Spike's Digital Media Blog

  With the completion of my game, I believe it is now appropriate to explore the development of my game in regards to my plan, how I feel I succeeded, how I perhaps failed and what I would do differently in the future, on future projects. First of all, in regards to my project and the scale of it, I think that once again I stretched myself too far. In terms of levels, I have 6 mostly linear levels to go through with some alternating paths and different level shortcuts and exits.  Level 1 - The Proving Ground: This is a fairly blank level with white walls and an open sky where the player goes down fairly straight-forward corridors, familiarising themself with the mains mechanics of the Game such as Hemi-Switching, Checkpoints and the different types of platforms such as those that heal, damage, or disappear/ reappear without player control. Level 1.5 - Interlude 1: This is the first of the Red room levels, it involves the player climbing a tower to escape the level. The platfor...

  Today I began working on implementing a narrative into Hemisphere beyond just the first level. To briefly summarise it: A man named James in the not so distant future gets into a motorcycle crash on a stormy summer evening. He is put into an experimental stasis pod after being rushed to a nearby hospital in hopes that they can restore functionality to his legs after it was lost as a result of brain damage. As implied with the neame of the game, James is then put into a simulation where he must learn to use both of his Brain hemispheres in tandem as a means of returning his coordination. Because the Simulation is built upon the dreams of the patient, James' fears and anxieties affect the simulation in unpredictable ways, he also cometimes hears snippets of conversation outside the pod between the Doctor, Nurse as well as his Wife, Elsie and their son, Tom. As James continues on. The AI running the Simulation, Hemi-Omega 5 tries to encourage and focus James' mind so he can leav...

Today I began editing the promo trailer for my project. I wanted it to be slower and more ambient than the showreel with fades instead of cuts and a more narrative based approach. I tried to make most of it in Unreal Engine in-game, manipulating the editor camera for shots rather than doing it all in post.  Watch it here:  https://youtu.be/s7_q8gCeOQo?si=cJc2WTEKt9KuAZGz

Today I spent most of my time decorating the Hospital level, visuals were a little more important this time around because of the lack of challenge in platforming and obstacles, it acts more as an environment to tell the most important part of the story (When I get to writing the dialogue and implementing it into the game). In terms of decorations there are beds, benches and posters mainly, just to fill out the corridors a little. The posters are meant to be a humourous jibe at the american healthcare system, where the game takes place, which I feel just adds a little more personality to the game.   Going through this door and into the light will take the player to an end screen, which will havce text explaining the ending once the player chracter, James, leaves the simulation in the story.   I also added the TVs for story exposition, which is my next big priority, now that the game can be beaten from start to end.

  This is the blueprint for the checkpoints, which I made recently. Until recently if the player died without touching a checkpoint or restarted the level it would spawn them at coordinates (0, 0, 0) in the void really far away from the level. To circumvent this, I added a new  boolean variable called HasHitCheckpoint? Which is attached to the player. It is activated with the rest of the checkpoint blueprint to become true when the player interacts with it. This aforementioned Boolean is then set as the condition for the True/ False branch node on this graph, which is the player respawn function. if the Player has hit the checkpoint, it respawns the player at its exact coordinates, if false it just restarts the level. This capsule will be in a room where the computer incharge of the simulation in the narrative will explain what the hemispheres were truly all about (repairing coordination and the nervous system) These are just some decorative doors for the hospital level I thin...

James Turrell     Turrell, J. (1992).  Space that sees .  Sculpture/ Installation Today  Steve introduced me to this Artist, James Turrell, during my tutorial. After comparing my opening level to one  of his pieces I really cannot unsee it. I may use some of his other works as inspiration for levels just because of how similar it is already to the aesthetic that I'm going with.              James Turrell    www.wikiart.org . Available at: https://www.wikiart.org/en/james-turrell/ (Accessed: 19 March 2025).