UNIT 3 FMP
• Aim
To develop your skills of independent enquiry by undertaking a sustained investigation of
direct relevance to their vocational, academic and professional development.
• Unit abstract
This unit provides opportunities for you to develop skills in decision making, problem solving
and communication, integrated with the skills and knowledge developed in many of the other
units within the programme to complete a realistic project.
It requires you to select, plan, implement and evaluate a project and finally present the
outcomes, in terms of the process and the product of the project. It also allows you to
develop the ability to work individually and/or with others, within a defined timescale and given
constraints, to produce an acceptable and viable solution to an agreed brief.
If this is a group project, each member of the team must be clear about their responsibilities at
the start of the project and supervisors must ensure that everyone is accountable for each aspect
of the work and makes a contribution to the end result.
Learners must work under the supervision of programme tutors or work-based managers.
Project endeavour
Introduction
Unit 3 of our HND course required us to create a game level for our FMP (Final Major Project). The start of this development involved us assembling a team of developers with skills that complement one another which allowed for fluid workflow and smooth communication between the different departments of the “studio”. The concept for the game was a First Person Puzzle Game set aboard a Star-ship called the “Endeavour”. The objective is for the player to obtain an AI Data Core from the Command Bridge and reach the airlock while uncovering the mystery behind your crews disappearance and the damage sustained to the ship.
Pre-Production
At the beginning of the term we had no idea what we wanted to create for our FMP so we brainstormed ideas for the game that were feasible for the time-frame we had and the experience we all had with the different software and engines. Initially we decided to create our game in the Unity Engine because we had the most experience with it at the time and had a lot of resources that we could utilise in the engine such as plugins and asset packs.
We had an idea for how we wanted the level to play and had a storyboard to assist with the designing of the level.
Production
After the initially brainstorming sessions, we had a lot of great concept art to work from, so I got started in modelling a 3D iteration of my favourite piece of concept art.
The model I created was used as a major part of the project and also a basis for the ships' design. Soon after, we went through a few iterations of the layout of the ship, first having a drawn concept by Daniel which was then re-drawn and built upon by Caroline. I used the completed layout to make a 3D layout for the ship that we can use from that point onward to fill the scene, flesh out the game.
Specific roles in the team
Narrative Design - Dan
Concept Artist - Caroline
Texture Artist Caroline, Gavin
Lead 3D modeller - Scott (Myself)
3D modeller - Ollie, Harrison, Gavin
Programmer - Jack
We all chipped in to help each other with different tasks that weren't in our role in order to get the job done.
Story Board
The following pictures is an array of story boards, which were made by our concept artists. Following industry practices such as this boosted our workflow and allowed us to work more effectively.
Concepts
Work I contributed to the team
Original Vault door for the spaceship, ended up being too small as a vault door.
The picture below is the first door, which has been doubled in size and has had some detail added in order to bridge the gap
Below is a quick render of one of the smaller doors that were used in the scene.
This cube acts as a storage container. The model itself is modular and therefore can be turned into insulated shipping containers if needed. By doing this, we will save time in the future, in case we decide to develop this game further.
Lastly, I created the microwave to put into the kitchen.
Evaluation
I am very happy with how my models tuned out, They're all relatively low poly, however they don't lack any detail, this makes them perfect for a game environment. Through doing this, I have learned a lot of practical skills which include: texturing, Low poly modelling and using concepts as references to create accurate 3D models.
The game
Conclusion
Over the course of 3 months our team developed a game that we were happy to demonstrate and plan on expanding on after the course finishes. We feel that there is a lot of potential in what we were developing and hope to see it published in some form or another. Working on this game together has given us a lot of insight into how game development workflows operate.
I after the initially brainstorming sessions, we had a lot of great concept art to work from, so I got started in modelling a 3D iteration of my favourite piece of concept art.
The model I created was used as a major part of the project and also a basis for the ships' design. Soon after, we went through a few iterations of the layout of the ship, first having a drawn concept by Daniel which was then re-drawn and built upon by Caroline. I used the completed layout to make a 3D layout for the ship that we can use from that point onward to fill the scene, flesh out the game.