Final Year Project - Contained

For my final year at University I have been working on a game with three other students. I am hoping to have some more screenshots of the code I have worked on for this project, as well as some videos showing the elements that I have scripted. 

Pressure Plate Puzzle

After yet another change to our game idea (after being merged with another group), we decided to scrap the other puzzle ideas and go for something which could be incorporated whilst navigating your way around a maze. 

Once again I watched a tutorial on the website Digital-Tutors. The tutorial is titled "Creating an Action-Adventure Puzzle in Unity". I had worked my way through the 16 videos and completed each of the quizzes at the end of the videos (which are extremely useful). Within this tutorial there is a puzzle which the player has to complete; to complete the puzzle they have to walk over certain pressure plates, in a certain order for a door to open.

For our game the idea that we stuck with after being merged with a new group was much like our original idea. The player has to navigate a maze and avoid the aliens to be able to escape the farming facility. Whilst avoiding the aliens around the maze, I thought this puzzle would be perfect for the player to complete, as it would not detract from the original idea. By completing this puzzle, they would then be able to unlock the door and escape.

Below is the Pressure Plate Script.

Below is the Puzzle Logic Script

And finally, below is the Torch Script.

During this tutorial I encountered a few problems. One of my group members managed to help me fix one of the problems, where I had just mis-named something. 

Moveable Cube

During this third year group project, because I have only just started to focus on the coding and unity side of things, I have been using the website Digital-Tutors to watch and complete some tutorials. 

One week I worked through a series of tutorials on the website, which showed you how to code a cube to move in all directions as well as being able to jump in to the air, without flipping over.

In the screenshot above you can see that I had been saving each lessons scripts as well as saving important scenes so that I can refer back to them with ease at a later date.

Below is a screenshot of the code that I had been learning in the tutorials. This particular code has materialised over many lessons. Starting at Lesson 11 where I learnt how to code the basic movement of an object, to Lesson 15 where the cube in the scene can now move about in all directions and jump in to the air without rotating over.

I have found these tutorials to be extremely useful as they are broken down very nicely, which makes them very easy to follow along at a good pace. Furthermore after you have finished a particular lesson, you are then quizzed about a fact that was mentioned in the video. 

Below are a series of screenshots of the codes that I had been working on from Lesson 11 to Lesson 14.

Here you can see how the code has progressed from a basic movement script, to a fully functional movement script with the jump element.

Rotating Pieces Puzzle

A puzzle idea that one of my group members came up with was the idea of having objects blocking the path of the player so that they cannot continue until they have been moved. The problem is however that these objects blocking the path rotate, so the player needs to rotate them until they are at the right angle so that they can the progress forward on to the next stage of the level. 

The script written rotates the object, there is no animation on the object - which was an idea we had at the beginning. 

In the screenshot above it shows the beginning scene.

When the player walks up to the object, all they have to do is click the left mouse button on the object and it rotates it to another position.

Each time the player clicks the object it will change its rotation, the player can do this until it is at the right angle for them to continue on through the level. 

Above is another screenshot of another rotation.

Here is a screenshot of the object behind the original one rotating as well. This script can now be applied to any object that we would like to be rotated. 

Below is a photo of the script that rotates the object.

Below is a script for when the puzzle is complete.

This particular puzzle I found quite challenging, and I did need help from one of my lecturers - however this helped me understand a lot more of what was happening within the code as he was able to explain it to me face to face.

Stair Puzzle

For one part of our game (when we decided to incorporate puzzle elements), the protagonist character would drop to the floor below once she passes over a certain point within the level, as the ground below her gives way. 

Her only way to escape then from this room would be to build a set of stairs out of the objects around her (boxes, barrels and crates etc.) back up to where she came from so that she could continue on and make her escape.

Above is the basic layout of the blocks (these will be the boxes and barrels etc). They then fall to the floor, which will be shown in the photo below.

In the screenshot the boxes have fallen to the floor, so that the player can now go over to them and interact with them. 

Above, the player is holding the block by clicking the left mouse button on the object, and holding it down to keep it in the air. The player can now move the block up and down as well as left and right and can move with the box when it is being held.

The player is then able to stack the blocks thus enabling them to form a set of stairs in any location they wish.

Above is a screenshot of a trigger area which will load the next level of the game. This was not necessarily going to be needed in our game, however I played around with it and as shown in the photo below it changes to a new level when they player walks in to the green box. 

Below are some screenshots of the scripts. The first screenshot is of the Pick up and Drop script.

Below is a screenshot of the script that enables the level to change once the player has entered the green box.

I found this particular exercise quite challenging, yet it was really fun once everything started to come together and work in the way that I wanted it too. 

Puzzle Level

Due to a change in my group circumstances early on in the year for my third year project, our game temporarily changed to include a puzzle level (basically a 'dream' world). The first two puzzles that we came up with for this level were to involve 'levers' to alter the world around her. By pressing the levers (shown in the screenshots as grey boxes) some items in the world will change to a position so that the player can advance further. For example one lever moves a box underneath a grate so that the player can used it as a 'stepping stone' to get to the other side.

This first photo above is just showing the layout that we created quickly. In the bottom right hand corner there is an additional room that had yet to be placed (this room was designed to be a 'downstairs' and the player would end up falling in there after completing the puzzles in the main level. The only way for them to get out of this downstairs room was to build a set of stairs up to the opening so that they could continue on.

This photo above is showing the 'stepping stone' block up in the air before the player has activated the 'lever' (trigger) to lower it down.

This photo shows when the lever has been activated; the box has moved to its correct position so that the player can now advance to the other side. The box has an animation moving it down.

Above is the beginning stage of the grate and box puzzle. The grate would be a safe place for the player to jump in to and progress to the next stage of the game. In this screenshot the grate is too high to jump in from the ground, so the box to the left is needed to be able to give that extra height to enable the player to jump in. Just like the previous puzzle, a lever is needed to be activated to move the box across.

The large grey box on the right hand side of the screenshot is the lever. This has been activated by the player, so now the box has moved under the grate so that the player is now ready to advance to the next section. Once again the box had an animation.

(Photos of the code to follow soon).

Pick up and Throw Code

For our protagonist character we thought that she would need to be able to pick up the orb and be able to throw it away from her if an alien came near her (our game is about Aliens farming humans on a global scale).

As I am the main coder for our group, I created a new Unity Project - (just in-case I ran in to major problems) I did not want to ruin the main file.

In the above screenshot, I have tried to give an overview of the basic scene that I have created. 

Over on the right hand side you see the three scripts that I have used. The first one is the Object Properties script, which is in C#. This script is attached to the object that you want to pick up. For this script to work, the object needed a collider so that the character controller could be able to pick it up. It also needed a rigid body component added to it as well. 

The next script is another C# script, called Pick up and Throw. This is attached to the character controller which enables it to be able to pick up the object when the player presses the 'f' key on the keyboard, as well as being able to throw the object when the player clicks the left mouse button.

The final script is Javascript (In my first year at University we were given brief tutorials on how Javascript works). This script is called Power Meter. This also goes on the character controller, and this controls the power in which the object is thrown by the character.

Here, below are the screenshots of the Pick up and Throw script, as well as the Object Properties script.

This first screenshot is part of the Pick up and Throw script.

This second screenshot is the last part of the Pick up and throw script.

Now below is the screenshot of the Object properties script.

Hopefully in the not too distant future I will have a video showing how these scripts work within the Unity scene.

Concept Art - Hands

During my third year I have been working in a group to create a fully working game. At the beginning we were all tasked with creating concepts for our game. One of our ideas for  the main protagonist character in our game is to have a light orb that she can use as a torch. So to get an idea of how the hand will look holding a circular object, I made three hand concepts showing how the orb might be held. 

I used dark colours because the environment that our character is going to be in is going to be very dark and dingy.

In the summer holidays leading up to the third year I put a lot of effort in to practising my 2D drawings in Photoshop, so when I produced these I was very happy with the outcome, the other members in my group were also happy with these concepts.

3D Modelling - Ninja

In my spare time I have been working through a tutorial on how to model a Ninja in Maya. It is a step by step process all the way from the modelling to the texturing. Below are some work in progress screenshots of the Ninja I have been modelling. 

This has been tremendously helpful for me, and by doing this tutorial I think my modelling skills have definitely improved. 

Minotaur Basic 3D Model

Along with having weekly 2D tasks, in the second year we were also tasked with creating 3D models on a weekly basis, along side working on a Vertical Slice of a game. One week we were given a Minotaur to very basically model so that we could learn to get the topology right. Below is a screenshot of my Minotaur basic model.

This was extremely useful for me, to learn how to model quickly and efficiently. The whole idea of this assignment was to work on making sure the basic shape was there, not worrying about the detail, and making sure it all flowed correctly.

Paintover

Another 2D task that we were assigned in the second year was to model an Alien Plant and then do a paint-over of it. Below is my alien plant.

I modelled the plant in Sculptris, and the did the paint-over in Adobe Photoshop. This was the first time I had ever done a paint-over. It was a big learning curve, and a very interesting assignment to work on. 

Concept Art - Tentacle Creature

Before University I had never used Adobe Photoshop. During my first and second year we were given weekly tasks to create concept art based on a theme or object etc. One week we were tasked with creating a creature which had to have tentacles. Below is what I came up with. As I was uncomfortable with my digital drawing skills, I kept my creature simple, and decided to focus on the lighting of it and the use of textures.

Above is my creature without a texture, and below is a screenshot of my creature with a texture. 2D drawing has never been my strong point, however I felt it was important to include some of the 2D work I have done whilst being at University, to show the basic skills that I have. 

In the not too distant future I would like to practise on my 2D drawings and improve the basic skills that I have so that I can be more competent and confident when drawing.