Degree Project: Final Evaluation

 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 platforming is more difficult, but the player can’t die as a concession.

• Level 2 - Labyrinth: This is a maze level where some of the walls can be shifted and moved around by the player

• Level 2.5 - Interlude 2: Another level where the player doesn’t die if they fall off the platform, they just descend to a lower level. They can fail up to 5 times and then if they fall, they die.

• Level 3 -  Firewalk: a level where you climb to the top of a structure above a lava sea with 2 paths to each checkpoint, usually a longer, easier path and a quicker, more difficult one.

• Level 3.5 - Hospital: The player walks through an empty hospital ward, finally having the story explained

Now I think this structure was overly ambitious, bloated and stretched out. I could have combined some of these into larger levels and ‘trimmed the fat’ as such by only including the best aspects of each level. The Maze level and the Interlude levels lacked substance and the challenges probably could have been merged with the others, which would have left me more time for making mechanics and coding.

As for the Gameplay and mechanics, I would say that I am happy with how it works in practice, using the two sets of platforms where only one set can appear at a time. The platforms can create interesting challenges where a player needs to plan out their route and when they will switch between blue and orange. I think it would have been more interesting however, if I could develop physics based puzzles using this switch out mechanic but I would have had to have dedicated a lot of time if I wanted to do that. As for other mechanics such as the platforms that heal/ hurt the player or the 180 Pivot, they feel very half-baked and underutilised. 

For some reason I never really took these mechanics, which I spent hours programming into the game and use them for anything. I think interesting things could have been done with with surfaces that constantly refill the player’s stamina to go really fast or constantly damage but I just never did, the 180 degree pivot also doesn’t really have any places in the game where it especially useful either as the player doesn’t need to make sharp turns like that in any of the levels.

Now for the visuals and audio, this is one aspect that I think I did quite well in, the red rooms especially look interesting with the surreal Lynchian aesthetic I went with for them. The Lava level also has a lot going on with the dripping lava and then Hospital too with the posters and doors.I think at the least I excelled in making some striking environments - they just aren’t always fun to play through. Though I would also like to say the model making I did in UE5 and the kitbashing of in-engine textures to make all the custom textures for the game was something I was proud of too. As most of the default textures didn’t suit my needs I combined and edited the ones in the engine with the node-based texture editor to create the exact materials I wanted for props. 

The sounds were sourced from pixabay as they have been every year and I feel that they really add to the atmosphere I created. Using ambient synth tracks and sound effects like fire in the lava level or the heartbeat monitor in the hospital it creates this isolation through the sounds you hear and the ambience which is devoid of life. Before adding the sound, the experience just felt a lot more underwhelming.

There is also the “Click” noise associated with the Hemi-Switch move which players whenever you switch between blue and orange platforms, This also adds a lot more impact and weight that would not be there otherwise.

The story also was another thing I didn’t give enough time to when I was making the game. A lot of the dialogue was ambiguous and didn’t give the simulation plot twist away but also a lot of the dialogue feels pointless or is uninteresting exposition. There are all these different characters and they almost feel like I’m playing with dolls or something with how they talk to each other. Because most characters only have a few lines and they lack a lot of personality, It’s very mundane to read looking back on it. I don’t think I really did the idea or the characters and the story I wanted to tell with justice considering the short amount of time each character had and the lack of characterisation they all received.

I will say I quite like what the game unintentionally came to represent and the questions it asks towards the end. It feels almost allegorical for the isolation that technology has caused in the 21st Century through Social Media, games and Phones etc. The game also asks questions about whether we know our perception of reality is accurate to what it is. Do we really exist? How can we prove it? Are we just an actor in the grander existence of something else? The game should really have explored this more especially considering the earlier influences of the project such as David Lynch and Phillip K. Dick. but after coming up with a very brief concept, I did not revisit it until the very end.

To summarise, I think this was another overly ambitious project that I did in Unreal Engine 5. The game, as many of mine have, finds itself overextending itself in many areas, excelling in almost none. I don’t really know how others will feel when they play it from beginning to end, I hope that reaction isn’t the same because nobody else has slaved over it for hundreds of hours like I have and been left with a mediocre result. I would say the work achieves in being a 40 minute to an Hour's distraction and not much else.

That being said, I really do think the atmosphere carries the game with the ambient music and surreal environments. The gameplay in a vacuum is rather simplistic and mediocre in my mind but I think the experience that the game offers and the exploration of the environments that the player traverses makes it all worth it.