Final Honours Blog Post

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.

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

• 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.

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.

Supervisor Meeting - 12

Student Name: Christy McLaughlin
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:

• 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.

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:

• 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

Poster's 1 & 2 - Rough

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.

Past Examples

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.

Exposition - Rough Plan

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.

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.

Business Card Examples

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

• Name
• What I do - 3D Environment artist
• email
• 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.

Supervisor Meeting - 11

Student Name: Christy McLaughlin
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.

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:

• '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:

• 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.

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:

• '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.

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 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.