Container City Evaluation

The other group members were Kieran Joel Phelps, Michael Ollerton, Kieran Burke and Joshua McGahan.

What went well?

Thorough out this project we all understood completely our artistic direction, we also understood our concept. We all knew exactly what we were doing and what our end output was going to be.

Mikes Concept

We communicated well as a group. We all got along well and therefor were comfortable giving feedback. I personally pushed Joel’s designs massively; I also helped him with texturing and provided all my base materials to him to help with efficiency in our pipeline. 

I also continually pushed Kieran to re-do his unwraps due to his dramatic pixel density inconsistencies. I also gave allot of feedback on his geometry, sadly this was not altered.

Josh was someone that we all as a group had to continually give feedback to. As Josh was solely responsible for our engine work he populated out all of the props and generally created allot of the elements that you can see in the environment. There were allot of disagreements here, but as a group we were all able to sit down and talk through them, and make compromises where we could.

We all had our tasks and for the most part we did them all well. There were no fatal mistakes. The mistakes that we did have e.g. the inconsistently low poly geometry that some of Kierans props had we were able to work round and try and hide in the level. So these problems were dealt with and reduced. 

Throughout this project we had a huge amount of support from all the tutors. When we thought we had a problem we would ask members of staff who would always flip our concerns.

For example at the start of the project when we first nailed our concept we were concerned due to how different it was that we may have missed something. We had designed a large open area that had no physical walls, to stop you from walking off the main path, if you walked off our main path you would fall off the top of the container you were walking on. Our world wasn’t constructed of physical corridors, although our world is actually identical to this. Tutors were quick to point out that this was fine; we didn’t have to make rectangles to walk down that joined on to other rectangles. This gave us permission to continue with our concept.

Right from the conception of our world concept all the tutors expressed that they were extremely excited about it, and were really interested with where it was going. At this point due to how quickly we homed in on what we were doing my group and our tutor’s new exactly what we were doing. 

We also had concerns with how modular or world was. The vast majority of the building blocks for our world are modular, but some elements are not, also our general bricker bracker obviously are not modular.   Initially the tutors were quick to simply state that it would be fine, we were repeating assets and that’s all they really wanted. After several days we got concerned again with this as simply repeating assets is not the definition of modular.

We talked to the tutors again and raised our concerns. This time we restated what we thought would count as modular and they agreed. Now when designing our world we made shore that as many parts as possible were modular. This also is the only way of making certain assets usable.  So for the most part we were always going to be using modular assets.

In the end the entire circular perimeter was modular as it’s made of stackable sections instanced up and snapped together. The large tunnel openings and large fan slot cleanly into this outer wall. The Container its self is also modular, it has 8 different parts, from which many many different versions can be snapped together in engine. All these separate parts are all scaled and have the same pivot points, so that if you decide a container with a window on its right side actually needs an opening, then this can be done by simply replacing this mesh, the new opening will appear in the exact same place.  This means that the world can be customized quickly, efficiently and endlessly. Our tutors were aware of how modular our level was throughout the project and were always extremely supportive.

Our texture quality was extremely high, all members of the group dealt really well with the geometry they were given and as a result all assets were textured really well. There are very few exceptions here. 

We completely nailed our vision. The tone of the level is exactly what we were aiming for. We also didn’t have to compromise with the scope of the world. The scale of the world was huge; the initial opening into the world and the drop down really gives a sense of travel and their being a grater world beyond this tunnel.

You then walk across a large open area, and then you’re hemmed into the residential containers. This long corridor is crammed with evidence of life, you know that people live in this world; this is a slum type environment.

Then there is the Buddhist shrine a highlight of the journey, and more world, community building. It’s also in complete contrast with the squalor you have just walked through.

You then walk around and down into the market area which includes the noodle bar. This entire area is full of life; you know that this was the hub of this community. This would have been a stop off for people travelling through this tunnel system. There is the noodle bar, a large area for seating and a toilet container, which you can see is being run as a business.

 You then travel further and onto a more chilled out level, this level is just being used for storage.

Here you hit the power switch which adds additional light to the entire level. Now as you walk back through the level it’s still fresh and interesting.

Now as you get to the top there is a dynamic animation for the lift, which you climb into to travel further down into the world, this is the end of you exploration through our level.

Throughout your journey we made shore to guide the character to where we wanted them to go. I made shore that the tunnel you start in was quite long so as to really get the wow factor out of the opening into the tunnel.

From the tunnel before you drop you get a good view at the whole world; you can also see a long straight path to your first area of interest, the lift door.

At the lift we have a sign stating exactly what you need to do. We made shore the sign was a point of interest by making it the only object here on the ground, it’s also strongly lit by candles.  The lift its self is visibly not currently running, we also included strong red lighting above the lift, red implies that something is not working. After you switch the power the lighting here changes to green. The power switch at the bottom is also pulsing Red.

The next brightest point in the direction you are travelling directs you to the ladder you travel down to get onto the next level down.

Here you travel straight down the corridor, here it’s quite dark, this opens back out into the expanse of the tunnel.

Right in front of you is the warmth of the Buddhist shrine.

The player now will walk into the shrine drawn in by the light.

Now you will have to turn around, right in front of you sits the market with all its bright lights.

Now you will make your self-round to this area of interest. This area is actually small but there is allot to look at so we drew the character away from the path to give them an opportunity to explore without being hemmed in by being in a corridor. When they walk to the end of the market and fined that this is an impasse they will walk back through it. When facing away from the market you can see clearly where you now have to go, as the brightest point is a view straight through the toilet cabin to a ladder which you know will bring you further down into the level.

The ladder brings you onto a large long platform which you will explore, this is another linear path, although there are no walls if you walk off the edge of the platform you will fall and die.

In the centre there is a circular beam that you a forced round with railings and the drop. If you follow it around you will get straight to the power switch which is pulsating red. If you continue after the beam down the platform you will simply reach the end and have to turn around, upon turning around the pulsing red light of the power switch is clearly visible.

Now you simply travel back up, but now you get to view the world in new lighting conditions, further opening up the environment. As you have already travelled through the world you now know where you are heading, back up to the lift which is now has a green light above it.