Project Idea and Planning
As in our presentation, we’re planning to make an FPS game, like Superhot. We’re planning to use the time-moves-as-you-move function and use hotspots to travel. Our idea is: you’re a virus in a computer that has to steal an important file. You must first work your way through other files (or levels). I’m the first level, Vee is the second and Muhammad is the third. As mentioned in our project idea presentation, I’m planning to have a sphere shaped terrain. We’ve decided to have platforms to change height levels and I think this is a good idea for variety. I imagine this will create some difficulties for my level but I’m excited to start.
ENTRY 1
Since my environment is a sphere, I need to figure out how gravity will work- objects need to be attrracted to the centre of the sphere, not just downwards.
I found some code to make the gravity work properly, but so far the objects just fall through the environment, but the direction of gravity is correct. I’ve also found some assets that I can use for my environment, such as buildings. These seem easily customisable to my colour scheme etc, so I’m pretty happy with them so far, though I might have to model some on my own as well.
ENTRY 2
I managed to get the gravity working on my project.
Now I’m working on designing the environment in the colour scheme (blue, purple, grey) and the hotspots for travelling. I’m still looking for proper assets and might have to make some on my own, but I’ve found a couple that I might like.
I think I’ll add hotspots at the top of buildings to get a good vantage point and also have a bridge for variety. I’m also thinking of having rain (using a particle system) but I’m not sure if it’ll help with creating the atmosphere I want.
I plan to figure out my environment and then make it a prefab so I can add it to our Unity Collab project.
ENTRY 3
I started making the environment, with a blue-purple color scheme. I used a metallic material for the planet so it looks a bit like hardware. Inspired by the statues in Lord of the Rings, I added statues to the starting point of my level.
They help indicate the starting point as well as direct the user about which way to go- between them. I thought this would intuitive since you start right behind them, and the most obvious path is forward, the way they are facing.
I also figured out how to make the player walk on the planet, since I couldn’t use the Walk on World script we had for our previous projects. I’m glad I got this sorted out because it’s one of the most important parts of navigating my world, apart from hotspots, and it really gives the effect of being on a curved surface. I also added rain, but I’m not sure how I feel about it yet.
I added rain and all the other assets as well. My project has shifted away from data visualisation as a theme, and is now more like a jumble of different structures. I like it. Since Nav Mesh doesn’t work on a sphere, I need more hotspots.
I didn’t add the bridge since it seemed too “complete”. I’ve picked assets that look broken, so it looks like a folder on a computer that contains a lot of random things- a Recycle Bin.
I have a bunch of random buildings, modern and ancient. I feel like this kind of ties in with the other levels as well, since Vee’s is medieval Chinese and Muhammad’s looks super futuristic.
ENTRY 4
link to user test video:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1rOk5pjJiaoTYBDxFcxys4s2djYN0Rbwd/view?usp=sharing
User Test Feedback:
Kind of stressful getting shot at in the first few seconds.
- Reduced enemy sphere collider so don’t get shot at just as you arrive. I don’t have as many enemies as the others since I’m the first level, and more hotspots so users can explore more.
Add sound, seems kind of jarring with only bullet sounds’
- Added sound for suspense
Background is plain, doesn’t look good.
- Added Skybox for lights and sky effect.
Teleporting was fun- I added more hotspots.
I think hotspots are the most important for me so I need to make the experience as interesting as possible. So I’m adding various assets which look interesting and are sort of interactable- like buildings I can go into.
Related to this, the terrain itself as an element is super important so I need to make that as varied as possible- I’m going to have as many platforms as possible.
Shooting enemies is fun and watching them get destroyed is cool, though it’s not the most fun thing for me- but I have to keep in mind not to overlook it too much since it’s an important factor.
I need to use the above factors to make people feel tension and also maybe some wonder because I want people to enjoy the environment as well as finish the level. The sound is suspenseful so that helps.
ENTRY 5 (after submission)
I’m pretty happy with the way my level turned out. I like how jumbled it looks, and how you can go beneath the metal structures and explore a bit. I’ve added a lot of platforms, to vary height so you can get agood view of the entire terrain.
I’ve toggled the sphere colliders on the enemies so they have varying ranges and they are concentrated at different points to increase and decrease tension.
There are multiple ways to get to the final hotspot and you can use one or more of them. I have a total of 40 hotspots and maybe 15 enemies.
I had a lot of issues because of my level being a sphere but I’m glad I stuck with it- it’s almost like a roller coaster, and I like how you can’t always see very far away because the terrain curves away from you. The nav mesh didn’t work but we fixed the user experience by explaining it in cutscenes, so it worked out. I wish I could have had rain all over the place but it looked a bit too confusing, and made the whole thing heavy. So now it’s only over the statues- still looks cool. I made my level a little easier than the others since it’s the first, and it’s better for the user to get used to the medium. We had problems with building to Unity, but with professor’s help we managed. I had a lot of fun with this project.