Rotating Puzzle

A puzzle idea that Joe came to me with was the idea of having objects blocking the path of the player so that they cannot continue until they are moved. The problem is however that they rotate, so the player needs to rotate them until they are at the right angle so that they can then progress forward on to the next stage. I had help with this from our coding lecturer who was in today to show me how to do it. The script written rotates the object, there is not an animation on the object, which was an idea/ possibility in the beginning.

Here is the beginning scene.

When the player walks up to the object, all they have to do is click the object and it rotates to another position.

Each time the player clicks it will change its rotation, the player can do this until it is at the right rotation for them to continue on through the level.

Here is another screenshot of another rotation.

Here is a screenshot of the object behind rotating as well. This script can now be applied to any object that we would like to be able to be rotated.

 

Stair Puzzle

For one part of our game, the protagonist character will drop to the floor below once she passes a certain point within the level, as the ground below her gives way. Her only way to escape from this room is to build a set of stairs out of the objects around her (boxes, barrels and crates etc.) back up to where she came from so that she can continue to escape.

Here is the basic layout of the blocks (these will be the boxes and barrels etc.) they then fall to the floor (as shown in the photo below).

Boxes have fallen to the floor, so that the player can now go over to them and interact with them.

Here is a photo of the player holding the block, the player is about to move it high and low as well as move it from left to right.

They are then able to stack the blocks, thus enabling them to form stairs.

Here is a photo of a trigger area which will load the next level of the game. This might not be necessary however I have played around with it and as shown in the photo below it changes to the new level, so this is a useful code to have just incase we need it.

Puzzle Level

Here is a quick overview of our puzzle level. We have been working on the main mechanics of how we want our puzzles to work, and also what type of puzzles we want the player to complete. The first two puzzles that we have in place (that will be shown in the photos below) show that by pressing levers (at the moment they are two grey boxes) some items in the world will change in to a position so that the player can advance, for example one lever moves a box underneath a grate so that the player can escape, where as another lever allows a box which is in the air to come down, so that the player can use it as a 'stepping stone' to get to the other side.

This first photo is just showing the layout as we have it so far. in the bottom right hand there is an additional room that has yet to have been placed properly, however when this is done this room will be 'downstairs' and the player will fall in there once they have completed the puzzles in the first room, the only way for them to get out of this downstairs room is to build a set of stairs up to the opening so they can continue.

This photo shows the 'stepping stone' block up in the air before the player has activated the trigger. 

Here is a screenshot of when the lever has been activated, and the box has moved in to its correct position so that the player can now advance over to the other side.

Here is the beginning stage of the grate and box puzzle. The grate is too high to jump in from the ground, so the box is needed to be able to give that extra height. Just like the puzzle shown above, a lever is needed to be activated: 

(The large grey box to the right of the screen is the lever) this has been activated, so now the box has moved under the grate so that the player is now ready to advance to the next section.

Alien Design - Character Modelling

I started off the alien as a simple basic 3D model blocking in all the major parts such as the leg, torso, and then moved on to getting in the posture to the right position. I then started to add more loops to make the model more even with all the polys, and to also smooth out the character. I started to implement the arm and hand features. I am so far enjoying creating this alien as I am finding it interesting creating a new anatomic structure. I have played around with the posture and have posted it below, not quite sure what to do about it as in if the weight looks central, and I'm questioning the syle on the knee.

For the next part of developing my Alien I need to create a model similar to what it is going to look like so I can put it into Z-Brush. The most important thing for exporting to Z-Brush is that the model is completely even and contains only quads. This is was seeming to be a bit of a problem because the previous model has triangles. I saved the original file and created a new one adjusting the original model by deleting the claws that had lots of detail that was uneven with the rest of the quads. I recreated them in a simple manner that isn't very detailed but its even. I can now bring this into Z-Brush and start sculpting.

I brought the model into Z-Brush and started to play around with form by altering the poly's into a more interesting shape. I changed the shape of the head, as well as bulking out some the chest and the posture.

I started to add detail to the model: I began to add in bone and muscle deformation around the model, and exaggerated its form. I have just been working on form of the muscle and skeletal features at the moment and will start to add detail at a later stage. This is my first time using Z-Brush, it was pretty difficult to get used to but I think I have the hang of navigating around it. I have learnt a few things such as masking and moving selected areas, I found this to be quiet a useful method. 

Update: 27.01.14

The past week I studies into more of the anatomy for the alien such as the muscle tone for the legs. I took me a while but I managed to create somewhat of a similar muscle structure to that of a humanoid figure. I had started to work into the arms but unfortunately it started to look unbalanced and out of place; it looked dislocated. I then had to go back and study some arm anatomy.

These are a few of the designs I produced to help towards the arms, chest and shoulder area of the creature. By looking at how the human arm works I was able to produce a similar design for the alien, that help me to look at its functionality, and where its muscles and bones are. I found this very useful as it helped for me to take a closer look into form and structure of how muscles work and therefore to how they could be translated onto an alien body.

These images are what I was able to produce today I started to add muscle deformation to the arms, chest and neck area. Whilst doing this I realised that the arms look a little too big for the creature so I ended up resizing them and rotating them to a position that looks more natural.

 

 

 

Update 28.01.14

 

I have brought the sculpt into maya as a template to help me design the mask of the creature. I have done this so I can produce a nice hard surface object that would suit the style of how I want it to look on the design, also because its a lot easier and faster to produce a quick model of the mask rather than trying it from scratch in Z-Brush.

 

 

 

I started the mask with simple shapes, such as the hard surface parts of the mask so to give me indications as to were certain parts are. I then started to map out areas around the mask using a plane and extruding the edges to help create a base flow of the model. I produced this in parts through the top and round the side, and linking them in the middle.

 

 

 

After all the main parts were added in I started to link all the polys together and keeping in mind that I have to keep the flow even. I managed to get to a point in which most of the mask is done I just need to fill in areas, and add in extra details such as the breathing parts.

 

Assets 07.01.14

Today I spent my time creating a few assets for our game: these included a crate which will be used as an in game asset, I managed to UV unwrap also. I then created a test scene in which it can be imported to unity and tested with code.

Time to rethink our idea... (09.12.13)

Due to recent events it was decided that we should reconsider our game to a different play style. We have techniqually restarted our project but bringing forth our previous concepts and designs.We are going to incoporate some of the  previous ideas into our new game but with a different gameplay.


This is our brief:

Puzzle Game:

The main gameplay idea we have is to teach the player not to jump to conclusions about the first way they can tackle the puzzles. Although it may seem simple at first, it turns about to be a little bit more complicated; a process of finding leavers and moving obstacles may have to be discovered first before they can complete the puzzle.

Playing with the players mind:

We still want to work with the idea of the girl trapped in an alien industrial farming complex, however the story starts out with the girl falling asleep, and the game starts in a ‘dream world’ but the player doesn’t know this is a dream. You have to complete certain tasks/ puzzle in order to escape. However when you do finally escape it turns out that she has awoken from this dream, and she is in fact still stuck in the cage.

 

Our design is to be very clean and to create simple puzzles for the player to complete.

 

 

This is the kind of style we want to go for, a clean a crisp style although we shall consider adding in dirty and broken down areas to create different effects and to tackle emotion.

 

 

 

This is a simple map layout with very simple structures that we could incorporate such as alternate rooms to collect objects to allow you to pass current rooms.

 

 

 

 A few level designs and strategies; the top image shows the need to move the box to get out the facility and that the lever is on the other side. The second image then shows an obsticle in the way i.e. need to be another platform to help you cross, and the last image shows the solution to get to the other side.

 

 

This is a concept of an alternate style we could persue with an old styled wooden shafts and dirty floors, with crates and containers.

 

 

Script:

 

Girl: (could be echo distorted)

 

''Where am I?''

''AHHHHHHHHHHH!!!'' - Scream

''What is this place?''

''Huh?'' - shock

''Maybe the lever on the other side of the room might do something...'' - monotone (hint)

''What does that orb do?'' - monotone (hint)

''Get me out of this place!'' - panic

''We are trapped in here like animals...'' - monotone (hidden meaning)

''I might have to try a different approach...'' - Questioning

''Maybe there is another way?...'' - Questioning

''(Grunts and moans)''

 

Story/scenes (monotone - talking to self): ''I have been trapped here since I can remember... What does the sun look like? I can't remember it... That man has tried to escape before. Many of us have, many have failed...They keep us in these cages, and when someone leaves, they don't come back. This is what they mark us with, this strange symbol. What does it mean?... Oh thank god its gone... It left the cage open! Nows my chance...''

 

 

 

Other prisoner:

 

''What do you want from me?'' - Anger

''HELP ME!'' - scream of terror

''AHHHHHHHH!!'' scream

''Get off me you overgrown chicken!'' - anger and scared

''Wake up'' - mono

''Over here'' - wisper

''(Grunts and moans)''

 

 

 

Other sounds/noises:

 

Predator cracking noises

Platapus noise

Chicken noise

Footsteps/Stomps

Chains

Bars rattle

Snapping

Machinery

Creepy laugh (prisoner)

Whispers (prisoners)

Pick up and Throw test.

I have recently been working on getting a pick up object script and a throw script to work for our light orbs. To test out the necessary scripts and such I created a new Unity Project, just incase I ran in to any major problems, I did not want it to mess up our main Unity file. I also wanted to go in depth with this test to prove to myself that I am capable of doing things such as this! so that I will not have to rely on Playmaker.

In the first screen shot, I have done it so you can see the basic test scene that I have created. Over on the right hand side you can see the three scripts that I have used, the first one is the Object Properties script, which is in C#, this script is attached to the object that you want to pick up. For this script to work, the object needed a collider so that the character controller could be able to pick it up, it also needed a rigid body component added to it. The next script is another C# script, this is attached to the character controller which enables it to be able to pick up the object when the player presses the 'f' key, as well as being able to throw the object when the player clicks the left mouse button. The final script is Javascript, this is also on the character controller, and this controls the power in which the object is thrown by the character. I still need to tweak the power in which the object is being thrown, because at the moment it is too powerful.

The bottom screenshot shows the character controller holding the object (I could not print screen the throw action because it disappeared before I could!!).