Planning and Concept creation
As this was my very first game that I had ever created, I was not sure what to create, I then decided to create game that was more focus of the environment and atmosphere rather than the mechanics
The level design and/or the narrative I wanted to create a horror game that did not utilize jump scares but left a strong impression on the player.
For the actual gameplay I wanted to create a simple mechanic that insentivised exlporation, so I chose the mechanic of camera that can show invisible objects to create simple puzzles.
Production
During the planning and production of this project I came across various issues.
The most prominent issue was that I was completely new to coding, I was using the blueprints that the Unreal Engine provides, even then I did not know what I could do with this engine and how to do it, so either I could not make the mechanics as I intended them to be, or I made some very unreliable code.
Down the line the same code would prove to be unreliable and would interfere with other codes and elements that I tried to create.
Then I would have to go back through the entire code and rewrite it to be more efficient or use new things that I discovered to avoid it causing me trouble later.
To solve this issue, I mainly focused in making all that I could create on my own with no issue and then consulting my tutor and other pupils that new how to code better.
Level design was more challenging than expected as I was still trying to get accustomed to the engine whilst I was trying to create the layout of the levels.
From this I realised that I should have first settled on all that the player is able to do before creating the levels so I could set the measurement of the environment correctly.
Sound design is a key factor in my game as I intend to mainly use it to create the atmosphere of each section, this will be a mixture of environmental sounds such as buzzing of lights, wind blowing, murder of crows etc and sounds related to what the player interacts with such as mechanical gears and photo flash sounds, I was able to easily find free resources to the sounds and music that I would then edits to better use, I used a plug in called Metasounds to improve their implementation.
For all the environmental models I had used asset packs but there was models I had to tailor make models that I could not find, this came to two models the camera and the Witch.
Blueprints and Code
Final Thoughts
Overall, I am very happy with the results of the project as I was able to create the mechanics to work as intended, the ambiance I created effectively conveys the oppressive atmosphere I wanted.
When using asset packs, I should have been more restrained and have researched how to better blend and join these models together in a better way, this could have been achieved if I used more of their in-engine level creating tools in tandem with the asset pack.
Also, at the level of knowledge that I had with Unreal Engine I should have worked closely with some one else that was more familiar with the engine to teach me better with my own research as I did not understand what to first create or how to create these structures, so someone else’s input would have helped.
I quickly came to realise what I had failed to consider in my process of creating the game in both my pre-production and production.
One major issue the project still has is that the meta sound plug in seems to create an issue
Link to game