I have made a horror game demo featuring a monster, jump scares and collectibles and two scenes which are the schools ground floor and the basement lab underneath.
Strengths:
One strength many people identified was the graphics as people enjoyed the way the game looked and that all parts of the game fit within the same theme and style. Another strength of the game that people identified was the the theme as people enjoyed the Chernobyl setting as it was well presented throughout the game mostly with the posters that were in the game that tied into this setting. Another strength that people pointed out was the sound design although there are not many, people have said that they enjoy the ones that are in the game as they are of good quality and fit the purpose of the sound they are supposed to be. Another thing people said they enjoyed about the game was the jumpscare. Another strength of the game was that people enjoyed the level layout as I spent some time to plan this layout and it provided somewhat of a challenge to navigate whilst being chased by the monster so that there is a sense of threat and dread but not so hard that it becomes frustrating.
Weaknesses:
Although people had pointed out that on the most part the graphics were a strength of the game there was one area in the graphics that was pointed out as a weakness this is because on some of the walls around the building the textures were quite stretched which made the walls look strange and slightly pixelated in parts. Although people had pointed out that the quality of the sounds in the game were good and fit well with what they were used for a part of the sound design of the game that was pointed out as a weakness was the amount of sounds as there are very few in the game. Another weakness of the game that has been pointed out is the walking animation of the enemy does not match the speed at which the enemy walks all to well causing it to look like it gliding along the floor at times. Another weakness that was pointed out to me is that the game was not very dark as the player could easily see all aspects of the game although I only did this as when I made the game very dark it made the textures look strange.
Improvements:
If I had more time for this project there would be many improvements I would make to the quality of the game based around the criticism I have received around the game one of these things would be to fix the texturing on the walls were the textures were stretched out and looked strange to do this I would look for a texture that fit better with the size of the walls in my game. Another thing I would change is adding a greater variety of sound to the game as I only had a few sounds in the game as a whole. Another thing that I would improve about the game would be speeding up the walking animation of the enemy so that it lined up with the pace that it walked so that it no longer looks like it was gliding at times. Another improvement I would make to the game is fixing the way that textures look in the dark so that I would be able to make the game darker.
Summary:
I feel that the development of this project has gone smoothly with only a few issues cropping up along the way but none that I haven’t been able to fix or find a work around for. One example of an issue that I have had that I was able to fix easily was getting the door to look like it had opened when the player finds the collectible they need to open it. The way I fixed this problem was by creating an invisible version of the door in an open position that appears once the collectible is collected and the door in the closed position disappears although not all fixes I have come up with for the game were perfect for example the textures I had in the game looked very strange in the dark so to fix this issue I had to make the rooms a bit brighter than I wanted them to be although I feel this fix has worked well enough as the alternative would have been to try and find a new texture that fit with the feel I wanted and apply it to all the walls in the game which would have taken some time that I could have used to work on the game.
I feel that the game as a whole was a success as people seemed to enjoy many of the aspects about it such as the style of the graphics, the presentation of the theme throughout the game, the quality and use of the sounds throughout the game and the level layout. Although there were a handful of reasons as to why the game was not as much of a success as it could have been although I feel these are things that I could have easily fixed if given more time such as the speed of the enemy’s walk cycle being too slow for the speed that it moved and the textures on some of the walls appearing stretched.
Conclusion:
In conclusion I think that I have learnt a lot in this project as I have developed some of my existing skills further as well as learning new skills for example how to make collectibles in unity, how to make flickering lights and how to give a character animations in unity as well as learning a lot about overcoming problems I may have using unity and how to overcome them in future projects.
Doug's Game Blog 