Level Map Concept

Admittedly from first glance, this may seem quite chaotic and unclear but it is my intention to produce this into a short animatic that would correctly show the flow at which the level unfolds.

For stages 1 to 2 of the player ships waypoints, the capital ship and friendly fighters are absent (as well as the enemy vessels).

It is upon the appearence of the asteroid en route for the orbital relay station (upon completion of stage 2) that they jump in to assist the player in destorying it (stage 3).

Shortly after this happens then the enemy vessels turn up (stage 4) and the player (along with the friendly fighters) must make their way over to combat them.

An enemy capital ship appears (stage 5) en route to the friendly ships/stations and it is up to the player, the friendly ships / capital vessel, to destory it before it has a chance to strike at the defenceless stations.

This purpose of this 'evolution' of stages for tasks for the player is so that they are steadily required to use more of what they are learning in the game environment.

The flow is progressive, with players initially destorying static enemies to understand firing the weapons, then destroying a (albeit slow) moving target to understand aiming correctly to hit a moving target, and then they must deal with enemies that move in a similar manner to themselves with similar firepower and finally it is the culmination of all these skills in a boss battle against a capital ship, whereby the player must shoot at critical points to cause enough damage before they reach/destroy the friendly ships/stations in orbit around the planet.

 

As this is the first level in my game, it is appropriate for the fundamentals of ship-to-ship combat to be a priority in teaching the player. 

It is expected that after this, the player can dock with stations to repair/buy/sell and then either continue on with story missions or utilise a map function to begin flying around and exploring other regions of space.

Pulse Design / Font Experimentation

These are some wallpapers to give a clear indication of what to expect from my game.
They include use of various pieces of concept art, the maya render for the background and several pieces of photoshop trickery in getting it to look aesthetically pleasing.

I've experimented with the 3 chosen fonts from my research and tried to construct them in a way that would give me a better idea about how they would look within my game's universe.

The font 'Denton' is still my personal favourate.

 Denton Font

Promethean Font         -           Quasitron Font

Pulse Typography

This is an important aspect to consider as it reflects a considerable amount of presentation to the player.

I have made this list that utlises a number of fonts that could have potentially served to represent my game. I then rated them out of 5 stars as to how appropriate I believed they were, for reference the font names can be found in the center column.

 It is to my opinion that Denton would be the most suitable, however what I like most about Quasitron and Promethean is that the font height is consistent.

While perhaps the more interesting fonts, Alpha Sentry, Aetherfox, 5th Agent and Moon Dart, I feel that detract away from my intended visual theme, that comes across so much better with my higher rated fonts.

Weapon and Engine Effects

Something that has been weighing on my mind greatly recently is as to how the weapons in my game are going to operate and how they will appear visually to the player. I feel it is important that the weapons convey a correct sense towards the player as to what they are firing and as to what is being fired at them. When this is not clear it can have a great impact on the experience of the game.

More Concept Art

Heres some more concept art, soon follow are the designs for enemy ships/fighters, capital ships, frigates and general environment designs in space.

Another cruiser design, this more sleek and reminiscent of a transport vessel for between larger and more capable ships.

This a much more agile and ordinance-heavy type of cruiser, much more like a bomber-type vessel. Where it sacrifices top speed, it makes up for it in evasiveness, armour and damage dealing capabilities. I could actually see this being a great enemy-type vessel.

This cruiser has a much more 'classic' design, for me personally there is a very early 70's style of design to this cruiser and harkens back to an earlier vision of space travel.

 This cruiser has massive engines and access to the ship is granted from behind one of the nessels to the spaceship, this element being implemented to the design provides an opportunity for interesting docking animations and also for other cutscenes.

 Here is the top-side of my orthographic for the player-ship. It should be clear where turret and missile hard-points are located. A great deal of care was taken in ensuring the measurements are precisely correct as any mistakes would greatly influence the outcome of the 3D model.

Next on my list is to produce the Front and Side views so that I can get some definate progress made on the main assets for my game.

This started as more of a doodle for the player-ship in action in the game and then became a conceptual impression of what it could look like within the game. This is yet to be painted but hopefully gives a starting impression of what direction this project is heading towards.

 Soon to follow, along with the concepts I have detailed at the start of this post are storyboards for various cutscenes in the game and ship animations.

Concept Art (A 1000 shades of grey)

Here is an update on the concept art for Pulse, there are still quite a few more images to come, they are currently still being worked on in Photoshop, for now though these are what have been finished recently.

Hopefully they convey a general feel for the universe of the game and what can be expected in terms of art direction and what direction the 3D modelling side will be going towards.

These are all potential concepts for final designs and for each I have tried to explain how they could be used effectively according to the way that they are designed.

This is one of my main ship concept for the Player. I have a few more that are still in development for final painting but currently this is my personal favourate of the selection of player ships that I have designed. It hails towards the decommisioned shuttle in a sense, except with wings, pulse generators (star engines), a good scope and agile design with enough visible cargo space for the player to feel a realistic sense of scale when ferrying goods between places in the game.

There are multiple hardpoints for weapons while not being overloaded with them, making it, in my opinion, an ideal starter ship for a player in this type of game.

 The above is a painted concept for a shipyard to be included as an asset within the game, for interaction with and to also help create a believable world within which the game operates.

It is proposed that a player can get repairs/upgrades by flying into the large hangar section through it's middle portion prompting a quick and easy solution to a damaged vessel.

 

Here is one of many space station concepts in a stage that should convey a reasonable amount of information about having interesting assets within the level. What makes this design quite unique is the large biome placed above the space station. I feel this adds a very unusual element to the vista's of space and would create a very different scope for the player to see when traversing the game.

 

 With this space station concept I have tried to give a much more industrial impression to the player. It is clear this space station has been operational for quite some time in the sector, perhaps operating as a mining outpost in a rather distant quadrant.

 

 Another space station concept that I have tried to mix something quite industrial with something unusual (the pyramid-shaped biome) that rest's on top of the station. This is could quite easily be active as a trade-port near a bustling trade route or as part of a group of stations that serve various needs for travellers and military-based organistations that are within it's established sector.

 

There are some more concepts to follow shortly and once they are also brought to a similar stage as those above, I will make some final decisions on my chosen asset designs and then begin the modelling stage with due prompt! I am fairly confident of 'what' I am making now. The general look and feel of the world is becoming much clearer.

Soon to follow, after being further developed in Photoshop (in terms of concept art):
- A few more 'Player' ship designs
- Capital Ship designs (to be used as large asset within the game)
- Enemy Ship designs (Fighter and Bomber class)
- Planet / Asteroid viewscapes (Environment designs for the game)

In terms of the environment designs, I have some fairly standard ideas that would be quite effective but I also have some ideas that may be difficult to implement. I will try to get these designed in a way that conveys my intention and can give me an appropriate indication as to the feasibility of them.

Stay tuned!

UDK Spaceship Progress

This is where I'm at currently with my flying vehicle code, there is still a considerable amount that needs sorting out, namely the wonkey flight controls.

It did take some working out but I'm glad I finally got it operational, the fine-tuning will come later.

The guns do respond but since I chose to not make the bones in the skeletal mesh (this was a test for movement) they do not fire as there is no place for the required sockets to attach to in response to what is written in the code.

I created my own rig based off the one inside of the skeletal mesh of the Cicada so that my own custom skeletal mesh would respond with the code for the Cicada's bones.

I enountered a few strange issues such as the vehicle randomly exploding upon entering, or just raining down from the skybox in flames of glory. I tried to remedy this initially by simply giving the vehicle an incredible amount of health, however when this did not work I then looked at what could be causing the issue and found the collision in the Physics Asset to the be the problem. This was resolved by creating a better boundary box than the one I had used before.

There is a suprising amount involved in getting a vehicle functional in UDK. There is a plethora of required items that must be produced ranging from Animsets, Animtress, MaterialInstanceConstants and MaterialInstanceTimeVariables, Physics Assets, Physical Materials, Morphers, Sockets and probably some more I've forgotten to mention here.

I aim to now focus on designing and producing a spaceship that will be used for the Player and get it running and fully-functional now I have made progress in understanding how to get one working.

UDK - Vehicle Creation

So these past few days I have been focusing purely on getting the mechanics of my game to work and really just trying to understand how it's done in UDK.

The 'fruits of labour' are starting to show and by the end of today, I hope to have a fully working vehicle for all to see!!! But don't hold out your hope, it is a fickle business!

Suprisingly it seems to be a considerable amount easier than I previously thought and now I know what I need to do to make it work I am feeling very positive about the progress of my project.
(I can now actually focus more on design for the next week then once I have some basic functions working within my game i.e a working spaceship!).

What can be learned from user 'geodav' is extremely helpful and his knowledge of UDK is vast and concise for learning from. Below is a link to his profile page whereby a plethora of tutorials awaits for pretty much anything you can think of.


Geodav's website, containing tutorials and many other things not just for UDK but UT3 as well :

http://sites.google.com/site/ut40kmod/

What is great about these tutorials is that they are kind of modular in the sense of, what can be learned in one is then used in the next video, so what I've found helpful about his tutorials is that it lets me be able to focus on the core elements of what I wish to learn and not be constantly hit with redundant information, which can cause you to miss what it is you wanted to learn in the first place.

UDK - Sockets rock!

Well with my previous obstacle defeated I moved forwards into playing around with what can be achieved with a skeletal mesh. One thing that piqued my interest was sockets and how they could be used to attach objects, particle emitters and more to a mesh.
(Perfect for adding the important details to space-ships)

Granted the effect below is from the Cicada that is bundled within UDK, I do plan to create my own particle emmiters and effects.
This is just further experimentation with the engine so I get more comfortable using it.

UDK - Problem solving...

No less that 2 minutes after writing that huge blog post I figuired out the collision issue I was facing. It was silly that I missed it really and here for anyone else's benefit in discovering this is how you link your physics asset to your skeletal mesh >.<'

Simply double-click on your skeletal mesh actor within UDK and scroll-down to collision and right there is the place to assign the physics asset file.

 

Now to press forwards in getting some effects working so I can be certain I have a good understanding of them and hopefully by the end of today or at latest the weekend, the general logistics for a working vehicle class (that can be applied to any space-ship within the game) should be complete. Then I can start production on furthering my game concept and some high-quality 3D models.

UDK - Building the framework...

So this week I have been looking at developing some of the framework that will exist within my game. This means I have been looking at the various methods within UDK to actually get a spaceship model working as a playable vehicle with fully functioning movement and weapons. It is actually a considerable amount more difficult than one would expect. But I am slowly making progress...

Here you can see a very simple Frigate-style ship which I will be using just to iron out the methods for which to get other space-ships working within UDK. According to several tutorials this requires creating a skeletal mesh for my playable vehicle. Now the main difference between a skeletal mesh and a static mesh is the inclusion of bones from which animations, and much more, can be applied and carried over from Maya/3DSMax into UDK.

Above you can see the Main bone which is necessary for the skeletal mash to be interactable within UDK. With a more complex model I can have bones (and animations) for the turrets and hangar-doors that would populate a final model. Since the objective of this test is to just get a ship working they will be covered in later posts.

Using the ActorX plugin and the command 'axmain' I exported the mesh (applied to the bones as a skin) and then imported into UDK as a .PSK file.



Now the initial issue I faced was that my ships polygonal normals were facing the wrong way, so the ship appeared see-through when being rendered in the content-browser and also in-game, this was easily corrected by jumping back over to Maya and reversing them to face outwards correctly.

Once this was done I began experimenting with PHAT, which is UDK's Physics handler for skeletal-based meshes as once I had placed it within the game world it was non-interactable.
I came to discover that according to various guides, a skeletal mesh requires both a physics set and animation set to also be created for it.


Now the main issue which I have not been able to correct just yet is collision inside of the game world. For the ship to be interactable with the game world and the player it needs to be collidable.

One potential solution that I am having problems getting to work is to use 'Per Poly Collision Bones' however while it appears that collision is being generated it does not seem to be applied as the player model can still pass-through. I am confident this problem can be overcome though.


Further down the line once I have the main issue I am facing sorted out I plan to utilise sockets within the Anim editor so I can apply all the effects necessary for weapons, engines and much more such as camera view etc. Also using Morphs on the mesh itself I can have different ship models that reflect whether it is in fact heavily damaged or fresh out the shipyard.


I have found a number of tutorials that deal with skeletal meshes and the various properties that go with them however I have not found a solution my problem yet so perhaps I am approaching this from the wrong direction.

More on this soon!

Research - National Space Centre and more...

I am planning a research adventure to the National Space Centre. I believe that a great deal of useful information can be gathered here that will greatly aid the design process further into pre-production.











Nation Space Centre in Leicester: http://www.spacecentre.co.uk

  "The National Space Centre is an all weather attraction for all the family. Situated in the heart of the Midlands, located just two miles from Leicester city centre,
the centre provides easy access from the M1 and M69.

On site facilities include over 400 parking spaces, gift shop, restaurant, locker hire and all the other standard facilities you would expect from a top visitor attraction."

There is a great wealth of information available on the NASA website:
"http://www.nasa.gov/"

 The BBC have an excellent resource online for learning about the universe, located at: "http://www.bbc.co.uk/science/space/universe/"

Another potentially great resource is the UK Space Agency website.
"http://www.bis.gov.uk/ukspaceagency"

The YouTube channel for the UK Space Agency has many videos, interviews with a great deal of different people. Recently video game developer Richard Garriott travelled into space and there are a number of video blogs anwsering questions and detailing experiences. This video shows magnets operating within a space environment.

Incredible Video Showcasing the Universe

This video is truly amazing and showcases some of the greatest views of our universe from numerous telescopes placed around the Earth.

Of the many resources to learn about the universe, I cannot highly reccomend this series enough.

A typical episode leaves it's viewer in awe.

"http://www.amazon.com/Universe-Complete-Megaset-DVD/dp/B004FOPFFC/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1319194727&sr=8-3"

I also purchased this book also to use as a resource that I can take wonderous elements of the universe such as nebulae and construct them accurately within my games world. The book itself is of incredible detail and the many pictures taken by the Hubble telescope are as incredible as humbling.

"http://www.amazon.com/Hubble-Imaging-Space-National-Geographic/dp/1426208944/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1319194742&sr=8-2"

There is one book that I 'want' to buy but sadly it is quite expensive at upwards of £50 in Waterstones. Luckily Amazon has the book listed for $26.
The size of the book as well is impressive, I do not think I have ever seen such high-resolution images of the cosmos as the ones that are contained in this book.

 "http://www.amazon.com/Cosmos-Field-Guide-Giles-Sparrow/dp/1847241255/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1319195043&sr=8-3"

I also highly reccomend this series by Carl Sagan on the Cosmos, aptly titled 'Cosmos' and created in 1980, this series is still just as moving as well as educational about the universe.

"http://www.amazon.com/Cosmos-Carl-Sagan/dp/B000055ZOB/ref=sr_1_12?ie=UTF8&qid=1319195167&sr=8-12"

Using Maya's Paint Tool

As can be seen the tool is very easy to use and could work great for making a realistic space setting for my game.

There are many options that can be changed and edited within the Paint tool.

Conceptual Artwork

Narrative Concept of Pulse

Here is a quick run-through of the current narrative concept I have for Pulse. I may not even have a character walking around in the final version but as it currently stands this is the ideal target I would like my game to achieve and in the end product something similar to just one part of this plan may be all thats completed.

I feel that Level 2 would certainly give the best example of the game to the player but also Level 3 could showcase some really nice visuals and interesting twist on the space-combat flight mechanics.

[GAME START]

[Cutscene]
Flying through space towards the space station
Narration informs that some property belonging to a relatave is being delivered which contains an outfitted ship that was recovered after their demise. Before you can set out in space it is required to obtain a flight license through a series of tests and trials.

Level 1 - On space station

- Start in quarters on space station whereby the ship computer informs you your vessel has arrived
- Make your way to the dock
- Get on ship

Level 2 - Taking off...

- Before you can fly out, computer informs you "ship designation #9112, you are clear for initiating flight testing"

- Testing grounds
- Navigate to beacons, fly through hoops
- "Weapons get unlocked"
- Shoot empty containers

- Obtain Space License

- As you are flying back, you are made aware a comet is in-bound for the space station, you are told to watch the fireworks as a fighter squadrun from the space station goes out to destroy it.
Upon blowing up the ice comet, a destroyer-class alien vessel is inside and powers up, the detroyer-class vessel attacks and defeat the small force employed by the space station against it
and then releases huge waves of fighter drones against the space station.

- Transmission recieved from space station computer "Emergency broadcast, all colonial vessels without
firing capabilities please evacuate and any combat-laden ships please assist in the defense of the station"

- Defend until station explodes, the resulting explosion's shockwave sends your ship careering off into space

- Fade to black

Level 3 - Asteroid/Ice Field

- Ship powers back up, fade from black to you in control of your ship in an ice field

- Flying out between nav points
Eventually, as your making way out along a projected route, towards a second nav point, your attacked
by small fighter bugs that have laid dormant within the ice fields which detected the pulse energy of your ship, inadvertently awakening them from inside the smaller ice comets.

- Fend off a couple of squadrons while making an escape to outside the field so you can "pulse" away

[Cutscene]
As you pulse back, you can see the lights of thousands of ships begin to light up inside the ice
crystals, which begin to shatter and explode

"So that must have been where the comet originated from, what the hell have we awoken..."
Fade to black

[END GAME]

Project Status Milestone List

I have compiled a general list to outline my project’s milestones, of course there are still a considerable amount more milestones that I have not even considered just yet, but at least with this produced I have a checklist with which to keep myself on track.

By the end of this project I expect that list to almost triple in size!

The journey of a thousand miles, begins with a single step!

This blog is going to be the basis from which I showcase the development cycle and production stage that my final year university work is at.

Soon to come will be a general project plan that outlines my vision and concept for my Video Game, including its mechanics, and over the course of the many months leading up to the end of the next academic year, should become a concise library that documents the stages of design my work has gone through in developing a high-quality professional product.

Of course the greatest part about this method of displaying my work is that it is open to feedback and criticism, all of which is greatly appreciated in the effort of improving my work! ^_^