Task 2 –
I’ve decided for this task, I’m going to collect research from a wide range of sources, these being Moodboards, Youtube videos, Tutorials and Music.
Moodboards:
My purpose for including moodboards in my research is so I can visualize what I want my final project to look like, this is helpful because when I come to making concepts and sketches for my game, I can use the moodboards to help me, and I can also use my moodboards to help me with making the landscapes and atmosphere I want to achieve for my game.
It helps me develop my FMP by giving me a rough understanding on what I want my game to look like at the end, which also helps me visualize what music and sound effects and UI I want to have in my game as well.
I feel like I need more 3D modeling and animating skills to achieve what I want to do to make the dragon model, I also feel like I need to experiment more with my Visual FX to achieve fire FX and magic FX.
I’ve split my moodboards into sections so I can use the particular moodboard for the area piece of work I am working on, which I find is very useful
Youtube Videos:
My purpose for including Youtube videos in my research is that it helps me visualize the flow of a game which involves flying, how other games work with flying characters, I could also use this to do some research on main menus, UI & mission selection.
But! These Youtube videos could also simply be videos on shaders, or videos which simply motivate me to work hard.
These videos will help me develop my FMP by keeping me motivated and on my toes as I progress through making my project, it will also help me by giving me much more visual ideas with something that I maybe want to achieve than a picture would.
Music:
My purpose for searching up music this early in my games development is that it would be what motivates me the most during my games development, music would help me visualize what I want my game to look like and how I want my game to play, this would ideally help me with making my concepts and making the atmosphere of my game since I would be developing these whilst listening to the music in the playlist
It would really help me develop an atmosphere and a feeling for my game which I wouldn’t be able to achieve with music to inspire me in the background, it would also help me when I come to composing my own music for the game.
I feel like I need to do more research into music production and sampling, since the only thing I can do is play the piano, so I feel like I need an idea on how to make music, even if it’s a rough idea.
I would know my music is useful music if I’m able to vividly imagine what I want my game to look like and play like whilst listening to the songs.
Tutorials:
The purpose of collecting tutorial videos is so that it helps me when I come to producing my UML diagrams, I can watch these tutorial videos and see what parts of it I like and make my own flow diagrams and UML diagrams and Psudeocode with these tutorials in mind.
It helps me develop my FMP since these tutorials would help me plan lots of different scripts which I can write for my game, these tutorials would also help me learn tricks which I may have not known beforehand.
I’m hoping that the tutorials which I collect would help me with understanding how to get my physics and flying working nicely in my game and they could also help me understand how to rig and animate a simple low poly object.
I know if a tutorial is useful if it’s taught me new things which I didn’t know before, I feel like watching tutorials is very important before you start the final project just so you can learn before you get into the final piece!
Flight Reference/Physics:
I need to do some research into how animals fly and how fantasy creatures fly in games and shows, this is important since it would help me when I come to the animation of my dragon. I also need to do some research into how physics works, and how I can get the flying of my character to feel as realistic as possible
This would help my game a lot, since if I don’t do research before I animate, I wouldn’t be able to achieve anything which look good.
Moodboards – 
Papercraft Dragons –
Primary:
Secondary:
I done some research on paper craft dragons, since it’s very similar to the style of low poly models, but I’ve also done research on origami.
Origami is the art of paper folding, which is often associated with Japanese culture. In modern usage, the word “origami” is used as an inclusive term for all folding practices, regardless of their culture of origin.
So alongside with dragons I’ve done research on many different animals and objects which were made with origami.
These moodboards of the origami dragons make them look fierce and strong, but at the same time fragile and weak, because they’re just made out of paper, they remind me of the Shikigami in Spirited away, and how they’re similar to birds but are fully-visible, semi-humanoid paper creatures with the ability to fly at extremely high speeds, which inspires me to make my own 3D models similar to origami and Shikigami, since they look simple enough to 3D model.
The pros of this research is I have very detailed images of these papercraft animals, and I 
feel like they look wonderful, I would love to try and 3D model these, and they look like they would be great fun to animate, I also like how they’re very stylistic as well.
The cons of these is that they’ve not got too much detail, sometimes it’s hard to tell what a origami design is, without a explanation; For example, the dragon in the The Art of Origami, Steve & Megumi Biddle (2003) book.
I wouldn’t be able to tell that this was a dragon at first glace, I would even think it was a dog!
I’m wanting to do my own 3D modeling for my game so I think this moodboard would help me with designing the concept for my models and characters and enemies, since I want to sick to the low poly style, I would reference origami when I’m stuck on how to model something, and the instructions could also help me make some of my own Origami, which I can use in my final presentation.
Landscapes –
Primary:
Secondary:
I’ve done some research on landscapes, and landscape styles, the research I’ve collected on my secondary research is many low poly designs of landscapes which I feel look really beautiful and is something I hope to achieve, on the end half of my secondary research and my whole primary research I have more landscape drawings and pictures which display creepy forests, tall buildings or rivers. I tried to find some pictures with lots of fog in as well.
I feel like the pictures of low poly landscapes in my secondary research display more ‘order’ than chaos, they feel like they would be for a game which was meant to be very calming; In contrast, the photographs in my secondary research and the scanned landscapes in my primary research show much more chaotic looking landscapes which look like they would be in a horror game, or a game representing unsettling chaos, and then I have the neutral landscapes in my primary research which are the photos I’ve taken from my train window which just show a normal, cold day.
The pros of this research is that I have many broad pictures of landscapes at different times of day, and I have it in many different styles, I also have some sketches of landscapes, and with the primary research I also have some walkthroughs on how to make the perfect landscape from professionals.
The cons of this research is I feel there isn’t enough weather in the photos, but that doesn’t really matter since weather fits more into the atmosphere moodboard.
These landscapes are useful because they provide me with some beautiful looking land which I can reference when creating my concept for the lands which I will be using in my game, this gives me ideas from how I want to model the clouds in my game to how I want the water to look, this also helps me with how I would stylize the landscapes and what type of terrain I’ll be using
Enemies –
Primary:
Secondary:
I’ve done some research on many different animals, and creatures and vehicles which I could use as enemies in my game which the player has to fight against, on my secondary research I have many flying ships, and designs for flying ships, this is because I feel like these would be perfect for a game about dragons fighting humans, but on my secondary research I also have a picture of a flying whale, which ties into the majority of my primary research which is different creatures which look like they’re a threat, but this is also involving other dragons as well as sea animals and big beasts.
My primary research looks more terrifying with big creatures which each look like a very big threat, they represent chaos at it’s finest, whereas the peaceful looking airships in my secondary research look like something more in order, much more peaceful.
The pros of my research is it is very broad, I have many different types of enemies, so I can use this research for whatever type of enemy I want to make in my game, another good thing about my primary research is it has walkthroughs and step by step guides of how to make a drawing into a 3d model, which will be useful when it comes to 3D modelling.
The cons of my research is it isn’t very specific, but that could also be a pro, I don’t like how there isn’t too many concept looking pieces in my research either.
I will be using this research to help me with drawing concepts and making 3D models of characters and enemies, using some of my pictures as reference and using the tutorials on my How to create Fantasy Art for Video Games, Bill Stoneham (2010) book to help me with making the 3D models.
Atmosphere –
Primary:
Secondary:
In this research I’ve gathered many pictures of scary atmospheres, specifically in the secondary research.
I’ve also collected pictures which I found with heavy fog, or weather, or even the night sky.
In my primary research, I’ve collected scanned images of illustrations from a book which I feel have a good atmospheric feeling to them, but I have also collected images which detail on colour and mood and lighting in illustrations.
The research I’ve done details a very chaotic end-of-the world feeling atmosphere in my secondary research, with the sky being blood red, it is like the red sky which was seen in the Australia as the fire rage happened at the beginning of 2020, fire is often times linked to chaos, and hell, and that is why I think a blood red sky is appropriate.
My secondary research also features pictures of heavy fog which are occasionally associated with horror movies and horror games, and gives an eerie feeling to anything, since the player, or viewer cannot see into the distance since the fog is covering the way, this is more suspenseful, anything could emerge from that fog and be closer than you initially thought.
The pros are is that I love how in my primary research I have detailed, descriptive research of atmospheres and how to make them, I also have lots of pictures on fogs, and skies.
The cons of this research is I feel I don’t have enough colour research in it, since the colour research on my primary research is very useful I find.
I can use the colour, mood & lighting research on my primary research to help me make my atmospheres look great in my game, but I can also use the photography pieces and illustrations to help me replicate the same sort of atmosphere in the photos.
These can also help me use colour to suggest the time of day.
User Interface –
Primary:
Secondary:
Here I’ve collected research on User Interface which is used in video games, my primary research focuses on user interface on games which I owe, the most useful in this research being Star Fox 64 3D since that’s a flight game.
My secondary research involves more isolated User Interface which isn’t in a game, it’s more icons, and loading bars and frames.
Some of my research details UI with sharp edges, or no gradients, these UI would be perfect for games which are a bit more futuristic, since they have a more ‘cyber’ and ‘robot’ feel to them with the sharp edges.
Whereas UI with more flowy lines and soft edges are better for games which aren’t futuristic, and more fantasy, these would be perfect for my game.
The pros of my research is that I have it both in-game and by itself, which would help me understand how I want to have it working in my game, another pro is that the User Interface which is by itself helps me have a deeper look into it, and how it makes it unique.
The cons of my research is I don’t feel like I have enough animation in it, but, with animation, I can always play the games in my primary research to help me figure out the animation which is seen on these types of games.
I will use my primary research to help me with how I want my UI to interact with the player, with animations and sound effects, this is because, with my primary research, if one of the images on there interests me more later on in the research, I have the game, so I could just pick it up and play it and interact with the user interface in that game and see how it works.
My secondary research will help me with style, how I want my game to be styled and what colours would work best with it.
Overall Research –
For this, I collected a bunch of Book Sources, First Hand Photo Sources, Film Sources and Game Sources and put them all in their own categories. I done this so I can have research all bunched together.
Book Sources –
Game Sources –
Film Sources –
First Hand Photo Sources –
Videos –
In this playlist I’ve gathered videos of demos, and games which I enjoy, or mechanics which I see in video games which inspire me, I made this video so I can get motivated throughout my project, and so I can watch through these videos and get some new ideas.
The types of videos I have in this playlist in detail are:
- Trailers for games which I think display very unique mechanics or I think look very interesting visually.
- Bosses which I think look really fun to battle, mostly bosses from flying combat games.
- Flying in flying games, so I can get an idea of how the flying works and what type of UI works the best.
- Game missions so I can have a good idea of what types of missions I could have in my game
- Examples of shaders in action, including water shaders and cloud shaders
- Scene transition examples.
The pros of making this research is I always have videos to watch through whenever I need a break from work, but watching through these videos would be much more beneficial to watching in my free time then something random on Youtube, making this youtube playlist full of inspiring videos is a really good idea in my opinion, the playlist would gradually be expanded. It’s also useful because I could add videos to this playlist as I’m browsing youtube if the video inspires me and I can always come back to it later
The cons of this research is, nothing!
I will use this research to help me stay inspired and focused on my final project, I will also use this playlist for any videos which I find useful but I find don’t fit into any of my other playlist categories.
Music –
I’ve made this music to help guide me as I’m developing my game and the concepts, this playlist is full of music which I can imagine to be in my game once it is done.
This playlist suits the atmosphere and feeling which I want to go for in my final game.
The types of songs I have in this playlist are:
- Boss music which is either creepy, chaotic or out of tune, since this is what represents a chaotic, powerful foe.
- Soft piano music, which is a great contrast to what I’m going for and could represent the ‘order’ of the game
- Intentionally out of tune music
- Fast-Paced music using foreign instruments
- Terrifying music with heavy drums
- Boss music which involves a choir or a bell
- Music which has reversed samples
The pros of making a playlist like this is I can always reference this whilst I’m making my music if I’m having trouble with composing or producing the piece, and another pro of this is it will keep me inspired and motivated whilst I’m making my game, much like the previous playlist, I think it would be a great playlist to listen to as I’m producing work.
The cons of making a playlist full of music which inspires me is, if I’m making my own music for my game or trying to find royalty free music which have the same sound would always be desatisfying because it won’t sound the same and/or won’t sound as good.
In conclusion this playlist would be very useful to listen to throughout the production of my game as it would keep me on track with the theme.
Tutorials –
I’ve made a playlist which involves different tutorials which instruct you on shaders, physics, scene transitions, cloth physics, rope physics and flight control in Unity.
The types of videos I have in this playlist in detail are:
- Videos of how to achieve the fluffy look of realistic and cartoon looking clouds using Shader Graphs
- Volumetric Clouds and Time of Day lighting.
- Making clouds using Particle Systems
- Making a shader which changes the colour grading in the scene, called a Triplanar Shader
- Toon shading (‘Cell shading’) in Unity
- Toon outline shader in Unity
- Scene transitions
- Cloth system & Physics/Rope physics
- Target crosshair, target system
- Flight contol in unity
- Unity Quaternions
The pros of this research is I have a lot of videos which I can watch when I’m either stuck with what to do, or I have nothing to do, it gives me help on many different areas of developing a game.
The cons of this research is nothing!
The tutorials videos which I gathered would help me understand what I don’t already understand.
The shader graph videos would help me further understand how to work with shader graphs and learn new tricks which I can implement into other shaders during development.
The time of day lighting would be beneficial to learn since I can apply that to multiple open world projects if I were to make another, it would also be beneficial to my game since it would be nice to have some night missions and some day missions.
Leaning scene transitions is a skill which I can also apply to multiple things, I could have a scene transition between my main menu and my game and it would make the game flow much more smoother, but I don’t know if this would fit in with my game, but I would be using this to help me experiment.
Cloth/Rope physics would help me if I ever end up making a dragon or a model like a flag, or a dragon with whiskers, it would be a useful thing to learn for later as well.
I would love to have a targeting system in my game too, so when I get around to combat, I would use this tutorial to help me with making a targeting system for the game.
Learning more about Quarternions in Unity would help me make more accurate and realistic feeling flight controls.
Flight/Physics Research –
In this playlist I’ve gathered a few videos of flight in video games, I’ve got games which mostly focus on realistic Flying and Navigation like Flight Simulator, and I’ve got games which focus on Flight and Combat like Ace Combat, Star Fox and Drakengard, and then I have games which focus just on Flight, like Aer: Memories of Old.
This wide range of research on different games with flight would help me visualize how I want the flight in my game to turn out, and how I want the player to play the game, for example, in flight simulator and Ace Combat 7 (PS4VR) the games are in first person, which would greatly immerse the player, whereas games like Star Fox, Drakengard and some other Ace Combat games, they’re mostly third person, watching all these videos I’ve concluded that I would much rather make my game in third person.
The game also helps me with what sort of things I can involve in my missions, and it helps me understand how to work UI in a flight game.
The pros of this research is that I can use these videos to compare how realistic the flight is in my game in comparison to the flight in these big popular flight games, which, if I can achieve a similar flying experience, I would draw in players from that franchise, or I would make a fun, comfortable game to play.
The cons of this research is that I don’t know of many flight combat games outside of the ones in my playlist, but I’m happy with the amount of research on this one.
I’ll use this research to help me figure out how I’m going to make the flight work, I’ll also use these to help me how to get missions to feel more lively, like for example, Starfox (1993) had falling buildings ahead of you and you were being dragged along, but some other games, like Ace Combat and Drakengard don’t drag you along the levels and you can proceed at the speed you like. I can return to this playlist if I’m having trouble with basic gameplay and a core system for my game.
Amy Elliott - Final Major Project 