Blog Update 09/10/2019

Blog Update - 09/10/2019

Here's what I've been working on during the last week or so...

I have decided on my way of working for this year, beginning with a practical as part of my research, before implementing new ideas based on my findings.

Fig 1. I am starting with Do It, before going round the chart working on my solution

I've toiled and played with Isometric pixel art, trying my hardest to create a character that seems to fit a certain art style. However, as my results turned out quite nightmarish, I began looking at characters the player can use from the top down instead. 

Fig 2. Nightmare Fuel

I've started development of a character which, for now, has some limited cosmetic customisation which I just need to implement into UE4. This consists of various head styles, as well as the ability to customise the colour of the skin and hair on these sprites heads. The rest of the sprite is clothed, but in future and after play-testing, I  can work on adding the ability to do more to the character, and whilst developing this character, I have learnt valuable ways of implementing these ideas, which I struggled at at first. 

To make this character, I used assets from the internet, moving them into position and saving them as frames. I have also experimented with this art-style, using it to create the additional heads and weapons on this sprite sheet. Continuing to use this art-style will give me the ability to implement my own sprites later on in the year. If time becomes an issue, then I will at least have these sprites to fall back on, and they will be useful reference for poses and such should I choose to make my own later on. I will also need more animations, such as crouching, melee and other important animations, giving the player a variety of options for traversing the level and in combat.

Fig 3. My complete Sprite-sheet, the red and green indicating how UE4 will allow the player to  customise the skin and hair colour

Each of the frames in the above sprite-sheet is there to enable the animations in UE4. These are fully implemented, with the player having a small range of animations. These are walking and running in a variety of poses, with the player holding weapons at their side and aiming down sights. I have also created two weapons, which I plan to allow the player to switch between. 

Additionally, in order to implement weapon switching, I am in the process of implementing a simple inventory system, which allows the player to interact with actors in the game, picking up weapons and such, Once I'm done with this system, I will move onto implementing enemy AI and a skill tree, so that I can give the player as many options as possible. Customisation is key to my brief, as giving the player all the tools possible to have control of their experience is crucial to getting the most of the players relationship with the character. 

Overall, my plan is to have a game that can be play-tested in around 3 weeks. Players will play the game and after I will ask them how they feel they connected with the character they will playing as well as how they feel their connection could have been improved. The gameplay will be basic for now, however it will serve the purpose of allowing me to see how players interact with their player and from there I can build a game using this feedback with more advanced mechanics.