Final Product

WEEK 16: 28.04.25

Over these final weeks, I present my product in different ways to see what works for me. At first, I felt shy about the thought of my work being uploaded to a website, but I'm proud of what I've been able to make. The prior weeks helped develop my confidence and allowed me to reach an endpoint that I'm satisfied with. Researching these different sites and ways to present my work will also help me going forward as I work towards my place in the industry. Using the research I conducted, I know better how to market my game to appeal to an audience when presenting. Making the level showcase this week and uploading it to multiple places for a greater chance of recognition, I can use different methods next time like making a trailer, though this would need more time for me to become more familiar with Premier Pro, since I've only had a little experience with it during the Showreel project.

In later weeks, I can spend time writing evaluations of my process and reflecting on the whole FEP. This way, I can conclude the whole process while I have been concluding the steps of the project by summarising and evaluating each week.

After reviewing Sketchfab, Artstation, Itch, and Blender, I found Sketchfab is best for 3D models, with Blender being a good tool for renders and high-quality screenshots to showcase work. Offering tools for lighting, Sketchfab allows you to edit your models so they look as appealing as possible. As for Artstation, the format would excel for greater detail, like image galleries for level design. I'll also put together a Gameplay video to post on Artstation to show multiple processes for each of my main productions I have made during this project. Itch is useful for smaller projects, but can also be useful to show the whole product.

My first thought was to upload all of my models to Sketchfab. Since I only had 10 credits, I combined a few item models into one scene, arranging them to get some colour variety across the space, having greys and browns on either side, with the metal in the middle to give it more attention. After saving this as "Item Bundle" in Blender to avoid overlapping any files, I go on Sketchfab and upload the fbx I exported from this Blender file. The process then involves applying each texture to each "Material" made in Blender, meaning it was important that I named my Blender materials earlier so it was easier to determine "Rock" from "Wood" rather than "Material.001" from "Material.002" (e.g.)

When doing the same for both pillars, I was having issues with Sketchfab where the textures were messing up for some reason. When troubleshooting, I tried turning the lights off, as that could be making the model look white, but the pillar was completely off while the base was fine. For this reason, I'll come back to the model later and try another method of showing the model off, such as making a Final Render in Blender instead.

Overall, I found Sketchfab a good way to showcase my models. A big positive is the fast, high-quality rendering Sketchfab provides, along with the ability to move around the model and observe it from different perspectives. The only negative was the limited credits, as at first I worried that after uploading a few models that I wouldn't have enough to submit all my models. Luckily, by exporting an fbx my of all my mini items in at once, this solved the problem as I didn't have as much to do. The only issue would be privacy concerns when uploading original work, as people can download your models to use with no way to set your models to private without paid subscriptions. Because Sketchfab is so easy to use, it didn't take long to remember where everything I needed was and how to do it, making it a reliable source to showcase models.

Since I was having difficulties with the pickaxe and pillars with Sketchfab, I tried a new approach of rendering the remaining models in Blender. This would require a background to display the texture on, so I made a quick gradient in Photoshop; it didn't have to be detailed, just something I could use to draw attention to my model rather than just the basic Blender background. Using a gradient of blues and purples, I selected a few colours and the gradient was applied to the Photoshop file. I then exported this as a PNG to use in Blender.

Importing the background from Photoshop, I could use this to give my render more depth, choosing blue to contrast with the grey as cooler greys align better with blues and purples.

By selecting the camera and locking it, I locked my background to my camera, meaning I could render from a few different angles to show off as much of the model as possible.

With the renders from Blender, it was more complex to set up, but still not too bad, offering some different shots of the models against a better contrasting background. I believe adding models to Sketchfab was better at presenting my work, but this was a fix to the models, causing difficulties. I expect that this may have been due to the UVS, but when applied to the models, the textures were fine in Blender. Despite this, I was able to use this backup method to show off the models that I had difficulty with in Sketchfab. In terms of research, I only needed to use my skills learned from previous units when doing the process, including making the background in Photoshop using colour theory and doing renders in Blender. I got a few shots of each model, which I thought were the most impactful or showed off as much of the model as I could without having access to Sketchfab, where the models can be viewed from any angle. This was helpful as I encountered a problem with Sketchfab and improvised where necessary, trying a different method. While less user-friendly than SketchFab, it offered a decent alternative despite the larger number of steps involved in the process.

To showcase my level, I recorded a video using OBS to do a full gameplay, taking me 18 and a half minutes to complete and showcase everything within the level. This was an effective way to demo my level as I showed the most efficient way of going through the level while getting to see everything the level has to offer. Pros include OBS being very easy to use and getting to see my level in practice, and how it works. Cons would include fewer cinematic perspectives of the level, as I'm working with the packaged game file, so that wide shots or top-down views aren't possible while playtesting the game.

https://www.artstation.com/jg07_artstation

Uploading to Artstation was the second method I tried. This will help make my level public, offering pros like potentially receiving comments and advice regarding what I could have done better. Being an industry-standard platform recommended for games and digital art, with job boards and high-quality presentation, it can help get your work out there and learning how to network can come as a serious benefit. With popular usage, however, comes overcrowded platforms where it's easier for your work to go unnoticed. Another con includes fewer development posts, as typically the site is used for polished work, meaning you can't receive any feedback on how to develop a specific concept further. While these are valid points, getting your work out there can be key in the industry to develop a following, allowing you to sell games with greater success. Evaluating both, I am more likely to get better results on Artstation, as while only a pitch demo, which leans into the fewer development posts, the audience using Artstation is far smaller compared to the one using YouTube, so people who want to see level showcases are more likely to be on Artstation. I included a few key screenshots that I couldn't get from my gameplay video, and put them on Artstation for a better view of the level at a wider lens.

Andrew made an Itch page on each page to show not only my level but also a combined product of all of our work with the download. This helps me get my work out there while showing the capabilities and screenshots. While great for aspiring indie game developers, Itch features drawbacks like lower visibility than that of larger platforms like Artstation and has limited marketing and commercial properties for selling games. Despite this, it works well for game jams or prototypes to show off what can be achieved in a given time frame. Below is the link

I believe my research, planning and production all helped me to achieve our final result of a full packaged pitch demo. This demo with both levels combined was around 20-40 minutes long, depending on how much time people spent looking for resources, and I'm happy with my personal progress. Without the research to familiarise myself with the theory, I would've had a harder time piecing the level together and using my initiative to figure out where each piece should go. While I have confidence that I can do this. The research aided me in applying theory and techniques, knowing when they should be utilised and when they should be ignored to give players some free space.

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