Gameplay Footage

Final Level - In Stills

Below are screen shots I've taken of the game in it's finished state. All the assets shown below were created by me, unless stated otherwise. 

Garden tools models created by Alex Burn-Smith, modified and textured by me. 

Gravestones modelled by Alex Burn-Smith, modified and textured by me. 

Birdbath modelled by Alex Burn-Smith, modified and textured by me. 

Final Foliage

One of the most important aspects of the level is the foliage, you need quite a lot of it to fill out the scene to make it feel more natural. With this in mind I wanted to have at least 3 different tree types as well as a couple of bushes, rocks and grasses. To create a third tree type, I used the same base trunk and branches as the first type, but I created a new leaf plane to place on the branches. These 2 tree types are used for filling out the scene, so it doesn't matter too much that they have the same trunk and branches as the different leaf shape and colour should be enough to give the scene some subtle variety. 

Next is the rocks which are needed to add to the believability that the setting is natural and earthy. To sculpt them I created a fairly low poly sphere, halved it and extruded the faces outwards. In the extrude options under the INPUTS bar, you can adjust the 'random' factor which distorts the directional values in which the faces have been extruded. This results in a 'spikey' object, which can then be manipulated further by using the sculpt geometry tool. I played around with the shapes of the rocks until I had created 3 varieties to use in my scene, and then created a seamless texture to apply to them.    

The rocks are added to the Unity scene in the same way as trees and other foliage. You create a new 'tree' for each type of rock and select the model you want to use. You can then paint this model onto the scene using variable brushes to change the placement and scale of the rock models. I made sure to included a mixture of small and large rocks in my scene, as well as some that are in groups and others which stand alone.

To fill the scene out further, I created some grass planes to paint on the scene in the same way as the rocks. These are simple image files that use alpha channels, but when you have many of them painted on the scene they appear like patches of taller grass. In Unity you have the option to give an object the 'billboard' property which means that it will always face the camera - so from no matter which point the player 'looks' at this object it will always appear front-on. It is important to check this option for the grass planes so that their flatness is undetectable. I painted 3 varieties of grass planes to use in my scene.

You also have the option of wind settings to apply to terrain objects. This animates the object to make it appear as though it is affected by wind, it bends the object at a variable rate. This feature helps to make the nature of the scene feel more alive, and gives a dynamic property to the environment.   

As well as grass, I also created some brambles planes to place around the outside of the level walls so that the area beyond the level looks more dense and overgrown, but also to act like more of a wall around the playable area to make the player feel more enclosed. These planes have the same properties as the grass, they are billboarded and affected by wind. 

The Sounds for MANOR

After the Christmas break I got in touch with sound design student Shaun Beeden about producing the sounds for my project. We agreed that he would be producing the dialogue, sound effects and soundtrack for the project, with my direction.

We decided to start with the soundtrack first, I already had some idea of the type of music I wanted for MANOR. I sent him some examples of tracks from video game soundtracks that I felt had a similar sound to what I was after. Below are the examples I sent him;

Intro Scene - Relent (harp & clarinet) http://incompetech.com/music/royalty-free/index.html?isrc=USUAN1100777, Quinn's Song: A New Man http://incompetech.com/music/royalty-free/index.html?isrc=USUAN1100578, Ending Agrippa (Amnesia The Dark Descent) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UpQTpWwsAU4, This New Century (Amnesia A Machine for Pigs) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c4Ty-lUMy5k, Edwin and Enoch (Amnesia A Machine for Pigs) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=36t61mWdZuM

Gameplay - Grand Hall (Amnesia The Dark Descent) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=enHHsCfW7mk, Next to the Guardian (Amnesia The Dark Descent) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0r13M6Y2xiw, Bridges (Amnesia The Dark Descent) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wlPKSoTUKZc

Endings - Bump in the Night (but more classical instruments than synth) http://incompetech.com/music/royalty-free/index.html?isrc=USUAN1100789, have countdown from 1 minute music begin a bit like this: Severed Limbs Are Hazardous Waste from Dead Space  (the *jump* comes in at 41 seconds) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ty0CIZISvr0

I also told him that I wanted the sound to be very classical to fit in with the time period of the story, but it needed to have an unsettling feel to it. He sent me samples over the last couple of months to get feedback and to make tweaks. In the end we now have pieces for; the introduction, gameplay, gameplay final minute, gameplay final 10 seconds, a fanfare (for acquiring the key), a failure ending and the success ending.

Implementing these pieces into the game was Sean and Alex's task as programmers, but I instructed them as to the conditions and timing of each piece being played.

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The next aspect is the dialogue. Shaun managed to find me a suitable voice actress for the part of the main character, Grace. On the 5th May the 3 of us met to record the dialogue, so that I could give Ashley (our voice actress) some direction and suggest any other lines or sounds that I needed. By the next day Shaun had edited the sound clips and sent them to me, ready to put into the game. He also sent me the foley sounds he had worked on, which I had asked for (I have him a list and the gameplay script earlier in the year).  

This task was also for Sean and Alex to do as it is part of the programming, but I oversaw this process to direct them as to when each voice clip needed to be played. In the same way we also implemented certain foley sounds such as the carriage rumbling, crashing and bird song which can be heard in certain areas around the level.  

Graves and Steps

To fill out the level some more, I'm now adding the more minor models. First I'm adding a couple of Alex's gravestones. I've had to reduce the mesh again as they were much too high poly than is necessary (you can see my reduced mesh versions in the middle of the image below), then I've mapped and textured them.  

I also made a little alterations by using the sculpt geometry tool to make the surface of the stones more uneven as though they have become weather-worn. 

The finished stones as they appear in gameplay.

Next there are the steps which I started modelling at the end of January, however I put them on hold to focus on the more important features of the level. 

I used the booleans>difference method to create some chipping and cracks in the model. 

Next is the mapping and texturing. I've used the same texture for each step, but moved the UVs around to make each one look slightly different.  

The Introduction Scene - Unity

I worked with Sean Oxspring and Alex Saye to set up the introduction scene in Unity. I shaped the terrain of the area to create a path for the carriage to travel along, and painted the terrain with textures and foliage. I also added a duplicate of the entrance gates model, without the gates to make it clearer to the player that they are entering the grounds.

I explained the events of the introduction to Sean and Alex and they took care of setting it up.

This video shows a couple of seconds of the intro from the perspective view - NOT the player view. It illustrates how Alex managed to give the carriage a jolting motion as it moves across the scene. The speaker symbols show where sound clips have been attached, one is the rumbling sound of the carriage and the other is the dialogue.

Tree Type 2 Finished and Exported

I've now created a bark texture for the type 2 tree, as well as some moss planes to place at the trunk. 

I've exported it and this is how it appears during gameplay in Unity. 

Creating a Sky Box

Every outdoor level needs a sky, and in Unity you use a sky box object to create this. The sky box is a large scale cube with a texture on each face, it's on such a large scale that it doesn't appear like a cube to the player so it makes the space of the sky seem infinite. The texture is not affected by light sources or shadows, so it doesn't appear like other objects in the level.

With my level I've also got to add the mechanic of a transitioning sky box, where the texture must change from evening to night. After talking with Sean Oxspring and Alex Saye who are programming and assisting with the Unity aspects of the project, they have told me that it's possible and relatively easy to achieve a transitioning sky box. I have looked into the process myself, the parts which I can do is creating two textures for each time of day. Alex Saye will be implementing it into Unity and programming the transition.

The Unity website had a lot of information on how to do this, so it was quite easy to learn. [For exmaple]

In a Photoshop file I started by creating all of the evening skybox textures. Searching some games development forums, I found that the resolution of the sky box textures should be anywhere from 512x512 and above works. A few people recommended at least 1024, however I thought I would try 512 and use that if it's not too pixelated. I started with a colour gradient layer which is used for the front, left, right and back faces. Then by colour picking the shades at the top and bottom of this image, I created 2 block colour layers for the top and bottom faces of the box. Next I needed to add some clouds, so I painted different variations for each face (except top and bottom). I saved each combination for each face as .tga files to drop into the Unity project folder, ready to apply to the sky box object.  

I repeated this process for the night versions, however this time I made adjustment layers above the cloud layers so that I could change the colour of the clouds according to night-time lighting without changing their shape or position. I also added stars layers and painted a few stars on each face. 

Below you can see how the transition looks during a gameplay test. 

One issue I do have is the visible seams of the box. After consulting with Alex and Sean they could not find a way of fixing this.