Reflective Journal

Today I started off my Final Major Project by creating my weekly schedule, creating the bare bones for my google site (which can be filled in throughout the duration of the FMP), preparing my asset list and art bible for later on in the project, as well as familiarising myself with my brief. I have listed what the aims of my project are, hardware, software, and skills I'll need.

I believe this was a brilliant start to the project, as I feel confident about my workload for the rest of the week! Furthermore, It has also given me an understanding of my expectations for myself throughout the project. I am really happy with the work I have completed today, and feel confident for the work I need to start and complete for the rest of this week.

Today I completed work on a questionnaire, which I plan to use as an element of my reserahc. This will be vital research, as it will give me a broad overview of opinions about dress up games and character creation from a variety of different ages. I've already had a great variety of answers from my research pool, so I look forward to talking about my findings later on in the week.

I also used my time today to start my research on different flash dress up games I played when I was younger, gathering reference images and talking about elements like the UI design, art style, choice of assets, and diversity within the games. I also chose to talk about who I felt the target audience for each game was, as I feel this will be important to think about during the development of my own title.

During my next day in college [Friday], I plan to hold a focus group on my findings from my questionnaire, before analysing all the feedback I've been given and applying it to my own project. I also plan to finish my asset list so that I have a concrete list of what needs to be created for the rest of the project. Friday will also be when I record my weekly development vlog - a rolling piece of work I plan to complete each week where I will talk about the work I have completed, what needs to be completed in the near future, and how I have found the process of creating my game so far. I look forward to completing these tasks later this week!

After creating my schedule on Monday evening, I had my plans pushed back due to my tutor being observed. This took up most of the afternoon, and whilst I learned useful skills about portfolio building and creative thought processes I still managed to carry on with my reserach that I didn't manage to complete last week. I plan to finish this research by friday evening.

Today I had a really productive day! I started and completed my research on modern Character Creation tools, which was really beneficial as it helped me to identify features that I like and dislike, as well as features I would like to include within my own title. 

As well as this, I also analysed feedback I had received on the questionnaire I created last week - It was really interesting to read everyone's responses and see what I agreed and disagreed with and I'm really happy with what I managed to learn! Over the weekend I managed to edit my focus group, so the next steps will be to analyse the answers my participants brought forward during this and how I could use some of them for my own game.

On Friday, I plan to record and edit my development vlog for the week, whilst also finishing my outstanding research from the past few weeks and maybe starting work on deciding what aesthetic I want my game to have.

Today I started research into how I could create my game from a technical standpoint.

When talking to my tutors within the past week, I decided that creating a basic menu system, which I could then edit and change as needed, would be a good base for my UI based game.

I also tried looking for information on widget switchers, as they will give me the functionality of a tabbed menu, which is how I want my game to work. However, I found information hard to come by or inconclusive, and have dropped this reserach for when I have more work completed.

Next week is half term, so I plan over the next couple of weeks to finish my simple menu, as well as carrying on with idea development for creative assets.

Today I carried on research on how I could create my simple menu system - I have managed to find a series by YouTuber and programmer 'Ryan Laley' that goes step by step through how to create a menu system, as well as how to construct a tabbed system like the I couldn't find any information for. Now that I've found these tutorials, I feel that I am equipped enough to start work on the blueprinting for my project.

Before I start blueprinting however, I want to create an artbible for my game. I believe that now I have decided to focus on Decora Kei, I can now more solidly make decisions about the look of my game - from the artstyle to colour scheme and UI design. This is the work I plan to complete for the rest of the week.

Today I started looking at elements I would need to research for my art bible, starting with art style - I knew from the start of this project that I wanted to learn how to create effective lineless artwork, so I have decided that doing an almost chibi-like artstyle, with elements like character proportion from Splatoon's Illustrative artsyle would have a really nice look! I also feel that this style would tie in really well with the Decora Kei influence for my assets.

Tomorrow I will complete the bulk of the art bible, which means that I will be able to start programming and completing final assets next week!

Today I worked on programming my simple menu within Unreal Engine! I followed a tutorial by Gorka Games, which explained how to create a simple menu system for my opening menu and pause menu. I created these menu's using UI blueprints, however the tutorial showed how to open a 3d level, not another ui widget. I managed to work out how to make this work on my own, by using a 'remove all widgets' node to get rid of the menu screen, before using a 'create widget' node to add the main game widget. This widget is then added to the viewport with the 'add to viewport' node. 

Overall I'm really happy that I've managed to create this! I had no idea where to start when I began my work today, but I managed to create a working system whilst also working some elements out on my own! Now I have the base set up, I next want to add a tabbed menu system to my main game widget, so that the assets can be seperated into different categories.

Today I managed to add a tabbed menu system to my main game window, following a UI concept I created.

I managed to create this tabbed menu by following a tutorial series by Ryan Laley, however I ignored the elements about making controller support as my game is not going to support this control type.

Overall, I found these tutorials easy to follow and successful for creating my menu system! I'm really happy that I've managed to create this element of my game, as I was quite scared I wouldn't be able to work it out! Now I just need to work out how to create a drag and drop system for my assets, and then the technical side of my game will be completed [bar adding backing music and sound effects, etc.]

Later this week I plan to take a break from coding to look further into Decora fashion, so that I have a deeper understanding of the fashion genre before creating assets.

Today I took a day to research how I could create my drag and drop system. I started some work on creating this system, following a tutorial by Gorka Games, however I got rid of this system as it didn't work. I believe that this is due to the widget switcher mechanic that my tabbed menu used to change between windows - I plan to research further in the future as to if a drag and drop system would work, however if it will not I can use UI buttons which when pressed will make the clothing appear on the character.

Today I messed with UI for my game, creating a simple frame for my ui buttons to look aesthetically pleasing within before adding it to my game window. The UI didn't work however - I think I need to place the working parts on top of the transparent PNG so that they will still retain functionality. Furthermore, I also tried to change my homemade buttons to easier to drag around ui buttons within unreal, however this broke my entire project and I don't have time to fix it today - I will get it fixed on friday.

Today I chose 4 poses used by decora models, and evaluated them to see which elements would be the best to use for my own game. I really liked the more basic stance, which would be easier to create assets for as I wouldn't need to worry too much about the fabric draping and anatomy. However, I want to challenge myself with this project so I've decided that I'd like to use a raised hand gesture to give the pose more visual interest.

Later on this week, I plan to finally start creating assets! I've been really struggling with my motivation and work ethic throughout this project - I entered the FMP in a state of artistic burnout, which I havent managed to break yet. I'm getting really nervous about completing all of my work on time, or at least complete the game to the standard that I was hoping to create. I have tried motivating myself, be that through my work picking a fashion genre to base the game upon, creating moodboards and looking at poses, but I'm still struggling to find the barb that will make me interested in drawing for the project.

Today I started creating assets for the project! I have finally decided to power through the art process, and have started the body base and facial assets for my game. I plan to have 4 different skin tones, and 5 different types of all assets so that the game has a good base of assets that I can add to in the future.

I have also decided to do a mix of the basic stance from my pose studies, alongside a cheeky peace sign so that the character has some visual interest. I may change this pose, but right now this is the pose I have gone for.

Today I started by doing some very messy sketches of some poses, inspired by the research I carried out yesterday. I then chose my final pose! This can be seen below. I believe this pose will make asset creation simple, as it is a very simple pose that means I won't need to worry as much about fabric draping and shading when it comes time to create clothing assets.

I carried on with asset creation today, starting by cleaning up the lines on my chosen sketch to make them easier to understand. I then went in and colour blocked the main body shape, making sure the outer edges of the shape were crisp.

The next step in creating the body base was to pick skin tones. I decided to go for 4 different shades for inclusivity - I want my game to appeal to a wide variety of people from different backgrounds, and I feel the four shades I picked work really nicely!

After picking these shades, I started shading the body base, switching between the lightest and darkest skin tones to make sure that the shading would work on all the skin tones - I decided to create a universal layer for shading rather then shading each skin tone individually, as I felt it would save a lot of time. Tomorrow I will be carrying on with the shading.