Overall, this project has been so much fun to work on. It has gone through immense change from beginning to end, however I am happy with how it ended up being, and confident that I did enough research on each aspect in order for it to be playable and aesthetically pleasing. Some strengths of this project, I think, are its overall style and aesthetics, and its functionality. I managed to create an attractive looking environment without pushing it to be too complex so that it isn’t playable, and all of the assets are produced to a high quality. Some of the positive notes in my feedback included the atmosphere of the environment, the colour scheme, the lighting, and the textures. Of course, my project is nowhere near flawless, and there were a number of failures throughout the production process. For one, I did not manage to achieve the interactivity that I originally intended; I wish that I had spent more time looking into coding in Unreal, and discussing it with my tutor in advance rather than leaving it until the last minute. Another weakness of this project is the small size of my environment – this was a note made in my feedback, and one that I agree with. If I were to do this project again I would potentially increase the size of my environment. Some other negative points made in my feedback included the technical flaws of the environment (missing textures, framerate, glitches, etc.), and the lack of detail in the lighting. I think if I were to do this project again I would definitely spend more time looking into Unreal Engine, and further research the coding and techniques needed to make a functioning, aesthetically pleasing VR game.
I have used a multitude of techniques in order to create this environment. For starters, I looked deeply into sculpt mode in order to create my bust (which is the centrepiece of the environment, and would have been interactive). This technique was very effective in creating a visually engaging and detailed statue, and I am glad that I took the time to study sculpt mode in Blender properly, as this bust is definitely created to a high standard. This asset, however, does not really fit with the rest of the environment style-wise, and when it comes to creating a functioning VR game, it ups the poly count tremendously due to the immense detail, and so lowers the framerate. Perhaps I should not have made this asset quite as detailed. Another technique I have used to create this environment is the stylized assets seen in the rest of the room, created using box modelling in Blender. This all looks very cohesive, and works very well in a VR game, since it is low poly. The downside is, of course, it is not as detailed, however in my opinion this is not necessarily a bad thing and in fact looks quite appealing. Another example of a technique I used is the continuous reference to Ancient Greek culture. This was, of course, very well researched, and was not out of place in the Victorian-style environment. To the outside eye however (as someone who does not know about my original concepts), it might come off as a little random.
My final project is, of course, far removed from my initial ideas. My original intention was to create an open-space environment inspired by a Greek temple, with aspects of childishness and dreamcore. This visual style took influence from a multitude of different sources and aesthetics, and was extremely well-researched compared to my final idea. This was why I was so eager to include as many call-backs to this concept as I could, since I didn’t want to completely give up on all of the research for this original idea. Compare my first concepts to my final project, which is inspired by the cute roomscapes as seen online, and you can see a huge difference. This concept is simple and stylized, rather than the complex realism of my original idea. I do, however, very much like the visual style of neat, rounded objects and symmetrical shapes – these aesthetic qualities, as well as the fact that this style of environment was vastly easier to produce, are the main reasons I switched to this style instead of my original ideas
Overall, I believe that I have produced an aesthetically pleasing environment which is mostly functional as a VR game; I overcame almost all of the challenges I was faced with, and although my ideas changed a lot and I had to backtrack on a lot of my research and development to justify my changes, I am happy with how my final project turned out.