Sci-fi Garage Update - September 30th

Time for another sci-fi garage update. This week, I've been pushing through the final props for the scene and making finishing touches and tweaks to the textures, visuals and particle effects. I've also made a start on the camera cuts in UE4's sequencer feature so its ready to render the video when the scene is finally finished. With about a week and a half left until the deadline of October 10th, I'm now tying up loose ends and making final additions. The scene is now pretty much finished - I've made every prop that I planned to include and all thats left to do is get the final post-processing settings in place.

 

On Wednesday, I'm going into the games studio to render the level flythrough, which I will then edit together into a final presentation video that will be included in my final submission. I will also be creating audio (both SFX and ambient music) for the video over the next week or so. Finally, I will be taking a bunch of screenshots including shots of the scene, beauty shots of individual assets, and additional pictures for the write-up. I'll be making a detailed write-up about my creative process, project pipeline, design decisions etc and posting that on here along with my submission. So my final submission will consist of a flythrough video, screenshots and a reflective write-up.

Anyway, here is a list of what I've done since my last update:

• Created many new assets including...:
• Posters for the garage walls, which come in 3 designs.
• Various signs for the walls, including no smoking signs, fire extinguisher signs and warning signs.
• A classic red mechanic's tool chest.
• A military ammo box.
• Various tools/clutter including a paint brush, screw driver, duct tape and some bottles.
• A construction light.
• A fire extinguisher.
• A computer console that sits on the mezzanine floor/gantry.
• I've also made a couple of grunge textures for the walls and floor, including grunge-y rust and drips.
• I've made some changes to several of the textures, tweaking metallic and roughness values on various props.
• I've also reworked the pipe texture.
• I've made screen displays for the APC's dashboard and the laptop screens.

I'm really happy with how everything has turned out and I'm excited to get the project finished up to as high a standard as I can. Bring on next week!

Here's some pictures of the scene now:

Sci-fi Garage Update - September 19th

The October 10th deadline for Design Practice 3 is slowly creeping up, and I've been putting in many, many hours of work. Over the last couple of weeks since my last post, I've made a load of new props and made some very drastic changes to the lighting and colours. I'm pretty sure that the difference between the screenshots in this post and my last post will be the most drastic difference of any two consecutive posts so far. I've spent countless hours in Maya, Substance Painter and UE4 (including a couple of all-nighters) and I've now got my asset creation workflow down to a fine art and modelling and texturing has almost become second nature!

I went into the games studio this week to seek feedback on my work and I've now begun to action the feedback. While there, I converted my scene into UE4 version 4.17 (it was previously 4.15), which features volumetric fog. I've now applied volumetric fog to the scene and I'm really happy with the results. This is how I've achieved the bloom effect on the APC's headlights. I also used to make a hazy lighting effect around the windows. I've turned the APC so its at a very slight angle. I've added some mid-intensity blue-tinted lights alongside the APC to add more highlights to it, and used post-processing to darken the shadows to create more contrast. I've tweaked the APC model itself slightly too: I've adjusted the angle and geometry of the flag so that it looks more like its hanging the flying, and I've altered the angle of the gun so its aiming upwards at a more severe angle.

Here's a list of all the assets that I've done since my last update:

• A metal barrier with emmisive lighting.
• A notice board with papers including blueprints of the APC, post-it notes and various technical information about bullets that I copy-pasted from the internet. One page displays the date "June 17th 2047" which is a subtle way of putting a timeframe to the scene.
• A metal table.
• A military laptop (a.k.a "toughbook"). This was the most demanding asset that I have made since the APC itself, and it is over 5k tris as its meant to be a bit of a "hero prop". It is a fictional design that draws from a number of modern examples. The laptop features emmisive textures to create the effect of the screen being lit and an underlit keyboard. It took about 3 days to model and texture, but I might tweak the texture some more yet.
• A fire exit sign, again with emmisive textures. This adds to the scene's realism and industrial feel, while also allowing me to inject a little more colour into the scene.
• A big map, featuring hand-drawn tactical information. This is another focal prop and its meant to give the impression of important military manouvres happening and being commanded from the hangar.
• Metal folding chairs with padded pleather seats and backs.
• A first aid box.
• 3 different coloured spray paint cans (green, red and blue). The paint cans share the same texture sheet for better optimisation.
• A wooden shipping crate. The crate bears markings of "DANGER" and a military-esque star logo. Having more wood texture in the scene adds variety to the materials and should help break up the metal and concrete.

 I feel like I'm making good progress on the project and I'm very close to the "finishing touches" stage. I've begun to think about the presentation video and will likely get to work on it within the next couple of weeks.

Here's some pictures of the scene:

Sci-fi Garage Update - September 6th

Time for some new Sci-fi Garage progress pics! I've been working steadily on the scene and have made a decent amount of progress. I've mostly been making new props and making changes to the post-processing. Since my last update, I've modelled and textured some filing cabinets, shelves, tools and a modular pipe set. I've also made some fairly drastic changes to the post-processing and rendering, such as adding a very subtle green filter to the scene which I think helps the blue and yellow lighting to stand out.

I'm steadily adding more props to the scene. One such prop is a set of filing cabinets. There are a number of different versions of the filing cabinet prop with different drawer configurations. The filing cabinets all share the same texture sheet. I've also made some tools including a spanner and a pipe wrench. Finally, I've made a modular pipe set. This set is made up of 8 modular pipe pieces that can be snapped together in some interesting ways. They all share the same texture sheet. I've added the pipes around the scene and I think that it really adds realism and breaks up the repitition of the modular architecture.

I've also done some more work on the god rays/sun light coming from the windows in the garage. I'm really happy with how these are looking. As far as post-processing goes, I'm kind of struggling to decide which way to go with it. I've spent many hours experimenting and I think it is gradually getting there. I need to find the right balance between a scene that is visually impressive but also not distracting or over-done.

I think I might be approaching the final stages of this project, and I'm definitely on track to get it done in time to submit, but there's still a lot to do such as making more props. I've sunk countless hours into the project over the past few weeks and I feel like the constant work has really helped me to develop my 3D skills and workflow. Here's some pictures of how the scene is looking now:

 

Spontaneous Sunday: Hydro Thunder Hurricane

Welcome to another Spontaneous Sunday! This week I have played Hydro Thunder Hurricane (2010, Vector Unit, Xbox 360). This is one of the free games available through Xbox Live this month. Just a quick disclaimer about Spontaneous Sunday: as I'm now approaching the end of my final MA module, I'm going to be doing Spontaneous Sundays less frequently so I can focus on other work. I'll basically be doing one as and when I have time to rather than trying to do one each week. With that said, lets begin!

"Hydro Thunder Hurricane is a boat racing video game developed by Vector Unit and published by Microsoft Game Studios for the Xbox 360 via Xbox Live Arcade. The game was released on July 28, 2010 as part of Microsoft's Xbox Live Summer of Arcade promotion. It is the sequel to Hydro Thunder, originally an arcade game and part of the Thunder series. Gameplay in Hurricane involves players selecting one of nine boats to race through over-the-top scenarios."

- Wikipedia on Hydro Thunder Hurricane

What do I expect from the game?

I had not heard of Hydro Thunder Hurricane until just a few hours before I played it, so I am a complete newcomer to the game, but it didn't take long for my expectations to begin to form. The game's description and screenshots on its Xbox store page suggest a fast-paced arcade racing game that offers a variety of futuristic super-boats and themed levels.

I expect that the core gameplay will be fairly simple, and will consist of navigating tracks in a range of different boats, probably with different stats and strengths. I expect that the core mechanics and systems will be fairly typical of the arcade racing genre, such as speed boosts, hidden shortcuts and a handful of different game modes that generally center on going as fast as possible! I expect the gameplay to be very high-energy, and I think that this will also carry through into the UI, visuals, music and sound effects.

As an Xbox Live Arcade game that comes in at less than 500MB, I expect that the amount of content on offer will be limited, and the game will re-use the track environments with different game modes or rule sets to add variety. I expect that it will be a high-energy and entertaining casual racing game. I expect the game's strengths to be its fast-paced gameplay, its high level of energy and the design of the boats and environments.

First Impressions - What do I think of the game in its first few minutes?

Just as I expected, the game begins with immediate energy. The start screen appears with a robotic-sounding voice loudly proclaiming the game's title, followed by an up-tempo electronic soundtrack with synths and heavy drums. The start screen displays the game's logo over a backdrop of a tropical 3D environment with boats racing past.

The main menu is simple but visually appealing and has a good layout and flow. It features options for Single Player and Multiplayer, aswell as Leaderboards, Achievements, DLC and a very informative Help menu. Selecting each option sees the camera pan to a different area of the 3D environment. I appreciate main menus that incorporate 3D environments in this way as it allows the player to feel immersed in the game world moreso than if it was just options on a 2D background. It also allows the game to show off its environments and graphics - which, from the looks of the main menu, are pretty decent! The main menu environment is nice and bright and the fact that there are boats racing around is a nice touch. The water physics look very promising, however the environment could have benefited from having a bit more life breathed into through more animated/moving elements, such as the leaves on the palm trees swaying in the breeze, clouds in the sky moving and so on.

I selected Single Player, which displays 4 game modes: Race, Ring Master, Gauntlet and Championship. Race was only the option that was unlocked so I chose that and began my first race on the track called "Lake Powell" in a boat called "Vector" (presumably after the game's developers, Vector Unit), as these are the only options available from the start. The race is preceded by a quick run-down of how the Boost system works: the player must collect Boost pickups which allow them to use a speed boost or jump over obstacles or other boats. The first race is a sprints from a set start and end point rather than multiple laps around the same circuit (though lap-based races do appear later on). The first race took me through a pretty action-packed and varied course of valleys, tunnels and industrial waterways in a desert setting. It's a pretty lively environment with moving elements such as wind turbines and falling rocks, aswell as jumps and destructible obstacles that can be smashed through. The race had 16 competitors, which made for a really frantic and busy free-for-all competition. I came in first at 2 minutes 23 seconds, followed 4 seconds later by the AI in 2nd.

The game's first track - Lake Powell.

This level is a pretty strong start for the game. The environment is exciting and varied enough to grab the attention, but is a fairly familiar setting that is not overly complicated so as a beginner the player doesn't feel overwhelmed, and can learn the ropes easily. Seeing as I quite easily came first in my first attempt, I am hoping that this is just a case of the game "going easy" on me, and not that its this easy throughout. After finishing, I was awared a lot of stuff including 500 Credits, a new game mode for the track, a new track and a new boat. This is a decent reward for a little two minute race! This suggests to me that the game's input-and-reward cycle will be fast, with rewards coming often. This is in-keeping with the casual arcade nature of the game.

After two races, I had unlocked at least one track on each of the four game modes, which I thought was pretty decent because it allows the player to quickly experience a bit of all that the game has to offer from an early stage, while still withholding enough to encourage extended play. While having only one track and one game mode available from the start may seem too limiting, it is actually a smart move because it forces the player to play that track first, allowing the developers to herd the player through their first experience of the game on the developer's terms, making for a more effective introduction. However, there was also only one colour scheme available for the starting boat, which is limiting in a bad way. Boat colour is purely cosmetic and doesn't affect gameplay, so there would have been no harm in offering more colours and allowing players more choice and ownership of their first experience in the game.

The game offers an informative "How To Play" menu.

What do I like about the game?

I played Hydro Thunder for about 3 hours and in that time I played quite a lot of races across many tracks, game modes and boats. The game definitely has a lot going for it, and my time playing it was enjoyable. The game's main positive points are its enjoyable gameplay, its varied game modes, boats and levels, and the way in which it perfectly suits the XBLA platform on which it was released.

Ring Master on Lake Powell.

The action really does come thick and fast in Hydro Thunder. One of the game's strongest elements is simply its core gameplay. Theres rarely a dull moment as theres always powerups to be collecting, jumps to be made or environmental elements to be smashed. The game offers frantic races and a variety of game modes that are diverse enough to allow extended play without becoming bored. The Boost mechanic is definitely the game's core mechanic (besides the basic driving mechanic) and it is pivotal to success in the game. The player has to manage their Boost levels by collecting Boost on the track and using it tactically. The game's level of challenge is also pretty well-balanced. The first few available levels are Novice difficulty, but the player soon unlocks Pro level races and eventually Expert level. The more difficult levels are unlocked at just the right time for the challenge to be consistent and remain engaging. A lot of thought and iteration must have gone into perfecting the pace of the game's difficulty curve, and Hydro Thunder is a better game for it.

Gauntlet on Monster Island.

The game is also pretty rewarding. The player frequently unlock more tracks, boats, game modes and difficulty levels, so there is never a discouraging lull between rewards and it doesn't feel like a grind. This also means that there is almost always something new to do. Though the rewards come quickly, the game cannot be said to be over-generous because there are also special skins for the boats that are unlocked for completing specific challenges. This means that, while rewards are frequent, the game still holds some of its cards to its chest. The reward system incentivises extended play, while the special challenges (such as collecting all 10 hidden collectables in a certain track) call for the player to alter their play style and approach levels in a different way than the game modes themselves demand.

Ring Master on Tsunami Bowl.

The game modes are sufficiently varied. The Races are either sprints from a start point to a finish point, or 3 lap circuits depending on which track you are playing. The Ring Master game mode requires the player to go through a series of rings on the track as quickly as possible and calls for some really skillful driving. The chaotic Gauntlet game mode adds lots of explosive barrels to the water which have to be avoided. Finally, the Championship game mode combines the other 3 game modes in a series of challenges. Each game mode requires both speed and careful driving in varied measures. The designers have made very good use of the 8 tracks on offer. By offering several different game modes and difficulty levels on each track, the designers did a good job of adding diversity and longevity to the game without overstretching the level design resources or inflating the game's file size with too many levels. There's even support for up to 4-player local multiplayer, aswell as online multiplayer. This obviously adds a whole new level of content and possibilities to the game. I am a big supporter of local multiplayer so this was a winner in my opinion.

The variety of boats on offer is also a positive point. There are 9 boats available which are gradually unlocked as the player advances through the game, all of which have vastly different and unique designs. They also have different stats which give them strenghts and weaknesses and mean that they suit different game modes and play styles. The differences in the way that each boat operates brings some really meaningful variety between each boat, and the player will likely find a favourite that is most suited to their play style or the needs of each particular game mode.

Each boat has different stats that affect their strengths and weaknesses.

The game boasts good art and design throughout. There's some really memorable and characterful levels on offer. To name just a few, there is "Monster Island" which features sea monsters and pre-historic creatures in an ancient ruined island setting, "Storming Asgard" which is a sprint through arctic waters filled with set pieces and figures from Nordic mythology, and "Tsunami Bowl" which is influenced by real-world motorsport tracks in Japan. Every map features interactible elements, destructible environments and impressive set pieces, such as the sea monster and giant rock man seen in the images below.

Another one of Hydro Thunder's strengths is the fact that it has really pinpointed its niche and audience perfectly.  The game is pretty much perfect for the XBLA platform on which it was released; it's all-action and casual gameplay, well-balanced amount of content and small file size make it a great game for those who seek an arcade-like experience in their games. Hydro Thunder Hurricane basically embodies the spirit of the XBLA platform. It also appeals to its target audience very well. The game's main target audience is presumably fans of the original game and fans of arcade-like games in general, and its Xbox store page suits this audience well. As a knock-on effect, the game's simple premise, over-the-top action and lack of offensive content also makes it accessible to casual gamers and young gamers. Additionally, the high-energy nature and simple enjoyability of the game, aswell as the memorable tracks, should allow the game to command a decent amount of word-of-mouth exposure.

What do I not like?

Hydro Thunder is undoubtedly a very well-rounded game, and only has a handful of minor downsides, specifically the repetitive music, the re-use of levels and the haphazard order of the unlocks.

The music is good and it definitely suits the game's aesthetic and high-energy vibe, but it becomes repetitive after a while and it is constantly playing. There are no times when it ceases - not even on the pause menu or the main menu. The energy that the music brings to the game is good, but having the occasional break from it would be welcome. For example, if the high-energy music was only used in the levels, it would make the use of music more tactical and the action more impactful, while the menu's lack of music would allow the player to take a break.

Hydro Thunder re-uses 8 tracks in a number of game modes. This yields both good and bad results. The good results are that the re-use of tracks challenges the designers to create tracks that are multi-faceted and give way to varied goals and mechanics, which likely makes for a better game with more replayability. It also ensures the environment artists workload and the game's file size are kept under control. The downside, however, is that the tracks will eventually become a little bit repetitive. During the late-game, the player might find themselves becoming bored of the core 8 tracks. Luckily, there is a DLC that adds some more tracks, so late-game players who are invested in the game can get more content.

The final negative point is that the new tracks, game modes and boats are unlocked in quite a sporadic order. Each track and boat is unlocked after a certain amount of overall score is reached, and the order of the scores isn't in any clear pattern. This means that the sequence of unlocks feels pretty random, and its not very clear to the player exactly how far into the game they are. The order of unlocking should have been a bit more methodical so as to not become confusing, such as unlocking tracks and game modes sequentially. A more methodical approach would also make the player's long-term goals more clear.

Final Thoughts

Hydro Thunder Hurricane is a very enjoyable arcade racer with a unique concept, entertaining and high-energy gameplay, varied vehicles and game modes, and some very nicely designed tracks and environments. On top of this, the game seats itself very nicely in its niche as an XBLA title and tailors well to its audience. The game's small number of minor issues such as repetitive music and sporadic order of unlocks are easily forgiven as the positives vastly outweigh the negatives.

Arcade racers are a genre of game that I don't claim to have a huge amount of experience with, but I think I'd be hard-pressed to find another thats as enjoyable, well-rounded and nicely designed as Hydro Thunder Hurricane. I'll definitely be playing it again soon!