Spike's Digital Media Blog

  This is my WiP Logo for "Hemisphere", my game for the Degree Project. The idea behind it is obviously that it is an "H" for denoting the title but also the negative space and the two squares in the centre are hinting at the main challenge of navigating the two sets of Blue and Orange Platforms. While I am happy with it and believe that it is serviceable, there are two points of contention I have that may cause problems in the future: 1. Should I remove the embossing on the 'H' and just have it on the squares? & 2. How will I translate this into a full logo with the full title of the game? As for now though, I think it is a good starting point for what I want it to evolve into.

After being given the Lemon Project 2 Weeks ago, last week we were given the main Professional Practices Assignment for this semester which is to create a pitch and branding (To very specific Professional Guidelines) for the Royal Academy of Arts' Summer Exhibition. My initial thoughts on how smoothly I think it will go are almost split down the middle, on one hand I am familiar with the summer exhibition and have been every year since 2021 so I am familiar with the subject matter and passionate about it; on the other hand a lot of the project is to be done in illustrator, which I am far less familiar with than other Adobe Suite Softwares.  With that being said, I'm not necessarily making the Artwork which I will be using for the branding on Illustrator rather most of the project will be arranging pre-made assets within Illustrator from the braning pack that I have been given, as such it may not be as bad as I'm concerned it may be.  ¯\_ (ツ)_/¯ I'm also close to finalis...

This blogpost is moreso to cover starting points from other mediums which I could use to inform design decisions, mainly from a visual and environmental standpoint for the game. It is also to gain a deeper understanding of the projects which likely in-part inspired the games I am already inspired by.                                                                        William Gibson - Neuromancer (1984): Often considered a seminal work for sci-fi, being the writing that coined the term "Cyberspace" and definitive Cyberpunk, at least aknowledging this novel's existence is important for understanding the core concepts behind the work I am making as the game's narrative involves the player going into a simulation/ cyberspace and just by reading through extracts I'll be able to visualise imagery which I could us...

Discussion of the games will be found in more detail in the formative document and eventually prospectus. This post is here to provide a genreal idea as to the direction of my game.   Portal (2007, Valve) https://store.steampowered.com/app/400/Portal/ Portal (2007) is probably the main inspiration I had for "Hemisphere" as it is a first-person puzzle platformer with a unique, Physics-defying mechanic, the Portal Gun, which is used to navigate these slower paced levels which are almost meant to be "solved" rather than played. The minimalist almost liminal space created by the clinical sci-fi aesthetic, in the abandoned Aperture labs which is now controlled by an evil AI, is something I'd want to use too. Mirror’s Edge (2008, EA, DICE) https://store.steampowered.com/app/17410/Mirrors_Edge/ Mirror's Edge in broader strokes is similar to Portal too in the sense it's a First-person puzzle platformer with minimal use of colour in its aesthetic design in a dyst...

In my haste to start my project, coding the main mechanics and creating a base game   to work off of I have neglected to mention anything about the scenario, narrative and story concepts for my game, which is equally as important. My game is based off of idea one from an earlier blog, which can be found here:  https://spikedmd.blogspot.com/2024/09/degree-project-initial-ideas.html The story/ narrative/ scenario was more difficult to almost come up with in a sense because the main gimmicks of the game (Disappearing/ moving geometry and sets of platforms)    is a fairly abstract concept so I couldn't really have a very grounded scenario with that in mind. Initially I wanted something like being stuck in a simulation and having to escape it but that idea was too similar I think to my independent project from last year; Invasion of the Gibbies which already did the whole escape the simulation thing with its secret level escapes. In short, it felt uninspired and unorigina...

  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 ...

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 ...

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...

  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 mad...

 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 o...