Summary and Reflection of my Work

I am very proud of the work that I have produced in this unit, my final level exceeded my expectations as I never thought that I would be able to create a playable map of this level.  I have learned so much in this unit, I learn how to use a new software (Unreal Engine/Unreal Tournament) and use advanced features of them like supergrid and setting up a basic material.  I also gained a better knowledge of how different lighting, pickups can effect gameplay and how things like lifts and elevators can help with the flow of the map.  I look forward to using the skills that I have acquired in this unit to make my own portfolio of levels in Unreal Engine and Unreal Tournament.

Final Level Screenshots

Here are various screenshots of my final level, I think that I have done a really good job of creating a level that plays well, makes good use of the features Unreal Engine provides and looks like the Steampunk Western theme I wanted to create.

Peer Review 4 Changes

Here you can see where I have taken Chloe’s idea of making my level slightly darker, I think that it really enhances the feeling that my level is taking place at sunset.

Peer Review Action Plan

I have once again received very helpful feedback from both Jonny and Chloe.  I am going to experiment with Chloe’s idea of making my level slightly darker to see what it looks like.

Peer Review 4

I asked Jonny and Chloe:

1. My map is supposed to be taking place a sunset, on my mood board I have found several pictures of sunsets where the sky looks orange with hints of purple, I really like this and decided to try and use a similar sky in my level, do you think I have done this well and do you think it makes it look like my levels taking place at sunset?  If no why and what do you suggest I do to change this?
2. Do you think I have lit my buildings well, I made them fairly bright so that the player cam see where they are going, do you think I should make make them brighter/darker of just leave them alone?
3. I tried to make my overall level as bright as possible considering that its set a sunset, do you think I got the overall brightness of my level right or do you think that I should adjust the brightness to make it brighter/darker?

Chloe responded:

1 – I’ve looked at both your sunset mood boards and the lighting within your map, and you can defiantly tell that you’ve took inspiration from your Pinterets boards. I like that instead of sticking to the basic day or night theme, you’ve changed it up a bit by making the lighting in your map ‘dusk’ based. I like the use of pinks and oranges; it makes the map very memorable.

2 – The buildings that you have lit look okay to me, I wouldn’t change the setting of them.

3 – Because your level is meant to be played during ‘sunset’ lighting hours, I think that it might look cool if you toned the brightness down just the tiniest bit. Maybe there is an option in Unreal where you can move the sun, so that way you can move it right to the boarder, giving off longer ‘dusk like’ shadowing.  

Jonny responded:

1. Looking at your mood board and then at your map, it certainly looks similar to your moodboard and they intertwine nicely. The lighting effect on your map is actually beautiful, it gives it a cold look, like you're actually at the peak of a mountain and this is great for atmosphere. 

2. The brightness in the buildings is good as this allows players to see interiors instead of just a dark/black shadow on the walls. This is more visually pleasing to players and encourages them to explore the interiors instead of quickly looking in and then running past.

3. Looking at your map, you've nailed the brightness, it genuinely feels and looks like you're on top of a mountain and the sky looks wonderful! Don't adjust it. Don't try and fix what isn't broken. 

Good job. 

Moodboard Lighting Inspiration

Here you can see the lighting in my level.  I think that I have done a good job of making my level look like its taking place at sunset, I will now be doing a peer review on the lighting in my level, I will be asking Chloe and Jonny for feedback.

Lighting Moodboard

I have looked at several pictures of lighting for my level, I think that my level would look great at sunset, below I have linked this moodboard.

https://uk.pinterest.com/blainemcswiggan/lighting/

Moodboard Layout Inspriation

Here you can see where I have drawn inspiration from my moodboard for my level.  I think I’ve done a good job at making my map look like a western town and infusing it with a steampunk theme.

Level Layout Moodboard

The overall layout of my level will be based on a western town.  In my moodboard I have gotton various images of western towns that I will be basing the layout of my map on.  I chose not to focus on the steampunk aspect of my level in this moodboard as it won’t really help with the layout of my level.  Here is a link to my moodboard:

https://uk.pinterest.com/blainemcswiggan/unit-76-western-map/

Peer Review 2 Changes

Here you can see that I have turned my map into a Team DM, I have put the two teams in the separate towns, I really like the concept of this idea however it is not playing the way that I expected as the players just tend to stay in their own towns rather than trying to cross into the enemies town and try and kill each other.

Here you can see that I have implemented the regular DM mode into my map.  I personally think that this plays way better than CTF or Team Dm.  I am going to stick with making my map a DM map.

Peer Review 2 Action Plan

Jonny and Chloe’s feedback has been extremely helpful to me.  I am going to listen to Chloe’s suggestion and experiment with DM and Team DM modes for my map.

Peer Review 2

I will now be doing a peer review based on the gameplay of my level.  I will be asking my peers Chloe and Jonny for feedback on the gameplay of my map.  I asked Chloe and Jonny:

1. Currently I am making my map a capture the flag match with flags being hidden in the two opposing towns, do you think that a CTF  map would work well in my level or do you think that it is too big?  I have considered doing a deathmatch or a team deathmatch, do you think that I should ditch my CTF concept and focus on a deathmatch/teamdeathmatch?
2. Do you think that I have placed enough pick ups in my map and do you think I've scattered them well?  Are they too hard to find in the huts? Should I move them?
3. What do you think of the flow of my map?  I've added several landmarks like a tower, a saloon, a ranch and jail son that the players wont get lost, do you think that these help the player navigate the map or do you find that its easy to get lost?

Chloe responded:

1 – I really like the idea of you turning your map into either DM or TDM map. If you mirrored your map, you could keep it as a CTF and have a flagpole standing at the top of each clock tower. Or if you opt for either DM or TDM, you could have two separate bases. If I was to give you my honest opinion, I do prefer TDM or DM over CTF.

2 – From what I can tell you have placed the correct amount of pickups. I like the way you have put them inside of the huts because this means that players will take their time to venture around your map, and eventually remember where the best spot is to retrieve weapons.

3 – Because the tower is obviously the largest building in the map, this will give the players a good sense of where they are and what direction they are going in. Maybe you could have a giant centrepiece right in the centre of the map, so that way players know what way to go whilst trying to get to the opposing side (That is if you decide to mirror your map). 

Jonny responded:

1. DO NOT ditch the CTF game mode. I repeat, DO NOT ditch the CTF game mode. Capture the flag is an engaging game mode which encourages players to interact as you race towards the enemy base, this improves gameplay massively as there is always something to rush toward instead of just sitting in the middle waiting for an enemy to pop round the corner. Map size doesn't really matter as long as its near enough symmetrical to make it fair for both teams. I think your map is a good size as it is at the moment.

2.Pick ups shouldn't be something you just happen to come across, it's a really smart idea that you've hidden the pickups within huts as this encourages players to conserve ammo and hunt for their next weapon or ammo. Good job on that.

3. The flow of your map is fine, playing your map everything felt smooth and it was easy enough to get around. Adding in land marks is the best idea (apart from lighting) to aid in player navigation, this gives the player an idea of where they are just by looking at certain things, such as your tower.

Supergrid

I have use of supergrid in my level, I added several lifts in my level, in both the clock towers which player to the vantage point on the tower and back down again.  I also added elevators in the saloon which brings the player to a secret lab.

I also used teleports in my level which teleports the player from the secret to the slope on the side of my level.

Peer Review 1 Changes

Here you can see how I have taken Lewis’ idea of changing and/or removing some of the buildings in my level, I have now made it so the player can only enter a select number of buildings where they will find various pickups so they have a reason to go into the buildings, the players will not be able to enter the other buildings.  I have also removed one of the buildings to build a ranch in the extra space I had behind the buildings.

You can also see where I have taken Lewis’ other idea and built upon it by adding different coloured textures to the opposing towns, I went with Gold and Bronze and they are very commonly used steampunk colours.

Action Plan from Peer Review

Lewis and Leon’s feedback has been extremely helpful to me.  Lewis suggested to me that I change and/or remove some of the buildings that I created as they would get to repetitive, this is change that I will be making to my level.  Lewis also suggested that I light the two different cliffs different colours to identify different bases, I like the concept of this idea however I think that I may go with using different coloured textures rather than using different coloured lights as I don’t think that different coloured lights would go with my steampunk western theme.  Leon thinks that my level would look better on a slope, maybe I could add a slope going down the side of my level leading to a secret location.  These are all changes that I am going to implement into my level as I think that the layout of my level would benefit greatly from these ideas.

Peer Review 1

These are the questions that I asked Lewis and Leon:

I am going to set my map in a steampunk western themed world, at the moment I am working on a block out of two western villages set on two cliff tops that are connected by a wooden bridge.

1. I set my level on two opposing clifftops as I think it is a very interesting setting, its not something that you would really see in the old west, I thought that it would be a very flexible environment in that if I wanted to expand my level I could still simply add more content down the cliff.  What I want to know is do you like the setting that I have gone with for my level or is it simply not that appealing to you?  If so what sort of setting would you suggest that I use instead?
2. Right now my block out is completely however I was thinking that I would have both towns going on a small upward slope or even steps until the player reaches the main part of the town where it would then flatten out.  Again what are your thoughts on this idea?  Do you think I should go ahead with this idea?  I also had the idea of make the opposing cliffs and towns look identical making it like a cool freaky landmark, I also think that this would also be perfect for a capture the flag match, do you prefer this idea or do you think that I should stick with my first one?  Is there anything that you would suggest I do to make these ideas better?
3. Since my map is set in towns I have the idea of have buildings and shops in the towns that will serve a specific purpose.  For example I would have gun store where the player would collect guns and ammo, a food store where players could collect health packs, a clock tower at the top of both towns which could be used for flags if I were to create a CTF map.  What do you think of this idea? Do you think that I should stick to this idea or should I implement it in a different way or maybe even not at all and just scatter weapons, ammo, health, etc. randomly across my map?

Lewis responded:

I like the idea of your setting i just dont think it looks like that, i think it look more like a fantasy skyrim typed town at the moment. I would also change some of the smaller buildings because they look too copy and pasted the player may not know where they are in the level if most of it looks the same.

I think the bridge between the two clifftops would be a good idea especially if it is a capture game this would add a good choke point where they wont want to cross the bridge because they think they will get killed but also they know they have too to go and retrieve the flag. Also i think you should change one of the clifftop bases or at least have one lit a different colour so they player knows exactly where to go.

I think it would be a good idea to have the health and gun shops but only if there are a couple of them scatterered around the map you dont want one player taking all of the health and armor in one pass pickups should be used to encourage the player to move around your map more.

Leon responded:

Your level seems to be coming along nicely. It is not entirely clear at the monent what your buildings are supposed to be as they all kind of look the same. It will probably look a lot better once you have expanded it. The clifftop idea good be a good one, time will tell until the map is completely finished.

The town would probably look better on a slope as it is too flat at the moment so a slope would probably make gameplay a bit more interesting. The town will look better if you did add some sort of landmark as the buildings at the moment are very similar to each other which could be confusing to the player. Having opposite cliffs and towns would probably be a good idea when thinking about a capture the flag map.

I really like your ideas on where to place your pickups such as a gunstore and foodstore, never thought of this myself! Having a clocktower to place your flags is similar to what I was thinking to do with the churches placed on the opposite sides of my own level.

Level Block Out

Here you can see some screenshots of my level block out, it’s not much to look at now and it is also worth noting that I am going to mirror it whenever I have it completed, you can see that I have added a clock tower as a landmark so players will be able to see where they are.  I have also added several hut and I will be placing some pickups in some of them.  I will now be asking two of my peers Lewis and Leon to do a peer review of my map.

Unreal Tournament

Unreal Tournament is also a software developed by Epic Games, it is almost identical to Unreal Engine 4 however it is more suited to creating shooting style levels and it allows you to create First Person Shooter levels, Third Person Shooter levels, Deathmatch levels, Team Deathmatch levels, Capture the Flag levels and more.  I think that Unreal Tournament would be better suited to creating my level as I will be creating a shooter level set in a Western Steampunk themed world, there is more for me to work with in Unreal Tournament and it provides pickups like weapons, amour, health and uses blue print with things like teleports and elevators.

Unreal Engine

Now that I have revised Maya and have had a look at Ndo and Ddo I am now going to revisit Unreal Engine.  Unreal Engine is a free to download video game engine with a full suite of development tools which allows user to create and publish their very own games, popular games such as Bioshock: Infinate were created in Unreal Engine.  There are several game type templates for users to choose and create from, they are:

Blank

First Person

Flying

Puzzle

Rolling

Side Scrolling

2D Side Scrolling

Third Person

Top Down

Twin Stick Shooter

Vehicle

Vehicle Advanced

Unreal Engine 4 also has a lot of features for its creators to use they include:

DirectX 11 & 12 Rendering Features

Unreal Engine 4 supports advanced DirectX 11 & 12 rendering features such as full-scene HDR reflections, thousands of dynamic lights per scene, artist-programmable tessellation and displacement, physically-based shading and materials, IES lighting profiles and much more.

Cascade Visual Effects

The Cascade VFX editor provides the tools needed to create detailed fire, smoke, snow, dust, dirt, rubble and more. Cascade's pipelined includes fast, low-cost GPU particle simulation and a collision system that interacts with the depth buffer. Millions of dynamic particles can receive and emit light within a scene, and you can control all kinds of particle properties, including size, color, density, falloff and bounciness.

New Material Pipeline

Unreal Engine 4's new material pipeline makes use of physically-based shading to give you unprecedented control over the look and feel of characters and objects. Quickly create a wide range of surfaces that hold up visually under close examination. Layer materials and fine-tune values at the pixel level to achieve any kind of style you desire.

Blueprint Visual Scripting

Bring your creative visions to life in-game with Blueprint visual scripting. Blueprints enable anyone to rapidly prototype and build playable content without touching a line of code. Use Blueprints to author level, object and gameplay behaviors, modify user interface, adjust input controls and so much more.

Live Blueprint Debugging

Blueprint visual scripting comes with a built-in debugger you can use to interactively visualize gameplay flow and inspect property values while testing your game. Freeze the game at any time and audit its state by setting breakpoints on individual nodes in your Blueprint graphs. Step through actions and events, make changes as you like, and have fun optimizing your game on the fly. 

Content Browser

Use Unreal Engine 4's Content Browser to import, organize, search, tag, filter and modify terabytes of game assets within the Unreal Editor. Real-time animated thumbnail previews can easily be changed and saved with the handy screenshot function. Create any type of asset collection to be used for individual work or shared with other developers. 

Persona Animation

Use the Persona animation toolset to edit skeletons, skeletal meshes and sockets, animation Blueprints and more. This multi-purpose tool enables you to preview animation sequences and morph targets, and also set up animation blend spaces and montages. You can also modify physics and collision properties for skeletal mesh actors using the Physics 

Asset editing tool (PhAT). 

Matinee Cinematics

Unreal Engine 4's Matinee cinematic toolset provides director-level control over cut scenes, dynamic gameplay sequences and movies. With a look and feel similar to non-linear editors used for video editing, Matinee enables you to set up action within your scenes down to the finest detail, animate scene properties over time, and produce awesome filmic moments.

Terrain & Foliage

Create large, open world environments with the Landscape system, which paves the way for terrains that are orders of magnitude larger than what have been previously possible thanks to its powerful LOD system and efficient memory use. Customize huge, outdoor worlds using the foliage tool by quickly painting or erasing all sorts of terrain components.

Post-Process Effects

Unreal Engine 4's post-processing features enable you to gracefully adjust the look and feel of scenes. Filmic effects at your fingertips include ambient cubemaps, ambient occlusion, bloom, color grading, depth of field, eye adaptation, lens flares, light shafts, temporal anti-aliasing and tone mapping, just to name a few.

Full Source Code Access

With C++ source code for all of Unreal Engine 4, you can customize and extend Unreal Editor tools and Unreal Engine subsystems, including physics, audio, online, animation, rendering as well as Slate UI. With complete control over engine and gameplay code, you get everything so you can build anything.

Professional Source Control

Unreal Engine 4 supports full C++ source code access via GitHub for subscription members with clear version documentation and tracking. In addition, both Perforce version control and Apache Subversion support are available to developers with custom license terms. No matter your team size, you can easily coordinate development and design efforts with others through UE4's versioning infrastructure.

C++ Code View

Unreal Engine 4 Code View saves time by allowing you to browse C++ functions directly on game characters and objects and jump straight to source code lines in Microsoft Visual Studio to make changes.

Hot Reload Function

Make updates to your gameplay code while the game is running using Unreal Engine 4's popular Hot Reload feature. This tool allows you to edit C++ code and see those changes reflected immediately in-game without ever pausing gameplay.

Simulate & Immersive Views

Quickly debug and update gameplay behaviors as they happen through Simulate Mode, which lets you run game logic in the editor viewport and inspect AI as characters perform actions. View your game in full screen within the editing environment with Immersive View, which allows you to complete iterations on gameplay changes without added UI clutter or distractions.

Instant Game Preview

Update your game and use Instant Game Preview to instantly spawn a player and play anywhere in-game without waiting for files to save.

Possess & Eject Features

The Possess and Eject features allow you to play your game in-editor to easily “eject” from the player’s perspective at any time and take control of the camera to inspect anything that may not be behaving properly.

Artificial Intelligence

Give AI-controlled characters increased spatial awareness of the world around them and enable them to make smarter movements with Unreal Engine 4’s gameplay framework and artificial intelligence system. Dynamic navigation mesh updates in real time as you move objects for optimal pathing at all times.

Audio

Use Unreal Engine 4's Sound Cue Editor to build the audio pipeline and define audio playback for your game. 

Leading Middleware Integrations

The premier Unreal Engine 4 Integrated Partner Program provides integrations with more than a dozen industry-leading middleware technologies, including NVIDIA PhysX, Autodesk Gameware, Enlighten, Umbra, Oculus VR and other software libraries.

Information sourced from https://www.unrealengine.com/unreal-engine-4

Ddo

Ddo is a tool that also runs in Adobe Photoshop and allows you to create high quality textures for models in Maya (and possibly other modeling software).  

Ndo

Ndo is a normal mapping tool that runs in Adobe Photoshop.  It allows you to create surface details and indentations that can be baked onto objects in Maya.  This is great for high to low poly bakes as it will not use us as many polys if the model were to be exported into a video game.

UV Mapping

UV mapping is where you take a model that you have made in Maya and split it up using the unfold tool and then unfold the UV’s.  As tedious as this process is it has its benefits, it makes the model so much easier to texture and allows you to make the texture look so much better by adjusting the scale of it in the UV port.  It also divides the model up which means that it is much easier to find various parts of the model in the view port and neatens it up.

Revising Maya

I have used Maya in various units previous to this one and I feel that I have developed my skills significantly since when I first began using Maya last year.  Maya is often used to create models that can be exported over to Unreal Engine and Unreal Tournament, I am going to be revisiting some of the skills that I learned, showing some examples of models I have created using Maya and I will also be having a look at Ndo and Ddo

Plan

I have 7 weeks (from 19^th October 2015 – 7^th October 2015) to complete this unit, this seems like a lot however whenever I break this down that gives me 70 hours of class time in which I can get help and feedback from both John and my peers.  I also have to consider the time that I will spend outside of class working on this, if I were to spend about an hour a night after Thursday and Fridays classes this would give me an extra 14 hours.  This gives me approximately 84 hours to complete this assignment.  If I stick to this plan think that this should be enough time for me to produce a high quality level with the potential of achieving a Merit or maybe even a Distinction.

Introduction

For this unit I am going to using the skills the I have acquired in my previous units to plan, design and create a functioning and playable video game level using either Unreal Engine or Unreal Tournament, I will also be looking at other programs like Maya, Ndo and Ddo and will be showing how I can use these programs to make my level better.  I am feeling very enthusiastic about this unit and with some hard work I expect that I will do very well in this unit.