Final Evaluation

The project was an open-world 3D action-adventure RPG game prototype developed as a group. The intents were to make a game where the player was meant to rescue their friend in a post-human world against robots. Visually, the goal was to have the realistic post-human graphics of Nier Automata and the low-poly landscape like in The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild. My responsibility in this project involves 3D modelling and putting everything together in Unreal Engine.  I have intended to create a game because I have experience in applications including Blender, Unreal Engine and Visual Studio. I have accomplished many tasks along the way of this project. I have learnt how to use nodes in Blender to modify and manipulate models. I was able to create multiple individual pieces and individually apply them to each cube to create a building. However, I had issues with the scaling and placements of the nodes. So instead, I just used the front of the building. I have also learnt how to apply animation sets in Unreal Engine. Instead of just having one animation looping forever, you could apply an animation blueprint. Where you can add as many animation sequences as you want and have them as a set for your characters. I was able to make a simple main menu screen for my game. It had a background and the game logo, with four different buttons including start, join/host, options and quit.

I faced issues with making the main menu. When I made the main menu, I tested it out, but I couldn't see my cursor. To fix this I had to add an "Event Construct" node to the beginning to my blueprint. In Unreal Engine, I was able to use the Foliage tool to effectively add significant amounts of models in one go. The design choices were directly referenced by my primary and secondary research. The primary research survey was able to tell me what customers want. The survey said that there was high demand for both 3D action-adventure and RPGs. Combining realistic assets with low-poly landscape to keep that animated cartoon feel that users want. A primary lesson I have learnt was the importance of a structured asset pipeline. Because my work in Unreal Engine was dependent on the outputs of my team, I have learned how to manage development dependencies efficiently and effectively. Also, I learnt how to efficiently optimise the game by using the foliage tool instead of placing individual assets one at a time. Using the foliage tool will group all the assets together and request one call to the GPU to render the assets. If I was to import the trees manually, the GPU would have to call each asset individually, which causes unwanted lag and wasted time. A challenge I have overcome is when the default third-person character mesh failed to run its default animations. Staying in a T-pose figure. While I was looking in the panels to debug the problem, I diagnosed the problem by re-targeting the skeletal mesh asset to the standard native skeleton structure, forcing a refresh of the animation blueprint mode, and successfully compiling the project to fix the issue. I've had to change the plans on many occasions. The initial proposal outlined saving the friend from mobs and a boss.

However, during the mid-point evaluation, we recognised that creating a player versus environment fighting system with path finding with the mobs and boss would be too time consuming and too difficult for me. Also, the initial idea of having a group of friends together was abandoned. As there was only one modeller, he had difficulty modelling everything. We have decided to only model one character and have the friend already be missing. In my opinion, the team performed effectively. With each of the three members fulfilling their tasks. We maintained clear tracking using a shared spreadsheet to track our asset completion statuses. While we had minor interruptions occurring mid-production, the group found ways around it and helped each other. I would aim to have a better way to track project management, like the use of Trello. I could have incredibly improved the game by adding user interface to the game featuring health point bar, quest tracking, inventory and point of interest map. I would also like to check out Unreal Engine's Niagara VFX system to create atmospheric particle effects like falling leaves and visible wind. I am most proud of being able to optimise the game via the foliage tool. Also being able to fix the broken animations of the character.