Tiffany Derbyshire's Work

Tiffany Derbyshire

Week 1:

After picking groups, we were then assigned to create a 2D game. Firstly altogether we came up with an idea which was to create a hidden object mystery solving game, we then created a One Sheet which allowed us to narrow down each aspect of our game, including the art style, narrative, mechanics and goals. Afterwards, we discussed our greatest strengths and weaknesses and assigned one another to certain tasks we felt more comfortable with, whilst still following the brief and have each of us produce at least one piece of coding and an art asset.

I was tasked to design the mansion, as environment which was to be used in our game. I was also the main coder of our group, this meant i would do the majority of the coding.
After designing an initial of the mansion, my group and I were to prepare for our presentation and so with the help of my group members we made a short video displaying a paper version of our game and showing how it was to be played as well as what mechanics, art work and UI was to be included.

Week 2:

I made a Game Design Document to briefly describe the game and all features that would be included. I also created an Art Bible displaying a mixture of our groups work and explaining what and why each of these decisions were made relating to the way our game looks and works.

I also developed my Initial Idea of the mansion and added colours and played around with effects.

Week 3:

I finalised the development version of the mansion by adding in realistic images which i then manipulated and coloured over, making it my own, this is often known as the term Photo-bashing. I also played around with different brushes and the opacity to add shadows and give plain colours texture to make the environment seem realistic.

Week 4:

With my group, we created a design document which briefly explains the game overall, including target audience, technical features and the story, this gives an overview of what the game is about. Along with this, we put together all our art assets and made an Art Bible. This would tell us about the art work and the reasons behind why we chose certain art styles, colours and ideas.

Week 5 - Week 7:

This week I put all the art assets into Unity and created multiple scenes for different parts of the game, this included the main menu, area map, and the two environments the player would be able to interact with. I assisted Danielle when it came to coding the main menu, so that when the player clicked new game, it would continue onto the next scene which was the area map. I then tested Danielle's code to ensure all buttons linked and had worked, it was then my task to code the area map and link the buttons to the narrative scene. Catherine was in charge with the narrative scene and so i created the codes so that the narrative links to the mansion.

Week 8 - Week 9:

Once the scenes were linked, I went to the first environment scene, the mansion and started to import art assets for the inventory. I found it to be considerably difficult and it took some time before it started to work, as i encountered a few problems whilst trying to code the inventory which consumed more of my time, this included several scripts within an object going missing, as well as the inventory slots. For the inventory to work, i made several scripts, such as the inventory, slots and a player script which i could link to the inventory script so that the player would be able to interact with inventory. I managed to overcome these problems by proof reading my scripts and placing the inventory in the canvas and the slot and aligning them. I then made the slot into a prefab and deleted it from the canvas. When testing, the slot would automatically align itself with the inventory background and with the values I added to the code, I could change the amount of slots I wanted in the inventory.

Week 10:

This week, Tabitha and I worked on the coding for the items, so that when the player presses the object then it would delete itself and spawn another of the same item into the inventory system that I had previously made the week before. We had to ensure that all items were linked to the inventory and we gave them separate item names so that these could all be identified as individual items by the inventory.

Week 11 - Week 12:

I then went onto creating a pause menu for the game, this included creating an empty object and then creating a canvas and an image, for the image, I made it the same size as the canvas and added a slightly opaque black colour, the reason for this was because when the game was paused the opaque black colour would fill the screen and appear duller than it should be, this is to indicate to the player that the screen is paused. Once this was done, I created another image and added the pause menu which asks the player if they would like to quit the game, as well as two buttons that said yes and no. I coded it so that when the player presses 'esc' the pause menu would pop up, this is the button on the keyboard that is majorly used when exiting or pausing games. When the pause menu popped up I had to code a timescale so that when the game is paused the game would stop and the player would not be able to click elsewhere or activate anything within the scene unless they press the yes or no button. To test when the esc button was pressed that the game would pause, I coded a debug log so that when testing, in the console section it would say that it was paused, indicating that the code worked. In order for the buttons to work, just like the main menu, I had to link the buttons to either resume the game or to navigate back to the main menu. I then duplicated this code as well as art work and applied this into the next level of the game.

Week 13 - Week 14:

The final weeks for me, I wanted to ensure that the score system and the inventory data would transfer to the next level instead of restarting itself, as well as doing the same for the score, as we would not want this to restart but instead continue to the next level as the score counts how many objects the player has found.

Overall I found working in a group was extremely difficult, sometimes we were not organised and it slowed the whole process of the game being made. As our group had 5 people and was relatively large, I found that meeting up and getting all the work done was troublesome, however we managed to ensure that all work was done for the deadline.

Danielle Simmons's Work

Danielle Simmons

My part was to do all the UI designs; this includes, the title for the our game 'HighSchool Detective', The UI layout of the Main Menu, Main Menu Buttons, Object Buttons, UI Menu Text, Gameplay Menu Text and The Whole Gameplay Menu Layout design some of these examples include, ‘Level 1 Graveyard’, Objectives, Collectables and How many the player needs to collect. I also designed the Sound Button icon and I created the border design for the Game play Layout.

Moodboards and Color Schemes:

High school Detective Game Title:

I went with the title having googly eyes because it suited our game story!

Initial Design and Sketches For the Game UI and Inventory System :

The theme of the whole UI was very Old, Victorian but fancy with swirls and swirly borders. The colour Scheme I chose to go for was a Dark Brown, Light Brown, White Text and Blue vibrant swirls and I found out these colours suit really well and complimented my team mate’s environment art designs.

I created the Inventory system and throughout the whole development I had to change the design of the inventory because the boxes for the specific items would not fit in the inventory. In the end, me and my team mates decided to get rid of it and just have basic Object Button Icons down the side this helped in making the code much more simple and effective.

Main Menu Button Designs:

Yes and No Buttons:

Game play Menu Design:

Item Border:

Sound Button Icon:

Exit Button Icon:

Researching Sound for Our Game:

I also was in charge of researching Sound to put in our game to make the game catchy and fun. I looked and researched on many websites and came across some cool tunes some catchy and upbeat and some mysterious, magical, fantasy music. I talked this over with my team mates to see what they like and what they think would be good for the whole game theme. In the end me and my team mates figured it out and all agreed on having different music for each level.

Coding The Mansion Door:

I did the script which involved the main menu and buttons, as well as making the music for our game continue to all other scenes when they are loaded. I had to ensure that when the player pressed new game the scene area map would load straight after, as for the exit game button, i used a debug code with the "quit game" as when testing in unity the game would not exit but it would say that "quit game" notifying that if we were to build the game the player would be able to exit. 

For the music, it was quite easy, it involved writing a once sentence code so that when the next scene loads the music would continue and this would be the case for all other scenes. 

Summary:

In conclusion, it was great working with my team mates, everyone played their role perfectly.  In my opinion I decided to give my other team mates the design side for example, the environment and art assets e.g. Mansion/Graveyard background and the Menu Screen Background because I believe they have a stronger design aesthetic for this specific style and game genre and I think it will make the game look really polished and fun! 

However, I do think we could've had better communication with each other so It would've been less messy and more clear when we were developing the game.

Tabitha Beresford-Owen's Work

Tabitha Beresford-Owen

2D Game - High school Detective

Spring Submission Brief:

'You are part of a small start-up company (a group of 2-5 people) and have been hired to create a demo of a 2D, single screen game (no side scrolling) for an external publisher; Ewan Armstrong Arts (EAA).

In conjunction to producing a playable level, you are also required to produce the Supporting Material needed for the studio to take the project forward. As such, your submission has 3 key parts.'

I am currently working in a group of five members creating a point and click hidden object game. We all have to produce artwork and one piece of code. My current role is to design the hidden objects for the game.

Here are some initial ideas: 

As a group we all did some initial research into popular hidden object games such as Agent Alice and Criminal Case to get an idea of what is needed to make a decent hidden object game. I also researched different art styles and settled with everyone else that we went for a cartoonish/semi-realistic art style.

Saturday, 20 February 2016

High School Detective - Object Update

I have progressed with the hidden objects for our game. So far I have created nine items for our hidden object game. I have been assigned to create a total of eighteen items.

Here are the current objects:

Wednesday, 9th March 2016

High School Detective - Object Update

I have now finished the items for our game.

Thursday, 10th March 2016

High School Detective - Object Code

In my group I took the role of designing the hidden objects but I was also tasked with creating the code for the objects to appear and glow in the inventory system. Not only that but I had to make the objects disappear in the scene so that you couldn't collect multiples of the same object. The reason we decided to make the objects glow in the inventory was so that the player would know that was the object that they have selected and for appearance purposes. I also added separate names to each object so they could be identified and picked up by the player. 

Catherine Goncalves Work

Catherine Goncalves


High school Detective Game

Role:

My role in the group was character designer and I was tasked with creating the main character of the game.

Mood board:

The main character of the game is a teenage male, in high school, who wants to be a detective. With this in mind I looked at images of detectives and what they wore. I also looked at what style I should have the character in.

It was decided to go with a comic/cartoon art style with the character.

Initial Designs:

These are the first designs I came up for Carlos (the main character).

The team liked both outfits, which lead us to the idea of possible having an option of customising the character. This was later scrapped as there wouldn't have been time to do it.

I also drew up a quick sketch of what the bully (a character that we plan to appear further into the game) could look like.

Further development:

It was decided that we would go with the trench coat outfit as this was a more iconic look of a detective. From the initial design I made a front, back and side drawing of the outfit so we had the complete idea of how it would look on the character.

I also drew up different hairstyles that the character could have.

After a vote from the team (and other classmates), option 4 was the winner (by a landslide!)

Final Design:

This is the final image of Carlos.

Coding the Narrative:

After finishing the main character design, I was tasked with coding the narrative between Carlos and Midnight (the cat).

Coding the narrative was not easy. It took a long time just to even find a tutorial on how to do it, and even then I had to redo it twice as the code either didn’t work, or I found an easier one. But in the end, the narrative was done and I even got it to load into the next scene after all the narrative was done!

Conclusion:

In the end, I am happy with the end result. We've got a fully working game and it looks good! Though, the process to get there wasn't easy. While everyone had no problems with the ideas and opinions given towards the game, working well together to agree on what should and shouldn't been in the game, the main problem the group had was organisation. With a team of five people it was hard to keep track of who had what which slowed the work process down at times, but we made it in the end! 

Jamil Mungul's Work

Jamil Mungul

Graveyard Environment

When started making the group 2D game I was task to create the graveyard so made a mood board on it. I looked for images that gives that haunted feel to viewers.

Then I wanted to look for a style that looks realistic and I could use in my art work so as a team we decided to use concepts on the called Agent Alice for our mood board.

Sketches/ speed painting

I did two sketches of the Graveyard and got my team around and they was pleased to pick the Right image. With that I speed paint my just see how it will look like at the bare in this is not the finish piece.  

Starting the main art work

I found out to get the realistic look fast in my work, I had to use the photo-bashing skill  here are images I used. In order complete my finish piece. 

Final Graveyard 

Making the Main Menu

When making the main menu I first talked to my team mates and discussed on what put on it , I give the idea of there a table full of object that are in typical mystery game so we went for globe, books, candle, knife and map and here is what we came with.

When we got feather making the game the theme changed in to blue so made background blue and added the map of the game in the menu as well. 

Map

I only showed images to the first case that’s the only one the user can play in our demo.

The blue version with map

Midnight the Cat

We made this character, to help the player if they got stuck in the game, as a team we wanted something cute but still fix in the in the Environment of the game so we went for a black cat.

Starting to Create Midnight

Using Photoshop started make the cat, I wanted it too look cool and cute so I added a nice scarf and big eyes I was thinking of leaving the nose and whiskers of to make it even cute but the team said put it on. After making Midnight I had to draw the animation so when the player hovers on him it will wave asking if the user wants a clue. 

Finish and eye animation

I added a nice wooded boarder to make it more nice and prosecutable look to finish I put in the eye animation.

Coding 1: Music

The code i had made was for the gate in the mansion scene. When the player was to click on the gold gate located to the left of the mansion, it would glow to indicate it could be pressed, my task was to code when the gate was clicked on by the mouse then the graveyard scene would load.

Coding 2,3: Handle Canvas

The handle canvas code was to ensure that everything in the canvas had stayed in its place, such as all objects, this was to keep our game organised.

Conclusion

In the end I enjoyed making my first 2D university game as a team, everything went smooth in progress and everyone talked to each other if they needed help within coding or concept art. When we did our prototype everyone produce more work than expected I was shocked with my team’s  preformats. There is nothing I would change in the team because what we did was respectable.

Art Bible