Forget-Me-Knot is getting a visual update over the Christmas period. I will be editing/replacing the current geometry in favour of slightly more detailed models. Even the slightest of changes to improve the quality will drastically impact on the overall visuals of the game.
Old Fireplace:
New Fireplace:
Below are 2 videos of the project in it's current state; the videos depict basic interaction with objects as well as the current textures.
Today I had to go to Whitespace to work on my honours project. Frequent power failures in my village due to heavy rainfall have made 3D modelling and UDK work nearly impossible as even when saving often some files ended up becoming corrupted. To counter this problem I traveled to Abertay to work on the dual screen PC's in Whitespace.
Today's progress mainly revolved around removing the default weapon loadout, UI, adding in physics objects, dynamic lighting (toggleable) and testing other interactive mechanics. I started the work fixing a lighting issue with the walls by combining multiple wall panels in Maya before exporting them into UDK and replacing the existing walls.
Smaller objects are now interact-able with the built in PhysicsGun. The objects have a higher mass than they normally would to depict the strength of the old man. The controls are left click 'pushes/prods' an object, where as holding right click on an object will allow it to be picked up and moved around. This mechanic could be useful for hiding objects behind others for the player to find.
Pictured above is a screenshot depicting where the light sources are, and also - if you have keen eyes - the custom collision mesh I had to create for the bookshelf. I was having issues with Autoconvex collision where the book collision meshes and the shelf's collision mesh were encountering problems. These problems lead to the books being 'ejected' from the shelf. Thankfully by implementing custom blocking volumes the issue is now sorted.
I also ran tests on adding hinged physics doors to the game, these would hopefully mean that opening cupboard doors and such would work in a similar way to in Amnesia. Sadly the tests did not work exactly as planned and more iteration on this feature will be required.
To find out how to create an emotive experience for the player, I first have to understand the theories behind emotion. There are many recognised theories behind emotion, some of which are: The Evolutionary Theories, the Cannon-Bard Theory, Schacter and Singer's Two-Factor Theory, Cognitive Appraisal and the James-Lange Theory.
All of the above stated theories carry their own argument as to what 'emotion' is. The theories that interest me most are the Evolutionary Theories and Cognitive Appraisal. The Evolutionary Theories pioneered by Charles Darwin in the 1870's stated that emotions evolved to increase communication and survivability. It is the more recent evolutionary theories that discuss the 7 primary emotions; happiness, sadness, surprise, anger, contempt, disgust and fear. These are widely regarded as the universal 'base' emotions. The emotions are considered to be innate responses to stimuli, with more complex emotions resulting from mixtures and levels of intensity of a base emotion.
Cognitive Appraisal was a theory by Richard Lazarus which takes the view of how expressed emotion will differ between different people. This means that two people may experience the same environment, object etc. with differing emotional responses.
ALZ: http://www.newgrounds.com/portal/view/634905
ALZ is an "experimental short film in an ever-so-slightly interactive format" based around an old man with Alzheimer's disease. As mentioned in a previous blog post, I would personally refer to this piece as an 'Art Game'. The game takes a similar concept to what I wish to achieve with Forget-Me-Not: it depicts the story of an Alzheimer's sufferer from their perspective. ALZ uses a minimalist style and contrasting colour palette to deliver the emotional narrative. The story is delivered to the player through on screen dialogue boxes and the choice of and use of words is short, yet effective. The 'glitchy' visuals are a metaphor for how the character can see the objects, people, places but does not remember the connection to them. After describing my honours project concept to Jamie King, he directed me to this game which I feel delivers all of the key senses and emotions required for my game. The creator of ALZ - an animator - used a linear game with linear narrative as his delivery method. I am both excited and worried as to how I will effectively portray a similar experience in a 3D potentially non-linear environment.
I started the project with one main fear about creating Forget-Me-Not: How to portray a deterioration of memory in a way that the player can relate, sympathise and draw an emotive experience from. I have always found games with little to no narration very interesting in their ability to create an emotive, meaningful experience. Games like Limbo by Playdead manage to create a narrative and emotive connection for the player without any written or spoken text, I wanted to research further into how this is achieved.
To explore how games can achieve this I watched 2 videos by Extra Credits on using mechanics as metaphors in games. These two videos discussed how to get a player to ponder the meaning of a game after it has been played. The Extra Credits video mainly uses an experimental minimalist game titled Loneliness as its point of reference [Link Below]. An important point that was made in the videos was how every player can get a unique experience from an interactive game. By creating a world with set constraints, but allowing enough freedom to explore their own path, a story can be unfolded in a unique way. This open exploration will allow the player to use their imagination to craft a unique story or experience depending on the player's personality and thoughts. This trust in the audience to use their imagination to create and sew together a story is a large point, but the most emotional and engaging experiences are ones which allow the player to understand themselves better.
Loneliness: http://www.necessarygames.com/my-games/loneliness/flash
Another key issue to creating a meaningful game is the requirement to count on the player to want to analyse and immerse themselves in the game world and story. If a player doesn't wish to analyse the objects in the room, then a large chunk of the 'meaning' of the game will be lost (especially if your game is created to trigger self reflection). This lack of investment and loss of meaning will lead to an emotionless experience for the player and lead to the player refusing to play further. Most 'Art Games' require a certain level of openness from the player to analyse and absorb the messages portrayed. Games such as Gone Home get slated by some gamers as not actually deserving the title of being a 'game'. The people who push creating game experiences can be given the title "Game Abstractionalists". These people wish to push the boundaries of what constitutes a game - like in the progression of art - but just like with art, not all forms will be accepted or enjoyed by everyone.
From this information, I can come to an understanding that the emotive gameplay experience that I hope to create by the end of the second semester will come under criticism and not be enjoyed or appreciated by certain people. Another point of further development will be researching further into how to create meaningful mechanics in a 3D game that can depict the progression Alzheimer's. The biggest problem for project Forget-Me-Not is trying to design and create this experience in a student project with very limited time and only one person (myself).
Thomas Was Alone is a perfect example of a game which relies on base human instinct to manipulate core emotions. The game revolves around a group of shapes - rectangles and squares of varying sizes - as you play a platforming game which requires you to use these shapes to complete puzzles. Each shape has its own unique ability, thus already there is a link with humans: We are all of varying shapes, sizes and have our own strengths and weaknesses. Even without such a simple link to humanity, the mind may start anthropomorphising the shapes. The inclusion of this visual trait is to trigger the brain function which forms the relationship between the player and 'character'.
Another technique used by the game to create an emotional link between the player and the character is the use of a narrator. The narrator delivers small chunks of story from a third person perspective which describe the character's thoughts and feelings. The main character 'Thomas' begins his journey as a solitary rectangle in a minimalist environment, a shining beacon of colour in a world made from black and muted shades of darker colours. Straight from the beginning, the player's emotional connection with the rectangle is forged.
The small aspect of giving the object a name can generally be overlooked, but as soon as a name has been given to an object, the humanising of the object has already begun. In Forget-Me-Not I will look at creating an object which can have relatable traits, and give it a name. By doing so I will test the theory of whether anthropomorphising an inanimate object in a video game can have the same effects as in real life. I will attempt to create an engaging back story for this object and relate it to the main character on an emotional level.
Some of the books I will be using for researching creating emotion in games are as follows:
| have not yet fully analysed each book, so some texts may not be as relevant as I originally thought. I will post my analysis of the books as well as relevant quotes for my dissertation or honours projects in later blog posts.
Originally I intended this honours blog to only reflect the physical work required for the creation of Forget-Me-Not, but I have now decided to include some details from my dissertation research in as I feel they will be relevant to explaining some techniques I will use when developing my game.
My dissertation will be about creating more complex emotion in games such as empathy whilst at the same time exploring the more primal emotions like fear, aggression, happiness, sadness. Triggering the more primal emotions is regarded as a simpler matter, as these instinctual emotions come from relatable experiences.
Take for instance Ikea's 2002 advert by Spike Jonze: The small film depicts a lamp being replaced by a new one, due to clever visual portrayal of the lamp, it triggers a feeling of empathy for the lamp.
The reason the viewer connects with the lamp due to the relatable emotions that come with loneliness and abandonment. The aspect of this commercial I found most interesting is how it projects the viewer's feelings for an inanimate object and challenges why humans become emotionally attached to material objects. It can be argued that it is human nature to anthropomorphise objects due to an overly developed sense of empathy. Especially with objects that we interact with on a frequent basis: If you have a locket that was given to you from a loved one, you wear it every day. An emotional bond forms between yourself and the locket. When you lose the locket, you lose part of your identity, thus engaging an emotional response.
As well as playing on our natural instinct to anthropomorphise objects, the use of clever camera work and slight movement of the lamp between shots fools the mind into believing the object is sentient. The camera angles depict what the lamp 'sees' thus making the viewer relate more to the object and trigger primitive emotions of sadness.
To relate this to Forget-Me-Not, I want to find out how to trigger these emotional connections with objects so that the player will feel how the character should feel about an object they hold dear to them. I especially want to play on the sense of loss, but less depicting the loss of the object, but the loss of the connection between the character/player and the object.
As each asset is created, I tend to import them straight into UDK to apply the textures and get a rough indication of how much space I have left for further assets. Although this is a very simple approach, it is effective at keeping the interactive aspect of the project progressing. When modelling objects for environments it's easy to find yourself engrossed in the modelling process and completely forget about the game aspect of the Honours project. By constantly going between Maya and UDK it allows me to judge my rate of progression as well as check for alterations required in textures, models or their positioning in UDK to create a believable environment.
As stated previously; for this project I intend to create my game assets as lower-poly models that are still easily recognisable as the intended object. The lower-poly aspect will allow me to build a higher volume of assets which I believe is required to make a scene appear more natural. In striving for quantity, some quality is sacrificed, but I feel that the level of assets that I can create in this way is still more than acceptable for the game.
My first step is to find a reference image. In Forget-Me-Not I intend to base most of the furniture items on ones that were owned by my grandfather. Above is an image of a cabinet that he used to have in his living room. I will use this photograph as a rough reference for the creation of the 3D model.
I started modelling this cabinet with the intentions of the player being able to open every compartment or drawer that it has. Although this will require a lot of trigger work in UDK, it will increase the amount of areas in the game to explore as well as make the environment more believable. I began the modelling process with a cuboid and extruded the basic shape of the object out. I made further extrusions into the body of the cabinet to allow space for drawers and doors to be fitted later on.
As with the previous stage, I used a basic cuboid shape and extruded it to fit gaps I cut into the object. I kept the topology of the drawers and doors simple so as to make UV'ing the assets slightly less taxing in the later stages.
Here is a quick render in Maya of how the basic shape would appear in the game engine, I was happy with the basic geometry and object silhouette so decided to move on to the texturing phase of asset creation.
From here, I separate the modular assets from each other to make it easier for the UV mapping process. After moving the modular pieces into place I can gauge how many textures will be needed to complete the object. For the above object, I made it relatively symmetrical, so the final cabinet will only require 6/7 textures to complete.
I planar mapped each area of the cabinet, with more space on the UV dedicated to the more seen areas of the cabinet with less space for areas like the back. Although the UV map is slightly messy, it should still deliver a smooth texture in the final product.
Pictured above is a simple texture that I will be using for the cabinet as a placeholder for the looming progress presentation pitch that I have next week. Although simple, this texture should hopefully give off a realistic enough look to the cabinet.
At this stage I like to export the model into UDK and build the final texture in the Unreal Content browser by creating a material. For the sake of this blog post I will apply the texture in Maya and render it out to deliver a better lit version of the final model.
This is the process I will be using to create my assets for Forget-Me-Not. This may not be the most efficient way of producing assets, but this process is one I have used throughout my time working in Maya and UDK thus I have become accustomed to it. The final render looks like a convincing cabinet that wouldn't look out of place in my game environment.
I hope this insight into my development process was interesting. I really enjoyed analysing my development process as it is an area I have never really reflected on in the past.
To make sure I have a tangible working prototype (or part of it) by the end of this semester - as well as researching the theory behind my game and writing the documentation - I needed to start working on the actual game product. I started by creating some simple walls in Maya to help get an idea of the scale of the room. In games there needs to be a balance between realistic scale and play-ability. I believe that the final room size that I created will both satisfy the player in terms of area to explore as well as be a believable living room for my character.
http://www.alzheimers.org.uk/
The Alzheimer's Society provides a lot of information and advice for people suffering with dementia and for their families. I have recently placed and order for some of the fact-sheets and booklets for research purposes. I will conduct as much research through their online PDF help sheets in the mean-time but sadly some of the more relevant ones in terms of research for Forget-Me-Not are available by print only.
"Alzheimer's Society is a membership organisation, which works to improve the quality of life of people affected by dementia in England, Wales and Northern Ireland."
They provide support for people effected by dementia, help invest in research programmes, campaign for the rights of people with dementia and assist people with hosting their own fund raising events.
http://www.alzscot.org/
Another key source of information that I will research into is Alzheimer Scotland. Alzheimer Scotland operates in a similar manner to Alzheimer's Society with a membership scheme, but also provides a free membership for the online advice and information. They specialise in supporting the individual as well as their families, provide training, help fund raise and build a community.
I will soon add some blog posts containing relevant information that I have found through the online sources to help shape Forget-Me-Not as a factual and engaging art game.
The whole point of Forget-Me-Not is to create in a sense; an Alzheimer's simulator. Although this may set alarm bells ringing in your head, understand that the point in Forget-Me-Not is not just to tell a story, but to project the player into the mind of someone suffering from the illness. I intend to try to put the player in the shoes of someone suffering from Alzheimer's disease; thus making the player forget things, feel uncomfortable, and provoke emotions is the main goal.
One of the key struggles of creating a game using a medical condition as a basis is that there may be some ethical concerns. People who have had loved ones suffer from the illness, or are currently caring for loved ones with Alzheimer's may potentially see controversy in my concept if not handled correctly. Although Alzheimer's disease is a progressive one with no cure as of yet, I intend to portray the decline of mental state in a tasteful way (Ending on a slightly more positive or heartwarming note).
Examples of interesting ways I could implement symptoms as mechanics:
Examples of interesting ways I could implement symptoms as environment detail:
The Memoirs:
My character will be in the process of typing up their memoirs during the game, as it progresses the player will be able to read a different page of the memoirs. The character understands their condition and is trying to pass down information about his life to his family before his memory deteriorates. Reading the excerpts will be as new an experience to the character as it is for the player. Nearer the start the memoirs will make sense and help build narrative, the further it progresses, they will make less sense and be less relevant as the character starts to forget the original purpose for writing them.
The Difference Between Alzheimer's and Dementia:
Before developing Forget-Me-Not I must first understand Alzheimer's disease and how this specific condition differs from Dementia. With very little understanding of the condition currently, the terms Alzheimer's and dementia are used in conversation under the impression that they are one and the same. This is actually not true; Alzheimer's disease is a form for dementia that affects the parts of the brain in control of thought, language and memory. Dementia is an all encompassing term for a set of symptoms that impair memory and thinking. When someone suffers from dementia their brain capabilities decline due to the dying of brain tissues, areas such as: Thinking, Memory, Mental Agility, Language and Communication Skills and Judgement are affected.
Forget-Me-Not will be focusing on Alzheimer's disease as the focal point. To create a game that is a factual depiction of the condition as well as an engaging experience requires research into the symptoms and thinking about how to project these to the player. Alzheimers disease is a progressive condition which currently there is no cure for. The disease starts with small memory problems such as forgetting recent conversations and not managing to remember the names of places, people and the uses of objects. As the condition progresses, the patient can suffer from more severe symptoms such as:
Other Facts:
There is currently medication which can slow the symptoms - which I may try to include in my game in some form or another - but sadly this medication cannot stop the condition completely.
Alzheimer's disease is most common in people over the age of 65.
Women are slightly more at risk than men to get Alzheimers.
While looking through the settings in UE4 I noticed more in-dept control over player view, fog, terrain, lighting etc. The most interesting for my honours project was the player view controls, I found a way to make the character short/long sighted. This could prove interesting as I may implement a mechanic around the character requiring glasses to see properly. Unreal Engine 4 appears to have more accessible controls over the more intricate details which I am finding quite enjoyable to explore.
These tests in Unreal Engine 4 were done to test the export/import pipeline into Unreal as well as testing 'mood'. I feel with the screenshots above the game has more of a horror vibe to it, I'm not sure whether to stray away from this, or attempt to embrace it. After more research in the illness has been done I may try portray the 'aggressive' symptom with this method of visual portrayal. There were few/no instances of lighting or shadow issues which I encountered in UDK due to light mapping issues.
Note: Textures applied to models are tests and not final.
This was my first experience (first time opening) Unreal Engine 4. I decided that I would experiment with a few of the features that I enjoyed the most in UDK: Terrain Tool, Skybox, Lighting and Water. The experiment was just a quick 'play around' with some of the tools later on in the evening, but I still think the results from just building an environment without any tutorials or assistance were quite nice.
A big hurdle in the project will be getting used to Maya controls and construction pipelines required for building the 3D game in Unreal Engine 4. Above are 2 screenshots of a quick 3D mock-up based on the previous concept art. By keeping the objects relatively low poly I intend to be able to produce a larger quantity of styalised assets, which should hopefully make the environments feel more 'lived in'. At this stage I intend to experiment with the production pipeline and test how quickly I can produce assets for the game to help get a better idea of how achievable the scope of the project is. In general I feel happy with the results of the test, and will attempt the next stage of the production pipeline.