Games as sports

Games as sports otherwise known as eSports has always been a fascination to me. I've personally been a veteran fan of the Counter Strike Global Offensive team Cloud 9 ever since the organisation set up the team back in 2014. Personally I believe video games to be a sport or even a job due to the amount of hours being put into such intense games. Most sports enthusiasts including people like Shaq, Rodger Saffold and many more are invested in these teams now because of the growing audience and increase in money per tournament. This is something the media is now getting a hold of due to the respective prize pools and the ratings being pulled. Although some games don't receive as much feedback as most League Of Legends is one to compare this too, racking in more views that the NBA with a whopping 27 million.

I don't think there's much point in rambling on about something I'm very biased about. Proving that these games are sports is easy, stubborn narrow minded people are the ones we've got to try and convince due to their ways. If they wont listen or believe the facts then they're a lost cause. Especially seeing as athletes are now investing in these teams as a whole.

Theme Parks

Theme parks whether they're modern or not have controversies around every aspect of the environment it's based in due to previous events. Whether it be rides collapsing, people being killed or even something as simple as the theme park becoming vacant and distilled. Controversies can be based around this and the concept of theme parks as a whole. The idea behind creating a theme park based game is nothing new to this controversy. This is due to people becoming nauseated, sick or even fainting. Most theme parks are historically glorified such as Disney world, Six Flags and many more. The question is what can't theme parks do due to their broad horizon of ideas and concepts. 

The relation between this and games is very simple, what is a game and what isn't. What can be a game and what can't be. The original question at hand here being theme parks is so closely related to games that both can be hundreds of things at once without you even knowing. A simple trip to the park with a swing set can be classed as a theme park, the same as a simple game of catch is known as a 'game' of catch. This conduct or bases is something I wish to base my essay off due to it meaning more to me than any other subject we've touched on so far or by the looks of things we'll touch on this year. I'm a fan of convincing people that black and white these things can be anything they want, giving it freedom to over rule any rule made for it.

Week 7&8 - Game Design

Week 7&8 - Review

I believe that the game in general is working perfectly, the only thing I'm upset with is the amount of content in the actual game. I believe the project took longer than expected especially with the flashlight hold up being a big issue on this case. I would happily change the way of going about it if I was to try again in the future due to the time restraint being too much for what it was. As for content and details I was rushed towards the end due to the final coming around faster than I had anticipated and some of the fixes taking days to fix. Luckily no bugs were reported after all the fixes were completed so hopefully no one will find one unless they literally break the game. 

Other than these slight issues I really enjoyed the experience and am willing to try again at a later date when I've calmed down from the stress of this one. Preferably in a team so that way I can get help from someone other than YouTube and my tutors. I don't believe there's anything else more to say about this game as most of it is said in the work. 

Week 6 - Game Development

Week 6 - Bug fixes/touch up

Week 6 was more of a minor detail week, a fix on everything that needed fixing as well as adding content and minor bits here or there. I managed to get a little time to myself throughout it all and catch up so I decided for myself as a treat I'd look up how to change the resolutions in game using the UI function. It was very simplistic in the end, just a simple console command that I attached to a button but for me it was a mini accomplishment completed. The image below shows how simple it was to execute this, it has to be done in the full game window because the resolutions messes up if you only preview it. 

This was a slow week for work progress as it was mainly minor fixes, attached is all the fixes made this week.

• Main menu play button
• Quit game button
• Movement issue (somehow reversed itself)
• Lighting color reset
• Animation on 2nd Jump scare

Week 5 - Game Development

Week 5 - Play testing

Finally moving onto play testing, after doing all the bug fixes needed and the catch up week that was certainly needed I finally got around to playing my game by myself. Firstly I didn't see any bugs but then realized almost seconds into game play that one of my floors wasn't walk-able. I then had to change my characters walking angle from 0 to 45 to fix this. This simple fix allowed me to maneuver anywhere on the map I wanted but not along 90 degree walls. I then managed to complete my game and finish what needed to be fixed (minimal issues like fast flickering lights etc.).

I then had friends test out the game and I told them to rip the game apart and break it so I could find any bug possible. Most didn't manage to find any bugs or problems with the game, some found it difficult when the battery ran out on the flashlight because of the dark fog but eventually they found a battery. Something I was concerned about but had no time to be able to fix due to content needing to be added as well as fixing minor health issues with my character. That leads me on to my favorite tester, a friend of mine manage to find a issue with the poisonous gas and the fire not actually dealing damage to the player due to the hit box being too small. I then went in and amended these immediately. 

Here are some of the simple fixes;

• Animation didn't delete itself
• Fire fx was too intense (turned down)
• Jump scare didn't have sound (corrupt audio file)
• Battery pickup only done 50% when it was set to 100
• Player walking up walls
• Kill boxes radius increased

Week 4 - Game Development

Week 4 - Catch up

Week 4 was initially meant to be the testing phase/game bug fixing but because I faulted a week on the main mechanic I was catching up with previous workings. After realizing how bad it is, I decided to only do one level alongside a lot of content (if possible). I started by making a end screen which took seconds because of the simplicity of it. Then creating a key system and a door to enable there to be more content when I can next work on the game, it allows for a ending as well as another mechanic to be added. The key system works the same as any in any game, pickup a key use it on the door and head on through. Alongside this throughout the week I added in loads of features including particle effects, a poisonous gas zone and more jump scares for content. The only issue with this was the lack of content so being able to add more ended up working in my favor. 

This is the particle effect showcased because of the riot theme which gives a little back story to the game.

The end game key, shown with it's hit box and pickup system.

Week 3 - Game Development

Week 3 - The Flashlight

After getting most of the detail I wished to get into the project I decided to finish up with the biggest struggle of the lot. Although it may simple it was not. A flashlight that could be toggled, run out of battery, flickering towards the end of its life and finally a battery pickup. The picture below correctly labelled shows you how long it took for someone who has never really touched UE4 before to create. A lot of help was needed to create this flashlight but mainly just determination, allowing for me to get the correct outcome I wished for. 

This Flashlight honestly took me up to 3 working days to get working, then 4 more to get it working the way I wished. This was following hundreds of different tutorials to get the outcome I wanted. Noticing that I wasted a week was something I wished I had settled on the third day. Not only this I had completely skipped past the doors/end game part of my game so this put me a week behind. A struggle that I was happy about, knowing I could create this even if it did put me back a little. 

Week 2 - Game Development

Week 2 - 3D Modelling/Importing

As week 2 began and I had a clear understanding of what I wanted so I decided to finish up most of the 3D models and start to import them from the previous week. After realizing how the time constraint was effecting me already I decided to keep the models un-textured due to wanting to complete this within the 8th week and then not touch it again till hand in so I can get proper feedback. This task was going to be a struggle and however much content in the game I can add will be something that is too going to be difficult. I've set myself up with importing the 3D models into UE4 and sizing them correctly. Using the atmospheric additions of UE4 (Lighting, fog etc.) I created a concept that doesn't rely on good looking assets but more it was based around horror and suspense. Shown here in the image below. 

The next step towards achieving what I wanted was to try and learn how to get a light to flash on a random number generator (not linear) so that way it wont consistently flash in your face but instead flash completely randomly. After doing minimal amounts of research due to YouTube being filled with tutorials for this sort of thing, there was many different ways of creating this but instead I decided on this blueprint because of the effectiveness of the light. Alongside this there was many other additions added in but only minor changes to fog, lighting etc.

Week 1 - Game Development

Week 1 - Development Begins

I am really excited to start up making a game and getting to understand the Unreal Engine 4. The beginning of making my game I went and done some research as I knew what I wanted to recreate in 3D, with the knowledge I have of learning small amounts from previous sessions I decided to challenge myself in a completely new way. The theme of 'Riot' was given to us to be used anyway we wished, my concept was a man delving into a cave to find his daughter who ran away from the riots. My concept was simple, I wished to recreate a Outlast styled horror game which has a backstory relating to the riots. Horror being something that is fun and interesting whilst also allowing me to use constraints to my advantage. 

After learning basic UE4 Blueprinting from the beginner lessons I decided to take to other tutorials to help me with getting a understanding of how/what I want. It took some time, but managing to find what I want through research I decided to go along with the idea at full force. My goal was to originally create the 3D models and move to UE4 asap. The way I would use constraints to my advantage would be to have no character model, use heavy fog to hide terrible details and hopefully be able to get enough assets (box models because of the time restraint). I wished to recreate a Outlast styled game so I decided on many different ideas, some being it would be first person, ambient and play on the emotions of people. This meaning that I could use suspense to either entice people or scare them away. 

With the research out of the way I began 3D modelling what I thought to be characters, assets and even level design. Something that would be simplistic but get the point across, due to time constraints I could not make a fully detailed game so I stuck to box modelling.