Introduction
The idea behind my final project was simple. I would like the work in the video game industry, so why don't I make a game? I knew that my abilities in certain areas of game making were stronger/weaker than others, but I thought of this as the perfect opportunity to show what I already know, improve upon things I've learnt, and learn even more about making games. I love games, and this is what I want to do in the future.
I made a horror game as in the past few years, they have grown and matured, becoming much more enjoyable and polished.
Looking at my game as a whole, I am proud of what I have created. I am aware that certain aspects can be improved upon such as modelling, but I feel like my Unity work and coding have come a long way, and that is reflected in my game.
The name 'Sanatorium' came to me fairly quickly, as I really like the setting of old Victorian style medical institutions, and I knew instantly that plague doctors were going to play a part in this game.
Game Content
The first level in my game was something I designed myself using assets from a lynda.com tutorial titled 'Unity: 3D Level Design' (Thorn, 2018). I used a modular level building system to construct the world. I am very happy with how this turned out. The tight, corridor style of level creates an enclosed and uncomfortable feeling, perfect for the mood I was aiming to set for the horror game. The lighting, being very limited, helps with this, with flickering effects causing nervousness in the player. The tunnels are grey, dark, and lifeless, forcing the player into the need of escape from the setting.
The second level is from an the 'HE - Abandoned Hospital v.1' (Artur, 2019) asset pack. I decided late on that there was going to be a second level, thus subsequently decided that downloading a pack would save me plenty of time in creating my game. It fit the style and setting, and with a few tweaks, looked great for the game, and functioned well.
The AI enemies in the game are plague doctors. I am a big fan of the plague doctor aesthetic, and think they make great characters for the horror genre in any media.
Functionality
Overall my game works very well. However, as mentioned in a previous post, there is one issues I could not fix before the deadline of the project. This aside, the game works well in all areas to do with AI, animation, audio, gameplay mechanics...
Using Unity was very challenging, but also rewarding. It is very difficult to start as a novice as it requires a lot of coding/scripting to create functional gameplay. However, after watching some tutorials and reading about different areas of game creation, I began to understand how C# scripting works and the c# Unity APIs. I feel much more confident now and would feel comfortable programming again for a game. I still have a lot to learn but this experience has been very beneficial.
Interactivity
The project is automatically interactive as the game requires player input in order to function. Mouse and keyboard are standards for PC games. With more time to create the project I would have liked to create working functionality for console controllers such as the Dualshock 4 for PlayStation 4, but being a PC game, this was not essential.
Future Career
As I stated in the introduction, I would love to go on to work in the games industry, more than likely in concept art or game graphic design. However, making this game required me to get involved with all areas of game development, from modelling to programming. I have weak areas and strong areas. In the video game industry, I would not be alone doing this though. Whole teams of people are made to do just one area of a job in the development process. Having experience with all areas now has helped me understand the difficulties that every aspect contains, and will allow me in future to have better conversations with people across disciplines.
Conclusion
Overall, I am very happy and proud of my project and its outcome. There are some things that, with time, I would change or fix (such as the notes bug). But with everything I knew before this project compared to what I know now, I am very happy.
This has been a success for me and I hope that it helps with my future endeavours. I will more than likely continue to make games in my spare time, and will continue to learn more and more about game development as I go.
Interactive media and digital design if one of the largest growing industries/job openings at the moment, which also means that it is very highly contested. After making this project, I am hoping that this will help me with any competition I come up against.
Acknowledgements
I would like to thank my supervisor for this project, David Tree. He has helped me overcome obstacles, given me great advice, and overall, supported me with the decision making and development of this game.
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