PERSONAL PROJECT REPORT

Keep Going

Michael Tsao Year 11.4 Word Count: 3484

Investigation

Project Goal and Global Context

The goal of my MYP personal project is to create a demo of an original computer game. This will be made for Windows on Unreal Engine 4, a game building engine, and to be ported to Mac if possible. This is to be published to a public audience, such as gamejolt, as my final product. The game will focus on unique and fun gameplay as well as storytelling achieved through the medium of a game. Inspired by games of similar style, as well as different titles that have successfully told powerful and compelling stories through video games, my story will try and explore the concept of time and reality, as well as purpose and happiness. These themes are rather abstract, and I hope to comment on them through a story with characters of unique identities and depth as well as provoke thought from the audience. These themes would also be reflected majorly on elements of gameplay that correlates to the progression of the story, to make gameplay fun and fulfilling for the players. The game will be a sidescroller with time-based mechanics and gameplay challenges based on manipulating the flow of time. As for art and graphics, this will not be my main focus, and I find simplicity and minimalism to be a better option for art, therefore I will choose a 2.5D low-poly visual style.

My project will explore the global context “Personal and Cultural Relationships”, in particular of “the ways in which we discover and express ideas, feelings, nature, culture, beliefs and values”. This concept relates to my project as my product will be a creative form of expression on my ideas and message I wish to bring out as the creator of the game, and moreover as a storyteller. This extends to the story I wish to tell within my game, where I wish to focus on character building and defining a set of background, personality and values for each character, and exploring these relationships and interactions between characters and understanding themselves as part of the journey.

As a demo, the aim of the project is to create a preview of my game, encapsulating the basic gameplay and to set the thematic story context for the full game.Despite not being a complete game, this will be equally challenging due to my lack of experience and time constraints, meaning I will have to learn a new set of skills based on previous knowledge within this time. For this purpose, I will require to work more efficiently and dedicate more time than others due to the complex nature of programming and scripting involved in the project on top of learning to code. The inspiration for my game comes from classic and modern platformers as well as a variety of different games. For level design and thematic details, they come from titles such as “Inside” and “Limbo”. For gameplay and physics aspects I will be looking at the “Super Smash Bros.” series, “SUPERHOT”, “HASTE” by E-Cone, “Fable” and other titles for elements such as how time control is implemented as well as different mechanical controls in gameplay. Finally for story elements, these come from a variety of Japanese visual novels such as the “Danganronpa” and “Zero Escape” series, as well as FPSs, RPGs, adventure and action games such as “Call Of Duty”, “Final Fantasy”, “Undertale”, “Chrono Trigger”, “Metal Gear Solid”, “Mass Effect”, “Portal”, “Asura’s Wrath” and many more, depicting different storytelling techniques for different complex storylines, as well as involving gameplay into parts of storytelling that complement each other, refining both the gameplay and the story.

Prior Knowledge and Personal Interest

As aforementioned, I have had minor experience with game coding and an understanding of how games are built. Personally, I have attempted recreating and imitating games and basic functionalities with different game building engines, experimenting with game coding of different styles. I also have some basic knowledge of C++, the main language used in Unreal Engine, in my attempts of modding (modifications of games) and from previous self-learning. Overall, my pre-existing knowledge of some functionalities that I will be using in Unreal Engine as well as a better understanding of how programs functions will assist me in learning in depth how to program my project, reducing the time I require learning and allowing for more time to complete the game, as well as to make sure the challenge is achievable. Additionally, my prior knowledge on the structure and frameworks of game mechanics, in general, is also helpful when debugging and fixing issues that occur in my own game during development as well as quality checking my product.

These experiences come mostly from part of my interest and enjoyment of video games, but more importantly, I have always hoped to share the same joy I find in games to friends and others. This has developed into my career direction to take part in game development, such as building software (programming) or hardware (engineering) for entertainment purposes and going even further to experience the world through interactive elements into our daily lives. Despite these aspirations, there are limitations to my ability and limits to what I can make, and for this chance I wish to begin by exploring my level of interest in pursuing a career involving dealing with scripting and programming, to see if I truly enjoy coding as a career. I also wish to take this opportunity to learn a new set of skills, and to see my learning put into use.

There are also other sources of knowledge that will assist me and build on to my prior knowledge of this project. Programming a game with physical elements would require knowledge of the properties of physical and mathematical variables. They contribute to aspects of realism, ergonomic and intuitive gameplay, playability where moving objects interact with one another, as well as precise movements, which is the foundational concept of my game. For example, the manipulation of time in gameplay, proportional acceleration and deceleration of time for different elements in the world, gravitational properties, modifiers for traveling speed, speed calculations based on distance and time, etc. As these are all properties I am considering to involve as a major part of gameplay, the knowledge of these relationships would be very useful when understanding and programming these properties and making them work.

Research for my product and particular topic will be quite difficult within the time constraints and will heavily depend on past knowledge, especially when coming to primary sources. The majority of my primary research will be based on existing game titles and my personal experience and learning from playing these games first hand. These would include games I have completed previously or have completed anytime during the process of this Project. They provide as my main source of inspirations, motivations, as well as great examples as to what key features I should or should not include based on the successes and issues I myself as a player experience and the gaming community would encounter during the playthrough of a game (See Appendix A). Titles analysed includes a multitude of game platforms, genre, purpose, themes, etc. to gain a better understanding of the components of a successful product, both generally and specifically of my desired direction of my product.

Secondary research in turn played a major role when researching for my product. My sources included video tutorials on YouTube learning about using Unreal Engine 4 visually and practicing alongside, such as the “Unreal Engine 4 Beginner Tutorial” ("Creating Games For Beginners Using UE4 - Unreal Engine 4 Course", 2016) series to understand the functions and limitations provided when developing my product, and how to do so in an unfamiliar environment; As well as the “Creating A SideScroller With Unreal Engine 4” ("Creating A Side Scroller Game - Unreal Engine 4 Course", 2017) series to better understand how to build a platformer with Unreal Engine 4. These tutorials are made by a channel under the name “Virtus Learning Hub / Creative Tutorials”. To ask and research specific a specific problem that I may encounter and I have encountered during the development of my product, I have turned to the Unreal Engine 4 Community forums ("Unreal Engine Forums", 2018), where Unreal Engine 4 developers and users help answer questions and provide instructive and informative solutions to technical issues, such as ways a mechanic can be implemented through scripting methods. Although this source may be unreliable as it can be responded by anyone, all methods can be tested and approved, where users would mark valid methods through upvotes and initiate discussion on different approaches to a problem, which I can use to track the reliability of each answer. Finally, I have referred to the official documentations and tutorials as provided by Epic Games to better understand the engine and to get a better understanding of the elements that are uncovered in previous sources, confirm my gathered knowledge, as well as solve technical issues I may experience when using the developer engine ("Unreal Engine 4 Documentation", 2018). This includes documentations on adjusting setting of the game and my developing experience, importing and exporting files, packaging my final product, etc. Other sources and further in depth analysis of each source of research can be found in Appendix B.

Research

Planning

The results of my research and knowledge will be compiled and displayed in the successes of my product, as an overall gauge for what I have learnt and how well am i able to present my learnings. I have decided for my product to be a demo of a platformer introducing and “teasing” the story I plan to tell as a complete title. Since the focus of this project will not only be my product but also the process of learning and the expression of my knowledge, there are also criterias I have set for myself to gauge the overall success in achieving my goal. These criterias would include achieving my product specific specifications as detailed in Appendix C, as well as to take away knowledge and increased understanding to game making, its process and necessary skills.

Criteria and Specifications

To ensure success and completion of my product, I have made use of strategies of how I plan to work on this project. These strategies include a variety of time management skills, including a detailed timeline (see Appendix D) of when I plan to achieve a major goal in my process of development. This timeline is based on considerations to the time allowance of the duration of this project, and of the workload I will receive during that time. The timeline includes self set schedules in my personal time where I make effort to work on this project and make consistent progress. This timeline also puts into consideration of the time I will need learning these new skills and balancing with the time applying said skills (i.e. creating the product), to make sure skills are fresh in the mind, as well as to ensure work is done. Evidence of the success of this timeline can be seen as discussed in my process journal (see Appendix G), where I evaluate how I achieve the goals set realistically, and how I make adjustments accordingly, with my goals and product.

Organisation

Self-Management

There will also be involvement of self-management skills that I will be using and developing during the process of this project, in particular of following my timeline and stress management from the increased workload of a highly challenging project for myself. Skills that I had to use included setting times and schedules to achieve balanced and efficient working as discussed above, as well as resilience to repetitive failure as coding and scripting requires constant trial and error, and the constant building pressure of due dates, goals, and from other workloads. During this project, I have developed specific skills learning from this experience, including efficient planning, to planning an effective schedule in advance, and give allowance to cope for sudden changes; and increased resilience and ability to deal with stress, as seen where I had to cope with the tedious process of programming and the need to redo many parts all over from failures in the code, I also had to cope with the stress of work on a daily basis on other subjects as well as assessment stress.

I also had the chance to apply and further develop my communication and collaboration skills as a result of this project. Communication skills include presentation to a larger general audience, through the medium of my product; understanding and communicating with terminology and notations, evident in this report and the making of my product, scripting and learning with said terminology; Game as a form of multimedia presentation formats, and how I can effectively use the medium; Taking feedback and improving based on the feedback I received, example after the feedback fair, where I made improvements to my product based on new inspirations and constructive feedback (See process journal); Formatting and writing accordingly for a different audience when constructing my report and documentations in my process journal; Contributing to digital social media network when I published my demo online through GameJolt. Aside from these skills, I have also developed a range of Collaboration Skills as I had the chance to collaborate with my friend, Ryan Ng, where he was responsible of the composition of the background tracks of my game. These skills included to work in collaboration as a team, where we had to take shared responsibility in decision making, making reasonable and decisive judgements. It was also important to take responsibility for my share of work, and fulfil goals in time to allow us to trade feedback with each other. Furthermore this allowed me to build and develop relationships with my partner in this project.

Communication and Social

During this creation process of my product, there are specific skills I have developed and areas I have grown in regards to Thinking skills. In particular, critical thinking skills were key in developing my product, including harsh analysis and evaluation when quality checking aspects of my product, and considering how realistic my plans and changes are when making major decisions such as a change in the story; Creative thinking were also necessary in devising a complete and fluid story, as well as level designing and other creative aspects in my title; Last but not least, to transfer my previous knowledge and research into my current work to better succeed, understanding what is in common of this project, and applying the correct skills into the correct situations.

Thinking

As the result of the project, my final product was an incomplete demo with a planned sequence and story for my demo. The final product was named “Keep Going”, with the character physics and gameplay mechanics mostly implemented, where level design for storytelling and instructive directions are incomplete for the beginning of my level. These mechanics includes basic movement mechanics such as run, jump, crouch, and game specific functions such as the ability to slow down time, perform air dashes, etc. Due to time constraints, I have prioritised the completion of character and gameplay mechanics over level design and building, which as a result I have failed to tell a complete story through the game, as well as failed characterisation of characters. I have however devised a story and a plan to level design that I had intended to tell this story with (see Appendix F). The story I believe encaptures my themes and works well with the mechanics I have designed, and provides a unique expression of “personal and cultural relationships”, with my perspective of value and what it means to be “yourself”. Unfortunately, it did not manage to make it in time for the development of the final product and for the exhibition fair.

During the process of development, I have made multiple changes to the story idea, what story I wished to tell, and how I wanted to tell it in my game. This had a major influence as to how I designed my levels, and how I used environmental objects to set a different theme. From the beginning, It spanned off from ideas for gameplay and mechanics I wanted to implement, which involves mechanics to slow down time by will, which I believe would be interesting. The story then grew to “Project ReaCt”, the original name of this project, a story about experimenting on enhanced human reaction speed. This gave a setting and more opportunities to tease the original concept. The story however didn’t relate nor express my global concept strong enough, which led to the development of the story after hours of brainstorming to reach as it is (see Appendix F). Metaphorically, the story’s idea is to “siege the monsters and beasts within”, therefore to set the theme with the environment, I have decided to build the level based on a “castle in ruins”. The road to the worn out castle would be the tutorial portion, and the castle could serve as a dungeon like setting, challenging the players to get use to the gameplay until they reach the final boss fight. The final boss would be the protagonist’s monster within. I believe these graphical symbolisms and settings would enhance and help with the storytelling through gameplay, which is the result of my current product, being the first tutorial section of this game.

Product

Taking Action

Expanded Knowledge and Being an IB Learner

As part of this project, I have learnt a new set of skills, namely coding with Unreal Engine 4, learning how to use blueprints, and exploring different possibilities available to form a functional game. I have also experienced the difficulties of working to develop a game from scratch, through this I have learnt the steps to take and the knowledge necessary, but more importantly a better understanding to if this form of work is suitable for myself. To that I do believe so, as I found myself picking up and learning very quickly all the skills needed and could begin programming relatively quickly. Although I faced many bumps and time consuming tests, I did enjoy the process, and the satisfaction I’ve got when I have made successes was all worth the hard work. This is a project I can continue on my own time after PP, a process I can take on and work as a strong example of my prior knowledge and experience in programming and game design should I take on as my future career

This project has also gave a deeper meaning to my global context “Personal and Cultural Relationships”. Through this project, I have come across many changes in perception and ideas of what I wish to express for my themes, as well as how I can better use my game as a medium to express these thoughts. I think this project had further proved my point that the expression of these themes can often come through and in many different ways, A game as an example, the interactivity element enhances the overall communication experience from the developers to the audience, the players. I also see more into the value of these concepts, of our “ideas, feelings, nature, culture, beliefs and values” as they resonate to the player when the story is told, that can subvert or follow the assumptions and preexisting understanding of the player, and raise debate and questioning of these concepts, and therefore how powerful these expressions can be to a wider audience.

The IB learner profiles indicate 10 qualities that can allow for success as an IB student. These profiles include: Inquirers, Knowledgeable, Thinkers, Communicators, Principled, Open-minded, Caring, Risk-takers, Balanced and Reflective ("The IB Learner Profile", 2010). Of these profiles, I believe I have developed in particular as a thinker through the practice and successes in my use of problem solving skills when dealing with coding; as a communicator through the use of different and unique mediums to deliver a message to an audience; as a risk-taker for both willing to attempt something out of my comfort zone and acquiring new knowledge, and to use games a form of communicative medium; and finally as a reflective person for critically analysing my work and to make further improvements. The development of these skill have enhanced me as a learner, and are all something I can take on in the future to strive as a more successful IB learner.

Evaluating against my product specific criterias, there were parts where I was successful, such as to maintain a consistent art style and quality; scalable graphics for different sizes of display; code functions as intended without observable or identifiable issues; controls self explanatory when it comes to movement, and easily explained and understood by an audience; the tutorial is built as part of a larger level, occupying a smaller portion of the complete level, and part of the story to tell as explained above; my product contains a unique gameplay mechanic functioning around slowing time and altering how the character moves in the air; and lastly the code is ensured to not have extra or unnecessary nodes or occupied storage. There are however certain criterias that I have failed to show in my final product, to tell a complete story and to characterise my characters properly as discussed. This is mostly due to time constraints, where I am unable to finish my product to my ambitious expectations in time.

The product as a whole was well produced for the most part with what I had, meeting most of my criterias and maintaining a consistent quality. In general, it lacked quantity, however in consideration to personal limitations and learning along the way, I believe my work was well executed. Main point of improvement for my product would definitely to have more content put together.

Now that I have completed this process, I do think some criterias were unrealistic, as the time constraints was certainly a lot more tighter than expected, leading to inability to complete an ambitious project in time. I do think I placed too much focused on having a physical product as my outcome and goal of this project, whereas it is more important for that I have learnt and took away knowledge and skills from this journey, which I strongly believe I did and have made developments in terms of a new set of disciplinary specific knowledge, and learning skills that I have been using throughout this project.

Evaluation

Reflecting

Bibliography

Creating A Side Scroller Game - Unreal Engine 4 Course. (2017). YouTube. Retrieved 28 December 2017, from https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLL0cLF8gjBprGkSAYxrkldwhIHdi5zlxx

Creating Games For Beginners Using UE4 - Unreal Engine 4 Course. (2016). YouTube. Retrieved 28 December 2017, from https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLL0cLF8gjBpqDdMoeid6Vl5roMl6xJQGC

The IB Learner Profile. (2010). Ibo.org. Retrieved 18 February 2018, from http://www.ibo.org/globalassets/publications/recognition/learnerprofile-en.pdf

Unreal Engine 4 Documentation. (2018). Docs.unrealengine.com. Retrieved 30 December 2017, from https://docs.unrealengine.com/latest/INT/

Unreal Engine Forums. (2018). Forums.unrealengine.com. Retrieved 29 December 2017, from https://forums.unrealengine.com/

Appendix A

Existing products analysis

Limbo, Inside (Sidescroller, platformer games, thematic and story-based)

Storytelling through environmental objects and scenery, gameplay elements involve interacting with the environment and puzzle solving to advance. Little to no dialogue involved and the story can be understood through the changes in the environment and its details

Danganronpa, Zero Escape, Ace Attorney (Visual novel, story told through dialogue, novel-based with interactive gameplay elements)

Characters are defined and the story advances through conversations between characters, therefore storytelling through shifting perspectives. Gameplay elements are integrated to advance the story and play the role of the characters.

SUPERHOT, Super Smash Bros. (Sources of inspiration for gameplay, Action games with reflexive mechanics)

Gameplay includes time-bending mechanics (SUPERHOT) and displacement mechanics (Super Smash Bros.) to maneuver against enemies and prevent taking damage. Change the flow of time under conditions and to increase the ability to maneuver midair through gameplay mechanics.

UNDERTALE, Chrono Trigger, Final Fantasy (Other genres of games known for the great stories they have told)

Gameplay focused (RPG, Action-based), that tells its story and its important points of development through combat and involvement of the player and often the decision in gameplay, such as how they choose to play the game.

Appendix B

OPVL Evaluation of Research Sources

Creating Games For Beginners Using UE4 - Unreal Engine 4 Course

Origin: “Virtus Learning Hub / Creative Tutorials”, a youtube educational channel teaching programming.

Purpose: To educate newcomers and inexperienced programmers through the basics of Unreal Engine 4 including basic functionalities and knowledge to develop their future projects.

Value: Visual walkthrough with verbal explanation, allows for easy understanding and side by side reference of my own work.

Limitations: May not cover a wide variety of methods to achieve a certain result, may not get the best solution to a problem directly from these tutorials.

Creating A Side Scroller Game - Unreal Engine 4 Course

Origin: “Virtus Learning Hub / Creative Tutorials”, a youtube educational channel teaching programming.

Purpose: To educate newcomers and inexperienced programmers through creating a sidescroller game with Unreal Engine 4 including basic functionalities and knowledge to develop their future projects.

Value: Visual walkthrough with verbal explanation, allows for easy understanding and side by side reference of my own work.

Limitations: May not cover a wide variety of methods to achieve a certain result, may not get the best solution to a problem directly from these tutorials

Unreal Engine Forums

Origin: Official forum boards for the Unreal Engine developers community. Posts and replies are from Unreal Engine users and official developers.

Purpose: To ask and discuss questions, alternatives and solutions to a specific function.

Value: Offers sources of knowledge from a variety of users, from experienced developers to professionals to learning users, where they provide their solution to different problems.

Limitations: Tested by others therefore quality of solution may vary. Some solutions may work better than others for your specific project, therefore may not provide you with the complete answer.

Unreal Engine 4 Documentation

Origin: Official Documentation on the Unreal Engine and all its functions. Written by Epic Games, company developing Unreal Engine.

Purpose: Document all functionality and features of the Unreal Engine.

Value: Absolute validity via trusted official source. Extensive documentation of high detail.

Limitations: Some explanation uses very specific terminology that may be difficult to understand.

The IB Learner Profile

Origin: The International Baccalaureate Organisation.

Purpose: Document the Learner Profiles of the International Baccalaureate.

Value: Absolute validity via trusted source, informative and descriptive of each profile.

Limitations: Possibly outdated as it is cited to be from 2014.

Appendix C

Product Specific Specifications

Appendix D

Timeline

Appendix E

Photographic evidence of product

Appendix F

Product Storyline

A story about acceptance and grief, where the protagonist soon to lose his friend from a terminal disease, and the game shows how he fights his battle within mentally against grief and depression. The ending shows how he decides to see his friend for the last time finally accepting his passing away. The story will be set from a metaphorical and dream-like reality, therefore the ability to manipulate time (metaphhorically to reject time passing and the need to face the dying of a friend), the unrealistic physics (such as air dashing) and the drastic visual details and level design.

Level sequence:

The game begins with the player going right

Set in a medieval based castle thematic

The path is in ruins, where the character has to maneuver through static obstacles to reach the next destination

The tutorial is set in this path, where controls show up on the screen to teach the player the controls

Should include an icon to represent the buttons rather than words, style of text and button should follow style and thematic

Consider using drawings over words - (e.g. icon of character jumping to represent jump function, etc.)

Character enters castle, styled to function like a dungeon

First trap teaches air dodging and time freezing mechanics

Player climbs the castle (level set to advance upwards) with each level of the castle representing the five stages of grief (depression)

Denial: Collapsing and closing spaces - falling obstacles from background and walls collapsing in. (Denying access)

Anger: Glass shards falling and flying, broken obstacles, higher intensity from fast obstacles.

(Broken shards - expression of anger and irrational destructive behavior)

Bargaining: Disappearing traps - some obstacles turn invisible and have delays. (Resisting, doubting)

Depression: Dark environment, obstacles are hidden and more unpredictable, require sudden reactions. (Metaphor: not seeing

the light at the end of the tunnel)

Acceptance: A combination of these obstacles, towards the end all obstacles disappear and the theme changes to a reversed

black and white colour tone. (Accepting that grief is natural, therefore all stages are present, finally emptiness, calm

before the storm)

Final battle against the "monster within", the source of his pain from within

Monster spawns from the centre of the character, crawls out and takes form of the character, deformed and enlarged

Attack patterns similar to bullet hell games - leaves small spaces to evade attacks and require fast reactions

Final stage of boss removes the ability of slowing time, requires player to dodge attacks without relying on time-bending

abilities. (removing his "protective subconscious mechanism")

After the boss is defeated, we move on to a long walk, where the theme and scenery progress as the character moves. We finally see his lost friend, and we "move on" literally as the ending of this demo.

Appendix G

Process Journal Extracts

21st June 2017

Meeting two points of discussion:

- Timeline discussed and clear on how to follow, reviewed with supervisor and approved (reasonable and logical)

- Direction of storyline discussed and further points of consideration raised (how to present in gameplay smoothly)

- Message I want to bring is discussed and feedback received from supervisor

- Goal finalised and decided

- How I plan to incorporate global context discussed and approved

30th November 2017

In preparation for PP Feedback Fair:

- Paper 2D first demo ready for display

- Slight issues with animations here and there

- Very basic map exploring the features of the game

- Time dilation mechanics requires follow up

- "Project ReaCt" story make in progress

- Feedback questions ready to gather opinion from peers

27th February 2018

Progress of final product, Finalising drafting of report:

- Final product all movement components and controls completely implemented

- Animations fixed

- Full graphical rework from "Project ReaCt"

- Begun level design

- Completed Tutorial section level build

- Next step: implement indicative instructions for tutorial

- New story: planned and finalised

- Reviewed current progress of report writing

- Follow up and making plans on how to complete the report to the best of my ability

- Gone over missing work (to be completed or filled in)

A creative and compelling story consistently told throughout the game
Character must have an easily identifiable character after the completion of the game, building identity
Art and graphical style must be consistent throughout gameplay
Gameplay should be scalable by graphic and framerate to ensure smooth function on lower end devices
The final product must function as intended without errors in the code reflected in gameplay, affecting the overall experience
Controls should be intuitive, ergonomic, and self-explanatory with the help of a simple tutorial
The tutorial must be simple and concise, short and not taking over gameplay time, and incorporated as part of the story and not as an extra level
The final product must have an unique mechanical gameplay that provides the major feature of the game, which includes elements of time control and physics manipulation
The final product should have its codes simplified and compressed to compile to reduce file size and unnecessary taking up space