MA Games Art Student

MA Games Art Student at University of Hertfordshire

[ellie-bygrave]

FMP: Final Evaluation

Introduction

My project, titled “Life On Mars”, features a short film and a section of gameplay depicting the life of a lone astronaut on Mars. The astronaut is on a vital research mission in a race to save everyone on Earth from extinction. The idea for the short film was that it could act as an early cinematic trailer for the full game, if I were to continue development on it. I also wanted it to be an opportunity to produce some work with a focus on my strengths of prop design and storytelling to help with future job applications.

The gameplay that I’ve implemented for this project is a simple walk around of the environment that I made with some opportunities to interact with items found around the rooms. I wanted to keep the main focus of my project on the short film, but the film only shows off a few sections of the environment, so I thought having a section of gameplay would be a great chance to show off a bit more of the area.

These were my main visual inspirations. The first 2 are the concept art that gave me the initial idea for the environment by Fabien Daubet, however I wanted a different visual style to the marker and pen drawing. I was inspired by Deliver Us Mars and Jedi Fallen Order, probably for obvious reasons as they’re both sci-fi and set in space. But also I like the visual style they both go for where everything is fairly realistic in terms of proportions and materials and so on, rather than some more stylised games.

These are some of the games I had inspiration from for the gameplay. Essentially my idea was that I want the player to have to explore kind of unguided and complete puzzles that have seemingly not a lot to do with each other to solve an overarching mystery

Criteria for Evaluation

In order to evaluate my work i wanted to have a few criteria in mind. Firstly, how does my final artefact compare to the planning folder I submitted? Did I manage to meet the expectations I set out and, if not, why? Secondly, regardless of whether I met those expectations or not, am I happy with the work I’ve produced? And finally, has this project helped me gain the skills I need to get a role as a 3D artist at a games studio?

Modelling and Texturing

The first thing I’m going to evaluate is the modelling and texturing of the props I made. As a props and environment artist, the actual making of the props is arguably one of the most important things to get right. I’ve already shown some of the visual inspirations I had and I wanted to achieve a similar quality as those games, as they’re the types of project I would hope to work on in the future. So the first set of criteria I was looking as is whether I met my own expectations from the planning folder. Here is the list of deliverables I wanted to create:

Communications unit, plant pot + plant, magnetic whiteboard, coffee machine, air con unit, decorative poster set, datapad, coffee mug, wire, wire cutters, whiteboard pen, paper note, pair of glasses, TV screen, book, storage boxes, pack of cards, map sign, room signs, door buttons, welcome mat

I did manage to get everything done in time. I would say I’m very happy with most of the assets I made and feel that they meet the quality I was aiming for initially. I tried to look at real life reference for a lot of things to gauge things like the level of wear that would be appropriate and what type of materials I should layer in. There are a few assets that I actually added to the list later on:

Toothbrush, toothpaste, toilet, shower, sink, soap

This was in order to add an extra area to the level for gameplay purposes and was an addition towards the end of the project. I feel that these assets don’t really meet the standard I achieved with the rest of the assets because I was rushed trying to get them finished. Thankfully these aren’t part of the cinematic so ‘ve managed to maintain my ideal standard throughout that, which was the main focus of my project. So onto my last bit of the criteria: will this part of my work help me get a job? I definitely think so, not even necessarily because it’s a good addition to my portfolio (though I’d hope it is), but mainly because of how my skills have improved throughout. I think my modelling was already pretty decent to begin with but I’ve got much better and more confident with Substance Painter, as I hadn’t really ever used it before this project. It’s also helped me with my planning skills and working to a set list of items, which will be a good skill to have in the industry in the future.

Building the Environment

Putting all of these assets into the environment was the next thing that I worked on. I’d already done a block out and some storyboarding so I knew how I wanted the environment to be laid out, as well as taking inspiration from the concept art. My plan wasn’t to recreate this by any means but to take inspiration for the style and the way it was built with the panels and cupboards and so on. I used a modular approach to creating the shell of the base and then populated the interior with the assets that I discussed before. I think it was successful in terms of all fitting together and creating a cohesive environment. However, in terms of the aesthetic of the original piece, I think my work misses the mark a bit.

It’s difficult to translate a marker drawing into a more “realism” focussed style and I had some feedback that it was looking a little bland, which I definitely agree with. I think I didn’t really have confidence that I’d be able to create a more run-down and fleshed-out environment without it either looking over the top or too far from the idea I had in my head, and so I started out a bit too conservatively and by the time I realised it was a bit late to go back and start over with my own concepting and planning. I still think it serves it’s purpose well and looks good in the cinematic where I was able to direct the shots and focus on the more interesting parts, but the gameplay section, which looks more at the base as a whole, could do with a bit of a makeover to improve the visual quality. I hope that in the future, working with a full team and art director and concept artists and so on would help with this a bit, as the creative direction wouldn’t just be on me. But I’m still glad I’ve had this experience as it’s good to learn from and see how I could make sure this doesn’t happen in the future.

Cinematic

So both of the previous things I’ve discussed obviously went towards making this cinematic. I wanted to have each my hero props featured in their own shot, with each of them partly telling the story of the astronaut. Some of those definitely do that better than others, and part of that is what I was saying on the previous slide about fully committing to the run-down version of the base. For example, I think the shots of the whiteboard and the communications unit have a lot of environmental storytelling and include a lot of detail that, if you pause and look it over, give you a lot of information about who the astronaut is and what is happening in the background that isn’t explicitly mentioned. But then things like the coffee machine don’t necessarily expand on the context too much because I didn’t fully lean into the state of disrepair I’d considered to start with. But regardless of that, I think the shots all came together really nicely and tell the story I was hoping to get across.

Most of the feedback I’d received about this in class was really positive and mostly it was just some little tweaks, like the timing of the shutter going up or some of the camera movements. I wasn’t able to implement it all as some of it was contradicting what others had said, as is always the case with like a subjective piece of work, and some I just wasn’t able to because of camera constraints or timing issues, but I’m pleased with how it all came together eventually. Although as a props or environment artist I wouldn’t necessarily be responsible for planning or rendering out shots it was a great exercise to make me think about how my assets might be affected by the shot list and whether I’d model in the same way if, say the back of an item wasn’t going to be seen in a short film compared to if it could be picked up by a character in a game. The cinematic was the bit I had the highest hopes for and I think it turned out exactly as I’d envisioned.

Gameplay

As I mentioned earlier, my plan for the gameplay was to have the player walk around as the astronaut character and interact with various things around the base. I was very inexperienced with implementing any sort of gameplay before this project so I anticipated it would be difficult and that I’d end up with something very basic. Whilst it’s by no means a fleshed out game, I am pleased with what I achieved. I’ve got the character walking around, opening doors, picking up items, and I managed to get in a menu and some UI as well. Compared to my initial plan I actually managed to achieve more than I’d hoped with this.

I did want to touch on how this all differs from my inspirations that I spoke about in the introduction though. Obviously the character just walking around and picking things up is not at all what I described with the sort of unguided puzzle game with a big mystery to solve. This was intentional, firstly because I’m not a gameplay designer and it would have taken me way too much time, and secondly because the cinematic was always intended to be the main focus, so I didn’t want to take away from that by trying to do too much in the gameplay. So, whilst I achieved what I set out to do, I thought it was worth mentioning that my bigger plans for this project would involve more depth in regards to the gameplay.

Also, although I don’t have aspirations to really work on gameplay in my future career, it was a great chance for me to experience how my choices when making assets influenced how I integrated them into the gameplay. So for example, my choice for the doors to have button to push to open meant I had to work out how to make the doors slide open when the player interacted with that button, and so on. I think that will be really helpful in the future so I can make more mindful choices in my environment work if there’s gameplay that relies on it.

How I could improve

Number 1 is the bathroom. This, like I mentioned earlier, was an addition towards the end of the development so it was fairly rushed as I‘m sure you can see by the quality of the assets. I decided that the gameplay would benefit from having an extra area to open into, even if it’s only small. I had some issues getting the mirror reflections to work so I didn’t have time to refine the bathroom as much as I would have liked. If I were to start again I’d put a lot more time aside for this and definitely start adding this in way earlier in the project. I think this is where being part of a team is a big benefit. You can collectively make a decision on whether something is worth the time or if it wouldn’t benefit the project enough. I asked for feedback from family about this area and thought a lot about whether to include it but in the end I decided I would as I’d already put the time into it even if it wasn’t perfect. I thought it could work well as more of a basic concept of what I’d like to do with fleshing out the base more in the future.

The other thing I need to work on a bit is more of a soft skill but it’s my timings. This was a tricky one because for the most part I managed to stay really on track with everything and had points where I was ahead of my own schedule. But I did also trip myself up in a couple of places by deviating from it intentionally. The first time was, as you’ve already seen, the bathroom area. As I said, it was a late decision to add it in which means it’s suffered in quality compared to the rest. And then right towards the end of the project, I’d started working on the promo video and this presentation but I hadn’t fully finalised a few bits in the gameplay and cinematic, so I was trying to work on multiple things at once when a couple of those things were kind of dependent on some of the others being finished. It was getting to a point where I was going back and forth across a few different things and I just had to decide to put a cut-off on the cinematic and the gameplay and just be done with them so I could get everything else finished.

This is something I’ve always struggled with, as with art there isn’t really an objective “finished” piece, but I got them to a point I was really happy with them and left them there. Timing and planning is always something I’m trying to improve and this project did go a lot better than previous longer projects so I’m going in the right direction and I think being able to make and stick to a plan is really important for working professionally so I’m glad I’ve had the chance to make these mistakes now so I can build on it for the future.

To Conclude

As a final conclusion, I think my overall successes are the design and execution of the props in my environment which also contributes to the atmosphere and vibe of the final cinematic. It came out really close to how I’d imagined it at the beginning. I also think I achieved a lot of my goals with my own personal learning and really improved the skills I wanted to. I’ve already talked about things I’d like to improve but it’s mainly the environment aesthetic, so getting it closer to the original concept art and make it more run down and worn. And then the gameplay, I’d want to look into implementing the puzzles I have ideas for but that would be something I’d look to others for assistance on so I could focus on the environment work. And finally, working on sticking to my plan and ensuring I’m timing everything well to get it all done.

References

Daubet, F. (2023). Mobile outpost cut out. Artstation. https://www.artstation.com/artwork/DvWD39

Deliver Us Mars. (2023). PS5 [Game]. Frontier Foundry

Escape Simulator. (2021). PC [Game]. Pine Studio

Outer Wilds. (2019). PS5 [Game]. Annapurna Interactive

Return of the Obra Dinn. (2018). PS4 [Game]. 3909 LLC

Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order. (2019). PS5 [Game]. Electronic Arts

We Were Here. (2017). PS4 [Game]. Total Mayhem Games

[ellie-bygrave]

FMP: Final Videos

Cinematic:

Gameplay:

Promo Video:

[ellie-bygrave]

FMP: Progress So Far

My Final Major Project is finally complete! I'll link the final videos on my YouTube channel in another post so they're all easily accessible.

To reflect on the project now it's done, I'm very pleased overall with how it's turned out. The cinematic especially is very close to what I'd visualised at the start of the project. The gameplay isn't quite how I'd like it to go if I continue this in the future but that's mostly due to limitations in my own knowledge and down to wanting to get something interactable that makes sense in the short amount of gameplay that I wanted to show.

I managed to complete all of the "deliverables" that I'd promised at the start of the project in terms of the 3D models I planned out. I also this I've mostly aimed the project towards my target audience. The timeline I'd planned worked well and I was able to keep to schedule and even was a bit ahead a few times.

For my own personal learning outcomes these were the main things I wanted to improve and gain more confidence in. Substance Painter was fairly broad as I’d never really touched it before as I mentioned earlier, but I found that after watching a few tutorials and then having a go it was quite intuitive to pick up. I already had a good foundation of texturing in blender and how to layer textures and use masks etc so it was mostly about transferring to a different software that was the struggle rather than the actual principles of it.

Using trim sheets and atlases was probably the thing I was most apprehensive about, as I had never used them and was a bit daunted by how to plan them out. It took me quite a lot of trial and error with the trim sheets to get to a point where I was happy with the layout for this project but now that I’ve done it successfully here I’ve found it a lot easier to plan out and adapt to changes for other attempts.

Project planning was something I really wanted to work on as I had a tendency to just jump in without really thinking about how much time and effort something would take. Once I’d made the plan I did find it really helpful to refer to, to make sure I was on track for time and didn’t forget any key elements that I’d initially wanted to include. I did fall into my old trap of deciding to add in extras kind of last minute which I’m trying to avoid, so that’s something I need to take forward and work on still.

And finally, asset optimisation. This is something I feel is quite hard to quantify if I’ve improved or not. I tried to make everything with as little “wastage” as possible in terms of extra polygons or blank texture space and it’s definitely helped me get into the mind-set of modelling for a game rather than just to make something that looks nice. I think I’d still find it useful to get more practice on this because there’s not really a right or wrong way of optimising things so I’m still a little underconfident that I’m doing it in the most efficient way or to the fullest extent that I can.

The 2 main things I would want to improve upon if I had time right now would firstly be the bathroom. I didn't plan for it initially and it was a decision I made to add it in fairly late on once I'd already done most of the modelling so it was quite rushed. I added it because I felt that the environment in the gameplay needed the extra little room and I wanted to try and incorporate a mirror. I would have liked to make the models and textures better in this area as I feel it doesn't reflect the quality elsewhere.

The second thing I’d want to improve upon if I were to redo this would be to try and stick closer to the aesthetic of the concept art, as that was what really inspired me and drew me in. Part of the reason why I deviated was because I had quite a clear idea of the how I wanted the short film to go in terms of shots and that didn’t quite work with the layout. Also because of the story I wanted to convey again I felt like I should make some adjustments in terms of colour and the implied materials and wear and tear of the concept art. I’d like to redo this but make it way more run down and almost to the point of full disrepair rather than the fairly new-looking environment I ended up with.

[ellie-bygrave]

FMP - Presentation

I've finished my presentation ready for the submission next week. I've tried to cover everything I mentioned in my previous post and have practised a couple of times to make sure I'm within the 15 minute limit. I want to practise a few more times to make sure I know what I'm going to say for each slide.

This was pretty much the last thing I had to do for this project so over the next couple of days I'm going to double check everything I have planned to submit and make sure it's all the way I want it and has everything included that needs to be in there. After that I'll submit everything, probably a little earlier than the deadline just to make sure it all uploads in time. I can always go back and re-uploaded at a later date if I need to make any changes.

I also want to make a proper post on my ArtStation with the cinematic. I already have an early version on there but need to update that with the final video and renders and some extra detail about the process. I'm going to wait until after the final class and my last tutorial this week thought to get any final thoughts and feedback and then do the updates.

I probably won't have much left to post on this blog after the next couple of days but I'll make a final post summing up the artefact with all the relevant links etc.

[ellie-bygrave]

FMP - Presentation

I haven't posted much recently as I've been working on the presentation and there hasn't been a lot to share. The presentation must be 15 minutes long and include the following things:

An introduction to the work (artefact) you have produced for your major study.

A detailed, well-structured academic evaluation of your artefact.

This isn't very detailed information so I've been trying to include as much as I can to cover these 2 points. I'm using images and videos from my final project to introduce it as I discuss the premise and final artefact.

For the evaluation, I'm comparing my final artefact to the plan I created for the pre-production phase. This way I'm able to evaluate whether I met all my goals or not and what I could have improved upon or could change if I carry on with this project.

I'm also going to discuss ideas for taking the project further and the direction I'd potentially like to take it in.

[ellie-bygrave]

FMP - Promo Video

I've put together my promo video. I may change bits later on but overall I'm happy with how the script works with the video clips all together. I think the clips I've used show both my project work and other work so viewers can see the kind of thing I do before I show the main bulk of the project.

The clips of the project I think show enough of what the vibe of the project is and the style without spoiling it or sharing too much.

[ellie-bygrave]

FMP: Promo Video

I've started on the promo video. I decided to write out a basic script of what I wanted to say.

I'm starting with a brief intro to myself and my skillset and then moving on to talk about my FMP. I also plan to talk about some of the skills and techniques I used and improved throughout the project. I'm also going to discuss at the end my goals for the future after finishing the MA.

I'm going to include images and videos of my work throughout to provide context to what I'm talking about and to show snippets of my project.

[ellie-bygrave]

FMP: Gameplay

Here is a video of the gameplay. I've edited it with some credits but still may make some changes in the future. I wanted to get to a point where I'm happy with the gameplay video so I can work on the promo video and presentation for now.

I had some feedback on the gameplay video. My main concerns were whether the camera movement was too fast looking round and whether it was clear what the environment was. I had some mixed reviews on the movement speed but ultimately I couldn't go a lot slower without the movement becoming very jagged. I'm pleased that the music sounds good and that it overall works well with the cinematic (the part where the astronaut goes outside).

In terms of comparing the gameplay of my project to current games out at the moment, mine is clearly not fleshed out or refined at all. I think it achieves what I wanted it to in being a way to show off the environment outside what is seen in the cinematic. However, just walking around and opening doors is not very entertaining and would need to be started more or less from scratch if I continue this project with creating a proper game in mind. I'd want it to become a puzzle game with lots to discover and work out with an overarching mystery that comes together at the end. I of course haven't achieved that here as I didn't intend to or have time to but I think I've made a good start.

[ellie-bygrave]

FMP: Gameplay

I've mostly finished the gameplay now. I had a little extra time to add in a bathroom. It isn't as fully fleshed-out as the rest of the base but I still think it looks ok and adds extra to the gameplay.

I wanted the mirror to actually work when the player enters the bathroom. However, for this to work I needed the bathroom to use a different reflection method than the way I'd already set up the rest of the project. I did try changing the whole project to this but that severely impacted the frame rate when moving around. The solution I used was to create a small post-process volume that only surrounds the bathroom that uses the different reflection method than the main post-process volume. This does mean that the frame rate in the bathroom takes a hit but the reflections work very well.

Thankfully the frame rate in the rest of the base remains high and consistent. I'm not too familiar with optimising this type of thing as the gameplay is just an extra to my main environment work so ideally I'd have someone who is more knowledgeable about this help me to improve the performance or find a different way to go about implementing the mirror if this level were to be expanded to a proper game project.

I really wanted to get feedback on this area as I wasn't sure if I should include it as it's clearly not very high quality compared to the rest of the base. I had some mixed feedback on this but I think I will keep it in as it's already done. I might use it as more of a concept of how I'd further flesh out the environment, as it's not good enough to be used as a final area of course.

[ellie-bygrave]

FMP - "At the forefront": Motion Capture

Motion capture (mocap) is a method used for recording the movement of (typically) people for the use in film-making or video games. It has other applications in medicine, for example, but use in video games is the most relevant to me.

The way mocap works is by using lots of markers placed over the actor's body. The actor is then recorded with a camera and those markers can then be used to calculate the movements of each limb or the facial expressions of the person. This allows the footage to be applied to character models in games with realistic and more accurate movement. This can be extremely beneficial for games that aim for a realistic style, as the incorporation of real movements with the character models adds to the overall impression that they are real.

A recent game series which had major success in incorporating realism is The Last of Us (2013) and The last of Us Part 2 (2020). The actors for the game used mocap for every scene to capture their movements, facial expressions, and emotions. This allows the animators to add a high level of detail to the characters in-game and in cutscenes. Some behind the scenes information from The Last of Us (2013) can be seen here in this clip.

Despite being an incredibly effective method of animating characters, mocap isn't necessarily useful for every application. For example, some games don't aim for a realistic art style, so having real human movements for the characters wouldn't fit well. In addition to this, specialist equipment is needed to do mocap, which may be out of the budget for some studios.

For my own project, using mocap was an option that I considered, as the university has the facilities for it. When I was deciding whether to use it or not I had to take into account whether it would be worth the effort of learning how to use the equipment, clean up the animations, and retarget them to a character for a relatively small part of my project, especially when animation isn't my discipline. As I was able to find lots of animations on Mixamo that were suitable for my needs, I opted not to use mocap in my project. However, if I were to take my project further and expand it to a full game I would definitely look into using it for cutscenes where more detailed and specific animations might be needed compared to my requirements for this project.

References

PlayStation Australia. (2022). "The Last of Us Part I | Motion Capture Trailer (4K) | PS5". YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Wd0P5WnO9Q

[ellie-bygrave]

FMP: Gameplay

I added in this screen that appears when interacting with the comm unit that lets the player know that there has been a mission update.

This appears on the screen for a couple of seconds than disappears. After that, when using the regular visor HUD the mission has changed along with the radar/compass that directs to the next mission.

[ellie-bygrave]

FMP: Gameplay

I've recorded a walkthrough of the gameplay as it is so far. There are still a couple of things I want to change but this was to get a rough idea of what I wanted it to look like and how I want to move through the level.

The main voice acting lines are also still missing as I'm adding some effects to them but they will be inserted when interactions happen with various parts of the room.

I also want to add some UI that notifies when the objective changes after interacting with the comm unit. At the moment it just moves the marker and changes on the visor UI but for quality of life when playing I think it would be better to let the player know it ha changed so they aren't confused.

[ellie-bygrave]

FMP: Progress so far

I am currently quite far ahead of my schedule. The initial plan for this week was to work on the gameplay element, which I have already mostly completed. The next step was going to be designing the UI element, but I've already done this as part of the gameplay implementation as it didn't take as long as I'd expected.

I still have a couple of polish bits to add for the gameplay but after that I plan to record a video of me playing through the level to submit alongside the cinematic. After that I will begin work on the promo video and the presentation for the submission.

[ellie-bygrave]

FMP - "At the forefront": Procedural Content Generation

Procedural content generation (PCG) allows the use of an algorithm to create environments, items, names, and much more. It is not exclusively used in video games, but this is the context I'll be using.

PCG is by no means a brand new concept. Games such as Rogue (1980) and Elite (1984) utilised it to generate their dungeon-like environments, avoiding the need for each level to be hand-created by developers. However, due to advancements in computer abilities and developers' techniques, PCG is becoming an increasingly popular and impressive method of generating for games.

No Man's Sky (2016) is one of the best modern examples of using PCG in a game. Almost everything seen in this game is procedurally generated, from the galaxies and planet biomes to the creatures on the planet surface. This allows for infinite player exploration as no two planets will be exactly identical. However, this doesn't mean that worlds don't appear to be very similar after a while. There are, of course, limitations on how many different types of creature would realistically live in one biome type, and so some of this must be repeated across galaxies to maintain a level "realism" (and reduce work for the devs). PCG can also be used in games for spawning enemies or loot. It can even be used to change the dialogue that players hear depending on their choices earlier in the game.

One of the misconceptions I've heard about PCG is that it means the computer does everything for you. Whilst that would make game development a lot easier, there still has to be a lot of manual input. For example, the game can't procedurally spawn an object if no one made that object to begin with. The code for the PCG still needs to be written and parameters defined to ensure it isn't possible to spawn 10,000 enemies in one place. However, it undoubtedly makes some processes a lot easier, especially when working with lots of or very large environments.

One issue with PCG is that often the building blocks can become very recognisable. This isn't exclusive to PCG, as the same can be seen with some environments that use modular kits, for example. To avoid this, one method could be to have such a huge variety of components used for the PCG that repeats are rare. However, this would require a large amount of work from developers to ensure there are enough individual assets to fill out the world and may make the use of PCG redundant in terms of efficiency. A different method that is utilised by games such as Bloodborne (2015) in their Chalice Dungeons is to have several unique aspects to each procedurally generated level. These utilise PCG for the development of some dungeons, allowing a unique experience each time. Interspersed throughout these are bosses and items that are unique, breaking up the regularly used building blocks of each level. This method of utilising PCG is what makes the Chalice Dungeons so unique where other games, such as No Man's Sky (2016), can fall into a trap of everything becoming a bit repetitive after a time.

For projects such as mine, if I were to develop it on a larger scale, PCG would be something to look into. As it stands, my project is much too small to benefit from the use of PCG, as the required set up would take longer than just building the environment by hand, as I have done. I would want to try and implement PCG for the terrain in any outside missions. Perhaps for nearby terrain I would still do it by hand to ensure traversal and mission elements were done correctly but for further vistas it would ease some of the workload to not have to create great sweeping Mars landscapes every time the player travelled to a new area. The great thing with PCG is that it can be incorporated easily into a manual workflow and the two can be combined seamlessly to enhance areas that need it with a bit of automation.

Overall I think PCG is an incredible concept and is utilised in very clever ways in modern gaming. For the future, there is potential that AI could be used to aid in PCG to increase the amount of elements and the depth of it for games. The tools are constantly changing an being improved upon to increase the capability and ease of use of these systems.

[ellie-bygrave]

FMP - "At the forefront": REDkit

REDkit is a recent release from CD Projeckt Red (CDPR) which allows users to develop mods and their own content for The Witcher 3 (2015). It is an official modding kit which lets the community create quests, animations, storylines etc to add into the game for free. Although it was previously possible to create mods for the game, it is now a lot more accessible and easy for many, especially as it has been released as a free tool. It uses CDPR's proprietary RED Engine to make additions to the game.

Whilst something like this clearly isn't helpful directly for my project in Unreal Engine, it is an invaluable tool for learning how to make video games. It allows you to add code, integrate new 3D assets, add animations, plan new landscapes, and much more. Of course with it being an engine only used by CDPR (and even they are moving away from it for their next instalment into the Witcher franchise (IGN, 2022)) it means that learning how to use the engine specifically may not be of benefit to lots of people, but there is a lot of overlap in the principles and practices between REDkit and engines like Unreal Engine.

Here is the official trailer showing some of the possibilities with Redkit:

There are already many mods underway and completed in the short amount of time since the kit was released. I am involved in one of the projects, called "Revenge of Ofir", which is attempting to create a new expansion-sized mod with a brand new environment and quest lines to follow. Using REDkit for these purposes has been a great learning experience so far.

It would be easy for CDPR to abandon The Witcher 3 almost 10 years after it's initial release and focus on the next additions to the Witcher and Cyberpunk 2077 franchises. However, although any new official additions to The Witcher 3 have ended following the release of the next-gen edition in December 2022, the release of REDkit will allow the community to give the game new life.

To me, this is what makes REDkit and CDPR as a whole a "forefront" studio. Of course the RED Engine isn't brand new and neither is modding, but the release of the REDkit modding tools will allow many who have never attempted modding or any sort of game development before can now have a go and try things out. It is a new an innovative way of encouraging interaction between the studio and fanbase, and the developers at CDPR have gone out of their way to make it a positive experience for everyone. They have created many official tutorials for people to get started with and even showcase the work of some particularly big mods, as seen in the trailer.

Aside from the creative possibilities of the kit itself, I think the major point I took away from this release is the active encouragement for anyone and everyone to get involved in modding and game development.

[ellie-bygrave]

FMP - Gameplay

As I want to have voice lines in my level, I decided to look on Fiverr for someone who could record some lines for me. I wrote out a script for the sets of lines with a bit of context to them.

This also outlines most of the times I'll have the player be able to interact with something. Most of it is just the interact prompt as I've shown before with a small movement from the character. I decided after writing this out to change the books in the cupboard to a pack of cards and the coffee is going to be still in the machine rather than on the table.

I found a person who does lots of voice acting gigs on Fiverr called Autumn Holley and spoke to her about the lines and what I was after. She has already recorded and sent me a few versions of the lines so now I need to choose which version of each to use and incorporate it into my level.

I plan to just use the "Add Sound" node in the interaction blueprints so it should be nice and simple.

[ellie-bygrave]

FMP - "At the forefront": Niagara

Niagara in Unreal Engine is a method for making particle systems and VFX. It was released for Unreal 4 and has been improved upon since then. It allows users to create complex VFX without needing to code as it can all be done using node-based systems and premade modules. Niagara is very versatile and allows for many different types of effect. It has some pre-sets which can be used "out of the box" or modified to better suit needs. A completely blank system can also be created and built up from scratch.

Previously, Cascade was the system used in Unreal for creating particle systems or VFX. Whilst it is still available to use in Unreal, I find Niagara to be a lot easier to work with. I still have to use tutorials and look through the official documentation a fair amount but it's a great tool for achieving VFX.

In my own project I have used Niagara in multiple different ways. Firstly, I wanted a simple drip system for the coffee machine. I did this by using a fountain pre-set and editing the amount of particles to only spawn one or 2 each second. I also changed the velocity so they immediately fall down rather than spawning with an upwards trajectory to begin with. I also changed the size and material to be fairly transparent but still visible. Up close it isn't the best quality for the player won't see it this close up so it works for the purpose.

I also created a puff of dust that is used for the astronaut's walk cycle in the cinematic. For this I created a custom Niagara system to spawn the particles in a short wide area with the particles ballooning outwards and upwards a little over the lifetime. I also used a custom material instead of the default particle to make it look more like dust rather than the round particles.

Overall I've found Niagara to be quite intuitive and has all the features that I've needed for my project. I'm not very experienced or skilled at creating VFX but there are some incredible ways to utilise it, such as in this article by Edoardo Grimaldi where they created a swarm of rats using Niagara. Instances like this really show the power of Niagara better than how I've used it and show some of the possibilities.

Simulating a Swarm of Rats in Unreal Engine 5 With Niagara

Edoardo Grimaldi demonstrated a robust system for simulating myriads of interactive rodents.

References

Grimaldi, E. (2023). "Simulating a Swarm of rats in Unreal Engine 5 With Niagara". 80 Level. https://80.lv/articles/simulating-a-swarm-of-rats-in-unreal-engine-5-with-niagara/