#unit79

[moonmurph-gamedev]

Task 3

To start my prototype menu system I imported all the graphics I created in photoshop to my project in unreal engine.

I created a separate folder for them to keep it organised and I used the same resolution in photoshop for UE4. I made sure my canvas size in photoshop was 1920x1080 which is what I’m working in. I’ve chosen three bright colours and stuck with them throughout all the graphics. The only other colours are the white rectangles which act as a highlight for the buttons.

During task 2 I looked at ‘Hello Kitty Roller Rescue’ a game which I speak about in my history of games which was my first introduction to the playstation. It uses these white rectangles to clearly show the buttons. The splash screen and menu are very loud so it is important to highlight what the player needs to select so they know where to look.

I created a menu widget and used different canvas panels to contain the different pages of the menu. 

Here’s the splash screen. The prompt to press X takes the player to the next menu. It’s also informing them that X is the select button.

After pressing X the canvas panel is collapsed and the main menu opens.

Here the player can select to Start the game, exit the game or view the credits. Each of these also collapse and open a new canvas panel. (Except for start which simply closes the menu)

If the player does select ‘Credits’ they are brought to the credit sequence. This is simply a placeholder as I’ve not added any credits yet. The credit title however is animated to tilt side to side.

The player can exit the credits which will collapse the canvas panel and return them to the main menu.

Once the player has started the game they can pause the game by pressing ‘P’ (This is placeholder as it will later be ESC on keyboard or Start on gamepad.)

I opened up the project settings and added Pause in the action mappings. I then created a blueprint which paused the game. 

If the player selects ‘Exit’ it closes the pause menu and resumes the game.

On the pause menu the player can select ‘HELP’ this opens up the Help menu which displays the character controls.

The player can view the controls then select ‘Exit’ to return to the paused screen. They can select ‘Exit’ once more to resume playing the game.

Video Showcase

I’m really happy with my prototype menu so far. I especially like how the normal appearance and hovered appearance change. It makes it clear to the player what they’re about to select. I plan on adding a sound for when they select to make it more satisfying. I’ll need to ensure the sound isn’t shrill or annoying.

Issues that I came across whilst developing my menu system was that I had to manually place the graphics and size them. This caused some of them to look stretched. I realised I could go back into photoshop, view the PNG and get the exact size from there. 

This allowed me to display the graphics at the exact same resolution so they look uniform. 

Interactive Elements

 I plan on creating an environment to be displayed behind the splash screen/main menu for before the player spawns. I’ll also add interact-able in game assets to make it more fun. It’s common in games to have interact-able elements to menus.

Skyrim lets character rotate and view in game models. I think this is a great system to keep the player entertained during loading screen and also showcase your models. 

Bayonetta allows the player to practice combos. This is a great system for a fighting game however my project isn’t a complex fighting game so a system like this won’t be needed. 

I’ll look into ideas for what interactive element I’d like to implement into my menu system.

I decided a fun idea would be to have clickable assets which react in different ways. I created a cute bird model in maya and exported and textured in UE4.

I created three different animations. Two Idle animations and one ‘shocked’ animation for when it’s clicked on.

I imported the mesh, imported the skeleton and the three animations and created a blueprint class actor. I then set the animation setting to ‘play animation blueprint’ I then began creating my animation blueprint.

An issue I came across was all the birds were doing the idle animation in sync which looks unrealistic. I used the random sequence player to add my two idle animations/  This means the birds will randomly do 1 of 2 animations at different speeds. 

Another issue I came across was when the birds were clicked on and played their ‘shock’ animations they lost their idle animations forever. This was fixed by making the idle animations as an ‘IDLE’ state in the animation blueprint and making use of montages.

Here’s a preview of my untextured smallscene which acts as the background for the Main Menu and Level Select. As the player uses the menu they can also play around with the birds placed around the scene. 

Audio

I finally got around to adding audio. I downloaded simple boop noises in WAV form and used the modulator node in UE4 to adjust the pitch and speed.

This allowed me to create two sounds one for selecting and one for going back.

Something that’s really fun that I found when using animations blueprints is you can have different ‘mins’ and ‘max’ so every time the sound is played it varies in pitch/volume. This is really useful for characters footsteps as it makes them sound more realistic. For my menu I made the pitch modulation quite small to not be too jarring.

I used the ‘Play Sound 2D’ node as it’s what you’d use for sounds which don’t exist in the game world like the interface. The other node is ‘Play Sound at Location’ which would make use of spatialization in the 3D Space.This is useful for alerting players through audio which direction the source of the noise is.

BugTesting

Most of the issues I came across were easily fixed with some workarounds however when I had issues with figuring out where in the code it went wrong I made use of my dual monitors to watch the code and see if it stopped at any points. 

I also used breakpoints which freeze the project once a certain node is fired. This is great as it shows me exactly where it is in the project where nodes are firing.

Another simple way but slightly longer is adding printstrings to code which directly show text on the viewport when nodes have fired.

Updated Video

Evaluation/Feedback

I’m really pleased with my menu and the intractable birds. I learnt a lot about animations, canvas panels, cameras and player controllers. Anonymous feedback from my peers said that the seagulls was one of their favourite parts. This shows I should think about adding more ludic elements to my game. They don’t necessarily have to have any importance to the game narrative but players seem to just enjoy interaction. Feedback I received to improve the seagulls was to have some fly past during camera  transitions. I think this is a great idea to make the scene more alive.

This was also the first time I used audio in UE4 and I was surprised at how simple it was. Unfortunately during my presentation and showcase of my menu, the speakers were not working so my peers couldn’t properly hear the audio. It can however be heard in the demonstration video I made.

Some feedback I received which I was really pleased with was that my ‘art style followed the same style throughout and suited my target audience’ I’m happy that my peers thought so because I spent a lot of time during pre production trying to keep my references a similar style and properly picture what I wanted to create. 

The UI for example (health bar, skill bar) was received quite well. It kept to the same style suited for a younger audience. 

All constructive criticism was to keep building on what I already have. To my knowledge there wasn’t anything missing that was required and the menu functions perfectly. It’s now just about going back and polishing what I’ve created. At the moment my menu system is functional and clear which I’m happy with. 

I’m going to keep working on my menu system as I want to eventually make the Level Selects buttons physical objects in the small scene rather then a widget on the view port. I also want to add different interact-able elements such as clicking on lights to make them flicker or clicking on billboards/posters to change colours or pictures. I’ve created materials before where the colours change, this can be done by making the colour a parameter and making a material instance.

I implemented all the minimal elements on the assignment brief which work properly. I’ve bug tested my menu and made changes when necessary such as the animation blueprint with the seagulls. I also changed the pitch slightly on the audio to make it less shrill. 

I enjoyed this Unit and I’ll be keeping this menu system in my current project which I’ll be using for the other units.

[moonmurph-gamedev]

Task 2

Introduction

In task 2, I am asked to begin prototyping my user interfaces and post any idea generations or concepts I create. pre production is essential as I can better visualise what I want to create and draft it and then fully implement it into unreal engine. This is especially important for the industry as when you have other people working on the same project, The pre production is how you can share the vision and general idea of what you’re trying to create.

I’ll also take into consideration human factors during this process.

Here’s a simple flowchart detailing the way the menu system will direct the player into the game. It begins with a splash screen during the loading process. This gives the player a visual queue that the game is starting up. Then the main menu is opened with the following options:

Start Game > Takes the player to additional options

Options > Lets the player change game options

Exit Game > Exits the game application

Credits > Plays Credits for the game

If the player selects ‘Start Game’ they are then asked to either choose between starting a new play through or continuing from a previous save. Upon selecting start game the main menu will unload, the level will load and the player character will spawn. 

Whilst playing the game the player character can pause and find an additional window detailing the player controls. The game can also be exited from this menu. I’m planning on having the player controls in the pause menu as it can be accessed at any time. Fighting games in particular like Mortal Kombat are notorious for having long combos that you have to remember and navigating the menu to find them is annoying. I want to avoid that in my game and have the pause menu be direct access to the control list.

Whilst looking into some potential colour themes for my game I came across an artist and game dev called Michael Shillingburg who has a really unique and colourful style that I love. His great visuals would be perfect for a game aimed towards children and so I’ll definitely be looking at his work for inspiration when developing visuals for my project.  

I also found an interesting detailing the differences between photo-realistic and stylised game worlds. I’ve decided to go towards a minimalist stylised approach and this needs to be seen in my menu/hud too. 

‘The significant difference between realism and stylized is that with realism you are restricted to making things look ‘real’ while enhancing their visual language. With stylized you are free to play with the shapes and colors, exaggerate or remove details to enhance the look and feel in any direction. Doing so with realism would break the illusion of reality as it wouldn’t be viewed as what we perceive to be as ‘realistic’, it would not belong in our world.’ (Aava, 2017) 

I created a colour pallete in photoshop by using the eyedrop tool and taking colours that I liked from art in my moodboard. There are a lot of colours however this is spread across the game environment, particle effects and UI/UX so not all of these colours will be seen all at once. Instead they’re spread across different environments to not overwhelm the player. 

Game Title

Here’s my concept title graphic for my project. I also created an animated GIF to visualise how I’d have the title animate in game. A good use of this animation would be during a splash screen/loading screen. The pulsing animation gives the player visual feedback that the game has not frozen and it’s just taking a moment to load the next area. I chose the name BabyBot as most games popular with younger audiences have short names because they’re easier to search for online like ‘Fortnite’ or ‘Splatoon!’. The alliteration also makes the name easier to remember. 

To create this graphic I simply typed up the title ‘Baby Bot’ changed the leading of the font to reduce the space between the words then I went into the effect and gave it a thicker stroke. I chose pink and blue as they’re both colours that are common on my colour palette.I like how the gradient creates purple in the middle too. 

I then used the timeline tool to create 5 frames of the stroke reducing and enlarging. This gives it the movement. 

I’ll use what I learnt in the future when creating animated features of my menu system. As I concept more of the projects assets I’ll also stick to a general aesthetic so it all blends together well. 

My main inspiration for the title was LittleBigPlanet and it’s similar use of bold colourful fonts. I chose the name Baby Bot as it’s short, uses alliteration and refers to the robot characters which use baby like proportions which are common in cute characters. (Large Head, short limbs)

HUD Draft

I’ve created a draft for my HUD for my project. 

I’ve drafted a health bar and ability interface so far.

Here is a gif showing my concept for the ability interface. The player character will have four abilities that they’re able to activate with circle or triangle. They can hold L1 to activate the alternative ones. The symbol representing each ability will move forward to make it clear to the player what button activates what ability. 

When the abilities are on cooldown the symbol will become transparent and then pop back into full opacity when it’s ready to be used again. 

Here’s a gif showcasing my idea for the players health bar. As it’s a robot I thought it’d be fun displaying the health as a battery. As the player loses health it decreases and changes from green to orange to flashing red. This uses colours to represent the players health without relying on numbers. I have chosen this because younger demographics such as children will be able to see at a glance the characters health without having to stop and read text or percentages. 

Splash Screen

Here is my wireframe. I took inspiration from games in my moodboard such as animal crossing. The splash screen in animal crossing is the game title with a simple (press start) button underneath. I will follow a similar format for my splashscreen. 

I then went into photoshop and created my finished concept from my wireframe.

Here’s the splash screen which will prompt the player to press X to continue. I might add additional information like a company name or a project build. The reason why I changed ‘Press Start’ to ‘Press X’ is because I’m building this project with the playstation controller in mind and children will have an easier time finding the X button rather than the start button. 

Main Menu

I’ve drafted up my main menu with another wireframe. I plan to have three buttons which I planned before in my flowchart. Start, Exit and Credits. After creating my wireframe I then went into photoshop and used the 1920x1080 resolution as that’s what’s most common at the moment with monitors. I tried to keep withing the blue guidelines provided by Photoshop.

It’s a transparent background so it will showcase the game environment behind it. I’ve chosen a transparent background to give this menu a clear difference from the splash screen. 

Here’s a GIF showing how the player will scroll through the options.

I like showing the exact button itself as it leaves no room for confusion on what the player needs to press. I’ll add a sound such as a click whenever the player scrolls through different options to give an additional indicator that they’ve moved their selection. When adding sounds to a game however it’s important to think about how often the player is going to be hearing that and if it’s going to annoy them. That’s why you don’t want anything set too loud or shrill. 

Credits Screen

Here’s a draft for the credits screen. I kept to the same structure in my wire frame except that I moved the title slightly lower and larger so it overlays over the moving credits. I did this because the slow pulsing animation on the title is pleasing to look at.

Pause Menu

Here’s the pause menu when the player presses ESC or Option/Start. It has a transparent background and two large buttons. When creating my concept in photoshop however I put a slight angle on pause to make it appear more playful.

The widget will come to the viewport and blur the gameplay behind it. This is so the character can still see what’s happening onscreen even when the game is paused. They’re also able to open up the help menu which will display the character controls.

Controls Menu

When the player selects help the player is taken to this menu. When creating the wire frame I went back and looked at the credits menu and kept to the same format. This is to simply keep the menu system to a similar structure as I don’t want every page being wildly different. Games in the industry usually have a set style and stick to it throughout which I what I’m aiming to do.

Here’s the controls menu to remind the player how to use their abilities. I added the transparent white walls so the black text stands out more. The rest of the screen will show the game environment behind it. The title “Controls” is also animated as you can see from this GIF.

In-Game Dialogue

Here’s a moodboard of some ways of displaying text which I think will work well with the style I’m going for. I like the vaporwave aesthetic which often appropriates styles from 1990s-2000s. I’ll keep these three in mind when designing my dialogue display.

Here’s my draft dialogue box that’s heavily inspired from pictochat but I made the name box larger and off centre similar to animal crossing. I’ll also have different colours for the different character so it’s clear who’s speaking. I’m tempted to have the white background on the box slightly transparent so it doesn’t obstruct the players view of the game.

Here’s a draft dialogue box for sidekick character ‘3LLA’ (pronounced Ella) as she warns the player of the antagonist’s return and reminds them how to dodge attacks/dangers areas.

Here’s a draft one for K!NG who’s a malfunction buggy robot who acts as the main antagonist. I wasn’t too happy with this as I felt it was a little bland. I decided to go back and use filters such as offset and wave to mess up the text. I also made duplicates and switched off parts of the RGBs to get the shadows behind the first line. I like how the white text stands out against the background. I’ll use this method to create the distorted glitch affect for K!NG’s dialogue.

I’ll be having recorded voice lines playing alongside so I’m not too concerned with it being hard to read as it’s kind of the point with K!NG. None of his dialogue is informative to the player anyway rather it’s just ramblings of a mad robot.

Evaluation of Task 2

I enjoy pre production as it helps me organise my thoughts and ideas on the current task. It allows me time to look at games in the industry and select what I like and don’t like. I looked at games suited towards the same demographic and what I found was bright colours and simple layouts were favoured over more complex menu systems such as something you’d see in a game such as Fallout or Skyrim. 

My biggest inspirations were LittleBigPlanet, Hello Kitty Roller Rescue and Splatoon. Animal crossing was also great when coming up for ideas for my in game dialogue.

Feedback I received from peers was that my idea generation was clear but to think more clearly on interactive elements I could add to my menu. I agree that an interactive element would make my menu system much more interesting. Interaction is also great for keeping the attention of younger audience which my game is aimed towards. In task 3, I’ll build my scene which will act as the backdrop for the menu and see what appropriate interactions I could add. I’m thinking of creating an urban scene to set the scene of the game from the get go. Appropriate interactive elements would be flickering lights or birds sitting on buildings which can be clicked on.

References

Aava, K. (2017). Realistic vs. Stylized: Technique Overview. [online] 80.lv. Available at: https://80.lv/articles/realistic-vs-stylized-technique-overview/ [Accessed 5 Oct. 2018].

[moonmurph-gamedev]

Menu Blueprints

Here’s how I made a simple menu loading system. I found this quite easy as I’ve done this before in previous units.

After creating a menu widget I create two events for the on clicked events.

This means after eventbeginplay the menu is brought to the players viewport and the mouse cursor is also brought up so they can select the buttons.

Then two branches for each level load and unload the previous level when the buttons are selected.

I have different spawn points for Level1 and Level2 so I placed this blueprint to move the player actor to the target point in the blueprints for the sublevels.

Level Streaming is so important as it allows you to only render the assets needed at that point in the game so you’re not putting too much strain on the system. You can have box triggers for example seamlessly trigger level streaming without the player even realising so they can move into the next stage with the previous stage behind them unloading. 

With my menu system I’ll have a similar system to this. I’m going to separate my game into levels which the player completes to unlock the next. I’ll also have it so they can go back and repeat previous levels by selecting them on the main menu. 

I also duplicated the ThirdPersonCharacter deleted the mesh and movement data and named it “Dummy”. This will act as the camera so when the player is in the main menu they can’t move about and no character spawns. 

Eye Flicker Test

Here I placed a cube in the thirdpersoncharacter viewport just to simply test if the system I had planned would work.

I want the character to have floating expressive pupils which change between open and blinking. I also want to add different colours and shapes for different situations. Such as red for combat, green for happy, heart shaped for love etc. 

I went into the blueprint and made us of the random float in range node which allows me to set an element of randomness to the animation but still being able to set a general timeframe. This will make the blinking look more natural. I tested this and thankfully it worked well enough.

I’ll build on this logic and create more complex and interesting animations with the eyes!

One issue I had was it was blinking too quickly and looked unnatural. I also couldn’t change the random float because it would increase the time the eyes were open AND closed. I instead reworked the logic to the one below.

This is much better as it lets me edit how often the eyes blink but keep the duration that the blink lasts the same. This makes the animation look a lot more natural.

[moonmurph-gamedev]

Task 1

Technology

For my game I’m planning to have it compatible to be played with keyboard and mouse and also PlayStation gamepad. I want to give players the freedom to pick between a controller they’d prefer. This is to reduce the learning curve as they can learn to navigate the menu and controls with a device they might already be familiar with.

I’ve come up with the planned controls for the player character.

Controls (PlayStation Controller)

X – Jump (Double Tap- Double Jump)

Square – Dodge

Circle –  1st Special Ability (Holding L1 activates 3rd special ability)

Triangle –  2nd Special Ability (Holding L1 activates 4th special ability)

R1- Fire

R2- Slash

Left Analog – Movement

Right Analog – Camera rotation

Controls (Keyboard & Mouse)

Space- Jump (Double Tap- Double Jump)

V- Dodge

1- 1st Special Ability

2- 2nd Special Ability

3- 3rd Special Ability

4- 4th Special Ability

LMB- Slash (Main Attack)

RMB- Fire (Ranged Attack)

WASD- Movement

Mouse- Camera rotation

When creating controls for a game that can be played on keyboard and gamepad it’s important to limit the quantity of controls otherwise I’ll struggle to fit them all on the gamepad compared to the keyboard which has many more buttons.

When navigating the menu, the player will be able to mouse over and click with the cursor whilst However, when playing with the gamepad the player will have to use the analogue stick to cycle through the different options on screen. This means I’ll have to reduce the clutter on the menu to save the gamepad players from spending ages cycling through different menus trying to click something. This is so keyboard players don’t have a speed advantage of being able to directly mouse over and click.

Another thing to consider when choosing between keyboard vs gamepad is the difference in aiming. It’s well known in the gaming community that the mouse is a superior aiming device compared to the controller, because of this multiplayer games which are compatible with both control systems usually keep keyboard/gamepad players separate. However, some high level players have been accused of finding workarounds and using keyboard setups on consoles. This has led to Jeff Kaplan, Game director of Overwatch to make a statement regarding their stance against this practice in a PCGamer article.

 The Overwatch team objects to the use of mouse and keyboard on console. We have contacted both first-party console manufacturers and expressed our concern about the use of mouse and keyboard and input conversion devices,"- "We have lobbied and will continue to lobby for first-party console manufacturers to either disallow mouse and keyboard and input conversion devices, OR openly and easily support mouse and keyboard for ALL players. (Chalk, A. 2018)

This was brought up after console players were frustrated with people using third party conversion devices to gain an unfair advantage. It also goes to show the lengths players will go to better their chances of winning even if costing them.

To get around that limitation, you have to use an input conversion device like the XIM4, which lists for $150 on Amazon—and that's without the mouse and keyboard. In other words, people are paying (quite a lot) for a significant in-game advantage. (Chalk, A. 2018)

As an aspiring game developer I’ll keep this in mind as I want to reduce any chances of players finding ways to exploit or bypass game mechanics. If players are able to perform attacks or complete stages considerably easier when using a different kind of controller, then I will feel I have failed balancing my game correctly. If I feel, there’s too much of a difference skill wise between keyboard vs gamepad in my project then I’ll have to make the decision to limit myself to one. I’ll choose gamepad in that case as I simply think it’s a more satisfying feeling to slash and hack at enemies with a gamepad rather than clicking on a mouse. Aiming in my game isn’t particularly difficult as the player will simply have to aim in the general direction of the enemy as is typical in most third person action-adventure games.

Interfaces

When it comes to the interaction between the control system and the player I don’t have any plans on using any special forms such as speech recognition or touch screen. Special interfaces like speech recognition although rarely used are interesting but don’t have a place in my project as I have no planned game content that would benefit from it. I also don’t want to create features which force the player to need a microphone as that’s just an additional device that they’d have to fork out money on. Likewise touch screen although essential for most mobile games is not something I want to apply to my pc game. Simply the keyboard/mouse or gamepad will be all the player needs to interact with all aspects of the menu and user interface.

  Human Factors & Design Principles

Due to my demographic being aimed towards a younger audience, I need to keep the user interface as simplified as possible to ensure that the players can understand it. You can clearly see how different games have wildly different interfaces due to their different demographics and world settings.

(playm.de, 2018) Screenshot from Kingdom Hearts 3 by Square Enix Co.

Here is the still from the upcoming Kingdom Hearts 3, You can see how the interface is bright and colourful whilst not cluttering up the rest of the screen. The colours also stick to the theme of the game with the classic Monsters Inc graphic on the bottom left and the simple health/power display in the bottom right. In an interview with Tamara Knoss a UI/UX artist she briefly mentions the time and effort artist put into the interface and how that might surprise some people outside the industry.

 What aspect of the job would be surprising to people looking in from the outside?

“The numerous, and lengthy discussions with large groups of people about “what exactly is the right shade of red for this brand?”

(Bay, J. 2018)

 When designing assets and texturing I want to keep a single art style and colour scheme, so the game feels like one cohesive world. I’ll think about the colours I use and how players respond to them. Universally green is seen as good and red as a sign of danger so for example the player’s health bar turning from green to orange to red is a great way of warning them about their health percentage without text. This is good as my demographic is children which respond more to colours rather than plain text. I need to design a user interface which is friendly towards novice gamers, appeals to their shorter attention span and sticks to the style that I’m creating. Players should only really see what they need in that moment of time otherwise you’ll clutter the display and overwhelm them.

For example, in my project I’ll have the controls for the basic character movement, jump and camera rotation show up as a tooltip during the beginning but fade away as the characters progresses through the area. After becoming familiar with the controls it’s pointless to constantly display these tooltips as they’re just taking up space. I’ll aim to only display what’s vital at that point in time. Numerous games have also used systems such as only displaying the health bar when the player takes damage and hiding it when the player character is out of combat or at full health. This clears up the player’s screen, so they can fully enjoy the game environment.

(GameAxis, 2018) Call of Duty WW2 by Sledgehammer Games, Raven Software, Activision

Realistic FPS shooters usually have understated muted HUDs which are practical and give the player what they need without removing them from the high detailed worlds that the developers have created. At a glance of this screenshot the user interface is barely noticeable. In the bottom right there are indicators to show the players remaining ammunition and other weapons they’ve collected. These indicators however use transparency to allow the player to see the environment through them and not take away from their immersion. On the left side a fill meter also uses transparency and sticks with the khaki colour scheme. This keeps the players attention focused on the centre of the screen, so players can aim unobstructed whilst remaining on brand with the Call of Duty aesthetic.

A feature I really like from the Persona series is the HUD using a mixture of font and symbols to clearly indicate the player the controls for each action.

(Atlus.com, 2018) Persona 5 by Atlus

Not only is it visually pleasing to look at, but it indicates what character you’re controlling, makes it clear what you need to press and remains true to the Persona graphic that’s become synonymous with the series.

Due to the player character in my project having four special abilities’ I’ll have the icon for each ability display next to the button just like the Persona System. I’ll also have with the gamepad the icons switch between ability 1 &2 to 3 & 4 when L1 is held down. This reduces clutter and also makes it clear which button activates what ability.

The placement of the HUD and Menu system is important too. Players eyes are automatically drawn to certain parts of the screen. In western culture we usually scan from left to right (as that’s the direction we read text) so the most important features such as a mini map or health pool are usually on the left. Parts of the HUD that the player will be looking at less often are usually placed on the right such as ammunition. This is because although seeing your ammunition is useful most casual players simply fire until the character reloads automatically instead of manually doing it themselves but almost every player makes use of the mini map to help them navigate the game world and reach objectives.

I need to decide whilst designing my HUD and Menu system what I need to give priority to. I’m not using an ammo system but rather a cooldown system (where abilities have a short cooldown before they can be used again) so I’ll place them on the right-hand side of the screen, have them become transparent during the cooldown phase and pop back into full opacity when ready to be used again.

Feedback

A great way of showing players that an enemy they’re fighting is a boss is by displaying the creature’s health bar differently to how you’d usually show enemy health. An example of this is in the Dark Souls series.

(Dark Souls 3, 2016) Dark Souls 3 by FromSoftware

Boss characters are given a small cutscene and large health bar which remains for the duration of the fight. This foreshadows that the Boss will be a difficult enemy compared to the usual monsters found in the game and the player should prepare accordingly. In my project I’m not planning on displaying the enemy’s health rather the players will learn how many hits destroy an enemy simply from experience. I fully intend on using this feature for the Boss however as it’ll make the fight feel more epic whilst also giving the players a visual indication of their progress in the fight. If I don’t use this feature I risk the chance of players aimlessly hitting the boss not knowing if their attacks are making a dent in the large health pool. By showing their progress they can clearly see from how it depletes what attacks work, what doesn’t and stops them from getting frustrated or bored. This is also great when designing a game for a younger audience as they tend to have shorter attention spans.

Feedback whether visual, audio or physical is important as it lets the player know that their button press has gone through. Having different appearances for a regular button, highlighted button and pressed button is common in games however an audible indication like a small ding is satisfying too. I need to keep in mind though that anything the player will be pressing/navigating quite often shouldn’t be annoying. In my project the player will be dodging often to avoid hazards and attacks, so I don’t want to add a noise that’d annoy the player and drown out the music and ambience of the game. Gamepads also vibrate which is great for getting the players attention without relying on sound or visuals. This can be used for telling the player they’re standing in a damaging area of effect or they need to quickly perform an action such as dodging.

A good way to use audible feedback is when the player opens the pause menu the game music lowers in volume or changes completely. This immediately tells the player the pause was successful and lets them navigate the menus without blaring battle music playing.

(2156 words, not including references)

References

Chalk, A. (2018). Mouse and keyboard players are destroying controller users in Overwatch on console. [online] pcgamer. Available at: https://www.pcgamer.com/mouse-and-keyboard-players-are-destroying-controller-users-in-overwatch-on-console/ [Accessed 14 Sep. 2018].

 playm.de. (2018). Kingdom Hearts 3 - Bild 8 | playm.de. [online] Available at: https://www.playm.de/2018/02/kingdom-hearts-3-11-388225/kingdom-hearts-3-bild-8/ [Accessed 14 Sep. 2018].

 W. Bay, J. (2018). How to Become a Video Game UI Artist. [online] Gameindustrycareerguide.com. Available at: https://www.gameindustrycareerguide.com/how-to-become-a-video-game-ui-artist/ [Accessed 14 Sep. 2018].

 GameAxis. (2018). Review – Call of Duty: WWII (PS4) multiplayer could have easily been a disaster - GameAxis. [online] Available at: http://www.gameaxis.com/reviews/call-of-duty-wwii-multiplayer-nearly-a-disaster/ [Accessed 14 Sep. 2018].

 Atlus.com. (2018). Persona 5. [online] Available at: https://atlus.com/persona5/home.html [Accessed 14 Sep. 2018].

 III, D. (2018). DARK SOULS™ III on Steam. [online] Store.steampowered.com. Available at: https://store.steampowered.com/app/374320/DARK_SOULS_III/ [Accessed 14 Sep. 2018].

[moonmurph-gamedev]

Introduction to Unit 79

In this Unit we’re looking into interfaces and how they allow the player to control the character whilst also letting them immerse and focus on the gameplay.

It’s important to think about how feedback changes how the player reacts to the control system and how quickly they are able to learn it.

[lunaerraart]

[lunaerraart]

A scan of the first Perspex pills I made using the initial technique we tried to make mass pills, by cutting Perspex clear rod into individual same length pieces, and then placing them inside the drill-bit of the drill machine, whilst holding a file and manoeuvring the file around the small piece as its spinning in the drill, creating a way of filing the pieces to form a curved end on each side

I was able to make my clear pills pink by leaving them in boiling water and disperse dye

[lunaerraart]

Polaroid photos of a set of the frozen pills I created, from being solid to completely melted

I took these to show a range of different documentations and experiments with different photography, but also for merchandise reasons, as this is the aesthetic I would use to go with the brand theme and I would use these for the main branding scheme