Quarter 1

Gameplan: Course Overview

What do you hope to get out of taking a class focused on Game Art & Design?

I hope to learn more about how to utilize unreal to its fullest potential, create compelling stories, and properly utilize environmental storytelling. I would like to be able to make a game entirely on my own by the end of the class.

Why do you think having an industry-recognized workforce credential like the Unreal Engine certification can be valuable for your future?

Yes, I hope to go into game design professionally, so an Unreal certification would be incredibly valuable. I hope that having one may make it easier to show companies that are hiring that I am capable of using industry standard tools.

Why is it important to have a Code of Conduct when working in game development or other creative industries?

Working with others can be incredibly frustrating, and creating a game is a lot of work, but that shouldn't give people the excuse to speak poorly to others. If peers are allowed to get away with not crediting borrowed work, they might try it again later in life, to possibly devastating consequences. 

Gameplan: What Remains

1/30/2026

What genre did this story feel like to you?

This game felt very much like an Action/Adventure RPG type game. I think that the consistent use of the second person pronoun "you" means that this is meant to immerse a player into a role, much like RPGs are designed to do. Some elements of the game also reminded me of Action/Adventure games.

Did different sections remind you of different genres?

Yes, the section at the beginning seems to be very much trying to put the player into the shoes of the character and force them to make decisions that they themselves might choose in that scenario. The second part, where the player is forced to dodge barrels, seemed as though it were trying to mimic the fast paced action seen in the Action/Adventure genre.

Life Cycle Reflection

2/2/2026

How might the character you’ve created change the way you imagine playing What Remains when you start building in Unit 4?

I think that the way that I am going to build the elements of the world is going to be drastically different now that I have a concrete idea of who the main character actually is. Obviously the character's abilities and fears will play into the game but the secret that they need to find out will also dramatically alter the game. Adding the story of Dave being exiled from his home village only for it to be destroyed means that across the game I can scatter hints to the player about what happened until the final reveal. I can use environmental storytelling, like perhaps finding a dead monster with a spear in it, or ruins of what used to be a watchtower. I could also add other NPCs that give lore to the game by telling the player something without revealing the whole truth. Maybe a survivor of the village could yell at the player that this is all their fault without specifying any further, leaving the player guessing. Overall, giving life to the main character fleshes out the story and gives ideas for mechanics or elements to add into the game.

Copyright Reflection

2/3/2026

Why is it important for game developers like you to respect copyright and licensing rules when creating games?

Obviously there are important legal reasons why you have to respect copyright laws to ensure that you don't get a civil court case, but there is another important reason. You should respect copyright because  that means that you are respecting the person who originally created the content that you are using. If you didn't properly credit someone, not only does that mean that you are taking credit for their work, but you may also be taking away future job opportunities. If someone comes across your page and sees the art that you claim to be yours, instead of giving further money to the original artist, they would be unable to find similar content on your page. Even if you don't get taken to court, you may just end any further career you may have had if people find out that you plagiarized. Most people, upon finding out that you stole content without proper use, will be very reluctant to hire you for a job or buy any of your games. In the era of the internet, a mistake could cost your reputation greatly.

Unreal Navigation Reflection

2/6/2026

What similarities and differences do you see between Autodesk 3ds Max and Unreal Engine?

There are a large number of differences between 3ds Max and unreal, notably the UI, movement, and the single perspective viewport. The main information and transformation tab is on the right side of the screen. The movement requires moving your camera viewpoint with wasd instead of mainly clicking based movement. The generally agreed on consensus in 3ds max is using 4 separate views, often top, side, and front, while Unreal only has one perspective for viewing things. These differences are most likely due to the fundamental change from making one specific object to  placing many things in a 3d world. They are quite similar though in the real-time rendering of what your 3d model is going to look like. Another similarity is the abilities to move, rotate, and scale objects.

How well do you feel learning 3D modeling last year prepared you for working in the Unreal Engine?

I think it prepared me somewhat well. The understanding of how to creatively transform shapes into more complex ones transferred over quite well. Also, understanding how lighting works and how it will affect the world was quite the useful skill for my first unreal project. A fundamental understanding of working in a 3d space is very important for being able to use a software like Unreal. Most people who made art previous to 3d modeling and animation were used to working with a 2d medium. The understanding of a 2d medium doesn't translate very well at all to making something out of modifying preexisting shapes.

What did you find most challenging, and how did you work through it?

I found having to use only preexisting props to make a cohesive environment incredibly difficult because it limits creative freedom. Only being able to place, rotate, and scale the provided props severely limits what you can make. Although this was quite the hurdle, most of the props given work relatively well together and that makes it easier to make a cohesive bunker. In order to make a somewhat interesting environment, I had to get creative. I used the player models to make miniatures on the shelves and the various basic shapes to make a bagel on a plate and a mug. The preexisting architecture pieces are somewhat basic, so I decided to use stairs as the roof of my building.

Inclined Planes Reflection

10/2/2026

Why might using multiple Inclined Planes be more effective than just one?

Having more than one inclined plane allows for much easier to maneuver rather than only having one. You could move around obstacles, like the sides of the refrigerator's water dispenser. Having more than one also makes ensuring that the ball doesn't fall off easier. In order to make sure that the ball stayed somewhat centered on the inclined planes, I used 2 other inclined planes on the sides. This not only prevented the ball from falling off, but made its final trajectory much easier to figure out.

How does turning snapping on or off affect the way you build and test your level?

Having snapping on or off has very different uses for rotating objects in your machine. I used snapping on to get a general area that I wanted the ball to go in, whereas snapping off was used for fine tuning. Having snapping on for the big movements makes ensuring some consistency and narrowing down the general angle easier. Snapping off is useful for very small adjustments to ensure that the ball makes it to the next inclined plane. Another perk of having snapping on is being able to easily backtrack and undo a previous action. If you turned the plane 10 degrees but that was further from what you wanted, instead of undoing a large number of steps, you can just snap it back to its previous position.

What did you learn about problem-solving when your first setup didn’t work as expected?

Problem solving is a very iterative process, especially with something as finicky as getting a physics engine to work with you. Problem solving requires repeated tests and small adjustments to ensure the outcome. If you wanted the ball to end up somewhere specific, you'd make an educated guess, hit play, and adjust the rotation, position, or scale of the plane to course correct. The first correction was often too much or too little, forcing you to make a very slight change before trying again. Depending on what task you are trying to complete, this process can take a very large number of iterations.

Which challenges did you try? 

I did the "Across The Room" challenge. I decided somewhat arbitrarily that the water dispenser of the refrigerator looked like it could fit a ball. In order to achieve this, I had to go around the sides of the dispenser and ensure that the angle and positioning was right to make it in. I thought that the most efficient way to do this would be to go towards the front of the fidge and make a sharp turn towards it. Initially my ball was too large to fit in the dispenser, so I scaled the actor down to about 40% so that it would fit better.

Levers Reflection

11/2/2026

Why does the distance from the fulcrum change how much force a weight applies to the lever?

Torque is what is conserved in these problems. That means that applying the same force closer to the fulcrum decreases the torque. This phenomenon can be seen in many real life examples. Like how holding a crowbar far away from the point of contact is much more likely to affect whatever you are trying to move. The force of you pushing on the bar didn't change, but the distance from the fulcrum, which is at the end of the crowbar in this case,  caused an increased output.

How does scaling a weight affect the outcome compared to moving it closer or farther from the fulcrum?

Assuming that the weight is perpendicular to the lever, the equation for torque is 𝜏=𝑟𝐹. Assuming that the question is talking about torque, rather than force (because force is mg regardless of where the weight lands), the mass of the weight and the distance from the fulcrum (r) are equally important. The force (F) is equal to mg, meaning that 𝜏 is also equal to rmg if the only force being applied is due to a object falling. If 𝜏=rmg, then changing m or g has an equal effect on the final torque output. This means that in practice, doubling the amount of kg that the object weighs and doubling the meters away from the fulcrum has the same effect.

In what ways can customizing materials be useful for both design and gameplay in a project?

Making custom materials can make for a significantly more cohesive design and make your game seem like it has a unique style. You could make them somewhat pixelated or cartoony to ensure a memorable experience. Having custom materials can also significantly impact the gameplay of a project. From pointing the player in the right direction to complete an objective to telling them what is dangerous, materials have a variety of uses. Among those crucial uses is ensuring that the game is easy on the eyes. A poorly made game might put clashing colors or textures next to each other, making it harder for the player to focus.

Wedges Reflection

11/2/2026

How does changing the shape or sharpness of the Wedge affect the result compared to just moving it?

The amount that the pieces get separated after the cut and what direction they will go depends on the sharpness. If the blade is very sharp, the trajectory from gravity will be mostly unaffected and the peices will land very close to the blade. If the blade is wide, however, the pieces get sent away at much greater angles and slide quite far away from the blade. Just moving the blade can ensure the same landing spot, but not the same trajectory. This may make it difficult to make the pieces land in the buckets.

What did you learn about controlling chaos when working with multiple watermelons and buckets?

You need to ensure that there is a large accommodation for error to ensure that most of the peices land where you want them to. To get the cut pieces to land where I wanted, I made the buckets very large. Additionally, giving the chaos as little time to occur as possible is a very useful strategy. That meant, in this case, that I needed to place the wedge very close vertically to the edges of the buckets. When working with multiple physics objects, you need to give them time to get where they are going before adding any more.

In what ways can experimenting with physics in UE5 help you think differently about solving problems in real life?

The UE5 is a good reminder for a number of problem solving tricks for real life. When you think that something is in the right place, but it doesn't work properly, look from a different angle. You might see the it wasn't where you wanted it in the first place. It also reminded me that all problem solving is an iterative process. Making mistakes is expected and encouraged, as long as you follow the mistakes with small tweaks that you think will make things better.

Extension Information

You need to ensure that the watermelons don't reach the end of the funnel at the same time, so it's smart to stack them in a way that puts them pretty vertically far away from one another. This should give time for the previous watermelon to go down the hole before the new one gets in its way. In order to make them fit better, I also scaled the length and width of the funnel, so that the output could more quickly allow a melon to go down. In order to catch all of the pieces, I put the wedge very close to the buckets and ensured that they were as close as possible to the wedge without too much clipping. I found that adding more buckets incresed the chance of a bad bounce, so scalling up the 2 buckets was plenty to catch all of the watermelons. Unfortunately, having too many physics objects in the same place caused some of the pieces to glitch through the sides of the buckets and onto the table and floor.

Wheel and Axle Reflection

2/12/2026

Why do wheels reduce friction, and how does this change the movement of objects compared to sliding?

Friction is caused due to tiny imperfections in objects surfaces rubbing up against each other and causing both objects to experience a force. With a wheel, the outside edge of the wheel rotates with the ground. This drastically reduces the amount of force produced by friction. The outside of the wheel is pushing into the ground, but optimally, it doesn't slide very much. When an object slides downhill, a very significant amount of the acceleration due to gravity is lost due to friction. If the incline isn't sufficient, the object may stay still regardless of the incline. A wheeled object, however, will start moving due to gravity even with little incline.

How did adjusting the Lazy Susan’s size or rotation rate affect where the ball ended up? What does this teach you about precision in design?

Changing the degree measurement of the cheese made the exit angle change significantly. Changing the rotation speed had relatively little effect on the exit angle. Changing the sign of the rotation speed changed the exit angle, but not in a consistent way. Overall, this taught me the value of tiny adjustments, since the ball could end up ~45 degrees away if you only add .1 to the amount of the cheese present. It also teaches me that you should figure out what you think all of the parameters do, but you should never be solely focused on changing just one.

Why might adding sound effects improve a Rube Goldberg machine or a game level? 

An environment without sound seems empty and eerie, which would most likely go against the cartoony style and intentions of the project. Sound effects can also be crucial in ensuring that the audience understands your vision of what is happening. A lion opening its mouth might not be understood properly by the audience, but adding a roar can ensure that they see the same vision you did while making it. Sound, like materials can also tell the audience if they are doing something right or wrong, like the sound that plays when the ball lands in a basket in this project.

Explain what decisions you made to get the ball into bucket B

To get the ball to go into the bucket B, I had to change the lazy susan's parameters, because I thought it would be more interesting than moving the whole object. I found that reversing the rotation was a good start because it got me much closer to the bucket than the other direction. After brief testing, I discovered that the most efficient parameter for ensuring proper exit angle was changing the angle of the cheese wedge. I would change it by a varying amount, find that I had overshot or undershot, and then correct, over and over until it landed in the bucket.

Pulleys Reflection

2/12/2026

Why is it important to leave a gap between the pulley basket and other objects when setting up a chain reaction?

The pulley would react to anything "touching" it. If it started inside the object, it would go without the ball or domino touching it. Additionally the pulley would look weird if it was clipped inside of another object while moving. Additionally, the gap helps ensure that the ball or domino lands inside of the basket. If it was too close, it would bounce out of the basket, which would make the pulley's movement look weird.

How does changing the rotation or position of the pulley affect the outcome of the machine?

Changing the rotation of either side of the pulley does very little in terms of affecting the pulley itself, but it does affect the outcome. If the boot is properly rotated, then the side that sticks out can affect other objects more easily. Some times, a lesser extrusion is needed because the boot is too close to another object and the top of the boot is sufficient to knock something over. Changing the vertical positions of the objects increases the ropes length. This could make one side low enough to have the desired effect or have a large enough output to do something that requires more effort.

If you were to redesign today’s pulley setup for maximum reliability, what would you change and why?

The boot is kind of inconsistent and unbalanced. If I were to optimize it, I might make a long cylinder with a shorter wide cylinder at the end. If they were centered, this would ensure that the center of gravity lines up with the rope, meaning that the object wouldn't rest at an odd angle. This would allow for more consistent results and not require rotations to ensure that it has the desired effect. If you needed it to get significantly under something, it might have four long rectangular prisms coming out of all four cardinal directions. That would allow the pulley to get the dangling object under something while maintaining some greater stability.

Screws Reflection

13/2/2026

Why do you think the screw is considered a simple machine, and how does it change motion compared to the other machines you’ve used?

A screw is considered a simple machine because it is a method of slightly changing motion and because it is a crucial smaller part for a number of larger, more complex machines. Instead of changing the direction of motion or it's amplitude, this simple machine is designed to change the fundamental type of motion. The inclined plane, for example takes linear motion and redirects it without changing the type of motion. Similarly, the wheel and axle changes the angular velocity from the axle to the wheel, but it doesn't change the motion from rotational to anything else. Screws on the other hand, are usually used to change rotational motion into linear motion. These two types of motion aren't just in different directions, but are fundamentally different.

When extending a Spline ramp, what trade-offs do you notice between making the path smooth versus precise?

Extending the spline ramp caused some minor issues in regards to graphics and following what you really wanted it to do. Using a smooth path made the geometry less sharp and the turns less dramatic. Unfortunately, the trade off was that it might not follow what you wanted it to do exactly. Precise made the slide follow what you told it to almost perfectly. It did however, sometimes clip into itself, cause weird graphic overlap issues, and make odd movements to follow the line.

How could combining Splines, Screws, and Dominos allow for more creative chain reactions than using them separately?

It is interesting to watch movement ripple through a machine. It is significantly more interesting if the movement makes twists and turns and sometimes changes objects. This might look like a ball getting moved up a ramp with a screw, only to slide down a slide. The ball might then push over a domino that causes a chain reaction of dominoes. The changes in direction and type of object moving make the contraption more interesting and keeps the viewer guessing.

Rube Goldberg Design Reflection

2/16/2026

Worked with Ellis Cundiff

What is the theme of your machine?

The theme of our machine is progression. In the first step, the dominoes progress in size, slowly getting bigger. In the third step the ball continues it's movement despite being low down. It then pushes the bigger ball off of the ledge, increasing in size, similarly to the dominoes. Finally the truck progresses through a large portion of the machine, completing a large part of the overall journey.

Which role title did you take (Designer or Documenter)? Why?

I decided to be the Documenter. I believed that my partner would have been better at doing the drawings. I also thought that I could come up with good ideas that incorporated all of the necessary simple machines. It was much easier to have Ellis focus on drawing most of the time, while I figured out which step would be next. Although we had a brainstorming document, ensuring that the pieces fit together smoothly is a critical part of the design process.

How did you and your partner make sure you both understand the whole design?

To start with, I made sure to pick a partner that I knew I could work well with, but also, more importantly, understand how their brain worked. This mutual understanding was most often enough to get a point across with only a simple explanation. We would write brief descriptions of each piece while brainstorming. Occasionally, we would need to pull up an online image or make a demo in Unreal. In order to show Ellis my screw elevator idea, and to make sure it was possible, I made a brief mock-up in Unreal.

Write your short description (5–8 sentences).

The machine starts out with a ball that collides into progressively larger dominoes. The final, and largest, domino lands on a physics object ground that shakes slightly under its weight, knocking off a ball. This ball is lifted up by a screw elevator so that it can push a cutable object into a funnel where it is cut. The larger piece activates a pulley that pushes a truck onto a group of levers. The levers change angle when the truck lands on them, causing the truck to zig-zag before colliding with a breakable vase. The vase, which was sitting on two beams with space in the middle, allows a ball to fall, knocking over a precariously placed weight. The weight then launches a pancake, on the opposite side of another lever, into a toaster, with a backboard for reliability.

Analyzing Games Reflection

2/16/2026

My understanding of Sound and Music

The sound and music of a game refers to the way that the audio (like sfx, voice acting, or background music) might add to the mood of the piece. I think a perfect example of this is Minecraft. The game has incredible sound design despite its simplistic looks. The music sounds peaceful while you explore meadows, forest, and build houses, and the ambient noises become scary when the player is underground and alone in the dark. All of the music discs have some crackling effect on them for added immersion. The game actually renders the sound's location to ensure that the resulting sound is in the right direction and at the right volume. Finally, the game has a different way of rendering the sound of rain if you are inside of a house, adding to the cozy vibes and overall immersion.

Analyzing Mechanics Reflection

2/23/2026

How can simple mechanics lead to complex gameplay?

Usually in order to make simple mechanics into complex gameplay, you have to seamlessly layer multiple simple mechanics in a way that requires strategy to utilize properly. You may need to balance inventory management with preparation for a boss. The mechanics can be as simple as movement and shooting, but the game may still require strategy and skill. Tetris, for example, only has movement and rotation in a 2D space, but it is still one of the most popular games of all time. It requires strategy and quick thinking to maneuver the blocks in a way that leaves the playing space most opportune for the next block. You may also set up multiple layers to be cleared at once to maximize your point total.

Why is it useful to understand game mechanics when analyzing or reviewing a game?

If you don't understand the core mechanics of the game, it may be difficult to spot seams in how the game is made or it may even be difficult to grasp the core idea of the game. The mechanics are the most basic part of the gameplay, and if you don't understand them properly, understanding the game as a whole will be difficult. If for example, you couldn't separate out the moving and jumping mechanics in a game, you may not realize that you can only do one at once, or a slight delay in inputs if you attempt to do both at the same time. Breaking things down into their fundamental parts is the easiest way to find flaws and beauty. This holds especially true when reviewing a game, which should be judged under a discerning eye.

Exploring Mood Reflection

2/23/2026

Why is mood and atmosphere important in games?

Mood and atmosphere is incredibly important for the immersion and enjoyment of the player. People often struggle to put themselves in a players shoes without some music or a theme that matches what the story is about. For example, games like Terraria have dynamic soundtracks to match the biome you are in. This can help set expectations for a player, and make them feel more immersed into the game. If a player cannot become immersed after a while of playing the game, they may give up on playing entirely.

How is it different from game mechanics?

The mood isn't as fundamental as the mechanics and is more often subconscious while playing a game. The mood should be expressed in a way that adds to the experience, but doesn't distract the player. On the other hand, the mechanics are meant to be thought about. The mechanics also, while often allowing for different strategies, can only be interpreted in one way. The mood is like most art pieces, having many ways to interpret what the designer meant. When making a game, most often the mechanics would be built first, followed by the artistic vision.

Exploring Fairness Reflection

2/25/2026

Risk vs. Reward

Balancing risk vs. reward can be a difficult task when designing a game, but it can also have a large impact on how free the game feels. If you do not allow players to take risks, they might feel trapped by a singular, straightforward, and laid-out path. Allowing players the freedom to attempt challenges unprepared or dive headfirst into a difficult situation for a reward can not only give players more options, but allow them to see how much further they have to get before re challenging. It can also give players much needed information for future attempts. For example, the lesson mentions having a consistent map with secret shortcuts. Trying to find these shortcuts might get you killed in the current match, but the reward of knowledge will help in other matches.

For my personal example of this I'll choose Undermine. Undermine has a large number of opportunities to balance risk with reward, the most obvious being a cursed shop that appears every few levels that sell valuable relics for a number of random major or minor curses. These curses could range from run-endingly catastrophic to mild inconveniences. Another good example of this in Undermine is the option to skip floors. At the beginning of your trip you can choose to skip levels you have already beaten, and you will be given a number of random relics, items, and potions. These items are significantly less than what you would have found in the area(s) you skipped, but it prevents you from encountering any danger. It also prevents you from having even a little choice in what items you get. The final example I'll mention from Undermine is the shrine mechanic. You can pray at a shrine in game, which will give you a choice to remove a random curse for an increasing amount of health, or a blessing you pick from a small number of random options. The "penance", as the game calls it, could make you close enough to death to die sooner than you would have otherwise while removing an inconsequential curse, but it also could remove a very bad curse that is worth the cost.

Unit Introduction Reflection

3/2/2026

How can you navigate and explore the first level using the mouse and keyboard, and what does this allow you to observe about the available assets?

You have to hold right click and use WASD to move around the level. This allows you to see the animations, interactables, and some of the building assets they have provided us with. There are assets for running, jumping, walking, sneaking, falling, interacting, and a win animation. You can see most of these animations in action in the first level as you move and interact with things. The available assets all seem cartoonish and made in a similar style.

What is the difference between a Static Mesh and a Blueprint in the Content Drawer? Provide an example of how each is used in the project.

A static mesh has no code attached and is only a physical object. This means that touching it will only allow you to stand on it. Static meshes can be given physics and collision, but that is mostly the extent of what they are capable of. Blueprints are capable of much more. They can be interacted with in a virtually infinite number of ways. They can store variables and create outputs based on the code you give them.

Describe at least three interactive elements demonstrated in the level when you playtested Level 1. How do these elements contribute to gameplay?

There is a few buttons that change color when they are stepped on. They are all an individual color to start with but turn green after a while. These could be used to make a puzzle that requires you to find the hidden button. There is a lever that can be activated by interacting with this. This could allow for a more easily found solution to a puzzle that requires platforming to get to. The final intractable piece in the intro is the powerups and collectibles. At the moment, they just put text on the top of the screen, but they could allow for more complex puzzles or could allow for more varied parkour.

How do you navigate to and open the correct map for building your game, and what is the name of the level you will be editing?

You have to go into the browser to find the level you are looking for. You then need to navigate to the Hour of Code folder, then the maps folder. There you will find a selection of prebuilt maps. The one we are using now is the Level_HOC_World. This world, unlike the testing world, already has a premade skeleton of a game level for you to fill in. For example, you may need to place some islands to allow the player to travel across a large gap.

What problem does the player encounter when pressing play in the default level, and what will students need to add in the next lesson to solve it?

They cannot cross the first gap that they come across. The gap is far too wide to jump, and requires that the player get some height. To do this, we will have to place various static islands to allow a player to cross the gap while gaining enough height to clear the gap. The gap could be bridged easily, but you want there to be some challenge. That means we will have to add some gaps and make variations to the floating islands to ensure that crossing the gap is fun. 

Collision Detection Reflection

2/27/2026

Why do we need collision objects? Why can't the computer just use the static meshes to handle collisions?

We need collision objects so that the computer can tell where and how the interactions need to be calculated. If you made all of the collisions for objects surround their entire form perfectly, it would be incredibly hard for your computer to handle. It may look better for the player if the collisions are accurate, but the main calculations that a game engine is doing in the background are collision detentions. The more complex you make the collision geometry, the more difficult the detection is for the computer to run, causing performance drops. The game engine has to do complex calculations in the background, often ones that cannot be done by a GPU and are therefore slower. The type of equation that is used also depends on the complexity of the collision box. Most collisions use a somewhat simpler equation, but convex shapes, meaning shapes that have an indent, require the much more complex Separating Axis Theorem.

What was the hardest part to understand about collision detection?

The hardest part for me to understand was how using the different collision presets would effect the end product. I couldn't tell which 10 sided one did what without trial and error. I also struggled to understand just what the numbers entailed and how that would affect the world. Up until that point, if collision wasn't working, I just set the collision on the object to "Use Complex as Simple", which worked but has some crucial problems. I now understand that doing this may be fine on a small scale, but on a large scale, it could cause massive delays and lag spikes due to the time required to run these complex collision equations. 

Islands Reflection

3/2/2026

What do you think is important to create player immersion when designing a part of a level using static islands?

You need to make the islands have differing rotations and sizes. This might make the islands seem less pasted in and more natural. You'll also need to consider adding different rocks to the islands to make them seem even less similar to one another. You may want to space them somewhat consistently, but not in a way that seems unnatural. The last thing to consider is that rotating the islands too much (around the x or y axis) may cause the island to have an odd looking tilt.

What was most challenging with creating the animations for the moving islands?

I found navigating the sequencer to be the hardest part. You need to make sure to do all of the steps in a very specific order otherwise it wont work. You need to move the slider, then move the island, then add a keyframe in that order. I often found myself confused why it wasn't working when I moved the island before moving the slider, resetting the movement and making the island stay still. It was mainly my fault, and I'll hopefully get better at using it as time goes on.

If you had more time to work on the animations, what would you do to improve and make them more interesting?

I might add some sort of curve to the movement to make it take somewhat of an arc. This would make the movement of the island seem less robotic and linear. I might also add some slight wobble to the animation as the island comes to an abrupt halt. This would make the islands seem more alive and add more complex movement to the animation. The wobble would only require that I keyframe some slight rotations that slowly get smaller after the island has stopped its linear movement.

Power Ups Reflection

3/4/2026

Can you think of any other powerups that you would like to add to your game?

I think that a speed boost that increases player run speed, a double jump that you can use after touching it in the air, and a powerup that multiplies your current velocity could be cool additions. They would each add a layer of interest and complexity to the relatively basic parkour. The boost that increases run speed could be used to make the player jump a longer gap and could be combined with the jump height powerup to send someone flying. I think that a double jump powerup, while basic, could allow for less player downtime while going across large gaps and could create some more complex parkour that requires that you go under something. I think that a velocity multiplier would be a very interesting addition. Allowing a player to time when they hit the power mid air to get more distance or height could allow for some much more interesting jumps. I also think that the power could be used in tandem with the other ones to give the player a good view of a level after playing it by jumping from one side of the map to the other.

Pro Reviews Reflection

3/4/2026

What surprised you most when comparing two professional reviews of the same game?

They both had very similar opinions about what was good and bad about the game. What surprised me though, is how differently they valued certain aspects. One review would consider a flaw completely unimportant and overshadowed by the good. The other, however, may consider the flaw game breaking and drop the score significantly because of it. They also spent different times talking about different parts of the game, despite mostly talking about the same things. This may have also reflected how important they viewed this part of the game.

How can reviewing two different opinions help you become a better game reviewer or designer yourself?

It can help you understand what different people value in a game. Even if two people have the same experience they might have very different opinions about what was bad or noteworthy. That means that you cannot just focus solely on one aspect of the game. Even if the visuals are stunning, the other aspects have to be decent or else someone might still not like the game. As a reviewer, this experience has taught me that you have to look deep into the game and not be afraid to have a different opinion as someone else.

Coins Reflection

3/5/2026

Why do you think players can find it satisfying to collect things like coins?

Collecting things and watching numbers go up as you do undeniably scratches an itch in people's brains. Some of the satisfaction comes from getting incrementally closer to a goal, like collecting all of the coins. Some of the satisfaction merely comes from the understanding that you are picking up something that you want. This urge most likely comes from humanity's hunter-gatherer days. The satisfaction one gets from picking up a coin most likely correlates to the instinct that encourages you to collect berries or mushrooms.

How could we improve the level to make it even more satisfying to collect coins?

Not over saturating a level with coins is a delicate but necessary balance. If you have too many coins, collecting them can feel less satisfying. Having too little, on the other hand, may make it difficult for the player to know the intended path. Additionally creating a separate collection mechanic that adds to a different counter and has much more difficult placements can increase the satisfaction one might get from obtaining the coin. Players will feel much more accomplished if the difficult task is rewarded with something other than a high amount of the currency they already have.

Door Key Reflection

3/6/2026

Why do we store the information about having the key in the Game Mode instead of in the door or the player?

If the level has multiple doors and multiple keys, the opening wouldn't function properly if the key was stored in the door's code. Storing the key in the game mode not only allows it to be accessed by multiple other things, but it also ensures that nothing is deleted if the player dies. If the player dies, many things are reset, like what we saw in the jump height section of the build. This would mean that the stored data for haveKey? would be reset to the default, which is 0. Although storing variables where they are most commonly used is good practice, it is not always the best choice when choosing where to put a variable.

What was the hardest part to understand when building the key and connecting it to the door?

The code inside the door and the game mode seemed relatively daunting. I found it hard to understand the purpose of all of the individual pieces and why they were necessary. Using the "cast to" function was kind of confusing as one might expect that cast to would push a variable out of one object so that it can be used by another, but its true purpose is to pull a variable from another section of the game. I was somewhat confused by the reason for using targets and what that actually means. I suspect that target merely tells the code where to look for something, but I'm still not sure when it is supposed to be used.

Pickup Indicator Reflection

3/6/2026

Why is it better practice to keep the logic for updating the timer inside the HUD instead of directly in the Game Mode?

The HUD, unlike the player or an individual door, should only ever have one copy in existence and shouldn't be deleted during the level. This means that storing the logic for the timer on the HUD has no evident downsides. It also means that you can access the variables easier and can change things about the HUD quicker and with less intercommunication. Putting the code on the HUD, makes it easier, especially for someone else, to know where to look in your code if they wanted to edit the timer function. If the logic was stored somewhere else without good reason, it would be difficult to find.

What challenges did you face when creating a new event from scratch in the HUD, and how did you solve them?

Making a HUD element from scratch requires that you keep a large number of things in mind. You have to create a new text box, tell the engine how to scale the UI properly, and make sure to rename the variable. You also need to make sure that the code functions properly, which requires getting all of the code to target the correct thing and ensuring that all of the connections are made properly. You must ensure that the section of the code in the game mode also works properly and updates the timer with what you want it to every second. Following best practice can be difficult, but it will make editing your code in the future significantly easier.

End Goal Reflection

3/9/2026

What did you learn about how data is passed between blueprints and widgets?

In order to pass data between different blueprints, you need to use the "Cast To" node. You would then need to use the "Run As" to target a variable or data that is located inside of another blueprint. To put this into practice, I made a speed up powerup to add to my level. It was very difficult at first to understand what all of the code from the jump boost meant, but I eventually realized that I needed to make a new variable in the character and use the "Cast To" node to edit it while still being in the speed boost's  blueprint. It would also need to use this node to figure out whether or not it was targeting a valid object.

Why is it helpful to organize blueprint code using nodes like “Sequence” and reroute pins?

The sequence node allows for you to organize your code not in a straight line while still preserving function. It allows for code to be run in order without any significant crossing of lines or confusion regarding what was connected to what. It is very common to want to run things in a particular order, but that can become hard to read and disorganized quickly. The reroute pins can help you not  only to not unnecessarily cross lines, but also to know what something is referencing from really far away. If lines cross, following them from beginning to end becomes very difficult.

Overview Reflection

3/9/2026

How does your hero’s story (their lore) connect to the new world you will build in Unit 5?

This is the same valley that Dave was kicked out of. It will feel empty and lack  inhabitants because all of the elves that lived here previously are gone. He will find evidence of what happened to them as he progresses through the valley. Eventually, he will realize that they have all died and that there are few left but him. He may have to use the dagger he was gifted by his father to kill monsters that oppose his movement.

Do you need to change your hero in any way based on what you now know about the valley? Or should you keep your hero as they are and instead adapt the design of the world to fit them? Explain your reasoning.

I think that the way I wrote my character is pretty easy to fit in whatever world I build, but I might have to tweak some aspects of the story and some aspects of the world to match better. There will be no scar visible on his right arm, but I could probably just say that he is hiding it. I think I'll have to make the place seem more abandoned that is suggested in the preview of level two. I'd like the world to feel more desolate than alive. Although both need to be changed, I'm hoping I can achieve something that aligns with both the character I've created and the world that we are being instructed to create.

Thinking about your Unit 3 activities on game mechanics, mood, and fairness, which of those ideas will influence your world design the most in Unit 5? Why?

I think that mood will most likely affect my building of the game most significantly. The gameplay seems pretty straightforward and as though we will be told how specifically to do everything. Most of the other aspects either seem similarly preset or might just be insignificant to the story I'm trying to build. I want the game to seem somewhat difficult but it doesn't have to be consistent as I can just claim that the valley is mysterious and wily. I think that the most crucial part of my creation is ensuring a consistent feeling of being alone and as though the world around the player hasn't been lived in for a while.

Write down 3 keywords that describe the mood of your Level 2 world. Example: mysterious, hopeful, dangerous.

I think that complex, odd, and lonely would best describe what I'm going for with this assignment.

Level Setup Reflection

3/10/2026

How did experimenting with lighting help you understand the importance of atmosphere in a game world?

It helped me to understand what different warmth levels of lighting would do to the world and how that might affect how the player sees the world. White light often can seem calm and somewhat calming as it can be understood at a glance. Cool lighting can seem calm and tranquil, and warm lighting can seem comforting or relaxing. But these different methods of lighting can also have different meanings based on context. White light can seem clinical and unfeeling, cool light can seem cold or unnerving, and warm light can seem angry.

Why is real-time global illumination (Lumen) such a game-changer compared to baked lighting?

It allows for the player to have a shadow and for other things that move to have shadows. If you prebake the shadows, there is so much less you can do with them. You can't make things that shadows are cast on move (without the shadow looking odd) and you can't make light levels flicker or light sources move. If you wanted to make a day/night cycle, you'd have to prebake a bunch of shadows for them to look good, but Lumen can handle all of that and look smoother. Although lumen takes a lot of processing power, it is significantly more capable than previous lighting methods.

What kind of problems could happen if your level didn’t have the correct Game Mode?

Many problems would arise if you didn't pick the correct game mode. You wouldn't spawn a character that can move upon starting the level. You wouldn't have access to an in-game timer. Everything that reffered to the HOC Game Mode might no longer function, as it isn't the main game mode running in the background. You'd need to make new versions of everything you'd made so that it refers to this other game mode rather than the HOC one. The main hurdle you'd encounter is most likely making a player character actually spawn and function properly as it did in level one. Although possible to make a new game mode, it is much easier to use the one that already works.

Sculpting Tools Reflection

3/11/2026

Which sculpting tool did you find the most useful for shaping your world today, and why?

I found the sculpt tool most useful for shaping the landscape. Although that seems like an obvious answer, it is the most efficient way (that I'm aware of) to add bumps and dig holes. It was crucial, not only to build up the base for my mountains, but moving it quickly adds randomized texturing to the mountains. It also allowed me to use the noise brush to make a bumpy and more interesting surface for my level. Overall, the tool is very useful for building things up and adding a little randomness to your builds.

What challenges did you face when trying to make your landscape look realistic?

The main challenge that I faced was with shadows (It can be seen in the photo below as it was taken before I fixed it). Mountains that border the edge of the landscape do not have a defined back edge that can collide with light. That means that the shadow that appears would only be as though part of the mountain is see through. The best way I found to fix this was the sculpting tool. I'd lower the radius and dramatically increase the strength. That let me use shift to dig a hole on the other side of the mountain, allowing it to collide with light.

How could you use reference images to improve the realism of your world?

Looking up reference is a great way to ensure that your features seem somewhat realistically shaped. If you add too much noise or make the mountain to sharp, it can look unnatural. But, that doesn't mean that all of the errors are immediately evident. You may think that something looks wrong, but not know what. That means that using a reference image could allow you to create something that seems right. An additional use may be to look up pictures from other games. While it may decrease realism, it might help to know how to scale things relative to the player in a gaming environment.

Landscape Scultpting reflection

3/13/2026

Which parts of the reference image were easiest to recreate in your landscape?

I think that making the peaks of the mountains was the easiest to recreate. Real mountain peaks are somewhat smooth, but also bumpy. I only really had to use the sculpt tool and the noise sculpt to make them look like I wanted them to. Making natural seeming mountains is as easy as just making a large mound with slight randomness and possibly smoothing the top. I ended up mkaing very few changes to the peaks once they were completed as they looked pretty good after my first attempt.

Which areas were the most challenging, and how did you approach them?

I found making the ground look reasonable and the the ramp look nice to be difficult. It was very hard to balance looking natural while having some interesting bumps. If you add too many sharp bumps, it looks unnatural. On the other hand, if you make it too flat it can seem uninteresting or could also seem unnaturally flat. To solve this, I made a lot of small repeated changes to the bumpiness to make it look better.

If you could improve one part of your terrain, what would you change and why?

I think that I'm still unhappy with how bumpy some of the map is, and I think that the lake isn't wide enough. Some of the level seems to flat, while others look oddly unnatural. It is difficult to tell whether or not the bumps are too big until you play the level. I also think that the lake is too small. I think that I'll need more room to work with for the next few lessons.

Paint Landscape Reflection

How did painting with layers change the look of your world?

It made the world seem much more vibrant an alive. The world seems barren still, but it looks much better and has more color. Not only do the colors make depth perception easier and make the world seem slightly more realistic, but they also tell the player what should and shouldn't be walked on. It helps guide the player towards where you'd want, and discourages them from tring to climb the walls after making a few attempts. Overall, colors make the world seem more interesting and less gray.

What choices did you make when adding grass and gravel, and why?

I chose to use gravel 2 instead of gravel 1 for the tops of the mountains. I personally thought that the first gravel would look better at the bottom of the water rather than on the mountains. The first gravel seems like its made of rock and full of rocks that have broken off elsewhere. I thought that that would fit better under the lake. I also thought that the grass should stay at the bottom of the mountains and not encroach through far.

How did adding water affect the atmosphere of your landscape?

It added movement and more color to the world. The level seem less like just walking through corridors to the goal. It also has small waves crash onto the walls, creating a white foam. This makes the level seem somewhat calm and tranquil because the waves are tiny. This atmosphere is going to be added to in later lessons with trees and buildings.

Paths and Checkpoints Reflection

3/17/2026

How did you use natural barriers and paths to guide the player through your world?

Players are naturally curious, which can be to the game designer's detriment if they weren't able to ensure that their game was entirely bug-free. Players may stumble across something they weren't meant to see or they might spend a long time looking for the way forward if you don't guide them. Waypoints are useful, but you can also sculpt the terrain to make an obvious path to guide the player forward. If you want to be even more direct, you could add a pathway. In my case, I made the mountains, which are too steep to climb, naturally funnel the player along a path. I also painted a path onto the ground to ensure that the player wouldn't get too sidetracked or get turned around.

What choices did you make to make your checkpoints unique?

I changed mainly just the food at the table and the orientation of chairs for the first three. For the fourth, I wanted it to seem more like a logging camp than a rest stop or a food area. I did this by making a small fire pit, some stools to sit around the fire, and a pile of cut firewood in a storage shed nearby. I wanted the logs to be sticking out of the shelves differing amounts, so I scaled down a large version of a single log until it fit the size I wanted. They all have a large red flag, which should help point the player towards them.

How do checkpoints change the way players experience your level?

It encourages exploration and some degree of carelessness. The game would feel unfun and the player would be on edge if they knew that dying would reset the whole level. Using checkpoints can allow the player more room to make mistakes and learn the game's mechanics without having to redo things too many times. If you got to a section where turrets were shooting at you, it'd be hard to get the pattern down if you had to make your way through the entire level just to reatempt it. The player would forget what they tried the first time and be too cautious to make progress.

Trees and Plants Reflection

3/17/2026

Which foliage settings made the biggest difference in realism for your world?

The minimum radius away from each other made the biggest realism difference. Seeing two objects occupying the same space is something very obviously fictional and can take a player out of being immersed very quickly. People are likely to spot visual bugs, especially in an area where they are just running forward, so you have to be careful about what you allow to happen. Adding a minimum radius makes it impossible for the foliage to occupy the same space. Adding this radius can also prevent all of the individual foliage pieces from clumping too much by random chance.

How did adding vegetation change the atmosphere of your level?

It made the world seem much more vibrant, alive, and less barren. Looking at the grass texture with no grass sticking out looks somewhat odd and adding grass can make it seem much more normal. The world used to be just relatively flat terrain and mountains, but adding forests can make the world seem much less flat. Additionally, the foliage makes the walking sections much more visually interesting. Previously, there was very little to look at and the player might have been bored walking in a straight line with nothing happening, but now they have something to catch their eye.

How can you use forests and fields not just as decoration, but to shape gameplay and exploration?

Forests are great at hiding things from the player until they get very close. This could be used to ambush the player with enemies or hide some secret treasure or dungeon. This mysteriousness can often make players gravitate from open areas to forests out of curiosity. Fields can also be useful, not just because they are less strain on your computer than a forest, but also becasue they allow you to see far. A field could allow the player to see a tower or a temple in the distance that you want them to go to. The player would be intrigued by this far off building, and start heading towards it.

Build a Castle Reflection

3/19/2026

What choices did you make to design your castle’s exterior?

I mainly followed the tutorial with some notable exceptions. I wanted it to feel as though this area had been closed off or sealed. To do this, I ensured that there were no windows or cracks other than the sealed door in the front of the castle. To ensure that there really were no cracks, I moved the roof peices down to prevent any light from peeking in. That meant that the top of the castle wouldn't be a clean amount of tiles, so I had to use the mesh cut tool to cut some of the roof tiles in half.

How did you organize your assets to keep the build manageable?

I mainly just organized them into larger peices of the castle, but not into any subcategories. There is a group for the floor tiles, aptly named "Floor". Similarly there are individual groups for the roof, each wall, each turret, and the interior. I found this was the easiest thing to do as it allowed for selection of entire wall or floor sections easier and made navigating the overview easier. Naming the groups could also help me remember which side was which if I got turned around. This allowed for more consistent naming of other groups according to the determined convention.

What atmosphere do you want players to feel when they reach the castle interior?

I would like them to feel like something bad has happened here and it hasn't been lived in for a long time. This fits it much better with the story than the lit flames and such of the demo world. In my version of the story, this castle would have been abandoned for a long time, possibly relating to the gaping hole in the center of the building. I will most likely change from the braziers to glowing orbs that float around when I get the chance. Lit fires are often a sign that someone has been there recently, which I don't want the player to think.

Lights & Flickering Reflection

3/23/2026

How did adding lighting change the feeling of your castle?

Adding lighting from torches instead of from the sun significantly darkened the scene and made the lighting warmer and more concentrated in specific areas. These things caused the mood to feel more mysterious and dark. Not being able to see everything on top of the lack of sunlight help to create this feeling. This mysterious mood matches quite well with some of the other decorations I put into my castle. I created a large hole in the center of the castle, where the player can't see the bottom. The pit would be much less intimidating if sunlight reached to the bottom.

What choices did you make to balance mood and visibility?

I went back and forth quite a lot on how intense or warm the lighting should be to get a good balance. The warmth was somewhat easy, but the intensity was harder.  I needed the light to reach a somewhat noticeable portion of the floor, but not make the area too bright. I found that adding post processing and dimming the lights to illuminate only a small area around themselves was optimal. This made it difficult to see the areas that weren't illuminated, guiding the player to where they should go. 

How can light be used as both decoration and a gameplay tool?

Lighting areas in specific ways can drastically change how a player views an area. For example, a castle lit by a white light might seem somewhat neutral or grand, while a castle lit by red lights would look much more ominous or spooky. Lighting can also be used for other things. If you need to guide a player in a direction, lighting the path you want them to take would make them more likely to follow that path. People naturally tend to stick to more illuminated areas, so game developers will often take advantage of this.

How did flickering light change the feeling of your castle compared to static light?

The flickering lights certainly added to the mysterious feel of the castle. People often find things that are illuminated by something fickle like a somewhat weak fire to be more intimidating. The movement of the shadows and the flickering make these fires seem very weak and unreliable. The movements of all of the lights being random tend to make moving dark spots. When people see something dark move in their peripheral, it puts them on guard.

Why do you think it’s important to add variation between different light sources?

They would seem very unnatural and odd if they all moved and flickered in the same way at the same time. Fires in real life don't work in unison, and someone would likely be able to catch this oddity while playing. The immersion of the player would be broken if they noticed something like this. Additionally, if all of the lights flicker at once, the player will be left in the dark every once in a while. This would be very noticeable and possibly spook the player or make the castle hard to navigate.

If you wanted to push the atmosphere further, where else could you use dynamic shadows?

You could use some kind of chandelier or some smaller areas on the ground for firewood to go in. I personally want to add some orbs of light flying slowly around the castle. If I can get their speed and brightness correct, they should cast moving shadows on all of the walls, the floor, and the ceiling. This would not only add to the fantasy elements and make the mood if the castle even more mysterious, but it could also provide more of an explanation to the player about the lore of the valley.

Castle Village Reflection

3/25/2026

What details did you add to make your village feel lived-in?

According to the story that I was trying to follow in this level, this area was lived in, but hasn't been used in a while. Additionally, the people who lived here seemingly disappeared suddenly. All of the perishable food is gone, and the area seems a little overgrown for a usual town. There is a blacksmith with a stand outside that still has things on it (not pictured) and the inside of the blacksmith also has a number of metal things left on shelves. There are no other npcs and all of the fires have long since burned out.

How did coins and gems affect the way players might explore your level?

I think that coins helped to guide the player in the right direction, but the gems required seeing them and using critical thinking to find a path to them. The one on top of the gate cannot be reached easily, but once the player has seen it, they might try to jump off the top platform onto the stair banister to climb past the tall handrail. The coin on the top of the castle might be seen somewhat easily, or someone might spot its signature glow from inside the castle. This might encourage them to check around the castle for some way to get up, where they might find the stones sticking out of the back of the castle. Finally, the gem on the mountain near the back right side of the castle (not pictured) requires that the player see it earlier in the level, remember that it was there, and try to go around the windmill.

Creative Expanse Reflection

4/9/2026

How can props and buildings help tell a story without words?

I attempted to tell the story of tragedy and abandonment without directly telling the player anything. All of the perishables have decayed into dust, but the metal hasn't begun to rust. That gives the player a good idea of just how long no one has lived here for. Additionally, the fact that everything was abandoned without any care for packing up tells the player that something bad happened here. The "spirits" within the castle seem to be leading the player towards the end goal, which should tell the player that whatever left that there wants to guide them forward. However much of the story the player is able to piece together is up to the individual, but they should be able to gather some of the intended story from what they can see in the game.

How can you balance decoration with gameplay flow, so the player doesn’t get lost?

I tried to make all of the decorations on the path to the final goal or at least tried to make them not too distracting. The windmill on the hill for example, might draw the player's attention enough to make them explore it, but that would give them a good vantage point for the level, and shouldn't distract too much from the main story. As much effort as I wanted to put into my castle city, I tried to make the city not seem too distracting, so that the castle would be the main attraction. This would ensure that a player should be able to gather that they should try to head into the large imposing castle. They should see that it requires a key, and look in the surrounding area for it.

Challenges Intro Reflection

4/10/2026

How well does your current world design support the kinds of challenges shown in the video?

The layout of the level meets the requirements that were put forward for the level, but the layout may require some changes. The layout currently has a somewhat long  body of water for the first challenge. The second challenge area may be not steep enough, but that could be fixed later. The timed gate challenge seems pretty good for what is needed from it. The area where the player is shot at by turrets might be a little rough for consistent dodging.

What changes or adjustments might you need to make to your landscape, layout, or design to prepare for these challenges?

I think I wont have to change the water much, I'll just make the challenge go over a little longer of a distance. To make up for this, I might make the road somewhat straighter and less winding. The second challenge may be a problem if it isn't steep enough. The boulders may not roll down with enough speed if the hill has too little incline. I think I'll try to make it work, but if it doesn't I'll just remake that area and make new foliage to accommodate a steeper hill. The solution for the roughness of the dodging challenge is pretty simple, I'll just use the flattening tool in landscaping mode if I need to.

How should the challenges you add in this unit match the mood of your Level 2 world?

I need to make sure that they seem somewhat decrepit and unlived in to match the feeling of loneliness from the general level design. This might be difficult when it comes to the turret section, but I think I can come up with something that looks like it matches the time period. I also need to make sure that the timer challenge area and narrow bridge areas seem somewhat more decrepit as they wouldn't have been protected by mountains on all sides from the elements like the castle village.

Sweeper Arm

4/13/26

How did adding ragdoll physics change the feeling of failure in your game?

It made the death of the player seem less sudden and jarring. The ragdoll effect allows the player to realize that they have died and figure out what went wrong before they respawn. It could allow the player to expect the sudden flash that would result from respawning. Additionally, the ragdoll effect makes the death seem more like the player is dying and respawning than just teleporting to the previous checkpoint. Until this, there was nothing to indicate that the player had died other than teleporting to the last checkpoint and contacting something dangerous.

What adjustments would you make to the Sweeper Arm to balance difficulty?

I made the box that kills the player small enough to only kill the player if they get hit by the moving edge. This should allow the player to stand on the knife and not be confused as to why they died. Because of this, and to prevent the difficulty from increasing too suddenly, the knives increase in speed as the player goes along the track. This prevents them from using the momentum of the blade from launching them too far forward. Also, it allows the player to get used to the challenge before it becomes more difficult to dodge.

How does this first obstacle set the tone for the rest of the challenges?

This first obstacle tells the player that more than likely the future obstacles will be moving objects that can kill them if they are touched. This applies to the pendulum, which they would realize they have to avoid and the later boulders and bullets that they'd have to dodge. This tells them that contacting dangerous objects wont just damage them, it will kill them outright. This will make them more wary and cautious of future obstacles. They may be especially wary when they encounter a new threat, even if they aren't sure that it will kill them in one shot.

Narrow Path

4/13/26

How did adding pendulums change the feel of the Sweeper Arm challenge?

It added another axis of rotation that the players will have to consider. Threats no longer only come from things that predictably rotate on a vertical axis, but now they can rotate along a horizontal axis. That prevents the player from staring at the ground that they are trying to land on, they also have to look up to get the right timing. Also, they no longer move at a constant speed until they have completed a revolution, the pendulums can change direction. The pendulums not only add to what the players have to think about, but they also give me more options for creating the level.

What adjustments did you make to balance challenge and frustration?

I made it so that the players don't have to make many jumps where they have very few options to land. This allows the player to have more of a landing platform, but it also lets them choose where they want to land based on what they think their strengths are. I made it so that all of the difficult tricks for this portion, like launching off one of the blades, are entirely optional. This should allow players to choose not to try, but it gives players who want to do it more reason to try. Generally, these challenges are more fun when multiple options are presented and the difficulty isn't left entirely to the player's self imposed challenges.

How does polishing the environment change how players experience the challenge?

I think that making the jumps somewhat more consistent, but giving them steadily growing difficulty allowed for the challenge to flow better. It should let the players get used to jumping from and onto small objects without throwing them into the deep end immediately. I also did some visual polishing. I changed the water material that I was using when the previous one had some shading issues to ensure that it wouldn't be a distraction to the player. I also added rubble to a nearby cliff face to explain why there is a watchtower at the bottom of a lake. This makes the scene more interesting, but also more cohesive.

Boulders Reflection

4/14/26

How does the size and speed of the boulder affect how dangerous it feels?

Making the boulders larger and move faster make the player instantly dying upon touching it seem less odd. F = MA, so making the boulder move faster and be larger makes it seem like more of a threat. People have an intrinsic understanding of reality that bleeds into their mindset while playing games. This understanding of reality often includes relative danger. Something like sharp objects are dangerous, fast moving objects are dangerous, if you can see it, you can stand on it, and collecting items for later use is a good thing.

How did you balance safe zones and danger in your Boulder Hill design?

I wanted them to be somewhat difficult and require patience. In order to do this, I made the boulders spawn alsways at the maximum possible interval, so I could make the safe zones possible to get to. I order to make this more reasonable, I then made all of the safe areas significantly easier to get to, while still ensuring that the minimum interval wasn't enough to make the trek. This ensures that players will have to wait for a good oportunity, but they can still resonably go between safe areas within the time given. 

What changes did you make to your Boulder Hill to improve fairness after playtesting?

I mostly just made small changes to the size of safe areas. Moving the safe areas around would be very problematic. If you couldn't make one of the gaps and moved the end goal closer, that safe area would then be too far from the next one. Increasing their size avoids this problem becasue the safe area can stay as close as it needs to be to the next area, but it can become closer to whatever it needs to be closer to. Making them bigger also made the safe areas less claustraphobic and prevented the walls from messing with the camera too much.

How does the Boulder Hill hazard feel different from the Sweeper Arm challenge?

The boulder hill is a seemingly random physics based challenge, which makes it seem less predictable and more dangerous. All people have some degree of fear of things that are unpredictable and unknown. This makes the obstacle seem more real. The boulder challege also requires more patience than the sweeper are challenge. The sweeper arm makes a full rotation in a short period of time while the boulders spawn at a random interval.

How did adding destruction effects change the feel of the Boulder Hill challenge?

It makes the deletion of the boulders seem less jarring. I personally chose to make the boulders disapear into a tube before being destroyed because I thought that might look beter. Because of this change, the destruction effect makes it seem like the tube has some sort of grinder in it. The kill wall for the boulders is pretty close to what the player can see, so all they can see are the particles flying off after the boulder is deleted. I thought that a real boulder of this size wouldn't be destroyed into dust with just a little bump from a wall.

What choices did you make in your particle system, and why?

I made the boulder destruction give off a lot more dust and shards of rock than the instructions did. I thought that a boulder of this size wouldn't disapear into such a small amount of rocks and dust. The boulder's volume has to go somewhere, so most of it should be in the visual effect. I tried to color match the dust cloud to the rock texture to the best of my ability to ensure that the dust seemed like it came from the boulder. Despite adding to the number of shards, there is still a lot more dust than shards. I did that because I wanted the tube to seem more like it was being ground up.

How can visual effects help communicate gameplay information to the player?

Things disapearing suddenly can cause players to be confused. They might think that the thing that has disapeared has teleported or somehow become invisible. To prevent this, adding a particle effect that indicates the object has been destroyed can help. They wont think to look around them for what happened to the boulder if it has a destruction effect that clearly indicates that it has shattered. In my case, the destruction particles and the large X sign above the tube (not pictured) indicate to the player that going into the tube will kill them.

Timed Gate Reflection

4/15/26

How does the timed element make this challenge feel different from Sweeper Arm and Boulder Hill?

The player is no longer allowed time to prepare for a jump or think things through. Now they have to find the path that is short enough to beat the timer and then execute that path under pressure. Mistakes no longer mean restarting the last jump or waiting for the next opportunity to come, they mean that you have to restart the entire area. Just the idea of being under a time limit can make most people falter. Very few people will be unaffected by the very idea of a timer, even if the timing isn't very tight.

What adjustments would you make to the open duration to balance difficulty?

You would need to increase the time the gate is open in large-ish increments until the course was possible. Then, you'd have to lower the amount of time given in much smaller increments until the timing was somewhat tight. Every developer is going to balance their game differently, but most developers would want there to be a somewhat significant margin of error. Having this allowance of extra time be noticeable, but not too big ensures that players feel the time pressure, but don't have to play this one section over and over. Doing the same part of a level over and over just to be told that you have to do it again, but marginally faster can infuriate some players.

How can timing-based obstacles increase tension without feeling unfair?

You need intentional tricks that allow you to go faster instead of just requiring a very tight line. Adding these tricks can make this part seem more like a complex puzzle with difficult execution, rather than pure execution. Watching the gate close in front of you might be an encouragement to some players that they are close to success, but they just need to be a little faster. But, other players watching the gate close in their face might make them angry or frustrated. To alleviate this, you need to reframe the idea from "I need to be faster" to "I need to find a better path". This is much less likely to make players frustrated and requires that the player use some degree of brain power.

Abandoned Village Reflection

4/20/26

How did you decide which props and obstacles to use in your village course?

I mostly went for ones that I thought functioned well and could be used for one of its properties. One of these properties might be that it is too high to jump over, like a fence, or that it is dangerous looking, like spikes. Most of the items from the fantastic village pack seemed like they'd be good fits. I still had to keep in mind that the area needed to look abandoned. That meant I had to avoid perishables and any other indications of recent use, like fires.

What changes did you make to balance the gate duration with the path length?

I added a maze with an alternate route. If you can find the ladder, you can climb on top of the fences that make up the maze. Although this section contains danger, it allows the player to take more time in the other sections. The player can choose to take the more dangerous path, at their own risk. Other than that, I mostly just made slight alterations to the gate timer to keep it open just long enough.

How does the “escape before the gate shuts” mechanic create a different kind of tension than previous challenges?

It creates more tension. The boulder challenge requires patience, and the water challenge requires precision, but this challenge requires speed. It puts a great deal more pressure on the player if they can see the gate close while they are nearing the end of the parkour. It also adds an element of unknown. The player cannot tell how much longer is left for the gate until it closes, which makes them worry throughout the parkour if they will make it on time.

Enemy Tower Reflection

How did ranged attacks change how you tested your level compared to previous challenges?

The ranged attacks come at you quicker and change their rotation based on the player's location. These qualities set the boulders apart from the other challenges. The player is given something more dynamic and given less time to react. With the previous challenges, the player was given time to think the situation through and be thorough. For this challenge, when they realize the attack is coming, they have much less time to react and even when they know it is coming, they cannot inspect their surroundings, or else they'll be shot.

What adjustments might you make to the tower’s sensing distance or fire rate?

I think I might make their FOV much narrower. This will not only encourage players to look at the direction that the tower is pointing, but it could also make some hiding spots standing near the tower. These hiding spots would reward players for exploring their options and add an element of puzzle solving. The lower FOV could seem more realistic. I'm placing a cannon in the tower as opposed to a person, and a cannon couldn't turn that dramatically due to the poles holding the roof up.

Why does adding a visible enemy in the tower make the mechanic more immersive?

Players tend to follow danger sources with their eyes to better gather information. That would mean that most players would look into the tower and see that the bottles are spawning from nothing. Although some players might overlook this, it could dramatically ruin the immersion for others. Adding a visible enemy gives a source to this danger. Although players will most likely glance at the danger source, they most likely won't look close enough to notice small discrepancies between the location spawning of the bottles and the supposed source.

Predict Movement Reflection

4/21/26

How does changing ProjectileSpeed affect the predicted aim point and the player’s dodge options?

If the ProjectileSpeed is higher, than it reaches the player faster. That would mean that the predicted player location would be very close to the player. It might also leave the player with very few options to escape the projectile. Lowering the ProjectileSpeed would mean that the object takes longer to reach the player. That would mean that the prediction is very far in front of the player, giveing them a number of options to dodge.

What values would you tweak first (AimOffset, Sensing Interval, Z offset) to make towers feel fair but challenging - and why?

I would make the AimOffset lower and the projectile speed higher. This would make the tower's shots more accurate and reach the player faster. If the player is sufficiently far from the tower, dodging the projectiles only requires a back and forth zig-zag. To prevent such an easy solution, making dodging harder is necessary. I don't want the players to see the projectile before it hits them, but I want them to take the danger sources into account and try to make a path that prevents their death.

If you turned gravity on for projectiles, what parts of today’s prediction approach would need to change?

You would need to change the starting Y velocity of your projectiles. You would need to use a parabolic graph to determine how much to aim the bottle up. You would need to use the player's distance below the turret and calculate the trajectory that would hit them. Then you'd have to use trig to find the Y component of velocity that needs to be added to the bottle. This would ensure that the bottles don't fall down without reaching the player.

Tower and Potion Imp Reflection

4/22/26

Which per-tower variable (SightRadius, VisionAngle, TimeBetweenThrows) had the biggest impact on fairness - and why?

I think that vision angle has the biggest impact on fairness. Setting it too high can result in a player getting hit by a tower that is perpendicular to them. This might frustrate a player and make the game less fun. Also, lowering the radius can allow the player relative safety directly next to the tower. This could be an interesting mechanic to utilize in a level.

What advantages did OnComponentHit provide over overlap events for fast projectiles?

The OnComponentHit node allowed for better collision detection, and for the bottles to impact with more than just the player. This node would be more likely to work all of the time as intended. The way that the engine processes movements is in increments, so if that increment is large enough, the overlap node will teleport right through the player. Additionally, the bottles breaking on the ground adds to realism. It also lets us make a breaking animation play when the object hits something other than the player.

How do the explosion VFX change player readability (did I get hit? where did it land?) and how would you iterate on timing/color/scale to improve it further?

This VFX draws clear player attention to where the bottles are hitting. This may allow them to devise a strategy or to realize where they were hit and from what angle. If I were to try to make the potion's effect better, I think I'd have more of the particles have a velocity in the direction of the bottle's crash. This would be pretty easy since the bottles are already facing the right way, so you'd just need to give the particle system the same rotation as the bottle. This directional explosion would make it look like some of the bottle's momentum carried over.

Guarded Marketplace Reflection

Where did overlapping sight cones create the right kind of tension and where did it become unfair?

Overlapping sight cones allowed for more towers to be shooting at the player at once. This requires them to pay attention to more directions simultaneously. Although this can make for fun gameplay, having three or more cones overlapping, especially from very different angles can be too much. To mitigate this, limit the amount overlapping eachother to be a small volume. Alternatively, you could place the towers close together, which gives the player a smaller general direction to pay attention to.

Which props or blockers most effectively guided players along your intended route, and why?

The dangerous spikes was definitely the best at guiding the player. They fit the ascetic of a marketplace guarded by a number of towers. They also served to tell the player that going past them was impossible and possibly killing them to discourage attempting to discover a way around. Guiding them in this way can keep them very contained without blocking the towers too much. If they did get around, they could circumnavigate all of the challenges and that might ruin the fun.

After playtesting, what single adjustment (angle, radius, tower position, or cover placement) most improved fairness without killing challenge?

I found that the tower radius most improved fairness. Some of my towers face towards the path that the player is on parallel to that path. That would mean that if their radius was too high, they could shoot almost the entire road. If they could do so, then the player might be attacked by a stray bottle from a tower much too far away for the player to notice the tower. This radius increase could also result in the towers throwing strays from very far away, limiting the player's movement options too significantly.

Adjusting Feedback Reflection

4/24/26

What changes did you decide to make based on peer feedback, and why?

I made the first section significantly easier, especially in regards to the sweeper arm sections. The main way that I made the section easier was to lower the sweeper arms, making them easier to jump over. The other thing that I did to make the section easier was to add a checkpoint halfway through. That would prevent too much repetitiveness without ruining the difficulty. I got a complaint that the boulder section was impossible, but when I asked my neighboring peers to try the section, they got through it first or second try. I thought that this complaint might stem from not knowing what to do, so I made the offshoot sections more easily visible.

How did the feedback confirm or challenge your own ideas about your course?

It challenged what I thought was a good difficulty level, making me reconsider what was the core of my game and what I couldn't change. I thought that the checkpoints would be a good compromise, because they would allow players to not have to redo the hard sections over and over. I think that putting too many hard sections in an area with no checkpoints can quickly frustrate players. There are some areas that adding checkpoints would be difficult, like the timed area, so I may have to cede some of the difficulty to make the game more enjoyable. Difficulty is something that should make a player invested in continuing, not force them to give up prematurely.

Looking back, what part of your challenge zone feels most improved after these updates?

I think that the sweeper arm section is more fun now. As much as I'd like to force people to think outside of the box and jump on top of the swinging arms, too many players follow what they believe to be the intended path, sometimes to unneeded difficulty. This change may have removed an element of puzzle solving somewhat, but jumping on the poles is still possible and still easier. If players want to think outside the box, they can take the eaiser route. If they can only see the path laid out for them, I want that path to be enjoyable for that kind of player.

Decorate World Reflection

4/24/26

What area did you choose to expand or decorate, and why?

The main thing that I changed was to the entire map, not just to a specific section. But, other than the obvious terrain changes, I tried to better the abandoned village section. I thought that the area was much too bland when I made it. The only things there were the bare minimum amount of props required for the challenge. This made the area seem oddly barren and empty. Hopefully adding these props will prevent the player from thinking that the area is just something designed for the level.

How do your changes affect the way players experience or understand the challenges?

I thought that changing the terrain to stone mountains would contrast the marketplace path and riverbed much better. Hopefully this contrast can help them to see things more clearly and prevent everything from blurring together. I'm also hoping that the changes I made to the village area make it look more like a village. The vision of the village should be much more clear to the player now. The pathing that I added to the village should also help to draw the attention of the player to the maze entrance.

How do you balance decoration with gameplay so the player doesn’t get lost or distracted?

The main thing that I tried to do when adding decoration was to ensure that large areas weren't hidden from plain sight. This meant that hiding things was harder, but it also meant that the player would struggle to get lost or distracted by something because they could already see everything that was there from the main path. This method also meant that if they did try to explore, the main path wouldn't be obscured from view at any point. Additionally, decorations, namely paths can help to guide the player. Signs can also be useful communication tools.

 Module 7 Reflection 1

5/4/26

Unit Introduction 

Which of the three systems - UI, cutscenes, or sound - do you think has the biggest impact on how players feel while playing your game, and why?

I think that sound has the biggest impact on how players feel. While the UI is constantly visible for the player and the cutscenes are meant to draw the players attention, sound and music have the largest affect on how people feel playing the game. Changing background music and ambient noise are especially powerful. Ambiance can change a forest from seeming mysterious to being very eerie and scary for a player.  Visual effects need to be accompanied by sound to have maximum effect.

How do you plan to use these tools to make The Valley more immersive and emotionally powerful in the next lessons?

I hope that adding background ambiance can tell the player more about the world and how empty it is. I'm hoping that the whistling winds and birds chirping can draw attention to the lack of chatter and people talking. I'm hoping the cutscenes can help to show the player just how empty the world is on a large scale and encourage players to explore. The UI changes will also help make the experience smoother. This smoothness should help players be taken out of immersion less.

Main Menu

What was the most important connection you learned between widgets, levels, and controllers when building your main menu?

I learned that data needs to be sourced from a surprisingly large number of places. For the widget, you had to connect it to the player controller to insure that the player cannot move while paused. I also learned the contentedness of all three parts. You need a level to put the main menu in, a widget to show the player their options, and a controller to prevent player movement.

How does adding a background image or visual style change the way players experience your game’s first screen?

This background image and the color choices tell the player what they can expect to find in the game. The purpose image is pretty straightforward. It shows the players directly what they might be able to expect in the level. The color choices also tell the player what to expect. Main menus for horror games have dark colors and reds to tell the player what to expect.

Pause Menu

What part of the pause system was most important for making the menu feel responsive and reliable during gameplay?

Ensuring that the pause menu turned on when the key was pressed and turned off when the key was pressed a second time. If the player could press pause and it would register a pause hit every tick, that would make the pause menu practically unusable. On the other hand, if it only registered the opening click that would be bad. Players might accidentally hit pause or want to pause and unpause quickly, so they should be able to hit the same button to unpause the game.

How do you think players experience a pause menu that fits naturally into the game’s world and flow?

The players would see the pause menu as an extension of the game rather than a break from it. The pause menu shouldn't significantly separate the player from what they were doing. That's why most games that have a pause overlay a translucent covering over the game rather than blocking it entirely. The pause menu also needs to be darker colors. Very few things can take someone out of immersion more than having a bright light shined in their eyes.

Select Levels

How does storing and switching between multiple widgets in the Player Controller make your UI system more efficient and flexible?

It makes the UI seem less cluttered while still making sense. Trying to fit all of those buttons onto one screen would look terrible and result in much smaller buttons. It makes more intuitive sense to organise things into subsections. People like seeing things organized this way and more people can easily find what they were looking for. Also, having fewer buttons on a start screen makes the players feel less overwhelmed.

What feeling do you want players to have as they move seamlessly from one level to the next in your game?

I want them to feel like the levels are connected somehow. There shouldn't be that great of a separation between the levels, as that makes things seem less whole. While that is true, you need to balance that feeling with the feeling of exploring something new. If players feel like the entire game flows too well, it can seem repetitive. This separation is often achieved with a custom level select or an animation for going between levels while still using large titles to indicate that the level has changed.

What was the most useful takeaway for you from these lessons?

UI is much more important and complex than I thought. Although it wasn't too complicated to code, it was difficult to get UI that seemed to flow decently and not clash. You need to ensure that buttons are placed in the same way while navigating the main menu. That makes the parts of the menu to seem more fluid. You also need to ensure that the pause menu doesn't take too much away from actually playing the game.

Module 7 Reflection 2

5/17/26

Boulder Sound Effects

How does using attenuation and distance-based audio make your game world feel more realistic compared to fixed-volume sounds?

In general, players are often good at picking up on little things, even if they couldn't quite name whats wrong. This is especially true for things displayed clearly to the player, like audio. Even if they couldn't say what was wrong when asked, they would be off-put by the sound not getting quieter as they got further away from the sound's source. Although this specific detail may go unnoticed by the vast majority of players, the lack of this detail will be. As most modern games use this method of creating sound, it would be even more noticeable to someone who had played a lot of games before.

How did today’s work with sound design change the way you think about how audio influences the player’s experience?

I hadn't previously realized just how important the basic sound effects could be in a game like this. People rely on a collection of data from as many senses as they can to determine what the best course of action is. The amount of data someone feels that they have can be surprisingly increased by adding sounds to the environment. Although most of the important data they'd get would just be from turning to look at something, people feel more comfortable when presented with more data. For example, a walk through a fully quiet room would feel eerie in a video game even if the area is well lit.

Ambient Sounds

How does random timing and sound variation make ambience feel more natural?

Animals and other sources of noise you might hear in a valley would be most often heard at random-seeming intervals. These variations in delay help to mimic this kind of behavior in the game. The sound variations can also distract the player from the fact that the sounds are being recycled. If the player heard the same bird sound every 15-30 seconds, they'd likely notice. When the variations are made, it would be a lot longer between individual  repetitions of a specific sound.

When you think about your favorite games, what kinds of background or ambient sounds made the world feel alive, and how could you recreate that feeling in your own project?

In most of the games I've played, ambience takes an intentional backseat to the music that is playing. Despite this, a large amount of effort is clearly put into ensuring their quality. Areas with waterfalls would have a sound effect for the water hitting the water pool at the bottom after it fell. Forested areas had a time-specific ambience, playing bird songs more heavily in the morning and more insect noises later at night. In order to recreate this, I'd need to put a similar amount of effort in, ensuring that all of the ambience matches the mood and the surrounding area.

Pendulum Sound Effects

How does connecting MetaSounds to Blueprint events make a game feel more reactive and alive?

Connecting the sounds to a blueprint ensures that the sounds of the swing line up properly with the actual swing. These two things lining up makes the pendulums seem much more heavy and impactful. Before this, I had also added code to the blueprint for boulders to scale their volume with speed. These two details shouldn't be immediately noticeable but should positively impact the overall player experience. All of the small details like this in a level help to make the overall experience of a player better.

What kinds of small audio details make you feel the most impact or tension when you play a game?

Adding sound effects to player hits and to enemies attacks can drastically impact a game. Player hit sounds can help the player to tie getting hit with being something bad more easily. Enemy attack sounds can have multiple impacts on the experience. They can help tellegraph attacks, allowing players to dodge more easily. Additionally, these sounds can make the enemy's attacks sound like they have more force behind them.

Background Music

How does using Blueprint Interfaces make it easier to connect different systems in a game?

Blueprint Interfaces make interacting between blueprints easier. Unlike the alternative of "cast to", blueprint interfaces allow events to be accesed in multiple places more easily. With the cast to node, you need to use it every time you'd like to use a variable or data from antoher blueprint. Also, when using cast to, you have to specify a specific blueprint in the world, which is often inconvenient and difficult. BPIs can get around all of this and only require that you define an event once.

When have you noticed background music change in a game, and how did it affect how you felt while playing?

It most often changes whne entering a new area or experiencing a new event or weather condition. These soundtracks can help define the mood of a part of a game. If you were on a ship and a storm was brewing on the horizon, you'd probably hear foreboding and ominous music playing to prepare you for what is to come. Then, when the storm arrived, it might play a fast paced soundtrack to increase the player's anxiety and make them feel more immersed. Overall, the background music choice drastically affects the mood and how players interpret sections of the game.

What was the most useful takeaway for you from these lessons?

Sound isn't just something you can write off when making or playing a game. From the SFX to the background music, it is all important to the overall gameplay experience. If I were to make a game on my own time in the future, I think I'd spend a lot more time on the soundtrack and ambience than I would have previously. Sound can be a powerful tool to show players the way or to convey emotion. It can also be a significant detriment to a player's experience if done incorrectly.

Module 7 Reflection 3

5/20/26

Level 1 Cutscene

How does controlling music transitions through Blueprints improve the player’s experience during a cutscene?

Controlling the music through a blueprint gives significantly more freedom for changing settings. It mostly allows you to turn off the main music during the cutscene. Making the main music quiet allows for playing of another song during the cutscene. This song not only brings separation between the cutscene and gameplay, but it also makes the cutscene feel more interesting for players to view.

When have you noticed a game use music to guide your emotions or signal a shift in gameplay, and what effect did it have on you?

I often notice the music change to guide the players' emotions when a bossfight ends and a cutscene plays. Often in stories, to create nuance, entities you must fight and kill are given stories and lives of their own. When your ideals clash with theirs, it becomes necessary to battle them, but that doesn't make battling them entirely separate from reality or entirely without emotion. To guide players, often the boss' theme, played in minor keys, will begin playing, indicating to the player that they have taken a step forward in their journey, but have stepped on others to do so. It is meant to and does often make the player feel somewhat bad for the entity they've just killed.

Level 2 (Part 1) Cutscene

What did you find most difficult about creating smooth camera movement across multiple rails and shots?

The rotation of the camera was much harder to get right than the transnational motion. Often that was because the horizontal and vertical motion was handled quite well by the rail, sometimes needing speed changes in the sequencer. The rotation, on the other hand, couldn't be handled by the rail without shaking significantly or making turns too sharply. Rotating can also be done in the sequencer, but it was significantly more difficult to get right. The camera would often rotate too quickly, making sharp turns that would look odd, or they would make too slow turns, looking at an angle for too long.

How did planning separate sequences for each area change the way you think about pacing in a cutscene?

It created separation between the challenges and made the cutscene seem more dense. The cuts between individual sections of the level made the player understand that they were separate challenges before even seeing the level. Even though not too much time was cut out from going over the entire level, the cutscene seems much more full. It seems that way because all of the areas that the camera is showing are important to the level. Just cutting out this small amount of downtime makes the level look more fleshed out and focuses the players in the challenges, rather than the level as a whole.

Level 2 (Part 2) Cutscene

What technical adjustments made the biggest difference when you combined your sequences and added music or animation?

Changing the rate of motion and the rate at which the animation played made a huge difference. The player jumping out of the boat needed to be synced up to part of the victory animation to make a normal seeming jump. If they didn't line up properly, the jump would look odd. Either the player would slide out of or into the animation oddly, or their jump would still be going on when they reached the ground. Apart from balance, the speed of the jump also needed to match up with what you'd already come to expect of the gravity.

How does your final cutscene reflect the mood or story you want the player to experience at the start of Level 2?

It adds to the mystery and intrigue of the valley. The cutscene makes it abundantly clear to the player that they are very alone in the valley and shows the player all of the areas they could explore to try and find an answer. The camera sweeps over a market and town where you might expect to find people, but no one is there. The player should feel somewhat weirded out by the overall lack of movement, encouraging them to inspect what happened.

Final Polish

Describe the changes you made, what you learned, and what you’re most proud of in your project’s presentation.

The change I made to the level was to make a message that appears on the players screen telling them to go in the hole. I'm quite proud of it because it was somewhat difficult and I think it turned out somewhat good. While making it mainly combined previous knowledge on how to activate something when the player enters an area and how to modify a widget, it expanded on both of these and added new elements. They messages could just appear suddenly, so I needed to figure out how to make them appear, but also blend in while appearing. I also wanted them each to be somewhat random, so I had to make them each attached to a separate random delay.

Reflect on how these finishing touches elevate your game from a student project to something that feels professional.

Not only does this change tell the player what to do, albeit not very subtly, it also serves to explain to the player what happened to everyone else. Upon seeing these messages, the player would think that this was the reason that the other people went missing. They also must have recieved this message and were somehow called to the hole. It indicates to the player that something sinister lies down there that they'll have to defeat to learn more. It serves as a somewhat heavy-handed form of environmental storytelling.

What was the most useful takeaway for you from these lessons?

I think that the most useful takeaway from these lessons was the use of rails in sequences. The rails made moving the camera much smoother and significantly easier. The rotations would be at a more constant rate and could be changed more easily with this method. Additionally, the speed of the camera would remain constant. This prevents any of the areas from feeling like they move too fast and eliminates any excessive speed balancing that the previous method would have required.

My Red Thread

5/26/26

What connects the different parts of your creative work - what is your red thread?

I think that my creative works are connected by a sense of overcoming something grander than yourself. This drives the player further when things become difficult. It also makes the player seem small, and insignificant, but despite that, they push on. The feeling of overcoming something is made much more worthwhile if it initially seemed too big to have anything to do with you. Hopefully that will make the playing and completion of the game more satisfying.

Which design or storytelling choices represent you the most clearly?

I think dark lighting, a sense of loneliness, and an eerie mood best represent me. I think that these pieces can make players feel more on edge and as though the world they are in isn't quite right. If this feeling can be slowly curated, it can make the player much more invested in the game. If something is off, but the player can't quite figure out what is wrong or why, they will be curious and try to figure things out. This curiosity leads to investment in the story and makes things seem much more interesting.

Why do you think those choices feel authentic to who you are?

I think that I, like all people, have an intrinsic fear of being alone. People feel safe when others are around, but are almost always uncomfortable when they are alone. Being somewhat uncomfortable, seemingly contrary to logic, draws people in. I understand this about myself because of the games I've personally enjoyed. Most of the games that I prefer have very little dialogue and very few interactions with others.

How could your red thread evolve as you continue learning and creating?

Initially in 3D modelling I wasn't quite sure what I wanted my red thread to be. I created the things that I was instructed to create and when prompted to be creative, I made whatever came to me. More than a conscious choice, my red thread sort of came out in what I created. When allowed full creative freedom, I made a very dark scene of a bike, rolling under a street lamp. This scene seems like it should have people, but it notably doesn't. When making the valley, almost immediately I decided that I wanted the city to seem abandoned in a hurry even if I didn't have a concrete idea of what the ending would be.

Portfolio Peer Review

5/27/26

What did you notice when comparing different portfolios during the review process?

I mainly noticed how their portfolio was organized. They had all of their reflections in different sections instead of in one large block. I also noticed how they wrote their reflections was significantly different from mine. They wrote in a tone that indicated less professionalism, but the reviews were certainly more interesting to read. They included jokes and sarcasm to lighten the overall mood of their writing. Another thing that was different was the fact that they captioned every image.

How did giving feedback help you think about your own identity or design direction?

It helped me realize how many ways there are that one could go about creating their works and portfolio. Most everything they did was written or designed quite differently from mine. The information remained similar, but the presentation was very different. They also had a connection between their pieces almost opposite to mine. While they wanted theirs to seem lively, I wanted mine to seem lonely.

What makes feedback feel constructive and meaningful in a creative field?

Constructive feedback needs a number of things to sucessfully convey something useful to its recipient. It needs to mention something specific that they liked or disliked. It should contain reasoning for why they liked what was good or ways they think the worse parts could be fixed. Constructive feedback is meant to focus mainly on the things that need fixing, but it shouldn't just be used to put someone else's work down. If you personally dislike a number of things, focus on the things that you think are more subjective or actionable.

What did you learn from reviewing other students’ portfolios that you can apply to your own?

I found that putting more effort into the design of my portfolio would be a good idea. Previously I focused more on content, but that made the site look basic and bland. A well designed portfolio can catch someone's attention much better and can keep their attention for longer. A portfolio shouldn't be just something that houses works. The portfolio itself needs to be formatted interestingly and the UI needs to seem somewhat fluid.

Portfolio Polish

5/29/26

Describe one major improvement you made based on your action plan. How does it make your portfolio stronger or clearer?

I changed the formatting, color, and font choice of the entire site. I thought that the initial coloration was somewhat bland and expected for people who've seen google sites before. The text font and color also seemed somewhat basic and uninteresting. The changed version is significantly more colored and seems, at least to me, less bland. The other changes, mainly changing the font type, made the entire site seem more professional. This was pretty heavily inspired by what I'd seen from other people.

What’s the biggest improvement you made to your portfolio today?

The biggest improvement was the color changes. Making subheadings blue and adding a banner to the top of the reflections page made the site seem more colorful. This can draw and keep people's attention more than black and white with a basic banner. For the banner image, I decided to make it one of the screenshots I had of the lights in my second level. I thought this image would look the best and be sufficiently dark to contrast white text over it.

How does your updated portfolio show who you are as a designer?

The new changes make the portfolio reflect more who I am as a designer. In most of my works, I use a very minimalistic design. This allows me to create something that looks good without requiring too much artistic talent. The changes that I made maintain the minimalistic style and don't take too much away from the content. The added colors don't take too much away from the pictures while still adding to the interest.

What final step will make your portfolio fully ready for showcase?

I think that I'll go back through each section to ensure that all of the banners are something specific that relates to the project and that all of the text boxes are properly formatted. This should make the portfolio seem more unified and professional. The consistant text formmating should make all of the peices seem more like a part of a whole than reflections being seperated. I'll also make sure that all of the info about edits and in the About Me are up to date. That should make the portfolio seem more accurate and trustworthy.

Final reflection

5/29/26

Looking Back

The project I think I'm most proud of is my last project, the PBM. It was not only the most difficult, but the most freeing. There were almost no rules so I was allowed to add whatever I thought would fit into this level. It certainly had the largest scope of any of the projects by far, requiring a lot of creativity to decide what it'd look like. Before this point, the part that I most enjoyed was placing the gems because I could place them wherever I wanted and it felt like I could rediscover my own level with a fresh set of eyes. This entire project felt somewhat like that. I'm also proud of this project because it had some of the most difficult and complicated blueprints of any of the things I'd done so far this year. When I look at any of the blueprints that I made for this project, I can see the time that went into them but also the challenges I had to overcome to bring my plans into reality.

Creative Growth

Throughout this course I have learned what parts of the game design process I enjoy most and what kind of worlds I like to create. Despite the limits on the game, I tried my best to make the story of the world another puzzle for the player to solve. If anyone was observant or curious, they would probably be able to piece together the world's story. For those who weren't interested in that, I tried to make the other parts of the game as technically appealing as I could with my limited skill. When making everything, I hoped that I could properly convey my ideas for the world without overtly shoving it in the player's face.

Challenges and Learning

The most challenging part of this course was probably decoration. I've never been incredibly creative or great at art, so it was a big struggle for me to make things seem visually appealing. To overcome this particular issue, I tried my best to make the other sections of the game impressive enough to distract from the less than beautiful designs and models. For example, when making a fountain, knowing that I wouldn't be able to make the actual fountain look good, I tried to make the water spewing out of the fountain more visually appealing to distract from the base. Apart from this, I tried to make everything seem somewhat minimalistic because I knew that if I tried to make it more impressive, it wouldn't turn out as I had intended.

Future goals

I'm going to work on a game of my own over the summer (hopefully) and get into the advanced game design course next year (also hopefully). I think that getting to work on my own piece from the ground up should be fun and it'll give me further insight into what I'm good at and what needs work. It should also double as being good practice for the course next year and any future endeavors into game design. Knowing how bad scope creep hit for my PBM I hope that I can make a plan for the game that is reasonable and within my abilities. In the course next year I want to get more practice for my skills, but more importantly than that, I want to be able to work with others on a game better. If I can manage to work well on a game with someone else, that will prove invaluable towards any future endeavors that would require working with a team. To summarize, in the future I'd like to continue working to hone my skills and gain more practice with building games.