Vikings VS Celts

Group 4 - Level 5 work. This is our blog of our continuous work as a group on the game "Hel Fire" which was originally called 'Vikings vs Celts' - The project was handed in as of 14/05/21

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Week 12

Final Week - 10th May ‘21

As we dawn the last few days before hand-in we have cleaned up everything to the best of our ability and imported items in ready for the hand-in. As of the last week this is what our build looks like however there may be minor adjustments or bug fixes between the video showcase and the final product so please take this into account.

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Week 11

More improvements: 3rd May ‘21

Adding improvements based off of feedback

Developing further - ensuring hand made files work correctly

As seen in the secondary picture we needed to ensure our character models work, our T-Pose looked correct however one of the leg’s had glitched so thanks to internal testing we caught a fixable mistake before importing it into the final build. You can also see the space for the dialogue box that ensures players can see, thanks to our consistent meetings and general group cohesion it was made easier for each team to communicate. Our programmer also worked to ensure our options button was functional with the simple addition of brightness, volume, sensitivity, text size, graphics and full screen by adding an overlay and other respective mechanics that give a better quality of life to the user.

Final presentation: 5th May ‘21

Our Final Presentation Slides

We presented to the class a gameplay demo of the same test build many of them played, a small explanation of who we are and what we’ve done and the process we took to take the parameters of the game. Each individual was tasked to cover their specialised topic by the group leader and talked for roughly 4mins each - It shows a deeper look into our programmers coding that translates directly into gameplay including built in tools he used to aid us such as cinemachine and external animations.

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Week 10

Improving on previous weeks feedback: 26th Apr ‘21

Improvements inbound!

As well as more clutter and general pieces needed for cutscenes, we improved on the basics of the village leading on from the feedback the week prior. The village was expanded, the camera was given mouse control and improved the following and collisions over all, this included adjusting the camera downwards to look at the player model while they were toggled into crawling. This was needed to improve quality of life and generally ensure that everything would seem a lot smoother in gameplay. Having all the basic components to build on would allow us to do final adjustments in the next few weeks to improve and finish the game with all the key features we needed.

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Week 9 - Testing

Peer testing - 19th April 2021

Test Methodology

From an internal testing session on 19th April, the following data was obtained from 10 testers through a questionnaire and has been analysed to direct further development of the project. We are testing to see players satisfaction with this build of the game inc. the controls, environment layout and ease of gameplay.

We did this because we needed to understand what we had to expand on in the next few weeks before hand-in and what would benefit us to include, remove or develop further. Because of this we used a custom questionnaire form to give out to people and allowed our course peers to take a look at our game and give feed back in both quantifiable and quantitative measures.

Analysis

The first three questions of the questionnaire determined the demographic of the testers to see whether they fit the target demographic for the game.

80% of the testers fell into the age range of 20-23 with one tester under 20 and one aged between 28 and 31.

The testers were 90% male with no female testers and one non-binary tester. This may skew the results of the questionnaire and a large testing sample would have yielded more diversity, but this was infeasible for the scope of this testing session.

Only one of the ten testers chose ‘Horror/Thriller’ as one of the game genres they play most.

The next five multiple choice questions asked the testers to give their opinions on the gameplay.

The average of the ten ratings for the game’s control system was 5.2 with the most common rating being 4. This shows that the testers thought the controls were average quality with room for improvement.

The ten ratings for the environment’s layout were mostly uniform with five ratings of 6 and other half ranging closely between 4 and 8. These scores suggest that the testers found the environment slightly above average.

What will we do in response? Bug list? Feature list? Well we’ve decided based on the feedback that we will edit the following:

Environment scale & texturing

Camera controls

Improved character animations

Raw Test Data: https://bit.ly/3ncRrlR

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Week 8

Preparin for testin - 12th April 2021

Voice over created from Adam

Showcase of Chris’ coding from the past few weeks

By this point the menu’s and crawling were put in place to ensure the player navigation and movement work as intended, we also added the conversation system which would allow players to interact with their father and NPC allowing for a quick tutorial and conversational system to be in place. By the end of this week we also had AI enemies in place, the game over system and improved interactions. All these additions were key features needed before testing that would tick off the basic needs for our assignment. The AI was needed to ensure the antagonist would chase after the protagonist and create a win/fail system that would be clearly outlined for the player.

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Week 7

Final concepts hand in - 15th to 21st March 2021

Animations

Speech boxes

Final character concepts

Logo designs

Starting on modelling (walls and characters)

3D misc. files

Updating blogs & redo scrums (trello)

As the main tasks were complete, we moved onto the building stages of our plan. This involved pitching idea’s towards improving the map and level plans were made for the interior of the roundhouses to ensure a clear idea was made about what misc. items we would need. As we already owned a free to use and edit file we imported it in to add debris and clutter to our environment to make it feel more lively and less barren. This would also help guide players to or away our desired path that would eventually lead to easier path finding for users.

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WEEK 6

Tying up loose ends - 8th March 2021

Following on from previous week

Planning ahead

Finishing character movement (crawl animation)

Mother & Father concept

Main character concept

3D building concepts

Logo concept designs

Character base

All work and final concepts are being sent in for Week 7 - 21st March

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WEEK 5

Break to follow up other projects - 1st March 2021

Called for finishing or wrapping up of previous tasks

To: progress onto next set of tasks or redistribute

Set up group trello (Agile management)

Setting out tasks each team needs to complete to move onto next stage

During the lecture this week we were also introduced to simple conversational systems, as part of our tutorial we wanted to implement this to ensure players understood how basic movements worked and interactions with the environment would play out. Given more time this system could be adapted to have more intricate meaning and develop the world further but given the time constraints were reusing models and don’t want players looking too closely at certain npc characters for too long as to recognise recycling. 

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WEEK 4

Initial presentation - 22nd Feb 2021

Group initial presentation

Set up of group tumblr (aka group project journal)

This week we had less to submit towards eachother. Other than the presentation which we had to gather all our initial ideas we cleaned up the white-boxes that indicated the map design and gathered graphic’s from Christian towards our initial aesthetics. The initial colour scheme changed from what we initially planned due to the settlement of the name which in term influenced the theme. This ended up being quite useful later on as it established a “brand” and certain look that we could then take into further design and take inspiration for in our characters, logo’s and systems (eg. menu’s, buttons, HUD)

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WEEK 3

Group name discussions - 15th Feb 2021

Testing basic animations in lecture

Initial idea for presentation

Shared docs started (Google drive)

Outlining current game expectations for basic work (recap 11th)

Discussed scale and worked further with whitebox

Gathering work - 16th to 21st Feb 2021

1st viking & celt concept gathered

Progamming tasks completed

Inc. animations

Jumping

Configuring cinemachine camera

Game titles narrowed down

Catch up, problem solving

Organising logo concepts

Organising the first presentation order and quick

First pass of title screen and menu sprites

Whitebox screenshot (first pass)

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WEEK 2

Group formation - 8th Feb 2021

First team meeting

Clarifying initial ideas

Starting moodboards & ref collection

Group task delegation - 11th Feb 2021

Programming tasks started

Base scene

Base player controller & scripted events (movements and triggers)

2D concepts tasks set out

Sharing basic map layout design for whiteboxing

First general concept gathered

3D art (simplified whiteboxing started)

Writing elements starting finalising and covering progression

Ideas for antagonists names

Potential mythical beings

Music/Sound effects considerations

Group task catch up/retrieval: - 14th Feb 2021

2D art

Menu sprites delegated

Basic crate/chest concept

Programming testing cinemachine

Game title generation

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Test level/Walkthrough:

Freyja has done a walkthrough of the game in the following builds:

- 19th Apr ‘21: https://youtu.be/Xrh1KUdWOEM 

Same build without commentary: https://youtu.be/RCyw026jyTI

- 10th May ‘21: https://youtu.be/xQZtNEn2PeU

- 14th May ‘21: https://youtu.be/UhTAbunw6bw (bugged showcase)

- Same build: https://youtu.be/43tBd-L4Nsc

As of the 14th of May ‘21 build the controls are as follows:

W - Walks forwards

S - Walks backwards

A - Turns the character left

D - Turns the character right

Q - Shows current objectives

E - Interacts with people/objects

Ctrl - Toggles the crawl

Shift - While pressed and holding W allows for running

Esc - Brings up the pause menu

Mouse - Left and right movement control the camera

Space - Is meant to allow for jumping

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Interface:

We wanted a very very minimal interface meaning no health, weapon count, stamina etc. to create a more cinematic and immersive effect. 

Sandbox plan:

As seen in the pictures, our sandbox plan for the settlement was meant to be closed in, set on the coast and homely. Its based on historical layouts of Celtic villages with both classic wooden roundhouses and boxier sturdy rectangle houses. These would also include obstructions, fencing and general greenery to make the scene feel more alive.

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Aesthetics:

We’re aiming for a low FOV (field of view) and low poly models with a semi realistic silhouette so in the darkness it creates a larger sense of danger.

The game should feel alive so creating semi-realistic NPC’s and player models will be key to keeping the immersion for players. We’re looking at using realistic textures on buildings and environment elements despite a simpler look due to time constraints. What we can’t make up for in large-scale realism we will try compensate with gripping visuals. 

The player should be able to feel the dry air, staying near silent and peaceful until trouble strikes. Once this happens nothing but screaming and shouting, crackling of burning buildings will be heard. We’re hoping that we can source suitable sounds and potentially music to sell the underlying feeling that something will go wrong and when it does its a matter of life and death.

Village’s layout will be mostly historically accurate whilst NPC and player model garbs will be static due to time constraints. We have a set colour palette for each group and will try to use similar tell-tale colour schemes to guide players through the level.

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Agile Management:

Throughout the project the team has used the original discord that has been set-up and frequently met up every Thursday (7pm) and Sunday (5pm) to ensure the team was on the same page about what was expected of them that week or in the next steps.

In the first week an initial 3 meetings were made over discord at pre-set times to clarify what each member had in mind for the project, what they would like to accomplish and why they wanted to join the team specifically. This then lead to foundation tasks being set such as research, mood boarding and general idea gathering to base off of. As seen in the pictures above, the team were quickly met with a list of tasks they were delegated and could start work on to be checked on the following meeting. Any tweaks, adjustments or questions would be raised at the next meeting and peoples progress would be showcased - this was a good form of motivation, especially when physical meetings wouldn't be possible due to the introduction of frequent deadlines and the expectation that others would be able to view the progress you made (or lack there-of). 

As weeks went on this proved to still be effective and smaller tasks would be completed on creating smaller workloads and naturally less work being handed in until the next step could be taken. This is especially prevalent in our weekly blogs as the first few weeks have more detailed and easier tasks for our peers to complete where-as weeks 5-7 are more about finer details before extra details and fine tuning can be added.

During the process we also introduced the agile work platform Trello, though useful and visually pleasing it quickly became another thing for members to check up on externally. We found things outside the one platform (the discord server) would either be forgotten about or slacked on so it was agreed as a group to carry on with the laid out plans within the discord.

In general: Trello’s external software did not work in our favour and we instead opted for an all-in-one experience with discord after the irregularity of updates and issues keeping it updated alongside the meetings and other projects. The time consumption and addition to workload was not something team members appreciated and wanted to keep on top of.

Other software's may have tackled the problem’s we faced however were often locked behind paywall’s, need for “enterprise” or “company” intervention or generally did not integrate how we would’ve liked. The use of a peer support sessions on top of lectures kept us motivated and work well for our group particularly.

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The current layout of the team structure, these roles are mostly moveable and have the ability to change/add along the way to fit the needs of the project.

Click below to read more in depth about each individual and their role.

Freyja - I’m the one currently covering the blog. As the group lead I took it upon myself to make sure all “paperwork” like tasks were complete to ensure my team could focus on their individual tasks and ensure work was being funnelled back to create an easy feedback system and cohesive workflow. I came up with the initial idea, managed the group, wrote the narrative & blog and finally had the last say on all artistic decisions.

Adam - He took the role of an environmental artist and had a keen ear for music/sounds that would match our mood. Working from the initial map layout and white boxing he went into depth to create several assets to make the map feel more lively and filled rather than a barren, unliveable place. On top of this he also provided simple voice lines for our main antagonist to create a greater level of suspense, he was full of creative but grounded idea’s and understood deeply what the final goal for the game would be.

Lewis - He took on the role of a character designer, with great attention to detail in his 2D work and eagerness to work on 3D design he went above and beyond in his artwork and created a solid style that was easy and consistent to understand across the board and often encouraged others with solutions or kind words.

Chris - He took the role of the only programmer, despite it being a potentially stressful task Chris worked swiftly and efficiently to deliver incredible work. Time and time again if an idea was pitched he would be able to include or adapt the content others provided to fit the gameplay style while ensuring only the necessary mechanics remained prominent.

Christian - Despite joining our group later than the others he took on the role of graphical artist with speed and passion. He delivered consistently great work in the same style after being provided theme idea’s and general moodboard. If anything needed revisiting or slightly tweaking he would do it immediately without quality drop.

This worked incredibly well for our group and despite the current pandemic situation (Jan-May ‘21) we managed to work exceptional as a group and got along without any hiccups or major rifts.

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Context

NARRATIVE:

Introduction: We start the game on a dry summer day in the Celtic town of Lissanduff, sitting near the Irish coast, as the protagonist, Willow, is speaking with his father. His father is a humble farmer amongst others in the town and sends the protagonist across the town to give someone a package. Once delivered, the protagonist will be encouraged to explore before returning to their family accommodation. 

This section will act as a tutorial to the movement mechanics, interactions and familiarise players with the small town map layout for future reference as well as building rapport with the civilians. It will be open-plan before blockades and obstacles are introduced later on.

Cutscene: Once the protagonist returns to his house a cutscene will take place. While cooking dinner/tea/whatever, his mother starts to talk about the rumours of a raid on a nearby town, his father counters but the mother continues and starts to talk about the premise of many Viking ships sailing in the dark of night, breaking down the doors of the village- faint bashing sounds can be heard- and setting the place alight. Slaughtering their flocks and kidnapping the “useful” civilians, killing anyone else. 

This will not only be foreshadowing but taking place as it's spoken about to move the gameplay along smoothly, boats will dock onto the nearby shore and groups of raiders will take place at the gates and herd civilians into a direct path. This allows us to reload the map in a different state with obstacles, Viking blockades and fire elements that were not previously there.

Main gameplay: Vikings knock on the door, yells heard outside. The protagonist leaps into action running out the front door; they must find the path of least resistance to escape the oncoming invaders whilst debris and attackers launch at them from every angle. The must reach the final way point - a conveniently placed ladder leading over the village walls.

Action will take place, the models of stationary Vikings will be used as blockades whilst a larger antagonist chases after the player in set stages to ensure timely progression is made. We are aiming to have difference in pacing, some light scares and the feeling of being caught like a mouse (only being able to use your stealth and agility to players advantage).

“Demo”/Game end: Protagonist clambers up the ladder, struggling for breath. They hastily leap over the walls and stumble to get up, running wide of the local road and into the local grasslands onto the next village. They escaped but without their family, friends and everything they knew burnt to a crisp. They will return. They will avenge.