FMP 2017 -2018 & 2018 - 2019
The FMP was the project that determined my grade in the first year of the Game Design course in college. For my project I decided to create a level that was taking inspiration from Dishonored, where the levels aren't particularly massive, but there's something to do everywhere you look and loads of different ways to get around, rather than just the one linear route. I had planned for Ai to roam the level and detect you if you weren't careful with where you went and such, but after a few weeks on trying to get the Ai to work I decided to not bog myself down with one thing, and focus on getting the rest of the game done, and then give the Ai another go if I had time toward the end of the project.
Despite that being cut from the game in the end, I still had some cool mechanics, like crouching, collectibles, the Minimap, Stamina, Health and respawning.
In the course of the FMP, my initial idea didn't really come to light too much, as i think I over scoped the project a bit and I managed it poorly, so instead of focusing on one thing and getting that done, I tried a bit of everything all at once. But, i did in the end manage to produce something that I was proud of and i think given another chance at it i could really flesh it out and make something more of it. So, maybe sometime in the future i'll look at re-creating it with my new knowledge of Unity, meaning the process should be easier, allowing more time for more features, and it will also look and play better as a result of that.
Learning from Mistakes
I think the biggest thing that took away after the FMP period had come to end was to learn from my mistakes. For example, my FMP was plagued with performance issues because at no point did i think that would be an issue, since I was using fairly low res textures and the game didn't look particularly 'nice'. Something that I've taken into the second year is performance of the projects i'm working on, and if for some reason there's suddenly a massive performance drop then there must be a cause behind it. So far in the second year I haven't encountered any performance dips in the projects I've worked on, and i'd like to think that's to me being more considerate of how busy each scene and is adjusting the graphics settings and such accordingly to make sure the performance stays, at worst, around 30 FPS with the preferred goal of 60FPS.
FMP 2019
Learning from the errors of my last FMP, I decided this time i wanna going to make something that simple but polished, unlike the ambitious and bug ridden previous FMP.
This time, I opted for a puzzle/platformer type of game. So, the player will complete a series of increasingly difficult puzzles that all require some kind of platforming element, whether that be timing a button press just right, or jumping from moving platforms.
Before i dive into the full thing, I wanted to show some earlier concepts for the level design.
Oh, in case i haven't previously mentioned, I prefer to work with Level design and Lighting compared to other parts.
So, not too much too see but you can see how the early concepts slowly took more of a refined shape after i tested a bunch of rough levels with people to gather feedback on how i could shape my levels.
One habit of mine is making the kind of 'abstract' platforming type, so a level with just floating platforms and not much structure, just platforms to jump onto.
Now, onto the big event. The actual finished product, which I am much happier with compared to last time.
The Tutorial level is pretty simple. On the main menu it's encouraged you read the controls before starting the game, but it's fairly straightforward even without doing that.
This level is basically going "pick up the blue ball, not the cube" to teach the player that Blue Ball is the objective. they then have to carry it into the holder to unlock the door and reach the next level. Simples.
Level 1 is pretty much the same as the tutorial, except I introduce some very light platforming aspects, in this case only one jump to onto the platform is needed, then you carry the ball down to deposit it into the holder to continue.
Level 2 is where things start getting a little more difficult. There's 2 balls to recover here, one atop of a block and another at the end of a platforming puzzle type of thing. Just a few jumps are needed, but it can be punishing if you don't manage your stamina well enough. The one atop the block needs to be got down by making the smaller block do a domino effect and push the ball down. When both balls are recovered, they'll open one door each. Once both are open, the player can proceed.
