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Degree Project: Brand Touchpoint Matrix

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  https://brandtouchpointmatrix.com/ Yesterday, we were introduced to the Brand Touchpoint Matrix which is essentially a tool that maps properties of different user experiences and the user journey with a brand in all of its aspects From advertising/ Introduction, to customer service, to the service itself and also perhaps the surrounding community of a brand too. The two Axes for this graph are the length of an interaction vs how personal an engagement is so a short, impersonal engagement could be just seeing a social media ad for a brand where as a more personal and lengthy interaction could be using a brand product or service that was advertised or engaging with a community. https://brandtouchpointmatrix.com/ I thought it would be helpful to attempt this myself for a game, which is my chosen medium for my degree project, with the aspects of the brand I am making, I'd mark out the desired customer path with a specific user scenario I had in mind, keep in mind that this Matrix is
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Degree Project Game Progress #2 Level Design

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Today I fully implemented stamina logic so when the player sprints the interger value depletes to 0 to where the player can no longer sprint but as soon as the bar echarges it is available again. i also made a Boolean Variable IsMoving? so the stamina won't drain even if the player is holding the stamina key down but they aren't moving because I think that would be unfair with how much the player would need it to clear jumps in the game. I hadn't had this idea before but it's just a complete opposite of the IsSprinting? Boolean that just checks for shift being held down to sprint but it  IsMoving? overrides it. I also tied the sprint functions with custom events to the stamina drain/ regen mechanics from my previous blog.     In addition to setting up the player character some more I also spent a lot of the day planning my first level which I want to be an introduction to each mechanic/ gimmick that will be in the other two, harder, levels. It can be viewed on the link
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Degree Project Game Progress #1

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Today and over the past weeks since late September I have been setting up the essentials of my game - whatever that may be so movement/ camera control and a sprint that will be needed for any direction I take the game in. These are the inputs and the logic for these features used by the gamemode base for the character the player controls used in every game I have made. Input Data in content browser. Most of these are booleans, except the mouse movement  in which it is essentrially a check for whether a key is pressed or not. these inputs don't determine what the button does, rather is it being pressed or not. Input data mapped to different keys/ Mouse movement. This is how the yes/ no Boolean, checked for when a button which it is assinged to, is pressed This is the Blueprint which links the Player to Controller Inputs it assigns the keyboard as a controller to the player and casts the mapping of inputs to the character you control. These are the Input responses for Jumping, lookin
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Degree Project Digital Media Analysis

  Today we were shown a process of analysing Media to better understand the why and how of it all. Here are two examples, one was of my own choice, the other a given example. Both are very different but the framework can be used to analyse both. My choice: Gears of War, EPIC Games   https://www.xbox.com/en-US/play/games/gears-of-war-ultimate-edition/BQT21VXFS52F   (2006, 2017) 1. What type of media is it? A 3rd-Person cover Shooter developed primarily for Xbox 360 2. What initial promise/s does it give? A single/ two player set of detailed levels full of set pieces and various encounters as well as a 6V6 online multiplayer mode with various arenas and characters to play with 3. What is its purpose & function? A 3rd person shooter game designed to always be played with others, with or against. 4. What are its unique/unexpected qualities & ideas? One team will always play as subterranean monsters 'Locust' one team will always play as humans. On the surface it is made to s
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Professional Practices #1

 GET LOST!
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Degree Project Initial ideas

 For my degree project I have 3 initial ideas: 1.  A first-person puzzle platformer game developed in Unreal Engine 5, the main mechanic would be the player having the ability to switch out a set of platforms with another which the player would use to progress through the level. There would probably be 3 levels and a hub world to connect each level with each level setting a different type of challenge to the player, going beyond just a change to the layout of obstacles, i.e. with my current plan I would have a level to get the player more familiar with the mechanics such as the switching platforms mechanic if I can implement it, platforms that appear and disappear on a timer, platforms and other terrain that have their gravity activate when the player touches them which should be fairly easy to implement because of "setenablegravity" which could be tied to collision with the player. the game would be similar to Portal (2007) and Portal 2 (2011) too I think which is one of its
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Independent project #15 Mega-Blog + Bibliography Link

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  Today is my Final Day before I wish to submit. Aside from building the game for Export and finishing the accompanying Game Design Document there were two changes I had to make before hand. Those involved adding an invisible wall on the purchasable barriers so the player cannot exploit them to get out of bounds and adding some code (As pictured above to the enemy with a True/ False statement as the Boolean being, is the enemy dead) which prevents the enemy from damaging the Player after dying which I could not figure out for myself at the very beginning when I first made the enemies. After that, I did some final touches to the escape levels such as when the Player meets the Gamemaster in the Endgame they lose all their ammo. I tried to asign the score to a word but quickly realised I couldn't as the score UI is bound to an Interger Value which can only ever be a number, also it was a very minor cosmetic change which wouldn't have amounted to much anyway. Oh well. I also rearra
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