Reaching the end of my project for handing in, I had to work extremely hard to get my project finished.

I focused almost entirely on building the actual level, and ended up with about 150 individual textures, 50 individual models, and a considerable amount of sounds of which I got done specifically for me by Adam Denby.

I also managed to go back over my design, and while the layout was kept reasonably the same, I had to block off more room and direct play a bit more. This was mainly done in consideration to me ensuring I finished all my work within time, but it also helped ensure that the game was fun and scary to play.

I spent the last few days ensuring there were no bugs, as well as putting in a few little finishing touches to neaten things up. It's not perfect, but I got a few people to test it out for me to ensure it was good. Thanksfully I got some good responces as well as good feed back on one particular event that was difficult to see. I have since fixed that.

Some pictures of the final level:

In the end I'm actually pretty chuffed with the level, yes there were things I didn't want to miss out that I had planned, but in some ways I refined out some bad parts and gave space to ensure other parts had a better build up. I got excited about the level after I got some people to test it out, and they jumped, and froze for a moment when they heard sounds and saw something flash up on screen.

At one point one tester litterally ran back across the level to escape as they felt they were about to get killed and couldn't force themselves round a particular corner. This certainly made it all worth it, and while it's not perfect, and I wish I had been able to spend more time on it, I am happy, and I think it came out rather well. The addition of the torch is a hit and miss, it works really well, especially for some dark corners and corridors, but again, its not perfect, as I didn't get enough time to discover how to make the torch move up and down with the mouse.

Yet, some testers though it didn't matter, and actually worked to help make the game sightly more errie.  I guess its down to personal opinion, because I would understand if people found it frustrating that they couldn't flash the light on the floor sometimes. Thankfully I have thought about this within the design, and planned nothing that would be impossible to see.

If I did this project again, I would give it a bit more attention, but also I'd be more aware of the bugs surronding using BSP and look at adding more models to help conpensate for the problems BSP can cause. Also, if possible I would have liked the game to be longer, but I guess that's because I really enjoyed the project.

Still working hard on the project, that sometimes feels like it really doesn't want me to finish it.

I've been suffering with the same error I was previously as it constantly tries to crash UDK while I work with building the level with BSP. I guess this is a lesson learnt for me in the future, and maybe something I should have learnt previously when I worked on previous projects within a program called GTK Radiant. Although I've never had issues with this previously in UDK, its forced me to try turning BSP into Static Meshes in an attempt to get over the problem.

Meanwhile I've tried to keep producing as much work as possible, and while I progress with textures and models, I have also realised that to save time I have neglected making things look old. Granted this station is so old its become destroyed and wrecked over years, but I do think that I need more damage and old features to distinguish that its been left for a few months.

Either way here are some of the new textures I've been working on:

All of these textures have Normal and specular maps as well (where needed) and I'm reaching 88 textures now(not including normals, Opacity, Specular, etc). So doing well in that department. I've also worked on getting more of my models completed, although some important ones still need doing ASAP.

Generally I've built a load more of the level, amendments and corrections as well as putting as many textures on as possible. It's surprised me how many there really are to do, and I think I underestimated the building of this level, but the more I do the more I've learnt as I progress.

Big update!

Still been working hard on catching up and while it's been tough, I've slowly been catching up. I'm hoping that I can get around less Models by using more decals, which I've been introducing slowly.

Damage and holes such as these:

Some I've made from scratch others I've manipulated from a online free texture database. www.cgtextures.com I do try make as many from scratch as possible though as I enjoy doing it.

I've worked loads of building and texturing the main level, which has over 50 different textures within it(not including all the normal, specular and opacity maps I've made to) and this is still growing all the time. I've also increased the amount of models I've made, re-sized some rooms and walls as I've tried to narrow down the scope of the level so I can actually finish this in time.

All the road and paving has been added around the edge of the level, but I do need to just block it off with the surround buildings. This is nothing complicated, just simple blocked buildings that the player can;t go near and will just cover off the end of the level so it looks neat and tidy.


I also began setting in some of the basic events, I've started this on time in terms of schedule, accept that I haven't created enough models to fill the level like I wanted. So, the plan from now on is to create the models that are directly involved with the events only. Once all that is done, extra time can be spent on other models, but at least the main bulk of the level will be completed.

While trying to accomplish some scary moments, I've tried looking more at "tempo", which I mean by trying to build up to a fright, to actually make it scary. So after researching, and watching some horror films and games to see how they have done it. I have restructured some of the events within my level to try and make it better, and again to allow me to be able to finish on time. Above is a basic flow of how I wanted to build up the first event within the level.

Here is a view of the first door that closes before the player with the damage decals around it. This door becomes locked after it shuts, so if the player decides to try get in, they have to find another way round. If the player just looks alternately to that, then they will end up having to take the corridor anyway to progress. Either way, this will make the player aware they are not alone.

Heading down the corridor, the player will approach the toilets, at this point, the player will gasp and pause as the door in front of them opens and foot steps walk into the toilets. Will the player follow? If the player decides to search elsewhere they will always end up finally needing to walk into the toilets. Below is the same corridor in the editor showing the scene set up and decals for foot prints on the floor.

When the player finally enters the toilets, they will see more foot steps leading into a toilet booth. A mirror on the wall will also be set up, so the player will have to look into the mirror to see moving foot steps to the right booth. Upon looking into the booth, the player will get a fright, with a face flashing up, as well as a freaky laugh. But the player will gain the key to the management room for there troubles.

I still need to create the face, and receive the sound off my sound guy, but once I have those the scene is already set up to produce the event. Meanwhile I have also been working on lighting and windows!

The Glass in the first picture was tricky to make, but looks rather good in the editor, and its the first time I've actually tried to make it before, so I'm happy with it, after it took me about half and hour to figure out how to do. The Lighting, such as shown in the second picture has been a pain, I had to figure out why it was producing a strange glow from the bottom of the level, which turned out to be an issue with the terrain and the skydome. While the light was compiling over the while level, the sky dome reaches under the terrain, and therefore so does the light. So the terrain was creating a shadowed glow on the base of everything that touched it. I simply had to remove the "Cast Shadows" option from the terrain to remove this effect. I say simply but it took some time to figure out, but will also help me solve future problems, as in the past its something I haven't known how to fix before.

Models Update

So this week I have been building up my models to try and catch up. One thing I've had to take under advisement is that I'm not going to try and make lots of very detailed models, with a my lack of time it is important that I concentrate on the important aspects of the design, that is the level design itself.

Therefore all models are going to be lower poly than I had originally planned, this will help me catch up and, hopefully with some decent texturing I'll not loose much in the look of the level. Therefore I can concentrate on making the models that are important to related events and actions within the game first, and ensure my level works properly. Any extra models can be added afterwards.

The three pictures of the Industrial sized bins are just as I refined the bin, I guess I realized that the bin wasn't right and needed adjusting. It looks a better shape now and it deeper than it is wide, which is what was bothering me, as these bins are deeper than wider normally.

The File Cabinet, Office Chair, Office table and Garbage Chute Exit are my first set of models. I may go back and edit textures afterwards, but in the dark lighting I think these will look alright for now.

Making the actual textures has probably taken the most time (Along with unwrapping) but they are important and I make my textures from scratch mostly with help from photo's and previous textures I've kept a hold of that I can use again.

This is an edited model from a previous project, I realized I already had the basic shape and I could just refine the model and its texture. I'm still in the process of doing this but it's looking good to use a old left to rot computer.

I have also been working on making textures still, here is the updated door to the toilets. While all the door will be slightly different, I will be ensuring a general theme for the doors so they fit visually within the level, I also believe this will help me catch up a bit quicker.

Overall it's helping that I am sticking the mot important assets/textures to get this work completed, I hope that I can catch up quickly and ensure this level looks and plays good.

Updated work

It has certainly been a busy time of late, and since I had dropped behind on my work due to a few things, I have been concentrating on catching back up again. I realized I was a good month behind on my project plan, which isn't good. So I've put in some more effort into my work and tried catching up as much as possible.

I have caught up quiet a lot, and feel like I'm only a week or two behind now.

Things I've been working on as of late are:

1. I updated my Level Design document again, I felt like bits needed refining and I changed some things round to make it neater.
2. I have finished building the base of the level, so I have a complete HULL of which to walk around on.
3. I am currently working on putting together all the textures and models for the level.While the main base textures are on the level, along with Normal maps and Specular maps, I am also working into the models and there textures which is where I am up to at the moment.

I have started this modeling stage late which is why I'm still about 2 weeks behind but, I'm catching up a bit more every week and am feeling that bit closer after updating this blog as I've been working on some models just earlier.

When building the actual level, I came across some sort of bug in the system, even now I'm not completely sure what has been happening but upon building the level it began crashing randomly when  was simply using the builder brushes. This caused me lots of problems and even after re-starting the level twice, once from scratch after I finished it, it continued to crash.

I did discuss with other members of the class who were adept at using UDK as well to see if there was anything wrong, but I still could not find anything wrong. After a while I found ways of building around the problem, but I have to be careful as I don't know why it's been doing it, but thankfully I'm able to run the program well from my own laptop.

While the base map will begin to fill in with my models very quickly over this next couple of weeks, I must ensure that I do not rush them, everything still needs to look good while I attempt to catch up. Below is a model of one of the Industrial sized bins in the back alleyway.

Next weeks blog will be an update of a variety of models and textures, as well as the Normal and Specular maps I've been using Crazy Bump to create.

Update much needed!

While I've been very busy with other work, I've also ended up with some personal issues that effected my timescale.

I have however been working hard on trying to catch up. While also adding more to my research as I go along, this is mainly because you never know when something inspiring is going to turn up. I added a few things to my research, one thing in particular I added was a spooky picture from a cave system within the UK.

Here is a link to the Daily Mail that reported it:

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2071084/Make-bones-Britain-s-scariest-cave-Photographer-captures-eerie-skull-rock-face-remote-diving-spot.html

Meanwhile I have been working hard on the design, to ensure it works properly and can be played through with scary moments. I have planned out, layout/direction, assets, events, sounds and the walkthrough.

Here are some design pictures I've been working on:

I have enjoyed doing this, and have put a lot of effect into this to ensure that it is going to work properly, so I put a lot of thought into it.

After some good feedback I realized I needed to think about legends and old folk tales, these are in the plenty and I found myself returning to an old collection of mine called "The Spine Chiller Collection" It was something I collected as a young teenager when my interest in horror was growing.

While this may have been aimed at young teenagers such as myself it is full of loads of information about horror, folks tales, legends, mysteries and more. There were apparently about 60 editions, however I only got to about 33, I don't really remember how I lost out on the rest. However, It did allow me to add some interesting stuff, some things I had forgotten all about. My research book has reached over 12,000 words and nearly 60 pages.

On the other hand, I started looking at my design which was greatly helped by my knowledge of coach and train stations. For 4 years I traveled up and down the country by Coach and Train during a long distance relationship. I guess this is an interesting fortunate advantage as I'm rather intrigued by the layout of buildings and areas and I took note of a lot of them.

One thing I know is that I'll take inspiration from an experience I had at one of the coach stations. Just off Milton Keynes my coach took a detour so I could make a switch to another coach to head up north to Manchester. Me and group of other travelers all got off at this small station at about 9pm on a Sunday night, and it was basically deserted. The entire building was shut, the toilets were locked apart from one that had its door kicked in that lay smashed on the floor. We all stood under the canopy that sheltered us from the rain and, but also was the only source of light. During winter time it had gone dark much earlier and was pitch black. I found myself with the other all huddling under this one light as the public phones were broken and the lights over the top were flickering on and off.


It was actually pretty scary, as it ran off a slip road and no other houses were anywhere near it just trees creating more darkness and I couldn't see very far through the black of night in any direction. I was stood there for about an hour, and no one moved and inch, all it needed was for some monster to appear from the dark and it would have been a perfect horror movie scene. I know if I can create that effect in my level it'll be a good project.

Randomly I typed in Bus Stop Monster and I ended up finding this, which in turn helps bring me to where I am in my design. While I've been currently trying to design the layout that would be interesting to look around, what is important is that it would need a good reason to look the way it does (being derelict and broken), just a little back story to help make the level scary and make the player think. I think this monster looks great, and it makes my head spin with ideas, I'll certainly use it as inspiration.

I've been thinking that I wanted this place to look new but destroyed, like it was built but quickly abandoned  after a sequence of deaths or something. I could help explain this story by making the player start off using a  newspaper where the story is explained. Since I'm not copying an actual existing area I have room to create an imaginary town with its own legend, leaving this new facility haunted and ruined. 

Overall I've written a research document of 51 pages with over 11,000 words and I'm quiet chuffed with it, the only problem being that I need to get on with the design as quickly as possible.

Media

I've looked at games such as:


Penumbra: Overture/Black Plague/Requim

Resident Evil Series

Silent Hill Series

 I broke these down by assessing what was scary about them and why they were popular such as:

·         Lighting & visual,  Anticipation, Alone, Sound,Story, Characters effects and Game Events

I then looked at films such as:

The Thing

Alien Series

I also broke these down the same way, trying to pull out the best features such as The Things mystery and trust between the characters as they don't know who the thing is. Also the actual Aliens design for the Alien series is iconic as its well designed and frightening just to look at and how it works.

I then also looked fears within the real world such as abandoned towns, ghost houses and events such as Halloween.



Gunkanjima, Japan

This was an abandoned coal mining facility with living apartments and was separated from the rest of japan as it lay on the coast on a small island. It was left alone after the demand for Coal dropped and being left and never entered again for 20 years, the public are now allowed to go on tours there. From this picture it almost looks like something from Resident Evil.

Borley Rectory, England

The Borley Rectory in Essex England is classed as one of the most haunted places in the entire world, and the most haunted in England. This old manor has since been damaged from a fire and doesn't stand the same as it used to, but was believed to be haunted from the start after being built over a graveyard.


Halloween

Halloween is celebrated over various parts of the world, this is where people dress up as monsters, ghosts and other scary things as they try to dress up as things that scare themselves or other people and have fun with it.

Common phobia’s 

It was also important for me to bring up fears and phobias that people get, so I went through a list of them and picked out ones I believed I might be able to use to good effect within my level.

Here is a list of phobia’s that I could try to work upon within my horror level

Claustrophobia

Fear of confined spaces

·         Feeling trapped within an enclosed space, or simple a room

Acrophobia

 Fear of heights

·         This fear can lead to anxiety attacks and avoidance of high places.

Agoraphobia

The fear of situations in which escape is difficult, or a fear of leaving what they already know
This may include crowded areas, open spaces, or situations that are likely to trigger a panic attack. People will begin avoiding these trigger events, sometimes to the point that they cease leaving their home.
Approximately one third of people with panic disorder develop agoraphobia.

Astraphobia

The fear of thunder and lightning

·         Also known as Brontophobia, Tonitrophobia, or Ceraunophobia.

Achluophobia

The fear of the dark

·         One of the more natural fears that can become a phobia

Autophobia

 Fear of being alone or of oneself.

I've spent the past 2 weeks working hard at getting examples and breaking down to why they are scary. Noting down the best features or films, games, real life scary events and places.

Looking at and breaking down the features of successful films such as Alien, The Thing and Dawn of the Dead.


Looking at and breaking down the features of successful games such as: Resident Evil, Silent Hill and Amnesia the Dark Decent.

Bringing up exactly what was effective about all these horrors such as:

DOOM: Sudden events, the fact that monsters could spawn anywhere at sudden moments, from doors walls and secret panels.

Resident Evil: Setting, being placed in a strange old mansion where there appears to be no one inside, yet its lights are on and rooms are locked tight. Every voice echoes in the large rooms and strange moaning sounds enimate from around dark corners.

Silent Hill: Psychological, Used pshychological aspects to help scare the player such as basing creatures around torcher.

The idea is breaking al these down will help give me the understand to how to create scarier events for my level.

The first part of my research is to have a look at the general horror games that are already out there. Not only will these help to give me inspiration it allows me to see what has already been done, what was successful about them and what was not successful about them.

I have a good general knowledge of survival horror games, but researching into these again and looking deeper into what was frightening with them and what wasn't, by learning what was scary and unique or well just well done, will help me learn more about the subject and pay off in my design.

Therefore taking note of all of these will help greatly when coming to my design to ensure I am actually using effective researched techniques. This will also ensure I do not something that has been done, or I can see what things have been done poorly in the past and learn from them.

After some more people surveyed and plenty of thought from my self I realized that this survey was not being definitive enough to give me a final choice. Although it has narrowed it down somewhat from the bigger list that I had at the start.

This has brought me down to this:

Deserted Street
Coach/Tram Station
Train Station
Dockyard
Container Ship


I am leaving the final choice down to more advanced research. This will also be influenced by factors such as: feasibility, whats already been done and cliche idea's. Hospital was another popular vote on the survey, but its been done an awful lot, and it is asking for predictable cliche idea's being done for it. Therefore I dropped hospital from the list of possibilities.

So, now it is important for me to do more research into horror in general and fears, as that will help me to choose an environment, and then what will be in there to make it scary. I believe sound will be an important aspect of it.

I have been asking around to get as many views as possible on for this project before I decide which place I'm going to  "Horror up" so to speak. I must also note that I decided to make Bus/tram station together as one area, as alot of people opinions came through that they would be scarier as one big area.

After three initially took off, it has changed and its become and interesting way to see what people would ifnd scary. All the options within this survey are taken from idea's I believed with feesable, but I left the option open for extra entry's if people had something else specifically on their mind. I also decided t let people choose a first and second choice, I did this fora  few reasons, first and foremost was because I have noticed from previous experience that a lot of people get stuck between two choices, but also because I thought it was another way to see how popular they really are. If two choices get 10 votes each, but one has 7 second choice votes while the other has only 2, it would again become another way to seperate the most popular.





However it has become apparent that it hasn't worked out the same way I thought it might, and ther are some choices that are very popular as a second choice but are lacking behind in a first choice.

So far the front runners are:



Desserted Street
Hospital
Bus/Tram Station.

The least popular are: Office Block & Antarctic Outpost.

However, Dockyard and the Containership were vastly more popular as a second choice than anything else, the Container Ship actually got more second votes than anything did first votes. If this survey is not definitive enough, I may have to do some research into the most popular ones and see which one I feel would be the best to do, for example I already am aware that Hospital has been done plenty of times before and I would rather try to find something more original and less used, so to therefore be more interesting.

After speaking to with my tutors, I have taken the survival horror path. However rather than just following the dockyard choice I have already made, I decided to begin a survey to find out what area's people really find scary.

So far there's a particular 3 that are fighting for first place, so its close at the moment but I'm going to ask as many people as possible before making my decision. I'm also going to try and be a bit more original by avoiding certain cliche themes or moments within the genre to ensure I make an original and scary level.

A New Project

So, this is actually for my Honors project in university. Here I'm going to be posting up everything about the project as I progress.

First things first, I need to formulate an idea. I know straight away I'm going to work on a level design because it's what I choose to do and feel I am best at. Designing and building the game world is really enjoyable to me, and I know once I get going I'll love this project.

I seriously need something interesting to do, to make my project stand out as well as giving myself something to aim for. I started looking at two ideas, one of which was to make a level based around a narrative of discovery, where the player could wake up with no memory and have to discover where they are and who they are. I started constructing an idea of being in a bank and not knowing if your a robber or not. I gave it a title of "A Lost Identity".

My second Idea was to create a level based on a survival horror, and this would primarily be based on scaring the player. I have thought about this being based at a dockyard and would be called "Unexpected Cargo". This would involve the player being a worker at the dockyard and when a ship arrives with some cargo it would have something mysterious on it.


Those are my two main idea's at the moment, and while I prefer the survival horror one, as its my favorite genre, I am keeping myself open minded at the moment until I finalize on a project with my tutors approval.