Development Week 9 (15/05/17 - 21/05/17)

I started winding down this last week as I finalised my workload and content production, completing the tasks set on the task board and project backlog. With me producing two extra levels (Space and Fastopolis 2 set at dawn, pictured below) whilst continuing my usual level of polish by incorporating any produced models and creating animations/particle effects for them (such as the new animated Tram vehicle). Likewise, I also modelled, textured, rigged and skinned a cute bird to be put into the game, with both an idle animation on the ground and flying animation, to be moved in-engine with the Unreal Level Sequencer. All of these went incredibly well which I'm pleased about, we collaborated well as a cohesive unit and very few issues arose. One big issue I did encounter was when animated the bird, as I didn't link the two wing bones to the main body before animating it, so when it came to importing the mesh in the engine it couldn't, and I had to recreate the 110 frames of animation again. Luckily I learned from this risk and will mitigate it in the future to avoid any more loss of time, and ensure I have a correct bone hierarchy in the future when animating, following professional working practises while sticking to the fitness for purpose (having said character animating as intended in the game).

The Space Level

Fastopolis Track 2

This last group meeting was incredibly useful for me to gauge where every group member is at with their progress, and we are definitely back on-track for the deadline next as the last few parts of the game fall into place. The space level I created this week was quite impulsive, but was agreed upon by all members of the group for me to pursue. As rather than have me create a third city track, which during development seemed to get rather tedious and monotonous for players as they see and drive past all the same things for a third time, the concept of a space level from the point of view of an environment designer is much easier due to there being no ground or foliage. Gus and Ty had already produced assets ready for a space level, and I was able to complete it in just under two days, which works out well in the long-run for meeting our target audience requirements, as it adds some much-needed level variety in our game, with only a few assets crossing over into both (like the neon arrow signs and birds, but even then I retextured them to make them feel fresh again).

My animated birds imported into the engine

Whitebox testing- I conducted some more whitebox testing for the two additional tracks, in order to see if they had a good standard of fitness for purpose.

Date	Test No	Class	Function	Test purpose	Input	Expected output	Actual output	Additional comments
16/05/17	W3.1	Barberland Track	SpawnTrack	To see if the car and its anti-gravity allow it to drive all the way around the course	W	The car can stay on the track while driving on all angles	The car was able to stay on the track unless intentionally driven off! During testing there were some rough bumps and angles which I was able to iron-out and remove
18/05/17	W4.1	Space Track	SpawnTrack	To see if the car and its anti-gravity allow it to drive all the way around the course	N	The car will be able to perform a full look around the track	The car was able to stay on the track unless intentionally driven off for the most part, with a few areas where the car would fall through the track facing certain angles. However during testing it was also found that the track was too short in a loop and doesn't properly match the quality requirements.	The track was too short and simple being a long loop.
	W4.2	Space Track		To test if an updated track fits the quality plan		The longer and more complicated track will take longer to traverse while still having no game play bugs	This updated track works as intended, fixing the previous clipping through the floor bug while being much longer and complicated, that allows for a smooth gameplay experience while also matching the risk and quality requirements of mitigating any bugs.

What I got from this/ how it helped- This testing was incredibly critical for me to perform if the project were to be a success, as having a track which has many glitches like falling off will determent the game's overall quality and leave a bad impression on the player. Also this testing allowed me to identify and mitigate a few risks with the space track, and in turn fixing these risks by making the track longer and more complicated has allowed me to produce a much greater environmental asset to use in my personal portfolio.


User testing- I got a few friends and family members who had no prior experience with the game to playthrough my three levels (Fastopolis, Barberland and Cosmic Torus) and write their thoughts on the map design and environment.

Joe Hayes: "The game has very interesting maps they look cool and unique. The level is missing a lot of key points such as a goal, score or position. The level does implement some form of AI however there is no collision. A lot of bugs persist through the levels. Pick ups will be a nice option or even some form of movement other than W,A,S,D. The level at the beginning is enjoyable with the exploration of a new world however the 2nd or 3rd time around becomes boring. More is needed or even a simple score board and unlocks will brighten up the levels. More physics could be implemented rather than a "Fall off simulator". Overall its a very cool map with issues. "

Jon Woodbridge: "I like the fact that there were different areas, it helped me know where I was on the track. I would see the background had too much which took my focus off the race. The tracks themselves where hard to drive on (maybe because of the out-dated mechanics) I would think about spitting the track into parts like Top Gear's track. The Gambon corner, the hammerhead etc.  Make sure that the player knows where they are. Use land marks, waypoint/mile stones to let the player understand how far they were on the track. Overall it has character (over the top, perhaps) but it's not boring or dull."

My mum: "As someone who doesn't play games at all I very-much enjoyed Adam's game. I kept falling off the road when going really fast, so I had to slow down a lot and drive around at a more sensible road-safe 30 mph! But I really loved the landscapes and backgrounds that you made, my favourite is the space level as it was very pretty with the stars and planets. You put a lot of hard work into it and it really shows, I'm proud!"

Observations- As I casually sat behind those testing, I jotted down a few notes for myself that players may or may not have done, without letting them know I was observing them to allow for them to play the game more naturally. Firstly a same people got frustrated with the mechanics as they sometimes struggled to react with the fast speed, but it's a lot more positive overall to previous testing with the needed changes (such as respawning now when you fall off the track). I noticed nobody seemed to take any shortcuts on the first lap round which is good, as it meant they were following the designed path and the shortcuts are a feature for players with more experience with the level to use.

Players did smile a lot whilst playing too, so they were clearly having fun with the game more than being frustrated with them having overall genuinely positive and upbeat body language. And all of them at one point or another complimented how pretty the visuals were, and as someone who both 3d modelled assets and environment designed, that made me proud to hear. And it works as evidence of collaboration as to just how hard our group worked together to create a quality product.


This feedback relates to me as the main game and environment designer, and is incredibly useful for me to take on-board. Jon's suggestions of having different landmarks for the player to know where they are on the track was very-much taken on board, and alongside the included minimap is something I added moreso into the game (so for example, the space level now has an inside the blue planet section, inside the red planet section, the anti-gravity hospital section, the upside-down tower section and the asteroid belt section before looping back onto itself, meaning that the player is always seeing something new to keep their mind more occupied with things. Likewise this ties in with Joe's suggestions of repeated loops of the track becoming boring, as the increased visual flare not only enhances the game's visual style, but also gives the player endogenous value in the sense of progressing and recognising the placed landmarks to know how far they are along the course. So overall this testing was incrediblly useful for me as the environment designer, as it allowed me to add some needed changes to the tracks to add more variety to it.

Quality and risk monitoring- As I've approached the tail-end of the project's development, all of my work conforms to the usual constraints like clockwork. My bird model is well within poly-budget and texture resolution constraints, only having around 300 polys with a 16 x 16 texture file for the blocked out colours. This means that I can have plenty of them spread around the environment wither their idle/flying animations, without worrying that too many system resources are being drained for these background processes, which is evidence to me conforming to professional working practises as I've managed to mitigate the risk of the game dropping to low framerates, which thus increases the game's playability with less stutter and overall increases its quality. This design philosophy is something I've taken forward into my two extra levels, not having a huge amount of clutter, every model, blueprint, light, etc has a purpose and exists for a reason. Whether that be graphically (to make the environment and its visual style more visually appealing) or from a gameplay-perspective. Such as having a neon red hex barrier near the track at one stage to symbolise danger to the player, using the colour red which has common associations to danger in our western society.

A screenshot of the Trello task board as evidence showing that I'm on-target. As I have completed all of my sprint tasks this entire project as of 20/05/17 for the May 22nd dead (with an exception to the 15 minute presentation, which is due on June 1st)