Spike's Digital Media Blog

Showreel:  https://youtu.be/2KHU01jfazI?feature=shared Trailer: https://youtu.be/s7_q8gCeOQo?si=p-NKmDBu9LJVzPwA Walkthrough:  https://youtu.be/WzGk1ZK0pqE?si=IvQTZvzYqL5ggWlG These are the final versions of all my video artefacts for the Degree Project and Professional Practices. Sadly, all of these videos suffer from a lower than professional video quality due to the recording software, OBS only having access to the h.264 format and no DNXHD or Apple Pro Res. Because of this I can't help but feel these aspects of the project are as good as they could have been, looking all grainy and amateur. If I had found out soon enough, maybe they would have looked nicer, but as it is, they are not the best they could have been. If I were to redo my trailer and showreel, I would probably take the same approach, (fast quick-cutting showreel and a slow trailer filmed in-game.) but I would obviously use a more appropriate method of recording than OBS. At least they look crisp on Mobile, whi...

  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).

 Today I started on Interlude Level 2, which is placed between the maze and Lava Levels. The whole idea of this level is that there are 4 exits and each one is just a short walk down a corridor. The platforming challenges are made to be especially difficult because of the level length and the gimmick, which is you cannot die, rather just fall onto lower levels. This means that, yes, you can beat this level really quickly and there's much less challenge but that's what I wanted to go for with the Interlude Levels. The player also doesn't know that if they repeatedly fail to cross the platforms they can still leave the level. I also worked on the main menus for the game a little, adding backgrounds. I made these images in a custom level with 2 glowing spheres on a night sky background. a much better background than a blank white screen. Though these are not final, they're much closer to what I want. I also think the roboto light typeface fit much better than that the bold...

Here are some screenshots of one of the Interlude Levels from my game. As previously mentioned, these are primarily for adding to the story through text exposition with the various TVs throughout the levels. The layout of the level is a short corridor which transitions to a large hall area where the player must ascend to the top through less difficult, platforming challenges and no threat of death. The whole level uses the Twin peaks Red Room aesthetic as this is meantto be a 'loss of control in the simulation' dream sequence type thing.  Fun-fact: Did you know the chandelier is actually 3 of the default unreal engine  Table models merged together and dissasembled with a custom light source placed in the centre? Cool right? Jay reccomended when I showed him the maze level I should add a 'Pivot' mechanic which turns the player 180 degrees when they press 'F'. This is a very rudimentary blueprint of course without a proper input set-up and no turning animation. I ...

  This is a Bird's Eye-view of the complete third level, minus some small tweaks. The purple rings you can see are a branching path to the end of the level that deviates from the mian path. The whole idea of that section is the platforms being on a timer, which adds a different sense of jeopardy to the slower, more methodical main route to the top. I also made this Bridge model to add a little more visual flavour to the level. I then got the idea to use the bridge model for some of the disappearing platforms, which I think looks amazing. Too bad i came up with this idea so late in development. I really think it would've made previous levels much more interesting. Here is the Level exit to the Final Sequence of the Game. Here is some test footage of the the playable level in one run through. Some bits are still incomplete and need tweaking but it is fully playable beginning to end now.

Today I worked a little more on the Lava Level. I had enough of having everything rectangular so there are now Triangular Platforms where the player has to jump from corner to corner to succesfully clear them due to how tight the jumps are. As you can see I also made Hexagonal Platforms as separate actors within the editor for a little extra challlenge and flavour too. I also started adding Lava Falls throughout the level today and Jay showed me how to animate them with Level Sequence Actors. Below is a rough animation test for the Lava Fall in motion. From 10 Minutes work alone it already adds so much more life to the level. I'll definitely be doing more of them.  

 This blog is a walkthrough of how I made a Checkpoint System today, with much help from Jay, which saves the Player's location in a level when they die so they do not have to restart at the beginning each time. The reason why I couldn't really use any online tutorials was because I already had a death screen and most checkpoint systems on Youtube involved destroying the Player Actor and respawning essentially a new one in. My death system which I created depended on the actor being altered into a "death-like" state and not outright destroyed with all the data they were storing so I had to do it a different way. First I created this pad with a collision box, fairly simple stuff. When the Player overlapped with the collision box, it would cast information of the location of the Checkpoint to the Player and the Gamemode (Which was not needed as well as the Player but it is there incase something goes wrong) I then created this function that would be activated upon inter...

  This is just an update I did for Hemisphere's Icon and Logo. I removed most of the Embossing from the coloured squares for a sleeker, more modern appearance, I also cvhanged the typeface from Myriad Pro Bold to Bahnschrift because it is less rounded and more rigid which is exactly what I think the logo needed. Personally I think the logo with 0 Embossing is probably the best but then again these may not be the final editions

  Today I started working on the third and final level for my Game. I decided I wanted to play with the verticality aspect of the level this time, with it being 3 miniature stages stacked upon each other for I guess a sense of progression within the level and an ever-increasing jeopardy. I also think that it's more visually interesting than a straight line as with the first level. It also allowed me to create branching paths to get to the upper levels which means you won't have to play the same way each time. This is a preview of the level so far. The first stage is nearly complete and I have begun on the second layer. The whole idea of the level was navigating a Lava Floor which was the main inspiration for the appearance, I also wanted the TVs seen in the other levels to be sinking in to the lava to build on the intensity of the narrative with this being the final level too (Though I still need to finish the script as of now) To create the Lava texture, I tiled the in-engine ...