Final Production & Evaluation

Context
For my product I focused on a game that the player walks around to see the environment they are in a (walking simulator) I mainly based my final product on the game "Firewatch" Firewatch is a single player first-person mystery set in the Wyoming wilderness. The year is 1989 you as the player are playing a character named Henry who retreated from his messy life to work as a fire lookout in the Wyoming Wilderness. Placed high up in the mountains your job is to maintain and keep the wilderness safe as Henry. What I wanted to make was an abandoned hospital like the one in The Evil Within "Beacons Mental Hospital" I feel like I didn't make a similar product because my texturing, assets and ideas were a bit lacking in some areas I also feel like I didn't do the interior structure well I could of made it bigger but I needed more assets for that to happen. For my project I now have a bigger/better understanding on how my product could of worked out I also now understand the type of project I wanted to make.

Research
For my research I decided to look up on google for some video games that had abandoned hospitals within them I then chose The Evil Within which I watched lot's of gameplay of to see the interior structure of the building as well as the assets of chairs, plant pots, lamps and more. I feel as if my research wasn't that great I could of improved on the assets by getting more ideas from different games or sources in real life I feel as if I didn't expand myself enough so I only had an idea for a few assets so no I think my research was not thorough and sustained enough. Primary research for my product greatly influenced my production on how I wanted my game and what I could of added It was a great way to add a variety of ideas to my mind. Secondary research was very helpful as it broadened my thoughts and ideas while giving me some ideas that I never would of even thought about this greatly influenced my production. With my secondary research I feel like I was able to create more new things however I did miss a lot of lessons so I couldn't of made lots of new assets that could of implemented more variation to my game.

Planning and Production
For my planning and production I tried to plan to the best of my ability by making a time plan before the start of the production however I would say I didn't follow the plan to the best of my ability and I just did whatever I wanted which I feel like lacked a bit of time for the plan as well I missed a few lessons cutting some of the class time I could of used for my practical for 3ds max and my texturing of assets. The most useful planning tool was probably me making an asset list so I can keep track and up to date of what assets I wanted to make and what time I wanted it completed by. I feel like my planning wasn't exceptional and thorough I could of done better by sticking to my time plan a lot better and to of finished the assets on time I also should of added more detail to my asset list. My production was pretty rough I would say I had quite a bit of interference which was caused by my planning which was quite ineffective I was much slower than I could of been and I had to think a lot more of what assets I wanted since my planning didn't go much into detail. If I was to improve in the future I would make multiple plans for example using trello next time I would add way more detail to my lists and I would also put notepads on the desktop to remind myself of what needs to be done on that day / week.

Problem Solving
During my final production I had encountered a few issues with my product whether that would be in 3DS Max and Unreal Engine 4 a major problem I had was one of my assets I had made it too flat and it would be overlapped by another asset which I found difficult to solve I also had another issue with the same asset where I had made it unsymmetrical by a mistake and I could not undo it was a huge issue because it made the asset look horrendous I also had another issue with unreal engine 4 where the pivot point of some of my assets were no where near my actual asset this made it really difficult to place, resize and change the angle of some assets which made the practical process extra timid. I solved some of the problems for example the chair cover issue I had extruded the edges to give it some base so it would no longer overlap and be more like an extension to make it look way better to overcome the issue of the pivot messing up my assets I will just need to place it in the centre of 3DS Max grid you can't fix this in Unreal engine the pivot points will always reset to what it was when exported from 3ds max I mainly couldn't overcome this problem as I already had exported the assets without knowing it would be messed up. I developed more understanding on how to fix some issues with the apps and how to make a game with less issues next time.

Practical Skills
During my practical for my final production I had gained a lot of practical skills during my first few weeks I had gained better 3d modelling techniques and the last few weeks I had obtained better texturing skills using unreal engine. These skills will help in future projects because it can enhance the visuals and mechanics of my games and I will be able to do this more quickly with the same sort of quality. During my development of my game the most valuable thing I have found was probably the unreal engines texturing as it is different to 3ds max's texturing I like it a lot more.

Presentation
I chose to present my work nice and tidily to my audience to keep it very appealing. I feel like the image I was going for my product wasn't met and it had changed to the point it didn't look how I wanted it to. I did not get much feedback for my product however the main issue I would say with my level was the lighting as some of the assets were barely able to be seen like in one of the rooms one of the wooden shelves was covered by the roof of the building as well as the very reflective walls and floor I could of toned it down just a bit.

The Final Product
My strengths of my final product is probably the idea I had and how it could of worked out it would of went very well. Areas I could of improved on such as lighting, texturing the chairs, added windows that you would see in an abandoned hospital and I could of added internal structures such as pillars and more. I think I Improved my final product a lot when I changed the lighting from indoor unnatural light to natural light coming from outside I think this gave the level more depth and detail I think my final product is okay for the audience the product isn't what I intended it to be and I feel like I could of improved on it a lot more I feel as like there wasn't much to see so the audience didn't have much to say unlike obvious answers like Lighting, Textures, more detail and maybe like some sort of particles to give it more of a 3D effect.