Team Meeting 2 - Tests to be conducted

Here is a list of mechanics and concepts which will need to be tested in the pre-development phase:


Lure Mechanic

Based on the Lure character, this mechanic will be used to roughly lead the player to key locations within the environments of Rove.

Concept

To have a character which is always seen in the distance but never reachable. This will be used in such a way that the character will be a point of interest to the player and they will be compelled to follow it through a linear path.

I will undertake creating the core mechanic of this concept and will be working on the scripting and placement of the Lure within Rove's environment. Andrew will work on the aesthetic appeal and animations of the Lure, making it a character that the player will want to follow.

Triggered Events

This test will ensure that I will be able to place colliders within Rove's environment which will trigger animations and sounds. A collider is basically an invisible box which can be placed in an environment scene. Scripts can be attached to colliders so that when a player walks into the collider the script is activated which will trigger an animation to play as well as audio or even other functions such as camera effects and more.

Concept

Triggered events will be used mainly as a narrative device, for example when a player reaches a key location a collider will be triggered which will activate audio dialogue of the protagonist talking and reflecting upon what the player can see. Secondly animations can be triggered to allow movement to the environment, for example an object moving or a door opening as a player approaches it. This will breath some life into an otherwise static environment.

I will undertake the scripting and placement for all the colliders within the environment. Andrew will create any character animations which may correspond with environment colliders.

Triggered event (delayed)

Allow me to delay a triggers function.

Concept

This could be used in situations within Rove such as if a player is locked within a room while a dialogue clip is being played the door to the room will unlock and open once the clip has finished.

I will undertake the scripting and collider placement for this mechanic.

Main Menu

This test will ensure that we will be able to add a main menu to Rove. This will allow us to create a more polished and professional first impression to the quality of our work.

Concept

The main menu will feature a PLAY/ENTER button and a CREDITS/CONTACT button. The credits button will allow the player to see which elements of the game were created by who and also our contact information. We hope to incorporate small narrative elements to the design of the main menu, this will be discussed further in more detail in another meeting.

I will undertake the scripting and design of the menu. Andrew will work on Rove's title and our team logo.

Eyes Opening


Concept

An early concept within the game document was to have the protagonists eyes opening to give the impression of waking up within Rove. I will undertake this test myself.

Team Meeting 1

Team Roles:

Bryn Morrison-Elliott: Environment artist/level designer

Andrew Thomas: Character artist/character animation

Discussion:

Ba7 is over and both of our game documents are complete, both of us have a clear understanding of how we want to begin developing Rove. Our initial concern is that we are both very new to Unity and game engines as a whole so this could create a problem later on within the development stage. Another concern is that we would create Rove in a chronological order and when it came to creating certain mechanics we would possibly hit a stone wall and not be able to create them. This would have a direct effect on the creation of the rest of Rove and would result in an unorganized and messy workflow. To overcome this we have decided to have a pre-development testing phase. During the next month I will create tiny separate parts of our game ideas within unity in order to ensure that when we reach the development stage of this project we will be able to create everything that is planned. Anything that does not pass the testing phase can be then be removed from the development stage. This allows us time to make alternatives to mechanics rather than having an uneven project.

Introduction

Rove is an interactive 3D art piece created in the Unity game engine to immerse a player within surreal imagery and 3D design. The player is able to control the protagonist through a first person control system and perspective who suffers from schizophrenia. I am the environment artist/level designer for this project. The environment of Rove is set inside the protagonist's hallucination. Rove aims to challenge the conventions of storytelling in games through innovative exploration, interaction and 3D design.

This blog will follow my progress through my Ba8 project at University which is my part in the development and creation of Rove as well as creating a my own website and portfolio preparing me for when I become a postgraduate.