Toggling view mode

To enable the player to change his view type during the game, all we need is get a key press:

Getting camera change input

In the node's properties, you can set which key will perform the input by changing its Input Name. On the console command, I used the command 'behindview' to set the third person mode. Then just link a player object to both nodes and voila, when the player press the V key (my chosen input) the camera mode will be change in game.

Life Counter and 3rd Person Camera

To add a number of lives the player will have, all you need is to set an int counter with a decreasing value, then when the player dies X times you announce he ran out of lives and add a command to end the game, which I do not know yet. Don't forget to set the Max Trigger Count in the Player Spawned Node.

Life counter and 3rd person camera view

The third person view is created by using a console command linked to the player. The command is "behind view".

Enemy Waves

The next bit of programming I learned in UDK was creating enemy waves. The final code looks something like this:

Enemy waves code

Patrolling AI

Now that I can create an enemy bot, the next level of programming is making it patrol an area.

AI bot moving around in a patrol

This is how the code looks like, now let's break it down:

Ladders and water

Ladders are extremely simple to create, all you need is a volume. Step by step:

• Create a surface and add a higher ground for the player to go
• Resize the builder's brush to an adequate size (same height as the higher ground with enough space to fit the player, you can add a robot skeletal mesh to help you with those measures)
• Add "LadderVolume"
• Notice that there is an arrow pointing towards a direction, to make the ladder work, you will need to have the arrow pointing to the direction of the wall which will be climbed. To adjust positioning you have to go to its properties(F4) and change Roll, Pitch and Yaw(basically X,Y and Z) values.
• The ladder is created, to represent it you can use a stair or rope mesh to represent it.

Creating water is a little bit more complicated. Fortunately there is a very well written tutorial which link is:

http://onlinedesignteacher.com/computer_games_design/docs/UDK%20water%20tutorial.pdf

These elements add more inter activeness to the game, making it more interesting to the player.

Water texture

Interactive elements: Water and ladder

Fractured Static meshes

Creating a fractured static mesh means that it will be destroyable in-game, adding more details to your game, and it is a very simple process. Start by selecting a static mesh on the content browser. Double clicking on it will open a new tab where you can edit it. On the top you find the Fracture tool, click it to open and start destroying your mesh.

Rigid Bodies.

You may notice that if you add a barrel as a static mesh to your level and shoot it in game mode, nothing will happen. That is because it is static. To add physics to it you need to add it as a Rigid Body. To do that, select the object on the content browser, right click on where you want to place it and add it as a Rigid Body. The new object will react to your shots, giving it more realism.

Rigid body barrels

Grouping into Layers

The more things you add to your level in UDK, the messier things become in the viewports. To minimize that problem, we can add objects, meshes, lights, geometry and etc... to a new layer to keep things organised.

Adding layers to level

To do that, select the things you want to separate, open the content browser, go to the Layers tab and create a new layer. Later you can add/remove any actor you want to that layer. Unticking the box on the left of that layer will hide all the contents of that layer on the viewports, making it easier to place and move things around.

Google for Doodle update #1

Today I've finally started working on the Doodle for Google project, a little bit late in my opinion.
I've settled with the RPG design simply because its more original. These are pictures of stages of the project:

Stage 1

Stage 2

Stage 3

I have the table set, now I only need to work on the characters around the table. I plan to give them a lot of detail, so it will take a good amount of time.

Adding a bot AI.

These are the steps you need to follow to add an AI bot to you level

 Right click in level where you want bot to spawn, Choose add actor - add PathNode.
 Select the path node and enter Kismet.
 Right Click anywhere- New Event - Level Loaded
 Right Click anywhere again - new action – actor - actor factory
 right click on spawn point (actor factory)
 choose new object var using PathNode 0
 connect Level Loaded to Spawn Actor
 on the actor factory properties (blue arrow) – choose UTActorFactoryAI
 Click on drop down arrow beside Factory
 Tick Force Deathmatch AI
 Set Controller Class - None
 Set Pawn Class – UTPawn
 Tick Give Default Inventory
 click the little Green Cross on Inventory List and select any weapon from the dropdown menu

The final code should look something like this:

Adding a bot 

Then to have the bot re-spawn follow these steps:

• Add an Attach to Event Node ( New Action -> Event -> Attach to Event)
• Then a Death Node (New Event -> Pawn -> Death)
• Right click on the Spawned thingy in Actor Factory and create a new object variable

The code is as follows:

Respawning bot

One extra thing I added, was a delay before the bot re-spawns. To do that, simply right click on the black thingy on the Death Node and add delay.

You now have a fully shoot-able bot, have fun! 

First code in UDK

I finally started writing code for UDK, the first few lines being a simple light switch.

Adding a trigger

A level with static meshes

I added a few static meshes to the level I was building while learning the geometry tools, now it looks something like this:

Robot injured in battle being taken to repairs

Material / Textures in UDK

I've added a few textures to the surfaces in my level in UDK. To add them you can simply click and drag them from the content browser to the world. An easier way to add them quickly is by adding one, Alt+Right click on the texture and then Alt+Left click on the new surface.

To edit the texture, the shortcut is F5, rather than F4 for everything else. You can change the positioning, scaling and many other options in that menu.

Material applied to the walls

Image Processing Assignment - Logo

My next IP assignment will be designing a logo for either the Google Doodle Competition or a Christmas Card as part of the Institute's competition.

I have chosen the Google Doodle competition, and the theme is "My Adventure". My first idea with the theme is designing a table with people playing RPG on it. The people would be drawn as their respective characters (mage, knight, etc...) and the contents on the table will spell the word Google.

These are some images I will use as inspiration for my design:

Google Doodle Idea 2 - Adventures!

So, I drew another sketch with a different idea for the doodle. This time focusing on outdoors adventure. When I manage to scan my drawings I'll upload them to this and the other post. This sketch features activities such as surfing, motorcycling, swimming, base jumping, kayaking and caving.

I am tempted to use this design because it seems more fun to draw, but I think it might be too generic. Anyway, here are the images I used to inspire me:

Building a simple room.

Today I have started building my first level, following the tutorials available at: http://www.worldofleveldesign.com/categories/cat_udk.php they are simple and very well explained. In class today we covered the first three videos of UDK SIMPLE ENVIRONMENT STEP-BY-STEP.

The step by step process was:

• Build the ground

By shaping the builder's block as a cube, increasing the X and Y value and decreasing the Z value we can create a surface to place our meshes and buildings on

Plane created with builder brush

The first steps with UDK

This week I was introduced to the Unreal Development Kit, UDK for short, an incredibly powerful tool to crate games. This engine is completely different from what I have used before(Scratch) and it adds a hug amount of depth to game creation.

UDK logo

The first big difference to be noted is that UDK is a 3D engine, meaning that I will have to program for 3 dimensions instead of 2. Second; moving in a 3D space is a little bit more complicated than moving in a 2D space, so it takes some time to get used to move around the map. Here are some commands that will help you do that:

Computer Games Structures

Today in class I played some levels included in the UDK development engine to analyse them and their structures. Below is my report on the levels I played.

Map: Deck

UDK Map: Deck

Genre: FPS(First Person Shooter) - Mode: Deathmatch

Game Review - Research Phase

My next assignment is going to be a game review, so to prepare for it, me and my classmates played a few games at college yesterday(poor us) and we discussed what are the things we need to talk about in a game review and in what order.

We came to the conclusion that the categories involved in a review are:

• Game Title
• Company Name
• Platform(s)
• Specs (if PC/Mac/Linux game)
• Genre
• Story/Plot
• Objective
• Gameplay and controls
• Graphics and Sound
• Unique and innovative features
• Replayability
• Price and Value for money
• Rating/Score

The order in which one may want to talk about can be slightly change according to one's personal preference. For example someone might want to put the score in the beginning to attract more views or talk first about the gameplay and then the story. It usually goes according to personal preference.

In class I played a total of 3 games which I wrote a short review of. Here is a small impression of the games I played:

Hearthstone: Heroes of Warcraft

Hearthstone Logo

The newest game from Blizzard, the makers of gaming classics such as the Diablo and Warcraft series and the famous MMORPG World of Warcraft. It is a card game so it has no story, but the game uses the WoW and Warcraft lore as base for its cards, so you can expect a lot of familiar creatures(especially Murlocs) if you have played any of those games. 

The mechanics are the simplest a card game ever had. Each player starts with 30 health, the player that goes first stars with 3 cards and the player that goes second starts with 4. Each turn you get one mana crystal to play your cards, the total of mana crystals you can have is 10, then you play creatures or magic cards in order to beat down your opponent or his creatures. To win the game you must bring the opponent's life to 0 or less. You may choose between 9 different classes to play, each having a unique ability and unique cards to build your deck, which has 30 cards.

The game visuals are amazingly beautiful and the card animation is equally pretty and smooth, even though it is not a complex game the graphics are a feast for the eyes, which can and will draw the attention of new players. The soundtrack is also amazing, some of it is original and some of it consists of music from previous Blizzard's games but converted in a "tavern style" as if bards were playing with their lutes, flutes and other instruments equally medieval. 

Hearthstone manages to transform the complex card game strategy into a beautiful and easy to understand package that will definitely attract players from other genres to it, but also has a very deep strategy to it that will attract veteran card players. And the game is still in beta testing so there will be many more cards and game modes that will be added to it during its lifetime.

Also, the game is free-to-play, so it is very much encouraged that you give it a try, and if you like it purchase card packs.

Score: 10/10

Killzone 3

Killzone 3

Note: I have only played a few missions of the co-op campaign, so I don't have full impressions of the game, only the mentioned section.

Not having played any Killzone game prior to this, I haven't got a clue about the story, but it seemed that the Hellghast are an evil empire trying to control the universe and there is a rebel faction, which you play as, trying to break free from its control.

The controls works pretty much as any other FPS and are very responsive. But the game itself doesn't change much from any other FPS in the market, go to this place shoot some guys, open a door, shoot more guys, rinse and repeat. The weapons don't seem very interesting and there is almost no recoil, making aim down sights a waste of time as you can simply fire from the hip and kill everyone.

Graphically the game is very impressive, especially for an 8 year old console, and the lighting is incredible. Most of the game has a grey/orange palette as many other shooters, but when you enter an illuminated area with different lights flashing it is very impressive visually. Since I played the game without speakers I can't rate the sound.

While the co-op campaign doesn't show much innovation, it is always fun to play a game with a friend and it's nice to see this mode in the game, but maybe the other game modes have something new, I can't say for sure.

The replay value is very good, since you have campaign and co-op campaign with various difficulty levels and a multiplayer component which adds a great lifespan to the game.

Score: 5.5/10

Papers, Please

Indie title, Papers Please

Congratulations, you won the october labour lottery, you will be placed at an immigration office and you and your family will be provided an apartment to live. This indie game by 3909 is a magnificent and unique game that is a complete new genre on its own. You play as an immigration officer for the glorious country of Arztotzka and your job is to check people's documentations and check if they are able to enter the country or not.

You have a instruction manual which will tell you which is the documentation needed to enter the country, a map of the region and a stamp which will give or deny permission to the immigrants. The tricky part is that you have to manage yours and the immigrant's documents in a small table. The more immigrants that correctly enter the country the more money you make during your working hours, but if you give permission to someone that has the wrong documentation you will get penalized and after two warnings you lose some of your wage for the day. At the end of each day you have to decide what will you spend money on, electricity, food, medicine and rent. If you don't pay the electricity bill, your family will be cold and may get sick, if you don't buy food they will starve, so you have to carefully manage what are you buying that day or one of your family members might die.

The graphics are dreadful and dull, but they are perfect for the game, as it has an oppressive and depressive mood. You can't have a game about life's difficulties and a dictatorship in a country with beautiful and  colorful graphics. Equally the soundtrack, when existent, is oppressive. When not present the game is limited to background voices, clangs and beeps immersing the player even more in the negative mood the game has.

The story has many different endings, two difficulty levels and a few hidden side quests, so you will want to play it more than once to get all the endings and side quests to see what happens, giving it a big replay value.

Also the game is only 8,99 which is a very small amount of money for an incredible experience this game is.

Score: 9/10 

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A recap of the first Term

This post is going to be a quick recap on things I learned last term.

Photoshop:

This is a massive tool, there are so many things you can create with it and I only scratched it's surface using only 4 tools(the vector tools). It is tough, but once you learn how to use it, it is fun! 

Taco used in my game.

Programming:

First of all, I learned how to program! It is a very logical process and it has to be very specific and clear, since you are talking to a computer, a very powerful but dumb machine. Unless you are specific and clear the computer won't know what to do, or worse, it may break your program! It is also very challenging, at some points frustrating, but very very rewarding after you complete your program.

Code used for the map.

Course:

Aside from the two tools cited previously, I also learned how to use blogger, yes this is my first blog, "gave wings" to my creativity while creating the graphics and story for my game while also having original concepts and design.

What I also learned but it is not related to any software or computer, was how to organise myself for classes and assignments, having to manage various assignments at the same time, and also how to write a report.

The final result was this brilliant piece of art called "The Taco Vengeance":

 The game is not completed but it basically is a sum of all I learned last term.

2D Game - Update#4

The game is almost finished, but very bugged now. I will have to do lots of tests to fix them all. The game report is also done. Main things to work on:

• Fix bugs
• Add level 3
• Add sounds
• Add score
• Switch stickmen costumes

2D Game - Update #3

Not much progress in terms of coding done today. I spent most of the time trying to correct a bug where the sniper scope was not moving. It turned out that I was missing a simple "forever" command on the level sprites.

But on the photoshop side of things I have started making the graphics for the cutscenes between each level. I will only post this small teaser so I don't spoil the story.

Cutscene 

2D game graphics

Today I finished(I think) making the levels for my 2D game. I created them in a bigger size than scratch's 480x360 canvas because I wanted to make the player able to scroll more than just the small area like in the sniper template I posted yesterday. Here are them:

Level 1

Level 2

Level 3

Scope movement

I also did some coding for the first level, but it is in very early stages. One piece of coding is the movement of the sniper scope. Pretty much the same covered in the previous post with a little bit of tweaking to have a wider and faster movement.

Photoshop Text Tool

This is another photoshop entry, it is very basic but you can get excellent effects with it. Using the Text tool you can create, edit and add effects to texts.

When selected, you can click and drag on the canvas to set the size of the text box, which limits the space where you can type. Similar to other text editors, in photoshop you can select the size and type of font you are going to use in your image on the top left corner of the program.

Map Scrolling

Side scrolling is essential for 2D games. Most of them rely on this feature to move the character across the level, and they do so in a very clever way. Instead of having one big screen, the level is divided in parts and they move along the screen, instead of the character.

Since we're using scratch, the screen resolution is 480x360 pixels, so we'll create our level with double the size of that(960x720) and then we will divide it in four parts.

2D game - Update#2

Today I created a little bit more of code to my game, working on the variable "Ammo", which basically displays how much ammo you have on your gun.

This sets the ammo to 5 when the game starts.

The code for shooting.

Note on the shooting code that it only broadcasts the shot IF ammo > 0. This is also very important when adding to the score, which I haven't done yet.

2D project - update#1

In the last couple of weeks I have been working on a 2D game. So far I have done good progress, the genre has been defined, I have a small story for the game, got the menu done and I have most of my graphics made. Here's an overview:

The Story

The game tells the story of Johnathan, aka John, a bitter man who had his childhood scarred by a malevolent Taco and now has declared war on the crispy menace. The story will be told through cutscenes and will progress through gameplay. Various events in-game events will determine how John will plan his next move against the enemy.

Gameplay

How John will destroy the evil, you ask? With his super powerful .50 caliber sniper rifle. You will control his scope and snipe your targets from afar in order to complete the objectives. In a nutshell: it's a sniper game.

Depending on the mission you will be rated on how many tacos you destroyed, how fast you did that or if you accomplished the mission objective. To add variety to the game I will include touristic places, like the Colosseum.

Below are some of the graphics that will be used for the game:

The enemy: Taco

Sound Button

Menu Background

Bullet

2D Game project - The Taco Vengeance

The next project I'll be working on is a 2D game with the provisional name of "The Taco Vengeance". It will be a sniper game where you control a sniper called Jonathan, aka John, a man whose life mission is to destroy as many Tacos as he can, for they scarred him in his childhood. Now as a grown man he decides to start his quest for revenge.

John's worst enemy

The view of the game will be the scope of the sniper and the objectives might vary, from destroying a specific taco or destroying as many tacos as you can within a time limit. I plan to have 5 levels and they will all be different, from the local Tacoland shop to the Colosseum! The story will be told through cut scenes in between the missions.

The tacos will be in different locations throughout the levels, from a table, to a customer's hands or even flying around! But also be careful not to shoot other people's cellphones or sandwiches!

Creating an Angry Bird

Using the instructions on onlinedesignteacher.com, I managed to create my own Angry Bird and, although it doesn't look as good as the one on the website, it looks good, for my first attempt. In this project I learned how to use some more advanced layer techniques, such as stroke, creating and moving anchor points and I managed to improve my skills with the pen tool. Here are some screens:

Stage 1

Stage 2

Stage 3

Again, It is not perfect, but it was a good start I think, and a great way to consolidate my knowledge, specially with the pen and anchor points tools.

7 Styles of game graphics

2D and 3D games can have various different types of graphics but they all can be put into 7 basic types:

Clear Vision

• Ultra Basic: Games that don't try to have realistic or complex graphics, but rather something simple, minimalistic that fits with the gameplay.
  
  
  
  Example: Clear Vision http://www.freewebarcade.com/game/clear-vision-2/
• Hand Drawn: These were based on sketches made by an artist with pencil/pen and paper and then put into the game. Example Agent B10 http://www.freewebarcade.com/game/agent-b10/

Mark of the Ninja

Angry Birds

• Cartoon: As the name says something that resembles a cartoon with simple traces. Example:                      GunBlood http://www.freewebarcade.com/game/gunblood/

• Geometric: Similar to basic, but with more shapes.

Pacman 

Example: Pacman http://www.freepacman.org/

Touch my Katamary

• Quirky: This is a difficult one to describe, It can contain real elements but used in an almost surreal way

Example: Touch My Katamary

• Anime: Similar to cartoon, but with more traces and complexity.

Example: Persona 4

Witcher 3

• Photo Realistic: As the name says, it tries to model the characters and environment in the most realistic way possible.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  Example: The Witcher 3

Cropping, Image saturation and mixing images.

Photoshop is a great tool to create new landscapes using your creativity and preset images. In the example below I created a post-apocalyptic environment using these pictures and some cropping tools (magic wand, quick selection, and the magic and polygonal lasso).

Derelict house

Lightning

Destroyed car

Sky

Rubble

After adjusting their positions and their size, I played with the Image Hue and Saturation to create a darker, moodier tonality to the picture. The final result was this:

Images together