Unit 7 Free runner
An integrated approach to time-based problem solving in art & design
In this class room activity, we created an outdoor mountain area in order to familiarise our self’s with the basic tools of unity we were introduced to the basic modelling texturing and physics tools in order to create a scene, i firstly created a plane, then used the sculpting tools, similar to mudbox in order to shape the mountains and landscape, we then use the texturing material pre built into unity to get the colour of the rocks and grass.
I then used basic lighting, which is a simple directional light and the dawn til dusk skybox to get lighting effect, I then experimented with the particle system adding fire and water for visual effect, after i added extra assets such as trees and grass to give more detail to the scene, and finally adding a first person controller so we could walk around the scene.
This exercise was to help us familiarise and experiment with the tools within unity. i will be using tools such as the lighting, particle system and first person controller for my rooftop scene. Although it did not experiment with scripting in this exercised I do plan to use basic scripting for thing like ladder climbing
level development research
This is my game level development research I have taken 5 games and have analysed how the developers made their levels more engaging and how the corral the player.
The first one is uncharted 2, the way the corral and control where the player can go, is adding in rubble assets and a dust particle system into the level. As you can see from the image,
you can see how the developers has added rubble and broken cars and vehicles with the dust for that destruction look to the scene as way to making the level not only more believable as a warzone but also to hide the fact that the player can only go a certain the route while giving the illusion that its and open area.
The second game is final fantasy 13 by square enix, they also shows how they use rubble and other aspects in order to corral the player, while hiding the fact that they can only go one route,
As you can see in the image they have added rubble to help disguise the route of the level, but what they have done also is added in the particle system of the flames and explosion to the scene giving that visual effect they have also manipulated the camera angle to help showcase the stunning background scenery.
By adding these visual effects it helps immerse the player into the game making them focus on the objective and helping them forget that they are being corralled on a route
The next game is the last tinker. what this uses to corral the players, is a plat forming aspect, this is when you use platforms as a challenge in order to advance through the level, the way that it helps corral the player is by challenging them, giving them a challenge of passing through the plat forming aspect of the level helps to engage them into the game,
also the plat former aspect of the game really helps to showcase the level, by having them go through the plat forming challenge it makes them spend more time in the level, giving the player the chance to see the level and all the pretty visuals that come with it
What I took from this research are different ways in order to corral and immerse players for my New York rooftop level. l be mainly using the rubble and other assets also the visual effect like the particle system in order to disguise the route in the level and help them become immerse within the game, I think that ill focus more on visuals such as the assets lighting and particle system to engage and corral the players.
Unity Experiment Class room exercise
NYC level proggresion
The first thing I started off doing was exporting my new York rooftop scene from Maya into unity via fbx file format, the way I did this by exporting it as an FBX file, creating a new project into unity, and placing the FBX file with the asset folder in the unity, also by placing all the texture images within the material folder inside unity I was able to successfully export the scene with textures to unity. Before doing this I did make some changes within the Maya scene such as extra building in order to make the scene look more like a city
lighting
For the lighting I started off by adjusting the ambient light and fog setting within the render settings making it a dark blue colour, I wanted my level to be at night for a more new York urban look, to help this I also added the ' starry night' skybox gave a night sky to the scene, After I added a mixture of spot and point lights in the scene, for a more concentrate light where I want to show something in more detail, I would use a spot light and for a more of a lighter general light i would use a point light, I would change the colours of the light while using colours that worked well together to give it a more visually pleasing look,
in order to make the scene to be more convincing as a Ney York rooftop i needed to a scenery around to give that sense of a city around, to visible places from the rooftop i tried to make it look like an ally way with trashcans and fences, also with other thing such as bottles. In order to make it noticeable to the player when there on the roof, I had to scale up the object from their actual size so you see them from a distance, I also added some lighting, but still keeping it dark for that urban back ally look you usually see in cities like New York
Background scenery
To make the environment more interactive and believable I added physics to some of the objects like the planks and pallets, also to trash like bottles and the newspaper on the floor, this makes it more believable because the gravity physics make them fall on to the ground in a realistic way. Also made it so you can pick up these objects while playing, making the level more interactive,
The way I did this, was by assigning a rigid body script to the objects making them have gravity physics and then assigning a drag rigid body script to the character controller making him able to pick up the objects.
physics/ pick up object
Interactive cloth
As an experiment I wanted to try and get a cloth like surface in my scene, I found I could the interactive cloth setting in unity to do this.
The way I did this was by creating a blanket asset in Maya and then importing it into unity, I then assign the interactive cloth component to the asset, assign it a rigid body so it would fall realistically. problems I came across was that the interactive cloth component wouldn’t work on the imported asset so what i did was make a plan in unity and change the mesh shape setting from plane to the asset shape, and then it worked
importing assets and textures
Partical systems
I got the idea for using the particle system from research done on game like final fantasy, how they used particle systems for explosion as a focal point to help corral the player, I added a fire particle system and added a trashcan over it to adding a bit more detail to the scene helping the player to become more immerse,
i also added a dust particle system around the scene help get that visual effect and to make the environment more visually pleasing, the fire and dust particle works together as it makes the scene look smoky.
scripting
Initially I wanted to have 2 or 3 scripts where you can climb ladders, fall to your death and have an objective but due to the fact we haven’t learnt scripting and the tutorials online didn’t not work I was only able to make 1 of the 3 scripts work, I managed to get a ladder climber script where you character moves up vertically when it enter a trigger zone you set on a ladder, I also decided just to have this one because our aim was to have more of an interactive environment than a full game. The way i added the script was by adding it to the character controller
platforming
like in my research, a good way to corral my players, is to have a plat forming obstacle aspect to my level, fortunately I already planned and created some obstacles in my scene when, modelling the rooftop in Maya in the previous unit, example are thing like the scaffolding and some of the jumps from building to building where you need to pick up objects to stand on and get over.
this unit was more about taking what I got and making playable, also visually pleasing and immersive as possible
evaluation
This is my walk through of my unity New York rooftop game level.
What inspired me?
inspirations are from games that are based essentially new York such as batman and Hitman absolution, also research of level development I have done gave me ideas on how to corral the player in level and to make the level immersive and engaging, examples of this are the rubble assets inspired from research done on uncharted 2 and final fantasy, also the plat forming aspect from super Mario bros.
Production:
What I started off doing was importing the assets and the texture file of my rooftop which was made in Maya into unity, properly setting the unity project was crucial in order for the file to import properly. I exported or my Maya files as a FBX and then places it within the unity assets and material folder to import them, and they placed my imported files into the scene.
What I did next was to add lighting, inspiration from games like batman arkam city helped me decide to have that dark urban city night look, I started of changing the ambient light and fog settings to a darkish blue colour to give the illusion of night, and then added the starry night skybox to enhance this. I added a mixture of spot and point lights with different Colours that complement the scene for visual effect.
after I added the background scenery, going back into Maya to create new assets to help fill my scene making it look like a more convincing scene help the play become more engaged, i then placed building and duplicates of the scene to help cover the open spaces around the original scene to give the illusion of you inside a city.
I then added physics and particle systems in order to make the game more interactive and to make it more visually pleasing, examples of this are the placeable objects like bottles and pallets and the fire and dust particle for visual effect. I also added an interactive cloth as experiment and to make the scene more believable
I then added scripts for ladder climbing allowing you to explore a the level more and adding more of a plat forming aspect to the level.
What went well?
What I think went well was the lighting I added in the scene, I really it gave the more effect and made it more visually pleasing, I also think that some parts of the scenery helped the scene to be more believable and lastly the thing is use of particle system went well, adding in a focal point (fire trashcan) and adding visual effect to the scene making it more engaging
What could I have improved?
Thing I could of inproved on was, some of the assets in the scene were over lapping and was noticeable when walking through the scene, also I could of used more variety when adding scenery and have more thing to increased how believable it is making it more engaging, also I think that the scripting aspect could of gone better, because the script, which allows me to climb ladder, has a drawback, it gives me a almost superhuman jump height, making the environment less engaging and making the obstacle set out far easier to get passed.
The next game is batman arkham asylum, the way they corral there players is by having very nice detailed assets and of assets like the steel girder and the all the trash paper in the floor, immerses the player into the world, other ways you can see how they corral the player is with the police cars blocking the path showing how they use these nice detailed assets to set the path but make it still seem that there in an open world.
Other thing they show that helps make the player become more immersed and engaged is the they have lighting in the scene, they have different lights like through the windows and the side of the girder, gives that dramatic dystopian city look for visual effect, they also have a particle system of rain falling to add that effect helping to immerse and engage the player
This is metal gear solid v ground zero, this also shows a good example of how to use lighting and particle systems, for a visual effect helping to engage the players, as you can see the main light is the lens flare in the middle of the image, you can see how this light reflects on to the floor adding that realistic effect and giving that wet water reflection effect on the floor helping the particle system of the rain the become more realistic,
These visual affect aspects helps engages the player and making the player feel like they’re really inside the game. With this its a good reference and example of how the level should look, achieving these visual effect, I can really bring my level to and to help engage the player as much as possible