P9 – Evaluation

Introduction:

For this project I was tasked to make a first-person horror game. My main focus for this project was to create a creepy horror environment using the main conventions of horror games. The main conventions include: lighting, jump scares and audio. Keeping these conventions in mind, I came up with the idea of an abandoned aquarium with a mutated monster inside, and the aim of my game is to collect all evidence of what happened in that location (because the player plays as a detective in my game).  I decided to have an aquatic theme because I believed that I could make some really nice looking environments in unity, using lighting and how it would reflect of the water, seeing as lighting is a main convention of horror games.

Strengths:

• Theming and environment

From some feedback I received from people who have play tested my game they said that the theming and environment was good in my game. I believe they think this because of the effort I put into making the environment look like an abandoned aquarium, and to immerse the player into a dark and creepy place. I made sure when building my environment in unity that every asset I sourced worked with each other and the actual theme of my game, I also had to make sure that the assets I made in maya suited the assets I sourced from the unity asset store, also due to the dark environment of my game it makes it so the player can’t really see difference in detail anyway so if there was assets in my game that were slightly more detailed the dark lighting covers it up a bit. Overall I am quite pleased at the environment I have created in my first person horror game.

• Presentation on itch.io page

Another thing I found people enjoyed about my game was the presentation on my itch.io page. I believe that they liked my presentation because of how professional I tried to make it look. What helped me with the presentation on my itch.io page, was looking at existing horror games on itch.io, this helped me because I got to see how they designed their itch.io page with details and screenshots effectively. One of the main points I believe is the best part about my presentation page is the background, because it is very eye-catching and fits with the theme very well, due to my game being aquatic themed and the background was the ocean.

• Lighting

One last thing I am happy with in my game was the lighting. I am quite happy with the lighting in my game because it was my first time I properly used lighting in a 3D game engine, and I believe I did a pretty good job for my first time. I think I find the lighting good in my game because I liked the way it reacted to the objects in my environment for example: the infectious sludge, when the lights shine on the green sludge it makes the whole room glow green, because of the way I configured the lighting settings. Also lighting is probably the most important convention of a horror game so I’m glad I did well in that area.

Weaknesses:

• Audio

One weakness I found in my game was the audio, I feel like I didn’t include enough audio in my game to the point where I believe if I added more sound effects it would have really added to the player experience and immerse them into my game even more. Due to audio and sound effects being one of the most important conventions of a horror game, I really should have tried more when adding audio into my game, I feel like I didn’t because audio is quite hard to master in video game engines like unity.

• Graphics

Another weakness I found in this project was the effort I put into the actual graphics of my horror game. Even though I did make some of the assets, I feel like I probably should have made more myself. Also I could have tried a bit harder when adding detail to some existing assets and even some of the ones I made myself in maya, In the end my first-person horror game did look pretty good, but I feel like I could have made it a bit more graphically impressive.

• Lack of new mechanics

When I was initially planning the first person horror game, I planned to have a lot more mechanics than what ended up happening in the final build. The reason why I didn’t include that many new mechanics was the fact that I still don’t really know how to make my own scripts, or edit existing script packs, so specific mechanics that where cut from my game, where ones that I did not have a script pack for. So maybe if I did put more effort into learning how scripting works in unity, my game would probably be better gameplay wise.

Improvements:

• How I would improve my audio:

To improve the audio in my game I would add more sound effects that come from the monster / enemy in my game. At first when I was planning my game I planned to have the monster make many different sounds depending on the situation, for example: if it spots the player it would make a different growling sound, so that the player knew when the monster has spotted them. This would have really added to the player experience and would have made for a more polished game in general.

• How I would have improved my graphics:

I would improve the graphics in my game by making a lot more of the assets in my game myself. In my game there is a lot of repeated textures that I got from the internet but I believe that if I made more textures myself it would have made the game look better, some of these textures include: the main walls, the floor and the ceiling. It would also give me more freedom to edit the sizes of the image to make them better suited for the models I was placing the textures on, so they wouldn’t have stretched resolutions, which again would make my game more graphically impressive.

• Mechanics I wanted to have in my game:

One of the main mechanics I had to cut was the stun gun. The stun gun would have been an item the player could pick up, that would stun the enemy and it would also let the player have a small way of escaping the enemy for a couple seconds. This mechanic was cut due to me not really knowing how to script in unity, and also due to time restraints, because if I was focusing on making this mechanic it probably would have made for a worse looking game, because a lot of my time in unity was spent on the environment and lighting.    

Reflection on the whole project:

• Difficulties / problems:

The main thing I found difficult in this project was the lighting. Due to this being the first time I have used lighting in a 3D engine, I found it quite hard to understand how lighting works. Once I watched some videos on how lighting works it helped me figure out how to properly use them in unity. Sometimes I also forgot to make the objects in the area of my game static so that when I came to bake the light maps it never worked, because you can’t bake a light map if you have not made every object in that area static. Once I remembered how to make things static in unity all the light maps worked fine afterwards.

Another thing I found difficult this project was audio and sound effects. This project I really wanted to focus more on audio as it is one of the most important conventions of a horror game as I stated before in my weaknesses, the main problem I had with audio was scripting it into unity, because I wanted to have the monster make more noises when it reacted to the player, but due to me not being able to edit scripts I couldn’t.

• What I have learnt:

The main thing I have learned how to do this project was lighting, and how important lighting is in a 3D game engine. Lighting is extremely important in a 3D game engine because of how it can change the look and feel of an environment completely, which also ties it into why it is the most important convention of a horror game. For example: if I was to have no lighting in my horror game, it probably wouldn’t be creepy or scary anymore, because you can see all your surroundings and be fully aware of the location of the monster, therefore making the game not scary anymore. So lighting is also incredible important in horror game, so I’m happy that I learned how to use lighting In a project where lighting is very important, and so now I will have no problem with lighting in the future, due to me making a project heavily based around lighting.

• What I will focus on next project:

Next project I would like to focus on adding new mechanics, especially if I am working in the unity engine, because after the last two projects working in unity I found that it was quite difficult to add new mechanics into unity, because we would just use the script packs given to us for the projects, so hopefully next project I get to experiment with new mechanics in unity, and hopefully make for a better game.

Conclusion:

In conclusion I believe this project went pretty well, I found it really fun to learn about how lighting works in a 3D engine, and it will be good next project (if I do use unity again) to use these new skills I have developed in unity to make really good looking environments using light. I also I really enjoyed the level design aspect of making the first-person horror game in unity, because I believe that I really excelled in making the main area of my game. Overall I have found this project very fun, and I am excited for the next project where I will be able to use my new skills.