Rationale

Through the course of my time at BRIT I have improved all of my creative skills in one way or another. I have become more confident and capable within 3D Modelling, now truly understanding the fundamentals of how models are constructed whereas beforehand I just tried to follow along with what I knew was 'good'. I have learned to use texturing software such as Substance Painter to add new depth to my creations, and I have gone from being barely able to use Unreal Engine to having a good level of knowledge to bring my ideas to life.

 

In my daily life I use each of these skills on school and personal projects, with a particular interest in game design and storytelling. Given my progress as a student and passion for the field, I have decided that my FMP will be focused on Games Design.

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Concept

My project will be a short, playable first person, 3D game taking the player on a mostly linear path through an environment, with puzzles to solve and trinkets to find along the way. I am doing this to practically study how games like The Last of Us design closed environments in such a way that subconsciously leads players towards a specific location while keeping them feeling as though they are in control of where they are going. I want my project to take place in a lush and rocky environment, with lots of greenery, cliff sides and interesting geography. There will be some puzzle elements which have a sci-fi theme but the technology is hidden under rocks and natural landscape elements, making it seem like the environment was once visited by an ancient civilisation.

 

I expect that the programming side of the project’s development will be relatively quick compared to the art side, as I am only going to create a simple character controller and puzzle elements. It will probably take a fair portion of the project’s time to create art assets.

I hope to gain a new understanding of level design and natural asset creation (as in, creation of things formed through nature such as plants and rocks) through the course of production.

In summary, I would say that the purpose of this project for me is to gain a new understanding of game and level design on a small scale, to better understand the more realistic forms of nature (as much of my personal work is more stylised) and to learn how to use sound in Unreal in an environment which allows me to experiment to find good results.

I want to use a high detail but noticeably stylized art style.

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Evaluation

At the start of development I will create a list of everything I want to be part of the project. Over the course of development I will regularly check up on my list and Gantt Chart to ensure that I am working at a good pace.

 

I will let other students play through what I have created, and I will ask them for feedback and give them a google form to tell me what they thought about the project in its form at the time focusing on, visual hierarchy, and finding out if I am able able to control where they are going psychologically through visual and audible creativity.

 

While creating the project, I will regularly take screenshots of my progress and add them to a slideshow. I will make progress videos occasionally showing how I made specific assets.