Puzzle Analysis - The Trace

Game: The Trace
Seller: Relentless Software
Release Date: Feb 5, 2015
Game type:Puzzle (Information Puzzle), Detective game.

The Trace is a great mystery game with fairly sample mechanics. In this game, players will need to search for clues and objects needed to obtain the evidence at different locations.   Using black-light to find fingerprints, collecting evidence, questioning people, and get reports are all pretty complex, but interesting.  All of these things piece the story together. In the game, it is very easy to navigate various scenes, music is also nice because it matches the mood of the game.
I played the 1 chapter of the game. It is a really nice 3D game, it game made me want to keep playing.

 

 

Find the information about the died person from its wallet which is found in his pocket. 

 

 Player will need to get right code to open the save.

Shooter Game Level-Modular Kit

HeroProp Preproduction

Plan1:
Xie Di Zi: is an Chinese Ancient weapon, which is used for killing people by cuts head off.  It has a very unique mechanic that people are still trying to figure out how it works today.  However, the Xie di Zi need to be throw and covered on the head.  Then, it will easily knock the head off.

Plan2:
Gun:  It is the most common weapon that we can have in the real life today.  And it is also the most famillar weapon that I can achieve for this project.  If I choose this plan, I am going to design a unique gun with special mechanics.

Plan3:
Flying vehicle. It is also has the possibility for me. I will make it looks like a mini machine just like a backpack.  The design should looks cool and logical.  It is  be powered by a v8 engine which will produce fire and heat.

Plan4:
Weeding machine .  It will not be a common weeding tool that we can found in the field.  It is going to be look like a crazy machine that is able to kill any lives.  Parts are going to rotate with a high rpm to cut stuff.  it will be powered by gas, which can generate large sum of heat.

Plan5:
Water gun.  Water gun is actually a very interesting idea.  It remind me about the childhood.  However, it will not look like the ones that I had played with.  It will be a water gun that will pull water out with a high pressure.  Imagine how powerful that water guns for washing cars.

Plan6:
Motor saw.  The idea is inspired by the horror movies that I had watched before.  It can be a very bloody killing machine.  In the game, Saw can be used for many purposes.  For example: it can cut something that block the road, or kill the enemies...

Plan7:
generator.  Generators can produce high pressure electricity which can be very dangerous, but it also can work as a magnet.  So there are at least two mechanic that can be found in this idea.  It can attract stuff, or it can kill or hurt lives in the game.

Plan8:
 Stilit.  This thing is very fun to play with in the real life, so I believe that it will be more fun in the game because of the the feature of the mechanic it has already.  The spring is a very big part of this prop.

Plan9:
scooter.  it can be powered by some unique energy, such as nuclear power, solar power, or wind.  It will not have  any wheel.  It even will not stay on the ground.  In other words, It will float just like how maglev train works. It will not have any resistance from the earth, so it can go as fast as possible.

Plan10:
Skateboard.  It probably will have the similar mechanics as scooter has.  The only things which are different is the animations.

Character - 3D

Research for an Attractive Trailer

The game that the video shows is the Need For Speed: Most wanted.  The reason why I think that it is good is that this trailer has a little introduce in the very beginning, which tells the basic story, role and environment.  Also, the trailer shows some tricks in the game, such as cars can drive through the bottom of the trucks, and players can crash into some of buildings to kill police.  Another reason that the trailer really attract me is because of the music it uses, and the montage editing style. 

Heads Up Display Research

Need for speed: Hot Pursuit is a pretty good reference in this case.  As you can see in the video that I posted above.  HUD it has includes most of information that we need, such as :

Speedometer

Tachometer

Gear Indicator

Lap Time

Best Time

Vehicle Health

Like most of racing games does, I would like to place the tachometer & speedometer on the lower right corner of the screen with the vehicle health besides it.  Gear indicator will be located in the tachometer display.  Other info that need to be show on the screen will mostly be placed on the top right corner.

The car that I modeled is BMW E92 M3, so I decide to make a real tachometer and speedometer display like the real car has on its dashboard.

Here is the first pass:

Modify Car - BMW M3 Final Version

Modify Car Preview - M3

Crossing Fire Zone!!! Resubmit Explosive Barrel Project

Explosive Barrel For Racing Level

The Asset of Barrel is made by Maya, and the textures are developed in Substance.

Blue Print of this explosive barrel.

How it looks in UE4

Barrel Design for Racing Level

Concept：

My level is in realistic, so the barrel that I design is also in realistic. The sketch that I posted above shows the basic shape of the barrel that I am going to create, but I will also put some special textures and decals on it, because I am trying to give it more characteristics.

Draft 1:

There is a barrel that I created for testing.

Racetrack Intro Sequences Analysis

The reference that I selected is from a video that recorded by myself when I was playing the Need for Speed Rivals.  Racetrack intro sequences in this game is unique.  I really like how they camera slowly moves to the player's car first, then turns angle to looks backwards.  The camera follows other racers cars until they pass the player's car quickly.  Than the camera change back to the play view to start the game.  The whole intro sequence and sound effect which is heart beating sound in this case really make players excited and nervous.  It is a really good one.

First Look - Vehicle BMW E92 M3

This is still not final version, Normal maps are not placed on the car yet. 

Includes 8 materials

Particles for Racing Level

My racing level is located in the desert, and some construction areas are also included in my level, so decided to make two particles for my level.  One of them is smoke which will came out from chimney.  And another one is sandy dust with will be located at some spot of my racing track.

Basically I created both particles by the same texture and material that I had created before by using filter/cloud tool in Photoshop.

Material used for particles placed below:

Here are the video that I capture from my level that shows how my particles is going to work, and where am I going to place them.

1. Sandy Dust

2. Smoke

Resubmit:

Vehicle Process - High Poly

Particle Research

I am going to do approximately four particles for my racing level.  Here are some reference from real life.

1.Electricity.  Electricity fail will happen sometimes.  I wants to put this particle in the tunnels because some wires and lights will be placed in the tunnels. 

This will not be too hard because we have already done one particle that looks very similar to electricity.

2. Sandstorm.  The sandstorm in this video looks pretty crazy, but I will not make it as huge as the video does because that is too much that people will not be saw anything.  I will probably just make a simply sandy wind with sound effect, such as sound of wind, and rolling rocks.

3. Dust made by stone dropps from mountain. After rock falls down from a higher location on the floor, some little dust will be bound.  It is a part of stunt that I am going to create in my level.

4. Smoke.  I will make a little village placed in my level, too.  I want to make smoke comes out of chimney.  There will be no any sound effect in this particle.

Pre Pro Reaserch

The idea of my level is came from the movie of 007 series Casino Royale.  There is the part that I was considered as the reference.

However, I was thinking about to change the environment because I do not think that I will have enough time for modeling plants and trees.  I am thinking about to place my level in the desert.  

In my level, I will have couple tunnels goes into the mountain.  I can build a lot of props to make the tunnel looks good and interesting. 

There is also a construction site will be located in my level because i want to create something really interesting at that location, such as a stunt.

The car will get on little hill, and jump into a piece of tube that is hang by a crane，then land on the road back.

Level Color Study

Programming Moving Spikes

Since studied blueprint in Unreal4 Engine, I am getting more and more interested in game programming.  It is so much fun because all of games are basically create by programming which is one of most significant parts for modern games.
Finally,  I created my own moving spike in my little testing level.  Here it is:

My moving Spikes are able to change the colors with they has been triggered.  Also I changed they sound when they touch the floor. Meanwhile, Camera shake will happen, too.
Class Blue Print for this moving spike:

Tutorial Level Design - Under Sea

My level is named Under Sea.  Obviously, the location is going to be under the sea.  The idea of this design is from the cartoon of Finding Nemo.  The character is going to be like Nemo who is going to adventure in the sea.  It will meet some troubles, such as shark or spike, etc.  

I designed my game very easy in the beginning, so players can practice a little before they really get in trouble.  Then, they level is getting harder and harder.
I placed a lot of coins in the level because usually it will make player feel good and more confident.  Most of coins are located at the end of the game which will make people enhance the feeling of achievability.
Reference:

Analysis of Ultimate Flash Sonic

Sonic is kind of my childhood.  I love it so much when I was young.  In this case, I am going to talk about the first level of this game which is named Chill gardens.  

In my opinion, Sonic did kind of similar thing as Super Mario that they all leave a part of level blank in the beginning of level, which is good because players are able to try to press operation keys to practice a little before get into the game.  

The layout of this level of the game is very good because the it included so many variations and other stuff which really enhanced the interest.  For example: the character can use tools that placed in the level to help the character do some actions and movements, such as springs and seesaws help jumping high,  snags can hurt the character or losing money that can be collected most of locations in the level.  

 

There are also enemies that located some places in the level, such as monkey, crab, bee and robot.  All of these enemies are kind of like barriers that really make the game so much more fun and interesting but more challenging.  

 In my opinion,  this game is pretty flexible and relax because players can so what ever they want any time and anywhere.  For instance:  The level includes different layers, you can jump to other layers and collect money first, then go back to other layers to kill enemies, or players can do opposite way.  The mode that I played has no any limit of time and the amount of money that collected.  In other words,  this level is very free.  

This mostly need handling skills of key board, but still a little luck because you will never see what is going to show up next.  

In general, I think that this level is pretty fun and familiar to me.  It is so nice to play it again.