#Week 12

#Week 12

The one where I reached the finish line (almost)

In Engine

I mostly focused on the remaining in-engine tasks this week. I made all puzzles look a little nicer with the assets I found on the marketplace, however I struggled with the lighting in the scenes. Since the story is at nighttime there is not much light in the scenes which makes navigating through them a little difficult. I tried to use lights to direct the player through the puzzles.

There was only one puzzle left to make functional so I decided to use the same mechanics as in the first puzzle but with more steps. I found this would be easier for the player to adapt to and solve the puzzle than introducing more mechanics.

I also implemented more UI elements such as hints that pop up when a player is close to an item they have to interact with. Before each puzzle I added a little bit of the story element and explained the controls. Since all the game play is made to work with controllers I also tried to make the UI work with controllers, however since I created the main menu in one widget it proved itself a little difficult and due to the lack of time I did not want to prioritize this task over more important things to make the game fully functional - which is why the main menu only works with the mouse but all other UI elements work with the controllers as I created separate widgets for everything else.

With the stuck mechanism mini game I implemented a bar that fills up as the player presses the buttons to give some visual feedback to them. The bars are also color coded to the respective button they have to press. Once they complete this mini game successfully I also made the bar that is stuck in the mechanism fall on the floor.

Board Game

Once the board game was finished and all puzzles functional I had another play test which I recorded so that I could show the whole game functioning.

The whole play session lasted for little over an hour but I cut scenes and reduced the video to 12 minutes. I also tried to make the video as easy as possible to follow.

I also wrote the rule sheets this week to put them in the game box for my hand in. I tried to simplify this as much as possible to make them easy to follow.

Thank you :)

Thank you for reading my blog. This will be my last post as I will hand in my project after this. But before I leave you with this I wanted to thank:

Max, Catia, Sam and Vi - for play testing;

Sam - for painting the map tiles for me;

Jamie Smith- for being my supervisor and giving me great feedback to work on every week;

Graham Stewart - for being my second mentor for this and helping me produce the board game;

Ben Pool - for sacrificing his blood while helping me cutting out some board game pieces

Beth Reed - for being my living rubber duck

#Week 11

#Week 11

The one where some blood was sacrificed

This week was a very busy week with some very long shifts at work but I still managed to do some work done

Board Game 

After finishing all the art work for the board game and all the material that I ordered for it arrived I started to print everything out. After everything was printed out I stuck adhesive paper on the card board and foam board used scalpel blades to cut everything to their right size.

Some things had to be reprinted as cutting with a scalpel blade and a ruler wasn't always that easy and I cut out some of the cards wrong as I slipped away with the ruler. I also have to thank two unsung heroes that helped me with the process of cutting everything out and helping me produce this board game.

In Engine

A part from printing the board game I also found some time to make the second mini game work. This mini game is located on the map tile 5 where the players will find a mechanism that has something stuck in it. They have to use strength to unblock the mechanism and once they get it to work a hidden door will appear. Since they have to use "strength" the mini game consists of repeatedly pressing buttons on the controller until they unblock the mechanism.

I made this game work entirely through UI widgets. The widget has several layers with the buttons the player has to press. Once they hit one button often enough the active layer will be set to hidden and the next layer is set to visible.

I will be working on the last puzzle game in engine next week and will improve all mini games and puzzles I already made work. I will also make them look a little more consistent with the game with the assets I found on the marketplace and use more UI widgets to give some feedback to the player.

#Week 10

#Week 10

The one where shortcuts are okay

Board Game

 So this week I have focused mostly on the board game art assets following the silhouette style and black/grey shades as this made my work easier and faster. The only color I used is a bright orange/yellow to make stand out numbers on the story deck and on the maps.  I tried to follow one visual language with all board game elements to make it look consistent. As I needed very unique map tiles and I am not that skilled in art I asked someone to do them for me following my level design and suggestions of where items should be placed (e.g. the sarcophagus in the middle of tile 4) as they are important parts to the story.

While I was doing the art I also started to write up the story on each story card which proved itself to be quiet challenging as forming sentences with all needed information to fit on a card wasn't a simple task. I asked a friend to over read them to make sure there were no English spelling or grammar mistakes.

In-Engine

I also made the first mini puzzle work this week. This puzzle is located on the map tile 2. The player has to decipher something written on a stone in a different language. It is a simple and small puzzle where the player has to select tiles and go through possible parts of images until they all form one big image. Once the player accomplishes this in under 30 seconds the video game will tell them what story card to draw and reveal what item they need to collect in order to save their friend.

I used some short cuts to make this puzzle work as I haven't much time left and I felt that I was loosing too much time in researching how to properly do this puzzle. I used the first person shooter template from unreal and made the gun and bullets hidden in game. The player just has to aim on a tile and click on a button which will shoot an invisible bullet that hits the trigger box that makes the tile to change the material. I used an integer to keep track whether the player has completed the puzzle or not.

Once the right material is on the tile unreal will add one to the integer. If the player changes the material again one is subtracted of the integer. Once the integer is equal to nine the game ends and the player was successful.

#Week 9

#Week 9 
The one where I only produced paper work

Item Deck
This week I have focused on what kind of items should be implemented in the board game.

Players receive items by using the search action which can be used on any map tile. The search action is a quick action and can be used up to two times in a players turn. When they use the search action they are allowed to draw one item card.

The item deck consists of mostly beneficial items but can also be negative such as having to remove a cube token off a slow action or dropping an item they already have. I also tried to make items contextual to the story to create a more immersive element for the players.


There are wound cards for example which tell the player that they hurt themselves while searching for an item and that they will have to remove a cube off a slow action. But there is also fruit or water they can find which gives them enough "strength" to play another action in their turn.

Story Deck
I have also created this flow chart that would represent the "perfect" or "ideal" play through to see how many cards are necessary and where and when story cards should be drawn.


I came to the conclusion that I will need to have about 15 story cards to tell the entire story and to give some help to the players in case they are struggling. The timer card will let players now if they have to draw a card in a certain "hour". These cards are there to help. The story deck will inform the players about their next goals and if they need to draw a different story card once they accomplished a goal.

I also decided to cut the event deck as I found that it would add to much randomness to the game and I am trying to accomplish a linear experience as a proof of concept for this type of game. Adding random or procedural elements to the game would make this project too complex for the time frame given as I had to draw out all possible outcomes and eliminate any chances of flaws in the game (in terms of mechanics or story).  This also means that I planned when and where monsters will spawn which also avoids from monsters to spawn too late in the game as it happened in the play test. 

#Week 8

#Week 8
The one with a busy Schedule

This week wasn't very productive as I had many meetings and shifts at work as also some other
society (that I am chair of) events that I had to attend.

In-Engine

But I still managed to create a little block out for a puzzle using the shrinking mechanic.

Character one is strong so it can destroy bigger objects making way for Character 2, who can shrink, to access low locations in order to pick up an item that will give access to a chest where the object is hidden they need to find.

Board Game
I also had a look at what materials I will need in order to build the board game after I created the art for it. This is the list I came up with:

- Adhesive Paper
- Black Foam Board
- Little wooden cubes
- Round black tokens
- Grip seal bags
- Box to put the game in
- Cardboard

I will print my art directly on the adhesive paper to stick on to the foam board to create the map tiles, character cards and timer. I will also print the playing cards on the adhesive paper and stick on the cardboard to create the decks. The little cubes will replace the stickers on the character cards. The round tokens can serve as a base for the character and monster tokens and to create the lures, complete tokens and a a time token to track how many turns the players have left. The grip seal bags and the bogs serve to store the board game nicely in one place.

I will focus on the item cards and their context to the game next week and start to plan out the story and how/when the story cards come in game.

#Week 7

#Week 7

The one where I am in Alice in wonderland

Progress Review

This week I have mainly focused on my progress review. For this I analysed which tasks I have achieved so far a scoped down my project a little bit. I decided to reduce the numbers of players as this will reduce the numbers of puzzles I will have to implement in-engine. I also changed to a PC version instead of a mobile application and instead of doing a weekly play test I will only do one when I find enough play testers, as this has proved to be complicated.

I also established my next steps and priorities in order to finish this project. With this I established that I want at least two mini games and 2 small puzzles in engine and get the board game to a finished and polished level. The progress review helped me to redirect my focus again.

Art&Setting

While creating the layout for the progress review I also established the type of art style I was going for the board game. As I will create most of the board game art myself I decided to go with black and grey shades and use silhouettes as this makes the art progress fast and easy. It also adds an element of mystery which helps to the story of the game.

I also researched more into cultural believes about sleep paralysis to establish the item the players would need to find to rescue their friend (something silver which is believed to hold spirits away so that people wouldn't suffer from sleep paralysis). Since I am not very good in creating 3D art myself I had a look at free asset packs on the unreal market to decide the setting of the game.

Players will find themselves on the search for a rare artifact in ruins in the deep forest of mexico.

In-Engine

I also managed to work a little bit in engine and created a special ability for one of the characters. The character will be able to shrink their size so that they can access locations the other character can't. This can be helpful to create some of the puzzles where characters have to work together to find objectives and solve the puzzle.

Next week I will lay out my first little puzzle with this mechanic.

#Week 6

#Week 6
The one where Anxiety, Rage and Paranoia raised from the dead

This week I tried to understand how the monsters could work in a better way as they were too random and unstructured. For a start I decided to have them planned in the story deck so that they wouldn't randomly appear (which might make them appear too late in the game).

I will still have three monsters (rage, paranoia and anxiety) in the game, but each will act differently.

Anxiety:
The player can't use the avoid action on this monster which means that the only way to move through this monster is using lures to move it to other sections or attack it to push it back and make room for the players to move through other sections.

The players will test their Agility against this monster and have to roll at least one 5 or 6. If they fail their test they have to take one of their stickers off their attack action. If they succeed they can push the monster back into an adjacent section. Players test against a monster when they attack it or in the monster phase when they are in the attack range of a monster. This monster only attacks players in the same section as they are.

Rage:
Players can't use their attack action on this monster which makes the lures the only way to move it out of the way.

They test their strength against this monster and need a 3, 4, 5 or 6 to succeed. If they succeed they can push this monster into an adjacent  section. If they fail they have to take one sticker off their avoid action. This monster only attack players in the same section as they are.

Paranoia:
The player can't sleep while this monster is in the same section.

The player tests their mentality against this monster and need at least a 4, 5 or 6. If they succeed they can push this monster back into an adjacent section. If they fail they will have to take off an attack sticker from another player. This monster attacks from adjacent sections to where players are.

In the monster phase monsters always attack the player with the highest number of the trait they test against. If players share the same number the players choose which one it will attack. If no player is in the attack range of a monster it will move one section closer to the player with the higher trait they test against with. If players share the same number the monster will move to the closest. If both players are equally close the players decide what direction it will go. If there is a lure on the board it will move towards to the lure.

Lures will be an item the players can find using the search action. Using this action allows them to put a lure anywhere on the board.

Other tasks I worked on:
Besides the monster system I also changed my play test questionnaire as there were no impartial answer, too many comments sections and no section for play testers that had played the game before. 
I also started with my progress review which I will mainly focus on next week too.
I will also try and do some more tasks in-engine next week.

#Week 5

#Week 5 

The one with the "free the actions" revolution 

As mentioned in the previous post I struggle going into the university provided facilities to work on the PC's I need. So I tried and come up with compromises and solutions this week. I try to do any work that doesn't requires specialized software in the library and when I do go in the specialized rooms I try to go with a friend as I feel that this makes it easier to stay for longer time and get some work done. I also try and avoid certain rooms and listen to music with headphones on to try and distract myself from the surroundings.

Boardgame

As the play test revealed having character cards with specific combinations of actions that the player can use in their turn restricted them too much and made many turns boring as the players couldn't do any actions and had to pass their turn. So I have decided to restructure the way actions work. Players are no longer restricted to a set combinations however I have decided that there will be "slow actions"(sleep, avoid, attack) and "quick actions"(search, move, explore). In each turn a player can either use two quick actions or one quick and one slow action. This avoids from players getting "stuck" with no actions they could do in their turn. I also decided that they will be able to repeat the same action as in the previous turn as I wanted the game to feel more like an RPG rather than a strategy game and felt that this strategy element of planning the actions didn't feel right.

In Engine

I never worked with UI elements in unreal before (only unity) so I decided to have a look into this and start to structure how to navigate through the game. I followed the Unreal documentation to set up a simple Menu to start with. 

I also started to implement health bars for both characters which proved itself to be quiet challenging. As I have to characters in the the scene the engine would only recognize the first character as an active character and would only track their health but not from the second character. I was able to fix this by creating a game instance outside of the level that would save the health values for both characters. There are no actual hazards in the game (except from falling of the map which will also end the level) so that the health doesn't tracks injuries but how many times the player swaps between characters. This makes the puzzles a little more challenging as the players have to swap characters mindfully. 

Next week I will focus on how the monsters work in-game as they appeared too late in the play test and were a little too random. 

#Week 4

The one where "motivation" and "productivity" went on a honeymoon

We all know that schedules are great and very helpful... if you stick to them! And they only really work when you have "perfect circumstances". These "perfect circumstances" are made out of various components that are either directly connected to the project  or absolutely unrelated. 

This week I found that motivation and productivity (who, as everyone knows, have a very tight relationship) just left me on my own. One of the biggest components that affected my productivity this academic year is that I don't own a PC so I need to go to labs (university facilities) however I perceive the working environment as not the best, which is mostly caused by bad inter-personal experiences with other peers in my previous academic year. So I struggled a lot this week in going to University to get my work done.

Application

So I started to work in-engine to get the application ready. I am using unreal 4 for this project since my programming knowledge is very limited for this kind of project and I feel more comfortable in creating blueprints in order for my game play to work. 

As mentioned in earlier blogs there are three mini-games and three environmental puzzles. I will prioritize the environmental puzzles and create all of them first. There are two major factors for this decision. 1) I will need to block out the puzzles in order to create the board game art for the areas in which the environmental puzzles to take place in so that the players will understand the connection to them. Since I need to get the board game finished before the application it is important to have a good idea of what the location of environmental puzzles will be like. 2) the environmental puzzles are a bigger risk and task and are more important to complete for a Minimal viable product. I feel comfortable in having to cut one or two mini puzzles if necessary but there should be no cuts in environmental puzzles. 

One of the main mechanics in the environmental puzzles is the character switching. The players will switch between their own character and their lost friend as the Dream world is where they are connected and the application is the dream world. I started with making the character switch work with the L2 and R2 button on a controller. 

The blueprint for this mechanic checks what character is being used to avoid a player pressing the button of the current character and the camera moving around. After switching the character the blueprint also assigns the new current character

The next mechanic I implemented is that both characters will see specific items that the other doesn't. This will be a crucial part for some of the puzzles. 

The blueprint for this mechanic will simply toggle the visibility of selected items in the scene when the player switches between the characters.

Storytime

I researched a little more into the symbolism/folk stories of different cultures about sleep paralysis. I found out that sleep paralysis is believed to be the wife of the Hares that will hunt people in their sleep and sit on their chests. It is believed that by putting a silverware or a knife under the pillow she will stay away. So these will be the items that the players will have to find and bring their friend. 

In many  other cultures it is believed that the Mare hunts people in their sleep and that it is a spirit of someone that hasn't found peace. The location of where the players are at will be the connection to why this happened to their friend as it will be the tomb of someone that has not found peace in their death. 

So the plot will go something like this: 4 explorers are looking for a specific item in the tomb of someone. They are out in tropical natures and are getting close to the tomb. They decide to put up a fireplace and get some rest for the night. Everyone is woken up by a loud noise and one of the explorers got missing (sleepwalked and got trapped in sleep paralysis/the dream world by the restless spirit of the tomb). The friends now have to locate their friend and bring the two items in order to get the friend out of the dreamworld before the night end as the restless spirit will take over their friends body if they do not manage to save him/her.

Location

The location for this game will be a tropical outdoor environment with many ruins as I found enough free assets to build a nice looking environment in the application. 

 NEXT

I will focusing on blocking out the first environmental puzzle and making it work. I will also continue to work on the board game and if I find enough players do a further play test with new changes implemented. If I have enough time I will start some of the board game art and work on other aspects of the application such as the UI. 

#Week3

The one where everyone tells you that your idea doesn't work...

...okay it does work but not entirely. So this week I have focused on finishing the mission design, the first board game prototype and play testing it. 

MISSION DESIGN

Each map tile is one area and each area is divided into two sections. All areas are numbered on their map tile and will have a side A and a side B. At the start of the game only the map tile numbered 1 will be on the table and all players start on this tile. Whenever a new map tile is played it will be on side A, unless the game says otherwise. As the players progress and solve mini games and puzzles the game will let them know when to flip a tile to side B. 

There will be three mini games according to the three traits and three environmental puzzles also according to the traits. 

The mini games and environmental puzzles of a certain trait are always located close to one another. Although anyone can try and solve the mini puzzles, the player with the highest respective trait has better chances to solve it. 

Having double sided map tiles was the solution changing the environment in which the players are in without having to produce lots of tokens. It also helps to hide things to the players such as the hidden door in area 5 that is unlocked by the mini game in the same area. 

When the players first open the game box all map tiles will be faced up with their A side. 

The friends location was put in the middle of the map as the game requires to bring the requested items to the friend however since this is towards the end of the game I didn't wanted to make the players spending many rounds on moving to that location. 

PROTOTYPE

For the prototype I used cardboard, post its, tokens from a "connect 4" game, dice, meeples from a "carcassonne" game and paper. 

All items I used for the prototype:

- 6 map tiles (double sided)

- 5 dice

- 3 meeples

- 6 tokens (three monsters and three reminder tokens)

- 3 Narrative cards (will increase)

- 16 Item cards

- 16 Event cards

PLAYTEST 

After I finished my first prototype version of the board game I asked three (brutally honest) friends to play test it. 

I explained them the rules in about ten minutes and then the first round started. After a very short time I noticed that the restricted set of actions was hindering them very often and the goal of finishing the game in 8 rounds proved impossible after the first three rounds. 

There was a total of 20 rounds in the end that each lasted on average 4.5 min. The total game lasted for 90 minutes. My goal is between 40-60 min. 

I shortly noticed that the players could start in the same area but in different sections which had a negative impact on one of the players as they got to distracted and focused on finding a certain item to explore the next section. 

I also noticed that the sections were actually slowing them down and I will probably remove sections and have just areas the players will be moving in between. 

Since I don't have a prototype for the application at this point I came up with fun mini games they could do right there and I asked them to roll me a dice for the environmental puzzles. 

After a short time they understood the concept of the mini games being connected to the traits and they started to discuss strategies. 

One of my main concerns was that the players wouldn't feel an incentive to go into the application. However all players used the sleep action at least twice and the sleep action was used every other round which I find will build a good and balanced connection between the application and the board game itself. 

The monsters however spawned very late in the game and their system needs to be retouched as there was a lot of back and forth before something actually happened, which hold the players back from the main goal. 

I observed an average Engagement of 7 for the entire game. The engagement was the highest at the start and the end of the game and dropped mid-session. 

I also created a feedback form before the play test so that everyone could fill it out on their phones right after they played the game. 

The feedback showed that the game was not balanced enough yet. They also suggested to implement more options or unexpected events (which will happen with the narrative deck). The players felt that the game was overall okay as they felt it was appropriate for this type of game. The players felt very limited with the set actions and especially only being able to move every other round. 

NEXT

For the upcoming week I will be focusing on starting some of the mechanics in engine, the story of the game and the location for the environmental puzzles.