P3 - Games Proposal Week 3 & Submission (Valorant Map)

Games Proposal - Project 3

In the third week and final week of the project, I was still working on the level blockout as I had to make some changes to some parts of my level to make it fair for both teams when attacking and defending.

Week 3 (31/01) - Blockout & Blueprints

During the blockout process, I had to make some changes on small areas of the map since it made more sense when I had the level blocked out.

From A site the players won't have 2 different ways from A link to enter A long. To enter A site the players will either have to go through A long, they can go through MID and flank the enemy team or they could get someone from their team to press the switch and open the moving door in A link, which will then give them access to enter A site.

Here's a screenshot of the change I made with A Link.

 I also decided to change the names between A link and A main. It makes more sense to have A link on the top since that's the area that connects MID to A and the other way around, and have A main on the bottom since that's the first area the players will get into which gives them vision to A site, A long and A link.

 Blueprints

I tried sticking to BPs I have used before like opening a door with a button and moving platforms. Since I was doing an FPS map I had to try to make the map playable somehow or as least tried getting the split screen working.

 Problems I faced with BPs

SPLIT SCREEN works but.... the second player doesn't move using a controller :(

Thanks to a friend though, the problem was fixed.

Project Review

 This was my first time creating an FPS map and I really enjoyed doing it. There was a lot of times I had to go through certain parts over and over to make sure it would be good and accessible for the player or to make sure they couldn't see certain areas from far. I had to also think about the agents that are in the game and their abilities.

What I found the hardest was filling in gaps around certain areas by adding blocks so the players wouldn't have a vision, for example, from their spawning area to the enemies spawning area or vision from B tower to MID or Attackers' spawn.

Final Level Blockout

P3 - Games Proposal Week 1 & 2 (Valorant Map)

Games Proposal - Project 3

For the third Games Proposal project, we started a group project. I decided to do the group project alone just like some of the people in my class.

So far throughout my third year, I have been trying out different game genres. On my first project, I worked on a 2D Platform game (Reference: original Donkey Kong Country & Super Mario Bros., for my second project I created a 3D platform level (Reference: Super Mario Odyssey & Captain Toad Adventure Tracker) and for my third project I decided to create a level for an FPS game I am comfortable with which is Valorant.

I have never created a level for an FPS game before so this will be a nice experience.

Week 1 (17/01) - Preparing game Idea & LDD

In the first week of the project, I created a Level Design Document and a Top-Down Level Design so I could pitch it to my tutor to get their approval to start creating the blockout of my level.

Below is the first sketch of the top-down of how the map would look and a link to my level design document explaining each area of the map.

Top-Down Level Design

Level Design Document - BSantos - New Valorant Map Idea

Week 2 (24/01) - Starting the Project

After getting approval from tutors that I could start working on the level, I started working on the blockout.

During my time creating the blockout for this level, I had to have Valorant open on a different monitor so I could understand more some aspects of each map and what makes them unique and different from each other.

Honours Project 1 - Uncharted: Cassie Drake's Rescue Mission (Part 3)

 

Honours - Project 1 (Part 3) 

In this post, I will be showing the process of the Blockout of my level with screenshots.

Sketch / Top-Down

Blockout of the Level / Level Walkthrough

The player will now be making their way to turn off the second camera.

The only way to get inside the Security Room without the Keycard is by using the stepladder which leads to the rooftop.

There the player will spot a guard who can be killed from behind if the player is quiet.

As soon as the player goes down the stairs they will spot the button for the second security camera by the front door. The player needs to be careful because there will be another guard.

Both cameras should be turned off by now!

The player can now make their way to the main entrance of the Hideout to get inside.

Here is a top view for the first area the player will be once they walk inside the Hideout. 

All the doors that don't have a Keycard system to be unlocked next to them cannot be opened.  

The RED doors that have the card system next to them can be unlocked with a red keycard.

The player will now gain access to the interior of the Hideout and the first part they will come across is the cells where the guards keep the new prisoners. The cell with Cassie's name on it is opened with something inside, but no sign of where Cassie could be.

The player will have to explore the Hideout and be careful with the guards around to find where Cassie is being kept wether it is inside the Hideout or somewhere else.

Honours Project 1 - Uncharted: Cassie Drake's Rescue Mission (Part 2)

Honours - Project 1 (Part 2 - Blockout)

In the following weeks, I started doing the blockout of my level in UE5.

I worked on the front of the Hideout and some of the rooms inside it.

BLUEPRINTS:  I have also done some blueprints like making the player go up the stepladder to get to the rooftop, and pressing the camera button to switch them off. 

UE5 Assets: I am using a Blockout Tools Plugin and the Blockout Starter Pack from the marketplace which is helping me a lot since it has door blueprints and other useful assets.

Sketch / Top-Down

In this post, I will be showing the process of the Blockout of my level with screenshots.

Blockout of the Level / Walkthrough

Here you can see where the player will start after arriving at the Hideout.

You can also see where the enemies are placed and what can be used as a cover for the player to take each enemy down without getting spotted.

Here the player can see both of the Security Cameras activated. If the player tries to go in after taking all the guards down without deactivating the camera, the alarm will go off and more enemies will show up and start shooting.

To lead the player where to go to turn each camera off, I've placed a red cable under each camera as shown in the screenshot.

 After taking the guards down the player can finally make their way inside the Crafting Studio to switch the first camera off and collect the green Keycard to open the main door once both cameras are off.

The first button is located behind the window.

The keycard is on top of the table which was left by one of the security guards.

 

The player can now make their way to the next button located inside the Security Room.

Honours Project 1 - Uncharted: Cassie Drake's Rescue Mission (Part 1)

Honours - Project 1 (Part 1)

When this project started I was going with a platform adventure game, but I wasn't too happy with it so I decided to go with something else, something related to a game I was used to, so I created a level in Uncharted. 

I spent the first few weeks deciding about gameplay and making sketches of where I wanted the level to happen and the idea behind it.

About the Level and where it takes place

My level takes place after the end of Uncharted 4: A Thief's End since that is when Cassie Drake is first introduced to everyone.

The level will happen inside a Hideout which is owned by Rafe Adler's Family. Rafe's Family finds out that Nathan Drake is the reason why Rafe is dead, so they decide to take revenge by kidnapping Cassie Drake to get Nathan to the Hideout and exchange for his daughter's life all the gold and all the treasures Nathan has found throughout the years.

Sketch / Top-Down

GAMEPLAY

Making your way inside the Hideout

The Level will start with the player arriving at the Hideout without anyone knowing.

The player will notice the place is filled with guards everywhere and the main entrance to get inside the Hideout has two security cameras. 

The player will have to make their way around without being spotted by the guards to get the cameras off. Both security cameras can be turned off with a button which is located inside the Crafting Studio and the Security Room.

Left Security Camera -  The button for the security camera on the left is located inside the Crafting Studio. The player can gain access to that button by using the open window in the parking lot to get inside the Crafting Studio. On the way, there will be a few guards roaming around so the player can use the covers such as the boxes and the cars to hide and take each enemy quietly.

Right Security Camera - The button for the security camera on right is located inside the Security Room. The player can gain access to that button by using the stepladder to get to the rooftop of the building. there will be a guard there so again the player needs to be careful not to make any noise so the enemies aren't alerted. Once the player takes down the guard on the rooftop, they will then be able to get inside the security room to deactivate the security camera giving him the opportunity to get inside the Hideout.

Green Keycard - Inside the Crafting Studio there is also a Keycard which the player will need to unlock the door. Each keycard for this level is assigned to the corresponding door colour, so the player can only unlock certain doors if they have the right keycard for it.

Cell with Cassie's Belongings

Inside the Hideout, the player will find a room with Cells where the enemies keep prisoners, and one of the Cells has Cassie's name on it. Inside it, Drake will find some of Cassie's stuff but not her.

P1 - Games Proposal - Week 4 & Submission

Games Proposal - Project 1

 

Week 4 (11/10) & Submission (18/10)

For this project, I decided to take what I was doing for my honours project and make the game playable which is a 2D Platform game inspired by Super Mario World and Donkey Kong.

Koya’s Adventure: The Lost Curse

The game tells the story of Koya being cursed after eating a mysterious fruit he found which turned him into an animal. In this adventure, Koya will have to find a solution to break the curse from the mysterious fruit so he can go back to being a human.

There he meets a wizard frog named Shin. Knowing what happened to Koya, Shin offers his help to break the curse from the mysterious fruit, but only if Koya collects all 10 different types of flowers which will help Shin make the potion to turn Koya back into a human.

In the first level, there are 7 Cherry Blossoms to be collected.

The player can also collect coins, once you collect 100 you gain an extra life. In future levels, the coins can also be used to buy items/power-ups. There are 30 coins spread across the first level.

Objective: First you speak to Shin, then you have to explore the map to find all Cherry Blossoms. Once you collect them all, the gate will open giving you access to the next area which is the Crystal Cave.

This is what the first level looked like when I started developing it.

Full Blockout of the Game done in UE5

Youtube Video of the Blockout: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lY_HmKt0BvI

The gameplay of the level: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z-wA6HjkgPc

Since I already had half of the project nearly done, on week 3 and 4 I finished blocking it out, adding all the blueprints I needed to get the level going and adding a game menu with an exit, play and control button. 

The blueprints I've added and the problems I've encountered:

●     Character Animation – I tried animating my own sprites, but I didn’t have enough time to get everything completed, so I decided to use an asset pack with a 2D Sprite.

●     Character BPs – With the help of YouTube videos I got a lot of my character’s BPs done, the only one I could not get to work was the climbing system.

●     Climbing BP – My biggest problem was getting my character to climb stairs. I’ve watched many videos and I couldn’t get my character to climb, so I had to use the respawning system and some platforms to complete the level.

●     Teleport/Respawning BP – I’ve used the teleport system before in some of my previous projects, so I didn’t have a problem getting that done, but since I was having trouble getting the respawning system working properly, I decided to use the teleport BP to get the player back to a certain part of the level depending where you died.

●     Game Menu: The last problem I encountered was getting my menu to work properly. I tried to keep it simple and only add a Start button, a controls button and an exit button. I managed to get the controls and exit buttons working fine, but for some reason, whenever I packaged my project and tried to play it by pressing the start button the main menu would not disappear but you could see the game running in the background. I tried watching different video tutorials on Youtube when creating a menu to see if I did something wrong, but all of them were following pretty much the same step and it was working fine both inside UE5 and after packaging it, but my menu was only working properly inside UE5 when I would try the game out.

Main Menu

Controls' Menu

The sprite and some of the assets like the trees, the grass and the spikes are from ‘Sunnyland Asset Pack’ which I downloaded for free from Itch.io: https://ansimuz.itch.io/sunny-land-pixel-game-art

 

 

P1 - Games Proposal - Week 3 & 4

 

Games Proposal - Project 1

Week 3 (04/10) & Week 4 (11/10)

Developing my Idea / Tutor Advice / Changing Idea

After pitching my idea to my tutors and getting their feedback I tried expanding my ideas more to make the game more unique, for example, my tutors weren’t sure about what was unique about my character for the first level and if I was going to be using him for the other levels too, so I decided to have different characters for each level.

Developing my Idea

Idea for Level 1

Theme & Boss - The level would be in the forest and the main boss for it would be a big spider who would be shooting webs to trap the player. To get the web off the player you’d need to wiggle the mouse. During the boss fight, there will be mini spiders coming out of the tree to attack the player.

Main Character – The character for level 1 would be Blue and his special ability is Heavy Weight which destroys enemies with one jump, Blue would need to collect umbrellas to help him control the fall. Since he’s heavy, he will fall quicker than the other characters and won’t move from side to side as fast.

Minions - For the small minions I would have things like small puffy spiders, flies and sticky slim so it matches the theme for the level.

Idea for Level 2

Theme & Boss - The level would be in a Japanese Haunted Dojo and the main boss for it would be a Demon Oni Mask who would be using a fire jutsu to hit the player. From time to time the boss would go invisible, so the player would need to dodge the fireballs and watch out for the small enemies until there was an opportunity to attack the boss again.

Main Character – The main character for level 2 would be Shiro and his special ability is dexterity &  and he can slow time down. Shiro is a ninja so he is faster than Blue and he will be able to slow time down with the kame jutsu power-up that will be spawning randomly like the other power-ups through the level.

Minions - Enemies: For the small minions I would have small puffy spiders, ghosts, and bats and throughout the level before the boss fight, the Oni Demon would be hitting the screen with his hands so the player would need to dodge that.

Tutor Advice

After having a chat and getting feedback from my tutors I’ve realised that the project I was going to do wasn’t really showing off my level design skills which had me questioning if that was really something I wanted to spend time on if I couldn’t use it on my portfolio if executed correctly.

Because of that, I decided to change my game idea and make something more simple, but more interesting.

It was a risk since I didn’t have as much time as I would if I had this idea from the beginning, but I am happier with the new project and different from the first one I am showing my level design a lot more.

P1 - Games Proposal - Week 1 & 2

Games Proposal - Project 1

Week 1 (20/09) - Game Idea / Preparing for Pitch Presentation

In the first week, we had to pick which type of project we wanted to do, so I chose ‘One-Input’ and the first few ideas I had was to make something similar to Geometry Dash, Surviving High School, Mega Jump, Cut The Rope or Where’s My Water? since I played those titles quite a lot on my iPhone.

After watching some gameplay for some of them I decided to make something similar to Mega Jump. The game has been discontinued from both Apple Store and Google Play, so people aren’t able to play it anymore.

Mega Jump was released in 2010 and with it being quite popular when it came out, they decided to release its second version ‘Mega Jump 2’ which was released in 2013. The game stopped getting updates in 2015, so users aren’t able to download it anymore which is why I wanted to make something similar to it, but add a twist to it like boss fights at the end of each level. 

Week 2 (27/09) - Pitch Presentation

In week two I had to put together a pitch PowerPoint presentation for my tutors about which category I was going to do from the brief which I chose ‘One-Input’ and what type of game I was making.

Below are screenshots of some of the slides from my PowerPoint explaining my game idea, which references I have used and how the first level would be.

'' In this game, the player will use the mouse to go left or right. The objective is for the player to keep collecting coins, and jumping on enemies or obstacles to keep going up. If the player misses any of those it will be game over.''