132
Agency is the second unavoidable concept at stake. Janet Murray has influentially defined it as "the satisfying power to take meaningful action and see the result of our decisions and choices" (1997:126). - p138
Plunged Alone Into Darkness: Evolution In The Staging Of Fear In The Alone In The Dark Series
Guillaume Roux-Girard
It isn't what you see, but what you can't see. It's the suggestion; the subtle teasing of the subconscious; the lonely creaking of the floorboard resonating throughout an empty hallway; the slow advance around the corner; the swelling sense of dread as the ever-present evil that looms near refuses to reveal itself. Fear is not the adrenaline rush. It's the helpless feeling of beign alone in the dark [Fahs, 2008] - p145
The acousmatic sounds - defined as a "sound one hears without seeing its originating cause" (Chion, 1983: 19, freely translated) - populating the off-screen, induce fear because they create anticipation. - p152
As is the case with horror films, the silence...puts the player on edge rather than reassuring him that there is no danger in the immediate environment, increasing the expectation that danger will soon appear. The appearance of the danger is, therefore, heightened in intensity by way of its sudden intrusion into silence [2004]. - p153
To trigger sudden events is undoubtedly one of the basic techniques used to scare someone. However, because the effect is considered easy to achieve, it is often labelled as a cheap approach and compared with another more valuable one: suspense" (2004). - p159
Patterns Of Obscurity: Gothic Setting And Light In Resident Evil 4 and Silent Hill 2
Simon Niedenthal
The emotions resulting from enforced player vulnerability - a hallmark of the survival horror genre - as experienced within the narrative themes, player tasks, and virtual architecture of the game worlds, offer a new venue for exploring the depths of fear, terror, and the sublime that were first plumbed by writers such as Anne Radcliffe, Edgar Allen Poe, Matthew Lewis and H.P. Lovercraft. - p168
One key way in which survival horror games create tehir emotional effect is by maintaining a state of player vulnerability. - p170
...obscurity is one means by which the appraisal period is extended, and the player is frozen in a state of uncertainty, in which action is considered but not yet possible...Often this is accomplished through strategies of visual obscurity related to darkness, atmosphere, and spatial occlusion. - p173
Dark environments are a cliche within the horror genre. Therefore, it is important to reiterate that darkness is only one means of creating obscurity that lends itself to the sublime terror of the survival horror genre. - p176
Hair-Raising Entertainment: Emotions, Sounds, And Structure In Silent Hill 2 And Fatal Frame
Inger Ekman and Petri Lankoski
Regarding the early horror film, Whittington mentions how sound became one of the main tools for maintaining narrative cohesion in films that otherwise would have lacked tension and suspense... - p181
The emphasis on sound has remained important even as the genre has matured. We suggest a reason for this resides in sound's ability to tap into emotional responses in a way that is extremely powerful, yet subtle enough to escape our conscious attention. - p181
They aid story comprehension by selectively attracting attention to events which are important for understanding the story... - p185
Power and Dalgleish suggest that fear relates to situations in which a person perceives that their personal survival, or their objectives are in danger. - p190
...the games further create anxiety by playing noisy and unpredictable environment ambient sounds. - 193
Daniel Kromand (2008) points out that horror games also tend to use "false alarms." Thus, when the usefulness of a certain sound has been established, it is sometimes used in vain, just to make the player more alert. This uncertainty of the functionality and role of sounds contributes to the deeply disturbing effect of sounds. - p194
Our analysis suggests that sounds are essential in shaping fear through goal-related evaluations...A particular sense of unease is created with sounds that cause contradictory evaluations: loud sounds accompany actions that would best be silent... - p197
Complete Horror In Fatal Frame
Michael Nitsche
Upon completion of the game, the player is left with no increased understanding or reward; it is unclear whether survival or a "happy ending" was achieved. The avatar could possibly be dead. Instead, finishing the game provides relief from responsibility and escape from its horrors [Hoeger and Huber, 2007: 156]. - p216
Gaming's Hauntology: Dead Media In Dead Rising, Siren And Michigan: Report From Hell
Christian McCrea
"Horror video games' emulation of white noise, photographic blurring, and celluloid imperfections, produces the uncanny impression of an older, ghostly or undead analog media seeping into, contaminating and enveloping the digital" (Kirkland, 2009). - p222
The Rules Of Horror: Procedural Adaptation In Clock Tower, Resident Evil, And Dead Rising
Matthew Weise
...the process of which I'm speaking is creative, not prescriptive. It is an authored process, by which conscious choices are made in how to change, manipulate, and re-arrange elements of an existing media text so that it conforms to an author's interpretation. - p239
...process of abstraction, by which certain elements are chosen to be modeled in a game system while others are omitted (Juul, 2007). - p239
Procedural adaptation is the term that I feel best encapsulates what video games do when they codify the conventions of horror texts. - p239
Watching someone run from a serial killer and running from a serial killer oneself are not the same experience... - p241
Reanimating Lovecraft: The Ludic Paradox Of Call Of Cthulhu: Dark Corners Of The Earth
Tanya Krywinska
The "cookie-crumb trail" device, as I will call it, provides game designers with a means of controlling the order in which a player encounters events, the predictability of which can mean that that cinema-style shock tactics can be more easily employed. - p274
The trail...can be played with to create shocks, surprises, work up a strong sense of trepidation and in many cases function as a means of acting as both environmental story-telling and warning of terrors to come... - p274
While the sound or other cues in cinema prompt the spectator to imagine they have to act, in games it is incumbent on the player to act on what they hear and see. - p275
...its interiors, is exceedingly dingy and run-down, the overall effect of the decaying-chewed-toffee colours is to give the player a sense of claustrophobia, underpinned by the presence of many boundaries that restrict the player's explorations. - p280
Personal Notes
This book has been fantastic help. A major influence (maybe) was the discussion of 'Procedural Adaptation' which means taking a book/film and adapting it into some sort of game. This is something I have done and may use this within my research or project title. The first page of this particular chapter had some nice descriptions.
Friday, 13 March 2015
Play Dead - Genre and Affect in Silent Hill and Planescape Torment
Link:
http://www.gamestudies.org/0301/carr/
This was an odd article as it was comparing two games which is much different to the dissertation style writing I will be completing. Still, I have now caught up with all these little articles I found and can now continue with my research.
http://www.gamestudies.org/0301/carr/
spooky noises are an excellent way to give us the creeps as "the spatial indeterminacy of sound means that auditory illusion can be even more disconcerting than either optical or visual ones" (Ree, 1999).- Sound is clearly so important - yet another reference!
Silent Hill is a horror game, it aims for intensity, tension and fright, and its ability to generate such affect is fuelled by its more directed gameplay.- Perhaps linear gameplay is useful in order to direct a perfect horror sequence
The game is set in everyday places - cafes and gas stations, schools and hospitals. The ordinariness and familiarity make it all the more disturbing when things turn nasty.- This is why I wanted mine to begin in a hotel and slowly change
This was an odd article as it was comparing two games which is much different to the dissertation style writing I will be completing. Still, I have now caught up with all these little articles I found and can now continue with my research.
Improving Computer Game Narrative Using Polti Ratios - Review
Link:
http://gamestudies.org/0801/articles/hall_baird
This article is making reference to Georges Polti's 36 Dramatic Situations, which are 36 different situations that can be typically found in any story:
http://www.changingminds.org/disciplines/storytelling/plots/polti_situations/polti_situations.htm
There may not have been a lot of quotes that I thought were useful to me from this article however, I did find it interesting. This is due to the method of creating their very own ratio to decide how good/exciting a game's narrative is. It might be worth me looking into this ratio and applying it to my game and see what I come up with.
http://gamestudies.org/0801/articles/hall_baird
This article is making reference to Georges Polti's 36 Dramatic Situations, which are 36 different situations that can be typically found in any story:
http://www.changingminds.org/disciplines/storytelling/plots/polti_situations/polti_situations.htm
and initially propose the theory that if people can explain what is going on in terms of at least one of Polti’s units then the object that they are engaged with can be labelled a story.- How this article is deciphering between a story and a game (initially)
There may not have been a lot of quotes that I thought were useful to me from this article however, I did find it interesting. This is due to the method of creating their very own ratio to decide how good/exciting a game's narrative is. It might be worth me looking into this ratio and applying it to my game and see what I come up with.
Polti Ratios (Taken from article):
Level of Drama(LoD)= P/E
Variety of Drama(VoD)= U/36
Involvement in Drama(IiD)= U/(M+5*C)
1 Identify as many Polti units as possible P.
2 Identify (roughly) the number of events E.
3 From P, identify the unique units U.
4 Count and categorise the characters as major M or minor C.
5 Plug all these numbers into the Polti ratios.
Second, how do we think about improving these ratios? To improve the ”dramaticality” towards the Polti-ideal story we want P and U to increase as much as possible while E,M and C are minimal. We propose the following five steps:
1 Eliminate irrelevant Polti’s units with respect to the story.
2 Propose additional units with justification to increase M.
3 Consider the implications of proposing these units on the number of characters (M and C).
1 Reach some sort of satisfactory trade-off between additional units and characters.
2 Plug the new numbers into the Polti ratios and compare the abstract reconceived story with the original story.
We now give a worked example of exactly this sort of story reconceptualisation, taking an input story for a computer game, manually extracting our metrics, considering how to increase our LoD, VoD and IiD, and factoring in other constraints. We then present a later version of the story which has been created for this computer game.
Article (Not of any use)
Article 1
Is It Possible To Build Dramatically Compelling Interactive Digital Entertainment (in the form, e.g., of computer games)?
Link:
http://www.gamestudies.org/0101/bringsjord/
This was nothing like I expected. This was focusing on AI and the idea of compelling gameplay through AI. I am hoping the next article will be of more use.
Article 2
Loading The Dice: The Challenge Of Serious Videogames
Link:
http://www.gamestudies.org/0401/woods/
Again another article which I perhaps misunderstood when reading the title. Serious games is discussing learning in games and in this article specifically, simulation games
These were just a couple of articles I read in the hope of finding some interesting information regarding my project and my research. Sadly I found nothing.
Dynamic Lighting for Tension in Games - Review
These next few blog posts are going to be on articles I have yet to right up about. This first one is about lighting in games to create tension.
Link:
http://gamestudies.org/0701/articles/elnasr_niedenthal_knez_almeida_zupko
Link:
http://gamestudies.org/0701/articles/elnasr_niedenthal_knez_almeida_zupko
While many lighting principles can be borrowed from film and theatre lighting design theories, the interactive nature of games distinguishes them substantially from film and theatre. Game environments are dynamic and unpredictable due to the interactive freedom afforded to users within the world, thus narrative context, users’ positions and perspectives within the gameworld-crucial parameters to the calculation of lighting-cannot be assumed.- Lighting becomes much more complex when designing it for game levels
One key way in which survival horror games create their emotional effect is by maintaining a state of player vulnerability, often by suspending the player in a state of incomplete knowledge. The perceptual conditions for this state of vulnerability are enhanced through visual obscurity. Obscurity supports a sense of vulnerability (uncertainty) and is thrilling because it is makes the object of terror indistinct. It should be noted that the opposite of obscurity is not light, but clarity; thus, obscurity can be produced by anything that thwarts clear perception: darkness, atmospheric phenomena (such as fog) or occlusion (blocking by architectural objects).- 'Vulnerability' is something I keep coming across - key feature for tension in games. Obscurity in game is also important. I may look into fog within my environment, to enhance the atmosphere.
Personal Notes
It is clear that when reading these articles, I am only finding little bits that are of any real use to me. This is because they go extremely deep into their specific research that it is far too unnecessary for me to go that far when I am looking into something different. However these articles are giving me some bits of useful information and reading.
Thursday, 12 March 2015
Visual Dissertation Doc Update
Old Visual Dissertation Doc
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| Old Visual Dissertation Doc |
New Visual Dissertation Doc
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| New Visual Dissertation Doc |
Progress Presentation 04
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| Progress Presentation 04 |
Feedback On Presentation
- I have come on a lot since last time
- Work is looking good
- It is fundamentally Production Design that I am looking at - quick look at that maybe
- Look at how I am going to build up events etc - like a graph, agency should be going up and down
- Fellow student recommended looking at Tanya Krzywinska
Personal Notes
This was another really good presentation. It was said that they see great improvements in my presentations and my work so I am pleased with that. There was not really any concerns they had regarding my project so I find that comforting too.
Where To Go From Here
On the feedback I got it's clear I just have to keep going at the pace I'm going and keep my targets in mind. Still looking to have this finished by March so April can be used for testing and polishing.
Tuesday, 10 March 2015
Event04 - 'Fire At Orphange'
This is the last major event before the concluding part (which will be completed next week) This event makes reference to the fire at the local orphanage caused by Roseanne's father. This will be a very dramatic scene and ideally be quite disturbing when experienced. The reason for this is when I read it, I found it quite an unsettling scene.
What Happens
What Happens
- You enter a room which is a dormitory. Upon exploring the room you discover a few pieces of note paper (explaining a part of the story)
- When you leave the room, the door shuts and you hear screaming and see smoke coming from the door.
- Upon entering the room, you see the whole room is on fire - smoke everywhere
- You leave the room again and the hotel hallway changes once more
- The hotel hallway now becomes, an asylum hallway
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| Event04 - 'Fire At Orphanage' |
Personal Notes
This will be bringing my piece to an end (next week will be final event). I want to make sure this fire scene is visually fantastic as it has a lot of potential. I will be much happier once everything is done and I can then focus my time, purely on enhancing the project as oppose to creating it. - Knowing that it is complete to a certain degree will be much more relaxing.
Monday, 9 March 2015
Supervisor Meeting - 08
This week our supervisor was unable to attend the meeting due to injury. However I have decided to still set my tasks for this next week.
- Complete Event04 - Burning Orphanage
- Re-do Visual Dissertation
- Complete journal articles found
- Create First draft Dissertation
- Write up PT
- Books/Journals relating to new Vis Diss Doc
Sadly I fell a little behind plan last week so I really want to catch up on myself this week. I do not feel behind but felt I did not carry out as much work last week as I have done in previous weeks.
Audio/Music in Games
This is a review of two articles I found:
Sonic Mechanics: Audio As Gameplay
http://gamestudies.org/1301/articles/oldenburg_sonic_mechanics
This article did not seem to have much on what I needed. it focused heavily on sound which might be useful later on in my project, however, I do not think I will be going that deep into audio/music.
http://gamestudies.org/1102/articles/wharton_collins
Article 01
Sonic Mechanics: Audio As Gameplay
http://gamestudies.org/1301/articles/oldenburg_sonic_mechanics
The definition of a game provided in Rules of Play is "a system in which players engage in an artificial conflict, defined by rules, that results in a quantifiable outcome" (Salen & Zimmerman, 2003, p. 80).- definition of a game
This article did not seem to have much on what I needed. it focused heavily on sound which might be useful later on in my project, however, I do not think I will be going that deep into audio/music.
Article 02
Subjective Measures of the Influence of Music Customization on the Video Game Play Experience: A Pilot StudyMark Grimshaw has extensively studied sound and immersion in the first person shooter genre by using sound on/sound off subjective and objective tests, arguing that sound effects contribute to immersion (see, e.g. Nacke, Grimshaw and Lindley 2010). Kristine Jørgensen (2008) has likewise shown that sound influences the functional aspects of game-play, as well as the emotional connection to the game world.- The importance of sound
Experienced game players would typically recognize this important role that music can have in alerting them to dangers or providing other information about the game.- Inexperienced gamers may not be aware of this
‘Katherine’ found herself getting involved with the game, yet discovered she was more anxious “like there was something around the corner that the music was building up to.” However, unlike some participants who found the anxiety unsettling and a potential impairment to game-play, the heightened anxiety was felt by this participant to immerse her more in the game- music setting the atmosphere and helping immersion
An important (if unsurprising) finding of the study is that altering the music in a game changes meanings, actions, effects, and emotional response to the game. By varying the songs or altering the order of the songs, players not only experienced different immersive and emotional states, but also considerably changed how they play the game.- Shows the importance of music style and selection when composing and gettign music for your game
Personal Notes
These two articles were very much intended for focus on music/sound in games. Even though this is a bit distant from my topic, it still provided some interesting points and ideas.
Narrative, Games, and Theory by Jan Simons - Review
This was a very in-depth article regarding narrative, games and theory. A lot of it was just too distant for what I was looking for - it was leading into psychology etc. At this stage it is important for me to home in on the areas I need to look at. Later today I will be re-doing my Visual Dissertation Doc, and looking to start preparing for my dissertation.
Link:
http://gamestudies.org/0701/articles/simons
Link:
http://gamestudies.org/0701/articles/simons
According to ludologists, the major difference between games and narratives is that the former address “external observers” who apprehend “what has happened,” whereas the latter require “involved players” who care about “what is going to happen” (Frasca, 2003b).- These definitions of narrative I keep findign always seem to be interesting
When we compose a narrative, especially a narrative based on memory, we usually try to represent “how things came to be what they are,” and the end is prefigured in the beginning. But when we read a narrative, even one in which the end is presented before the beginning, we adopt the outlook of the characters who are living the plot as their own destiny. Life is lived prospectively and told retrospectively, but its narrative replay is once again lived prospectively (Ryan, 2001).- This reference makes a good example of my project and what it could be attempting
Lisbeth Klastrup argues, performances by players in interaction with each other and virtual gameworlds give rise to “tellable events,” “which would retrospectively make good stories” (Klastrup, 2003). Klastrup suggests to speak of “the experience of interaction-in-time, a series of effective interaction events that are naturally connected” (Klastrup, 2003) - an appropriate rephrasing of Aarseth’s concept ergodic - as“story-living” (Aarseth, 1997).- This is how my game is hopefully going to work - 'story-living'
For one thing, many narratologists would object to a characterization of narrative as a “description” of traits and events. Gérard Genette distinguishes the “the representations of actions and events,” - “the properly narrative parts of a story” - from “representations of objects and characters, which belong to what one nowadays calls description” (Genette, 1969). According to Genette,narration is concerned with the “temporal and dramatic” parts of a story, whereas description “suspends time” and “displays the story spatially” (Genette, 1969).- Genette's remark is something that helps me see the 'narrative' and 'descriptive' parts of my story
As Edward Branigan (2006) argues:- I might be understanding this wrong but again, I think this can relate to my project
One of the purposes of seeing and perceiving narratively is to weigh how certain effects that are desired may be achieved, how desire is linked to possibilities for being, how events may proceed. In this way, perceiving narratively operates to draw the future into desires expressed in the present as well as demonstrates how the present was caused by the past and how the present may have effects in the future (p.32).
- This is similar to how I have developed my story and events
As Seymour Chatman writes: “Kernels are narrative moments that give rise to cruxes in the direction taken by events. They are nodes or hinges in the structure, branching points which force a movement into one of two (or more) possible paths” (Chatman, 1978). In order to identify these kernel events, a narratologist must identify a story’s ending and then reason backwards in order to establish which events must have occurred in order to make the occurrence of later events possible. The narratologist’s take on a story is hence retrospective (as is the narrator’s and historian’s perspective, because in order to be able to tell a story or to identify the beginning of a historical development, one has to know how it ended (Danto, 1985; Martin, 1986)).
Personal Notes
I found this article very difficult to understand at times. It seems very professional and maybe at a level a bit higher than what I am used to. It had a lot of interesting points but at the same time, I struggled with understanding parts.
Saturday, 7 March 2015
Event03 - 'Death Of A Soldier' - Progress
This event has been completed very quickly and effectively. I have started to use cgtextures.com to help enhance my texturing. It has helped a lot and has really made my environment look much better. I still feel a bit uneasy using these textures as I can't then say that this project is all my work - although I was told not too worry about that, especially as that is not what I am being graded on.
Where I Am So Far
I have managed to pretty much finish this event - to a playable level. You hear a banging at the door to which you open. A body underneath a white sheet is lying on a table. Upon entering, the door starts to continually bang shut for a while. It eventually stops and the body disappears. When leaving the room, the hotel's walls and floor states to change into a 'half-state' material which is a crossover between a hotel carpet and Asylum tiles.
Where I Am So Far
I have managed to pretty much finish this event - to a playable level. You hear a banging at the door to which you open. A body underneath a white sheet is lying on a table. Upon entering, the door starts to continually bang shut for a while. It eventually stops and the body disappears. When leaving the room, the hotel's walls and floor states to change into a 'half-state' material which is a crossover between a hotel carpet and Asylum tiles.
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| Event03 - 'Death Of A Soldier' - Progress |
Personal Notes
I am really pleased with the speed of this event. I am managing to complete each event faster than the previous as my skills and knowledge of UE4 is improving with every step. I am going to spend tomorrow on research and Monday on practical work for Event02 and Event03. I will move on too Event04 on Tuesday. Bit of a hectic week this week but should hopefully pick myself up again next week.
Friday, 6 March 2015
Player Agency
Article 01
A Computational Model of Perceived Agency in Video Games
Agency, being one’s ability to perform an action and have some influence over the world,-First line in abstract - describes agency (Very good abstract)
Many games exploit the fact that the player will see a particular sequence only once, and create an illusion of agency through carefully crafted exposition.- Interesting remark - falls under the false pretense of "non-linear" games that have the same ending no matter what.
providing agency is wasteful if player desires can be controlled.- Interesting remark
Article 02
Commitment to Meaning: A Reframing of Agency in Games
Without an understanding of the pleasures of play and story and the assumptions surrounding player preferences, it will be impossible to engineer a way to a solution.- Discussing the problem with agency
proposes a shift from the notion of agency as representing choice or freedom to one of agency as representing commitment.- This paper is taking a different approach when looking at agency
better understand game experiences where a player has limited or restricted actions, but remains fully engaged with the game.- Due to scale of my project, this will be very helpful to me
we are suggesting that when play and story intersect, agency is better understood as a commitment to meaning, instead of a desire to act freely.- I am really liking this idea and approach. Much more interesting way of looking at agency
Janet Murray, who describes it as “the satisfying power to take meaningful action and see the results of our decisions and choices” [24].
is careful to qualify her definition, reminding the reader that “interactors can only act within the possibilities that have been established by the writing and programming."[24]- Worth taking a closer look at Janet Murray - 'most well known definition of agency' comes from her
Today, not only is it possible for unanticipated and emergent player actions to occur, in many games it is expected. These expectations have given rise to a shift in the notion of agency, away from choice and toward freedom.- Moving on from agency being about choice to agency being about freedom
Gonzalo Frasca, who completely disassociates agency from narrative meaning. He writes: “the more freedom the player is given, the less personality the character will have. It just becomes a ‘cursor’ for the player’s actions.” [15]- an interesting counter-argument for the subject
However, we need constraints in order to make interactive experiences meaningful and pleasurable.- There does need to be some form of boundary in games
Noah Wardrip Fruin writes that this “makes conversation feel a bit less first person — sometimes more as though we’re influencing Shepard (the player character) than playing as Shepard.”[38]- A more negative approach to Mass Effect's gameplay compared to the usual praise it gets
It is more important to provide the player with the ability to take a single, meaningful action than a dozen trivial ones.- Important techniques when creating perhaps story elements in a game
This definition, that agency is the process by which participants in an interaction commit to meaning, is particularly well suited to interactions with narrative and story-based games.- Suits my project perfectly
Article 03
Rethinking Agency and Immersion: videogames as a means of consciousness-raising
https://www.siggraph.org/artdesign/gallery/S01/essays/0378.pdf
- 'The more freedom the player is given, the less personality the character will have. It just becomes a "cursor" for the player's actions. - interesting argument
When you play a game 10,000 times, the graphics become invisible. It's all impulses. It's not the part of your brain that processes plot, character, story. If you watch a movie, you become the hero - Gilgamesh, Indiana Jones, James Bond, whomever. The kid says, I want to be that. In a game, Mario isn't a hero. I don't want to be him; he's me. Mario is a cursor.î [Fullop, 1993]
Article 04 - (Impact Case Study)
New Understandings of player agency used to improve digital games
*downloadable file - find via Google search: New Understandings of player agency used to improve digital games
Parsler has applied a theoretical approach to game design to better understand how the formal structures of a game create an experience that seems to the player to be ‘free’ but which – as in inherent in the medium – has significantly to be constrained.- Here is another definition of agency - supports previous statements
Personal Notes
For something as big as player agency, I struggled to find some useful articles however there were a few. Namely article 2 of this post - very good read and I can see myself using it when preparing for my dissertation. As for the rest of the articles, they had some bits of interesting information but no where near as much as no.2
Tuesday, 3 March 2015
Event03 - 'Death Of A Soldier'
This part of the story is when three young 'soldiers' bring their fallen comrade to Roseanne's house for her father to bury. Making reference to an asylum, this scene will be held in a lobotomy style room - very eerie with flickering lights.
Still carrying this project as linear (for now) this event will also trigger the hotel's transformation into an asylum by upon exciting the room - the walls and floor will transform to what I am calling a 'half-state' - half hotel/half asylum. I will create textures/materials that show both environments so it can be merged in the scene for a really interesting almost decomposing effect.
What Happens
Still carrying this project as linear (for now) this event will also trigger the hotel's transformation into an asylum by upon exciting the room - the walls and floor will transform to what I am calling a 'half-state' - half hotel/half asylum. I will create textures/materials that show both environments so it can be merged in the scene for a really interesting almost decomposing effect.
What Happens
- Banging/knocking can be heard from behind a door
- Upon entering the room, you see a body underneath a white bloodied sheet, in the middle of the room - lying on a table. There is blood words smeared all over the walls
- Lights begin to flicker - noises start to happen
- The body disappears
- A few journal entries appear on the table - when the user leaves the room, the walls/floor slowly change
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| Event03 - 'Death Of A Soldier' |
Personal Notes
This event does not have too much complications too it - as for transforming the environment, I have already figured this out and tested it on the floor. It worked very well. It will be a little bit more complex as oppose to having 2 different textures, I aim to have 3 - Hotel - 'half-state' - Asylum
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