Spatial Constructs

3rd Year Uni Module: creating environmental assets while learning how to apply it in-engine to a first-person game

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Build Complete

Well I don’t know about you, but I hope I never need to be in the same room as Unity again.

The build is now complete: intro (with disclaimer/explanation and opening text), splash screen, and six variations of environments, all animated to one degree or another and each with interactive images and audio, as well as closing text in each.

It’s kind of messy, and I can’t get the hover cursors to work reliably and I also can’t figure out how to fade in, which seems weird since fade out works fine, but I just have no energy in me to try and figure out it any more. I tried, I just couldn’t work it out. I think I have to accept that for some things, Unity has just beaten me. 

I hate Unity, did I mention that?

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So yeah, Unity and I have been getting along better. After my scary girlfriend heard that we’d had a falling out, she had a quiet word with it. No clue what she said, but it’s been behaving ever since. Christ, scary girl.

Anyway, have been going mental working everything out. Ages ago (should have posted it then, but forgot) I went and got the audio files and broke them down into a series of separate audio files ready to be put into the scenes where applicable.

I also got all the images and scans we took and cut them into sizes and shapes ready to be presented in the game, along with some choice editing for effect.

In Unity, we devised the simplest system that’d get what we want out of it. I got a plugin named Fungus to help flowchart things to keep things running in a way I can understand a bit better. At first we got empty clickable objects sitting over the objects ready to be clicked by the player, and gave them a hover icon.

Then got hidden clickable objects with no clickability which included the pictures and pictures of text to be shown, either of which clicked would then take them away from the screen. This was a hassle because it caused far too many overlapping clickable objects to be on the screen at once (even while hidden) and basically just wasn’t working nicely.

I changed it so that the images appeared and were removed by pressing the spacebar, and removed their collision boxes entirely, leaving the only clickable objects the ones on the environment designed to be targetted.

I also made sure that all the appearing objects could reasonably be on the screen at the same time and be viewed all at once, which also had the nice effect of spacebar removing them all at once if they were all there.

I then threw in a clock icon which would advance “time” forward to the next scene, which all had its own series of interactive objects.

I did this in a progressive way, first going in and adding clickable objects and images, then going back to add text, then finally going over to add audio files, so as to not totally overflow myself with too much to do in one scene. This helped make sure that at any given point, if I ran out of time, every scene would be full of objects, even if they happened to be missing one aspect (such as audio).

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Unity, and how it’s not friends with me.

The next phase did not go well.

So basically I just managed to age myself about ten years trying to work out Unity. I’ve been getting a lot of help working out what’s relatively simple,but I just get frustrated at it super easily. I don’t find Unity even remotely user-friendly, but I guess that’s just me.

Anyway, the backgrounds are all made and animated, and work within Unity now. The camera centres on each animated background, which has the clickable target objects animated directly onto them, in a cheeky bid to save complication later.

There’s also an animated splash screen for after the title/intro and before the game starts, and a title/intro screen simply with a play/exit button, which is also animated (slightly).

I was going to make an exit image for when the game’s reached its conclusion, but I remember watching a game being played once where, by the end of it, the character was hiding away after being chased by the world collapsing (or something) and as the game finished, it actually just closed itself down. It felt appropriate and neat. I’d like to do that for this as well, as the last scene before it closes is all the characters lying down, in bed, with the animations at their slowest, and a much more relaxed vibe. To continue/end would be essentially to pass out, fall asleep, end game. It feels neater.

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Just as an update, the next phase is going well. I’ve had some help in sussing what to do in-Engine (wound up being Unity after all) and am essentially building a hidden object game, with very obvious objects. There’ll be a series of objects to interact with that trigger text, scans of images and audio, and an option to proceed to the next time segment.

The environments are animated and have varying degrees of “effects” on them, such as warping assets, flowing outlines and buzzing lines around the room. The intention is to replicate the mental feeling in question, where everything is quite distracting and hard to focus on, it’s all quite visually noisy and unfocussed, yet bright and exciting.

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The thumbnails brought into full colour and shape. These are based on stage 1B, memory. I’ll go over each appropriate angle and add them to their respective intox stages.

My plan is still to do the final photo-trace (stage 1A) last, so it doesn’t affect my memory too much. I already accidentally realised that my memory of the colours is totally wrong (and will be reflected in later stages) so don’t want to affect my memory/perception of the room any more than I already have.

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Intox Levels

Thinking about the different styles of drawing for each level of intoxication, which will give me different styles of environment to produce for each stage in the journal.

1A - Photographic 1B - Memory 2 - Initial Buzz 3 - Full Trip 4 - Flip 5 - Comedown

Stage 1 has been broken down into two parts, as I think it’d be interesting to have a photo-reference based environment right at the beginning, to create a juxtaposition against the memory based ones, to begin that perspective and create a sense of declining clarity.

Stage 2 is the initial buzz, where things will largely be the same as the memory image, but brighter, stronger, slightly less defined.

Stage 3 is the full trip effect, where things are lively, very bright and vibrant, nothing stays quite still, and colours start to become warped. Objects move and change at times.

The flip on stage 4 is a change up, as things become more active and buzzy and intense, there’s almost a tunnel vision and an energy and excitment to move.

Stage 5 for the comedown will be similar to stage 2, with things moving slower and quieter.

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So, I’m thinking these six angles will be what the environment will be based on. Whether or not I do a stage of intox for each of these sections is up to time restraints by the time I have a core game made, so for now will make a point of getting a base, sober “memory” level version done of each, and will decide on the levels/effects of each stage of intox, and make an environment appropriate to them for each relevant one. That can then be used in the core game, and after that I’ll find out whether I have time to include things like replayable values and altering intox levels.

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Feedback Session

So, I missed my scheduled feedback week session, but have just come in today to talk to my lecturer about getting everything sorted and making sure I’m on track.

Everything seems fine so far, he likes the ideas and has suggested some other things to consider that might make the game more replayable or viewable from different perspectives. He’s also agreed that 2D will probably be a better choice than 3D in order to get the environment more animated and interesting.

At this point, the main plan is to proceed into selecting an engine and creating some final assets to be put into place. Considering the time restraints we have and that I’m fairly behind, the important thing is making sure I have a submittable build by submission dates, and worrying about extra features once that’s done, if time allows.

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Just some more possible concept imagery for the later stages of the night, inspired by some really pretty artwork I saw earlier today.

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Some concept imagery of the later stages of the night, where the trip was in a more full effect. I’m not necessarily going to go with this style, but wanted to plant down some colour and style ideas, as well as put some “memory” to paper.

These are based entirely off of a very hazy memory and not based on reference photos.

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This is how I imagine the game starting off. This video would either play just before any “play/exit” menu comes up, or will be the first thing to play after hitting “start game”, as a way to set the mood and tone of the game. I think the sound bite is great as it establishes early the tone of everything that’s being said in the audio recordings (as some of it’s just random and daft, others serious) as well as the visual style being both changing and out of reality.

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Intro Image, I’m thinking. This would set up a good start to the game, I reckon. Have got an idea for a sound bite for playing over this image as well that should set a really good opening atmosphere :)

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Return From the Trip

We’re just back from the trip, taking a bit of a day to recover from it to be honest. We’ve collected about 40 minutes worth of audio logs, dozens of pictures from all angles of the room, and note/sketchbooks littered with drawings and notes from various stages of the night.

My plan is to plan out and recreate the environment design from memory first (for the later stages of the night) as I remember it only, and will work my way back to the reference photos to create a slightly more accurate rendition for the earlier stages of the night when our mind was clear. I’m doing it backwards so as to avoid spending too much time looking at source photos and the actual appearance and have that affect how I’ll draw my “from memory” and “during trip” versions of the room.

We have recordings discussing things such as us looking out the windows and explaining drawings and notes, so I think it’d be a good idea to have a mixture of clickable objects. Some will present only a couple of scans of images just to peruse, while certain objects will present a single image with an audio recording over the top of it of what we were talking about looking at it, or as it was being drawn. I think this will add some more interest to the player/viewer, as well as enforce a multimedia element. I’d like for the “first person” part of the brief to really be felt by the player/viewer in more ways than simply seeing the room from a first person perspective.

Whether or not the game will be done in 2D or 3D I’m still unsure. I’m fairly undecided about it still and think it will come down to how easy it will be for me to create it in any engine. I’m going to need to do some more research and talk to some programmers to get a better gauge on it. 3D does sound a bit better and more fun, but for later on in the night I’d like the walls to be more animated and “alive”, and think that will be much harder to create in 3D than it will in 2D. 2D will be a fair bit more flat and have no free walking movement, but I think the visuals will be much stronger because of it.

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New Direction

The more I’ve been thinking about it, the more I’ve decided I like the idea of presenting the project as less of a game with story, and more of a sort of first-person multimedia journal of the experience.

We’re going away to somewhere we’ve never been before to spend some time in a new environment while under the influence: the plan is to take plenty of pictures, draw and write lots and record audio of conversations and discussions throughout the night, as to gather as much source material as possible.

Once that’s done, I’ll be able to look at what I have and consider how best to present it. I’m still thinking a sort of point&click style of project, where the player can select objects and raise a window that has scans of drawings, or audio logs and such. The “time” will pass in game after specific intervals (yet to be decided how this will be applied) and as the time passes, the objects will change, new windows will appear and, most importantly, the environment will not only change angle and first-person position, but change in the sense of altered reality as well, to reflect my increasingly warped memory of the room.

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Copy/Paste of .txt notes and plans

A Night With Friends Lucy & Molly Jl Brady

::::Game Overall Possibilities:

3D explorable room. Interactive objects only, with text and/or audio files to describe things. No story or anything, just watch things unfold and allow the player to decide what to interact with as things change and woorple about.

2D point&click. Multiple rooms, allowing the player to progress through a story of sorts. Story likely be simple, short and humorous.

--2D environment. begin based on photos, realistic as possible. game camera view can only see one area, but sees everything. As" time" progresses, environment becomes more about memory and psychadelia and less realistic, also more animated. area also expands outwards, so that the player sees closer in on areas and needs to "rotate" the camera angle to see more of the room. Alternarively, the instead of the angle becoming more zoomed in and arrow, the entire angle/perspective could shift to a different pov from a different section of the room

::::Game Mechanic Possibilities:

Recorded audio files of discussions or talked about things can be played to the player.

Photos can be integrated into it, flicker in and out perhaps, to show how much the room is changing as the acid takes more and more effect.

Interactive journal/diary of the progression of going from sober to trippin' balls With a mixture of audio, conversations, photos and things to be clicked through as things happen --possibility: write your own adventure style. Have the "game clock" progress an iteration every time the player interacts with an object, and have each interactible object have multiple possible outcomes of interaction, depending on what "time" it is. This would mean that a hypothetical second playthrough, the plaayer could ex[erience things differently by simple going through them in a different order. eg. earlier in the day notes would be clear and coherent, whereas later on it'd be more scribbles and doodles and sketches, depending on when you interact with "notebook"

::::Misc. Ideas

Leaves sketches/notes of this project in as one of the files to see how far it's come

::::Useful Things to Do

Take pictures and video recordings. Of like, everything. No humans allowed.

Actually, take pictures of humans and they can be silhouetted and such. Flicker in and out.

Take Leila's sticker pad. It looks like acid sheets. Good for photos.

Take audio recordings of conversations and comments.

Take notes, just to be sure.

Sketches wouldn't hurt, ESPECIALLY if they're done during acid o'clock.

In fact, both before and during would be good for sketches. Comparative.

Tis room is the entire universe!

Nonstop discoveries!!! Lots of exclamation marks!!

Do humming!

Take the poster

Bring some light snacks. eat the snacks

After flipping, make a nest. Change furniture, change clothes; create transition!s

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Point & Click

Since it looks like I’ll be working on a point & click style of gameplay, I decided I should go and get some more experience with it, as I have fairly little. I’ve gone to someone I know who is a fan of P&C and started to pick his brain about them. He’s also given me access to a number of P&C games for me to try out personally to try and get more of a feel for them, and will continue to give advice throughout the progression of the project as I develop a more solid basis for a story.

Should probably also read up on them a wee bit, and what might help me get a really short and succinct “story” that can be told in such a way that it would suit my plan.

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The second prototype was to go back to a more basic point&click adventure style of game. Not only did the prototype for this work ideally as planned without so much as a hiccough, but it appeared to allow me to focus more on the actual art and environment (instead of worrying about positional environments and planning out every players footstep to unique art).

I’m coming around to P&C more and more, especially as I feel it may allow me to explore the idea of a slightly more story based interaction, which should aid the brief I’m going for. This prototype was using only up, down and enter, so should be fairly easy to maintain a similar setup for further prototyping.

I also realised that in the altered perception environment, it can afford me the opportunity to draw the rooms from different angles as well, further disorienting the player, and messing with the perception of the environment.