Evaluation

During research, I used sources such as YouTube as a main primary and secondary source which allowed me to gain insights into designing the mechanics and levels from people who have created many levels. This was very beneficial for me to study as I am new to unreal engine and these tutorials allowed me to fix / edit bugs later on in the production phase. For the main YouTube channel which I researched, I looked at Gorka Games, an unreal engine user who is also a student working in the games design sector with lots of experience seen on his channel. The various tutorials he has proved beneficial with tutorials of level switching, health systems and enemy AIs which were all greatly considered towards production of Ghoul Gauntlet. Undoubtedly, Gorka Games' YouTube channel was the most sufficient secondary research source I used for the production of the level as he provided the foundation for the level's blueprints which were necessary for the player to interact with the level. Next time, I would like to broaden my horizons with other channels to gain a range of insights onto level design in Unreal Engine as this might show multiple ways to creating levels which will be intriguing to learn whilst also providing alternative solutions to problems that I may possibly face with the level's logical errors that could occur and that did occur, as seen in the audio slider part of the production log. 

I also looked onto google for references for the camera and HUDs which I clearly annotated and researched for Pre-Production. The sources went into detail on how the blueprints interacted with the level which proved useful as production went on as seen with the health system which was heavily updated to allow the enemy and player to receive damage rather then be destroyed instantly as seen in the early stages of development and in the tutorials. However, when searching for how to cast to certain widgets and how to adjust the audio I could not find a sufficient tutorial for what I needed but I overcome this by doing work arounds with casting.

A couple primary sources I got were from League Of Legends and Unturned for their camera angles and main menu screens. The sources gave me an idea for the level's camera placements and so I adapted them into Ghoul Gauntlet's level design which also proved beneficial by making the level more appealing and interactive for the player. These primary sources were excellent as I could provide extensive research by testing the camera and examining the menu's independently so I could get the personalized research which was needed to advance with the project.

Pre-emptively, I created a range of pre production documents such as mood boards and floor plans to show how the level's would be laid out and also how the widgets would be laid out. These were adapted into the level with individual opinion making them altered into the final visuals you can see in the levels.

I studied the results from the first form and found that majority of people, with their main top down game being among us, enjoyed action games and adventurous experiences. With this in mind, I focused on interactivity within the level, adding mechanics such as shooting, grenades and nukes. These were also given certain conditions to use to make the player more focused on cooldowns and make the game increasingly immersive. 

Ultimately, production of Ghoul Gauntlet went smoothly with the modelling and map creation team working together fluently to create models and maps that work well together. For production of Ghoul Gauntlet, I used Unreal Engine 5 to create the level which was great as I had previous experience with projects and EEP hours produced within Unreal Engine, so I understood the layout and how to create a fluent level that would be interactive and entertaining for the target audience.

I should have focused on the main elements of the level rather then optional parts first (seen in week 2/3) as this would have given more time to fix bugs and errors later in the development stages. Additionally, this would have been beneficial as it would have been fluent with the time plan which was created with the proposal for Ghoul Gauntlet. While focusing on the optional elements of the level, I discovered a flaw with controller inputs as the main source of rotation for the player and button interactions was with the mouse cursor but this can not be used with another form of input on it's own. This proved to be challenging to face and caused the game to have partial controller support rather then full support which was still good but not expected. With the time I spent on trying to implement full support, I could have spent time working on features such as the audio settings which would have allowed for background ambience which would have made the game more entertaining and not obnoxious. Additionally, the audio for the grenade effect was underwhelming with the sound of the regular shooting overpowering the audio heavily, making the scene less dramatic and tense.

Our group communicated our thoughts and opinions on certain elements of the game such as the mechanics used (grenade cooldowns), props used (teleporter icons) and maps created (waste level) which all had our individual opinions during production to create fair and appropriate mechanics and environments for the game's audience and intentions. We also had frequent tests of the levels and insights into each prop and level created to ensure that each member of the team agreed that they were appropriate for the level.

 Roles were mostly defined between members with an exception of Jake S' role as he had to focus on previous projects. This meant that his role was left anonymous at the beginning of the project as a result which would leave him with reduced time within the time plan which was not adequate. However, Mine and Luke's roles were established early on due to our recent interests in level designing and 3D modelling. 

Undoubtedly, my individual input into the FMP was filled with passion and greatly positive with hours worked within and outside of timetabled hours. This was greatly needed as I wanted to upgrade my current knowledge of Unreal blueprints for personal development. On the other hand, I could have put more effect towards the end to optimize the final packaged game since this would have made the level's load quicker and made the experience more immersive. 

 A common practice I did during development was frequent iterative testing. This increased productivity by finding bugs in logic and other types of errors quickly and fix these problems early, resulting in a less buggy game release. This came with it's flaws though as it took time playing through the levels constantly so this made less time for creating systems such as the audio and AI systems.

Deadlines were met on time for each segment as we communicated through teams as well as in college hours to ensure we were in rhythm with the set deadlines and time plans. We also made additional changes to the level with our contingency timings which promoted level interactivity, an example being the pause menu with it's sound system to change the game's audio settings.

I updated my blog weekly with constant production updates and research on how to fix certain issues I had. This weekly update method allowed me to look at previous bugs and issues I had in each week and fix them later if they were too big to work on outside of contingency timings.

Our models were efficient and fit-to-purpose since the level designer and modeler worked together cohesively to create models that responded well to current / future mechanics, for example the pistol which fit with the shooting mechanic that was created beforehand. A game mechanic that worked well was the AIs since they followed the player via paths that meant that the player couldn't exploit high grounds as much. An error with the AIs was props around the map with bad collision that meant AIs couldn't step upon but players could, creating an unfair advantage to the player for easy progression. To fix this, I created custom collisions for some objects and remove / change paths to make the player unable to move to some locations and exploit these errors. However, I only fixed portions of these errors and noticed a few spots within the new map that Jake S created featuring the custom landscape he designed. With extra time, I would have fixed this better by making more paths or by creating steeper collisions so the AIs recognize more paths to take and have less chance to become stuck and promote an unfair advantage for the player.

A common problem was the constant freezing of Unreal Engine at home, which made editing the level take longer then expected which was not adequate for the production of the level, Ghoul Gauntlet. To combat this bizarre obstacle, I mainly edited the level's blueprints at college and focused on research such as audio adjustments at home to ensure time spent was not interrupted by slowness caused by constant loading.

Ultimately, I would change the time plan to allow the audio to be completed before majority of the level, since it would allow new audios imported to be easily sorted and have their own classes fixed onto them for the purpose of audio settings that will be interchangeable by the player to their liking during gameplay. This would promote more time for mechanical changes which would mean that the level could have more immersive and interactable features which would benefit the player's enjoyment and experience.

The level had lots of widgets such teleport notifications, health widgets and death widgets which were all user friendly. These widgets showed users certain cooldowns and variables which made the game easier to navigate and made the player aware of events like when the teleporter spawned which made the level seem less bottomless and obnoxious.

The game's goal was to be entertaining to the audience without being too easy as to prove challenging and feel more rewarding when finishing a level. By my adjustment of the enemy health and spawn amount, I made the game more challenging with enemy deaths, proving to be more difficult as the level progressed. Additionally, the adjustment of enemies spawned also reduced lag which made the game run smoother and promoted a smooth experience for players.

Overall, I was thrilled with the result of the level with the mechanics that I designed working as expected. The level promoted a high level of interactivity which was beneficial for the immersion of the audience. On the contrary, I would have liked to remaster the audio settings to make the level more immersive which would have also made the experience more thrilling and immersive for the player. Additionally, their was one prop which I did not add from Luke which I would have added into the level to make it more originally designed whilst demonstrating my map creation skills in the production log further.