James Daniels

Archive of work developed at the University of Central Lancashire

[jamesdanielsuclan-blog]

Voice Lines

Part of our game is identifying objects and making accusations, and so I had my friend Harry (@slimey-limey) record a few lines to help the player along. He plays the Police Chief of the precinct the player’s “Detective” comes from. Harry was very helpful in that he willingly recorded just over 70 lines for me in the space of a day, guiding the player on what they need to do, giving them insights on what certain items are, and berating them for asking what a chair is.

Each item has a response for whether players put it on the “WhoBox”, “EvidenceBox”, or the “Identifier”, some of them stack up or use previously used voice lines, otherwise we would have easily crossed over 100 lines of dialogue. Ultimately without the voice lines we would have needed large walls of text to explain certain things to the player, and that would have gotten very boring very quickly, this method was much more preferable.

Once again, huge thanks to Harry for allowing me to borrow him for 9 hours on a weekend to get all these lines done, I owe you one.

[jamesdanielsuclan-blog]

Victory Conditions

To win, the players must;

- Accuse the right suspect (Bert Brighton)

- Put all four bits of evidence in the evidence boxes

The Cotton Bud

Players need to use the cotton bud on the blood stain to get a swab of Bert’s blood, to prove he was there on the night

Torn Fabric

A piece of Bert’s signature jacket can also be found near the scene of the crime.

Tim and Bert Photo

But without this picture of Tim and Bert together, who’s to say that piece of torn fabric is anything significant?

Rejection Letter

Finally, the last piece of evidence needed is a letter from Bert to Tim, expressing his distaste for Tim’s ventures, and drinking habits.

[jamesdanielsuclan-blog]

Doors

To add a small element of exploration and basic puzzle solving, we’ve added locked doors which require players to find the respective keys. Only the Study and the Bathroom are locked off and the keys aren’t exactly hidden to a masterful extent, but it encourages players to look around a bit more.

When the keys come into contact with the doors, the doors open automatically at a 90 degree angle.

I would have had it so players could push and pull the doors but I didn’t find the time to get that far with VR development unfortunately, plus I didn’t think it was immediately obvious to the player that the door was open for them.

[jamesdanielsuclan-blog]

Tidying Up the Map

With more features and meshes added to the map I began to tidy it up a bit more. All the essential features had been added and with the only thing left being additional clutter to populate the apartment a bit more I was ready to put everything in it’s right place, along with some additional features.

The Hallway

The Kitchen

The Study

The Bathroom

The Bedroom

The Living Room

[jamesdanielsuclan-blog]

The Goal

Initially the idea would have been there would have been just an “Accusation Table”, players place a suspect file on their and the game will tell them if they got it right or not. However, with this feature I was worried people would just put the files on the table and not actually explore.

Instead I added evidence tables, in which players need to first of all decide whoe they suspect, and then provide three pieces of evidence to prove it was them.

This not only incentivizes the player to explore the environment a bit, but also prevents them from completely guessing the culprit at the start and essentially breaking the game.

[jamesdanielsuclan-blog]

The Map

Once the VR ws sorted out my next job was to blockout the map and plan where everything was supposed to go. I made sure everything was fairly evenly spread to give players an oppurtunity to properly wander around the map and try and see everything. There are also secret spots that are waiting to be discovered around the apartment.

[jamesdanielsuclan-blog]

Figuring Out VR

My first job in this brief is getting VR to actually work. Fortunately VR comes pre-packed with a VR template which has inside it a cube that can be interacted with, the blueprints of which are all we really need for the time being.

The main thing that needed figuring out was changing the Interface within the class settings of a blueprint, making it a Pickup Actor Interface, which automatically calls a lot of features from the Motion Controller VR blueprint. After that it’s mostly just copy and pasting the base nodes over as the template covers most of what we need to pick up and put down items

[jamesdanielsuclan-blog]

VR Brief

For the last major brief of the year, we have been split into groups based on our skills. My group consists of myself (Designer), Tommy Durrant (3D Modelling), Rene Kovac (3D Modelling) and James Watt (3D Modelling).

We managed to come up with an idea fairly quickly for our game. The plan is that the players will have to solve a murder. They’ll be given 5 suspects and are then instructed to investigate the apartment and find out who the culprit is.

Because it’s mostly 3D modellers, we’ve specifically gone for a game that’s fairly simple to blueprint and most of it will come from the experience of exploring the apartment. As a designer my job will be putting everything in it’s right place and making sure it all works okay.

[jamesdanielsuclan-blog]

Playtesting

Here are the results of the playtests;

Jack England

- Camera in the Secret Room of the Bedroom needs adjusting, too difficult to move around (Solution: Camera will be moved)

- Sequence needs to be added after solving the Secret Room puzzle, to make it clear they’ve finished the puzzle (Solution: Sequence will be added)

- Subtitle Text can be hard to read (Solution: Text colour will be changed)

Alex Keates

- Had trouble with the Secret Room puzzle, difficulty comprehending which way the patterns facing (Solution: The “Exit” button has been placed at the top of the puzzle table when you switch to the main camera, to give some indication without entirely giving it away)

Dan Butler

- Nav Mesh Issues, cameras kept swapping too soon or not at all (Attempted a fix, but far too complex to worry about this late in)

- Issues where text overlaps (Solution: Let the cutscenes run for shorter amounts of time and lock players in place during certain moments to prevent them from activating too many things too quickly)

Beth Kelly

- Issue where clicking on study switch sends the character downstairs for some reason (Solution: Because the switch starts below ground, the nav mesh thinks the switch is underground and takes the players to it when they click on it. Because of this, the switch now starts above ground, and then timelines below ground at the start of the game)

Nicola Hynes

- Issue where the cutscene for the plug under the bed lasts for far too long (Solution: The delay after picking up the plug has been)

- Lights in the Lobby too bright, couldn’t notice the coloured lights (Solution: Point Light intensity in the lobby has been toned down)

[jamesdanielsuclan-blog]

The Study

The Torch

I’ve attached a point light to the player that activates when they find the torch in the kitchen, it’s only dim and not hugely noticeable around the mansion until you get into the darker rooms, which is preferable.

The Numbers

Numbers have been placed around the room that can only be interacted with properly if the player has the torch. In a fully realised version of this project, the player would take the four numbers and try them out on the keypad, but because I couldn’t get a keypad working the best I could do was just gather the numbers and then have them be solved automatically.

With the study now complete however, all four rooms are done, and the project is essentially at a playable state. Now I’ll playtest a few times, and begin making adjustments accordingly

[jamesdanielsuclan-blog]

Bedroom Complete

Adding, and fixing, the Secret Door

I’ve created the Stray Plug and secret door for the puzzle in the bedroom, this was all fine up until I opened the door and tried to walk through it. Because the door is there at the start of the level, the Navigation Mesh for the player character creates it’s own invisible wall so I can’t pass through it. However, even when the door is opened the Nav Mesh doesn’t change and I still can’t pass through. To counter this, I put the door out the way, and added a timeline to play at the start of the level to put it back in place. I still can’t pass through the door when it’s closed and the Nav Mesh doesn’t create an invisible wall when it’s open.

The Bedroom Puzzle

For this puzzle, the player needs to have a pattern lit up on a pedestal, this was fairly simple and mostly required AND booleans and OR boorleans to check whether the pattern was complete

There are also blueprints to have the buttons light up when they’re pressed, which is mostly toggling visibilty of point lights above the buttons and Flip-Flopping the booleans set to true or false

With that the Bedroom is complete, the sequences have been completed to show the statue rotating round and illuminating the door. The only room left now is the Study.

[jamesdanielsuclan-blog]

Updates on Progress

Today has mostly been spent assigning the blueprints to each room to get all their puzzles working, so far the Kitchen and the Living Room are finished, and both their puzzles are completely solvable. Progress has begun on the bedroom and I’ll then finish with the study.

I’ve also added sequences that show the statue lining up with the door when each puzzle is solved. There’ll be four in total as each of the puzzles are complete.

Once the Bedroom and the Study are complete I’ll move on to some brief playtesting, to see how players get on.

[jamesdanielsuclan-blog]

Interaction

Today was spent getting the player to interact with items in the kitchen, as it’s the easiest room of the four. Once I have most of the blueprints down for it the rest should fall into place quite easily.

Here are the blueprints for an interactable toolbox in the game.

First, when the object is clicked on, the player loses input and the character automatically walks directly towards the object.

Next, a widget is created with two blank text boxes inside, one for text the player is saying, and another to inform them if they’ve picked up an item. Binding the text box and using a variable, I can have it edited to say whatever is needed when an item is clicked. In this case, if the players picked up bobby pins earlier in the level, it allows the players to unlock it...

And add the toolbox to their inventory.

If not, the game informs them that they’re missing something still.

With this system done, the next job will be creating a sequence for when switches in each room are activated.

[jamesdanielsuclan-blog]

Movement and the Camera

Using the Top-Down movement template, and old blueprints from a personal project, I managed to get the movement of the camera and the camera changes working within the mansion.

Whenever the player walks into trigger boxes around the mansion, these blueprints switch to their corresponding cameras, which have been placed to make sure all exits are visible, and all items that can be interacted with can be seen as well.

[jamesdanielsuclan-blog]

Puzzle Walkthroughs

There will be 4 rooms in total in the mansion accessible to the player - The Kitchen - The Living Room - The Bedroom - The Study

The Kitchen

To solve this room, there's a broken switch in the centre of the room. On closer inspection of the table it's on there's some broken wires on the side. In the corner of a room there's a toolbox but there's a padlock on it. If players look up in the bedside table in THE BEDROOM, they'll find some bobby pins which can then be used to pick the padlock on the box. The tools inside the box can be used to fix the switch and that will trigger the first light. This room is fairly simple in retrospect, but as more of a simpler puzzle for players to adapt to the way things work, as with any other point n click, there'll be plenty of red herrings in the room, and the fact one of the items is in another room will make it a bit more challenging

The Living Room

The switch to activate in the LIVING ROOM will also require access to the toolbox in the KITCHEN. The TV in the room is only displaying static and flickering, if players use the tools on it they can fix it and it displays a time. With the time on the TV players have to adjust the clock on the wall to match that time, which will then cause a stand with a switch on it to appear out of the floor.

However, the from the switch to the statue isn't properly connected, and needs to be repaired. Using some electrical tape (found in the KITCHEN) and the tools, the wires can be connected, finishing the puzzle of the LIVING ROOM.

The Bedroom

Something can be seen poking out from underneath the bed, if players have the torch it can be identified as a plug. Once it's been identified it'll be plugged into the wall automatically. This opens up a secret door, and going through it reveals a small table in the middle of a circular room. On the walls there are three incomplete patterns that when put together reveal the answer to the puzzle on the table.

Once the pattern has been entered, the puzzle isn't initially solved, a button in the room shows that the table can be rotated, and needs to be to get the pattern facing in the right direction, solving the BEDROOM puzzle.

The Study

The STUDY is a dark, pitch black room that the players need a Torch to navigate. The torch can be found in one of the drawers in the KITCHEN. With the torch, the player with have a small light following them around. Now they can search the STUDY, they can check the desk in the room which has a small bust on it, which opens to reveal a button. When the button is pressed, a light points at a space in the wall which the switch comes out of. However, the switch won't budge, and has a keypad underneath it.

Hidden around the room are four numbers, which can only be seen when illuminated by the player, once found they can be used to enter onto the keypad, unlocking the switch and solving the STUDY puzzle.

[jamesdanielsuclan-blog]

Blocking Out the Level

For the point and click blueprints, I already have an old project that I could use to create the movement, but I will need to find that project at a later point. In the meantime I have blocked out the mansion and the four rooms which will have the puzzles to solve in them

The Lobby

The Rooms (they’re all blank currently but there are four in total, they’ll be filled as development goes on)

The Outside

[jamesdanielsuclan-blog]

Chosen Concept

Out of the three concepts I came up with, the first one was chosen for me, which is the statue puzzler level. It’ll be a point and click style game, similar to Broken Sword, Grim Fandango and Full Throttle.

The light in the level will be used to guide the player and illuminate a new area, which will be the final stage of the level