A1: Noir Game - DONE

Noir Game    Start - 08/01/2024

Noir Definition

Noir is defined literally as black in French but in media it is defined as a genre of crime film or fiction characterized by cynicism, fatalism, and moral ambiguity.

Noir Traits

Greyscale: stereotyped from the era the movies that started this genre came from, noir movies and games are often believed to be of a greyscale colour scheme which still works for projects today thanks to the limited colours allowing for showcasing of the other cinematography based traits of noir media.

Stark lighting: this involves harsh lights that form strong shadows which makes for strong contrasts between light and dark which may have been originally a product of the 1940's/50's but now it helps with setting the mood and atmosphere of feeling like something is going to happen which noir media is known for.

Complex plots: Plot twists, morally ambiguous characters, flashbacks, ulterior motives, and deep themes involving corruption, betrayal, existentialism, and crime.

Dramatic Camera Angles: Film Noir often uses dramatic camera angles, such as low angles, to enhance visual impact and create tension and unease in the audience.

Noir Media

Blade Runner 2049

Blade Runner 2049 is a sci-fi noir movie

that uses the pessimistic and deep messaging aspects of the noir medium to it's full advantage through a lonely, morally ambiguous character, exploring themes of identity, memory, and the nature of humanity. It is rated at 88% on Rotten Tomatoes and it is considered a cult classic with having stunning visuals, superb casting, and intriguing plot, but flopped financially due to pacing issues, murky stakes, and zero fun factor.

The Wolf Among Us

The Wolf Among Us is a game based on the Fables comic book series, featuring a noir-inspired atmosphere and detective elements. It is rated at a 10/10 on Steam and was made by Telltale Games which is a studio known for great story driven games.

L.A. Noire

L.A Noire is a game that immerses players in a film noir-inspired detective story set in 1940s Los Angeles. It is rated at 9/10 on Steam and is regarded well for it's story, writing, and characters.

(FELL ILL WITH WHOOPING COUGH NEW YEAR'S EVE)

Game Concept

Gameplay Idea

the idea that my group has come up with for the game is that it will be a stationary, first person, arcade style, shoot-'em-up, where the goal is to kill waves of officers in increasing intensity and in changing environments to either reach the end or get as high a score as you can before dying. The player will have a set amount of lives that they have that are restored between areas, the player loses a life when they get shot and the player loses if they run out of lives, the player can avoid getting shot via changing/hiding behind cover but this cover will only protect the player from certain angles or will only withstand so many shots before it breaks and leaves you exposed - this will encourage the player to kill quickly and only hide behind fragile cover in emergencies.

Visual and environment style

The idea for the style of the environment is for it to be stylized in the style of an arcade game for the look of the world and using a greyscale color palette, utilizing stark lighting to create harsh contrasts in the environment to allow it to appear varied with the limited palette. The UI would also similarly be stylized with having a typewriter-like font for the score display and using 'X's for the life counter.

    The environment ideas are that the game will be set in the 1940s and there will be three locations for the player to shoot their way through; an indoor hideout with limited access points for the police to appear from with lots of cover to hide behind to act as an easy intro for the player to get accustomed to the controls, the fragility of most cover, and the other mechanics of the game; An open street filled with cars, this would be to introduce multiple angles that the enemies can come from making hiding behind cover not always work in your favor, but the cars that are being used as cover are near impossible to be destroyed by the police; and the final area which would be an underground metro style substation that has lots of places police officers can come from and limited, fragile cover as a final test of the players swiftness and reflexes.

30.01.24 Scrum

Concept Art

Stage 1 Layout Concept

This is the concept layout for the 1st stage in the game. The 'X's are where enemies will stand and shoot at the player from, the 'C's are where the player will be able to stand, and the up and down at the top of the image is to differentiate between an upstairs balcony and downstairs. The layout is to resemble an old bar building that has been remodeled into a hideout with tables and chairs knocked over and piles of boxes and barrels of varying contents dotted about to act as cover alongside the bar main bar stand.

Stage 2 Layout Concept

This is the concept layout for the 2nd stage in the game. The layout is to resemble an old street junction with cars being used as firefight cover where cops would hold out inside of the street buildings and behind cars in the street, there would also be a moving tram as a moving environment piece to spice up the environment. The gimmick with this level will be that the cars are invulnerable pieces of cover that will never break, however they can't protect you from every angle but instead directly in front of them.

Stage 3 Layout Concept

This is the concept layout for the 3rd and final stage in the game. The layout is to resemble an old metro station where the player will be on a central platform between two train tracks where there is clutter blocking off the stairs to go upstairs, two tunnels to platforms on either side of the train tracks where officers will appear from and walk towards the center from, and a flight of downwards stairs on the same platform as the player where officers will also be appearing from, also there will be trains that occasionally pass by as temporary cover and as a moving environment piece. The gimmick with this level is that it will combine the knowledge from the previous two stages of cover not being able to take too much of a beating before breaking and that enemies will come from more than one side rending cover useless at times.

Enemy/Officer Concept

This is the concept design of the police officers, the enemies for the game. Their attire consists of what I could tell the officer uniform of the 1940s was: which was what appeared to be a button up top, trousers, boots, badge, and hat with badge on it as well. On the left is my attempt at drawing an officer standing at attention with their hands behind their back while standing tall and stern. And on the right is an example of what their 'accurate shot' (shot that will actually damage the player instead of being an effect) warning flash looks like to indicate to the player that they need to move out of the way or duck behind cover, else they will be hit and lose a life. The inspiration behind this design for the officers comes from the design of the police officers in Beholder and the design style of the human characters from Murder Drones by Glitch Productions & Liam Vickers. As someone who isn't very good at drawing humanoid characters, or characters at all, I would say I am quite proud of this bit of concept art for practice with drawing humanoid characters though if there was something I would change, I would try to re-draw the pre-shot-fired warning to give it a more distinct stance and make the officer look more aggressive/imposing.

05/02/2024 Scrum

Stage 1 Placeholder Layout

In the images above is my Placeholder environment for stage 1 that I will be using for testing and making the code for the game. Personally I would like to say that I am very happy with how this environment came out with the bar stand where the player is, the tables dotted about as cover, the placeholder barrel and box piles, the ladder in the back to the railing, the placeholder doors, and especially the hard shadow white lights including the placeholder chandelier on the ceiling and the placeholder lamps on the walls too and how that creates a strong contrast in the solid black and grey colored environment.

Environment W/ Placeholder Officers

06/02/2023 Scrum

Stage 1 Cover Points Set-Up

This is the set-up I have gone with for the cover system in the game scene, I have opted to mark out the cover points for when the player is in both standing and behind cover states using invisible cubes and marked them out for what they are to try integrating them in code that allows the player to cycle between cover points and states - this will allow the player to dodge the enemies' 'accurate shots'.

Gun Functionality and discovery of Emission in Materials

I have ported over the gun functionality code from the previous independent project to help save on time as we are nearing the deadline, I also utilized one of standard assets pre-made effects for the bullet collision effect. while working on this, I was experimenting with materials and their properties and I discovered what the use of the emission value is for a material and that changes how much the object the material is applied to appears to be emitting light, or more easily put the higher the emission the more neon the color it is emitting looks.

Deadline    14/02/24 + 26/02/24

14/02/24 was the last day working in engine, 26/02/24 + 27/02/24 is when I am typing this up (post half-term break).

As of the deadline, the game is unfortunately not in a state where it can even be considered a test for the gameplay due to the fact that the only useable thing is the looking around and shooting, however this is done using a controller which is the one thing I was able to add before the deadline.

Postmortem

What went well

Overall, this project definitely could've gone better for the whole duration overall but considering I had fallen ill with Whooping Cough on New Years and that by the time I was able to work on the project and we had to start from scratch when there was only about 2 weeks left I would say I am impressed with what we were able to make in the remaining time of the project. Below is the Trello board for the project, I do believe we could've done more in the time frame and we could've delivered a minimal viable product for a game if we crunched down and worked on it outside of lessons but we did what we could and it did at least end up having controller controls and that was one of the main concerns going in.

What Went Wrong

Due to a lack of communication in the earlier days we only were left with the 2 remaining weeks when I had recovered enough to come back into college to get the team together and actually figure out what the team was doing, which is partially on me for not actively nagging my team but also was something I couldn't do anything about as they wouldn't respond. However, from when I did come back I had spent too long working on concept art at a point in the project timeline when I should've immediately jumped into engine so that I could make the code so we could've actually had a Minimal Viable Product by the deadline.

What Will I do differently Next Time

I will make sure to get the highest priority things done first, those being the first level as a playtesting ground and the base code for the game to work before working on anything past level one or any fun creative stuff that only adds extra detail. I also need to work on ensuring that I get all the work I set for myself done and properly commit to doing the work by continuing to work on my projects at home where possible and staying back when convenient. I also need to remember to date all of my blog entries to help keep better track of time and make a timetable to ensure that I keep to deadlines.