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.

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. 

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.

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.

April Plan

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.

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:

Visual Dissertation Document

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:

Dissertation Plan (Main Body)

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.

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

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:

1. Gravity Law
2. Mother Issues
3. Death Of A Soldier
4. Fire At Orphanage
5. 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:

1. Environment De-saturates
2. Roof changes
3. Walls/Floors become a Half-State (Hotel/Asylum)
4. Walls/Floors compeltely change from Half-State to Asylum
5. 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.

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

1. You hear some sort of sound coming from a room (music/voices). You approach door and enter.
2. You enter into a room of two closed coffins and one open coffin.
3. 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.
4. You explore the last open coffin and discover it belongs to you, Dr. William Grene. You also discover much more to the overall story
5. 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.

Visual Dissertation Doc Update

Old Visual Dissertation Doc

Old Visual Dissertation Doc

New Visual Dissertation Doc

New Visual Dissertation Doc

I am having a lot of trouble with this and feel like I really need to to be complete so I can properly start my dissertation. This is something I will be addressing to my supervisor at our next meeting so I can really get started with it all.

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

1. 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)
2. When you leave the room, the door shuts and you hear screaming and see smoke coming from the door.
3. Upon entering the room, you see the whole room is on fire - smoke everywhere
4. You leave the room again and the hotel hallway changes once more
5. The hotel hallway now becomes, an asylum hallway

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.

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

1. Banging/knocking can be heard from behind a door
2. 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
3. Lights begin to flicker - noises start to happen
4. The body disappears
5. A few journal entries appear on the table - when the user leaves the room, the walls/floor slowly change 

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

Event02 - 'Mother Issues'

Even though I would like to make this a non-linear story at the end, I am still approaching it in a linear sense, just in case I run out of time. This next event is entitled: 'Mother Issues'. This makes reference to the book from Roseanne McNulty's memory of her disturbed mother.

• Roseanne's Mother is a little disturbed and never says much (is sanctioned in a mental hospital later in the story). In this part, she strikes herself with a shovel and later, purchases a clock and prior to smashing it on the floor, mutters some nonsense.

This is going to be the event that really emphasis' the mental asylum scene. It is going to take place in a padded cell (replaces a typical hotel bedroom) and is going to incorporate so hysterical laughter and creepy sound cues.

What Happens

1. Laughter can be heard down the hall - loud and reckless
2. Approaching the door, user see's it's an unusual type of door - laughter is more quiet and reserved.
3. Player enters and see's padded cell, with blood writing on the wall - mentions of clocks/'tick-tock'
4. upon leaving the room, the roof of hallway has slowly changed to an old mental asylum style roof.
5. Whispers of 'tick-tock' echo through the hallway

I had begun this event in a very rough manner - I will now continue with it and give myself a day or so to enhance it.

Event02 - 'Mother Issues'

Personal Notes

This requires a lot more work as I am creating a new room as well as changing the ceiling. So far I have completed this roughly. I will give myself a little more time to polish it before moving on with event 03 next week.

Visual Dissertation Doc - refined

I was going to save this for later (after I played P.T. (Silent Hill) but I thought it was best to do it now as to not end up wasting time looking at stuff that may become unnecessary to my research. As a reminder here is my previous Visual Dissertation doc:

Visual Dissertation 01

Since then I have come across some different terms and ideas and have now refined it to:

Visual Dissertation 02

This change has helped a lot in understanding what I am doing. I was starting to feel a bit lost and getting sidetracked in my research. I am hoping this will help me to get back on the right track and continue with the amount of work I have been doing so far.

Personal Notes

Having already looked at environmental design techniques already, I am going to focus these next few days on horror techniques and storytelling techniques (with regards to horror).

Event01 - Laws of Gravity

The first major event that is going to happen in my story is entitled: 'Laws of Gravity'. This even makes reference to the book from two different memories:

•  Dr. William Grene's mother Roseanne McNulty - reminiscing the time her father attempted to show her the laws of gravity by dropping feathers and hammers at the same time from a great height in a tower in the graveyard at which he worked.
•  Fr. Gaunt's rendition of a similar incident, when he seen a group of men take Roseanne's father too the top of the tower in the graveyard and beat him in with hammers.

I want to use this even to create a subtle change in atmosphere and to help develop an uneasiness in the player as the environment begins to change and odd things happen.

What Happens

1. Music is played
2. Environment de-saturates
3. Feathers fall from the ceiling
4. followed by clanging hammers
5. Two pieces of parchment are left at either end of the hall - emphasizing story

I am still toying with the idea of having the parchment information also read out loud in some distant creepy voice. I can toy with this later. For now I will be doing my best too accomplish this first event.

Event01 - Laws of Gravity

Personal Notes

This should be relatively simple as I only need to create two objects; feather and hammer. I already have the de-saturation working and music should be very easy. I hope to nearly have this complete by the end of the week.

Visualizing Dissertation

Here is a more improved version of my dissertation. I have started using Google Docs for this and has proved very helpful:

Visualizing Dissertation

Personal Notes

This is my first version of this. It is something I will be iterating over the next coming weeks as I start to carry out a lot more research. The 'Environmental Design Techniques' are based on Don Carson's article in gamusutra:

http://www.gamasutra.com/view/feature/3186/environmental_storytelling_.php

http://www.gamasutra.com/view/feature/131593/environmental_storytelling_part_.php

Last Year's Blogs

I have been looking at last years blogs - as recommended by my supervisor - and I have noticed a few things:

• They are very personal - much more personal than I would of expected (in terms of writing)
• They seem surprisingly short - not as much posts as I had imagined

I want too check that my blog is going down the right line. I am a little worried I have too much posts however I was told to blog as much research and practical stuff I could. I have seen my blog improve over the year as at the beginning, it lacked in direction and structure. I have managed to have more of a structure and for the rest of the semester I would like to improve on the information I write and try and be much more 'professionally' critical when looking at other pieces as well as my own.

I feel that one thing I am lacking in blogging is when I look at other media pieces. I have looked at games and some films but I never seem too blog about them. I know this is important and I look to catch up on the ones I have not done and make sure I blog about future practices.

Visualizing My Dissertation

Even though I feel it's early days (for dissertation) I was recommend to visualize it and put it on paper. I am a bit unsure as to whether I have done this correctly but I have still given it a shot. It has helped me link and relate certain features of my project that will be useful when writing out my dissertation. As this is a huge writing piece, it is critical to plan out how it is going to be tackled and I feel this (iterated a bit more) will help a lot:

Visualizing Dissertation

Environmental Storytelling

• Using Environment To Tell Story
• Suspenseful Horror
• Pacing The Player
• Encourage The Players Interest
• Immersing The Player

I want to double check that I am on the write lines with this task as I feel I may bit a bit of tangent with it. As for my dissertation, I plan on beginning it on the weekends in March. By this time a comfortable amount of practical work will have been achieved and I can start to split my workload onto the dissertation. Keeping it only for weekends and then in April, I can re-assess my current status and apply myself to wherever is needed in time for final hand-ins.