Artist statement & Intention (From planning)

Project Humanity’s goal is to provide the player with a semi-interactive map to walk around and provide them with run-down imagery and environments. But more importantly, it is meant to showcase the dangers of when power gets to the head of someone in the position to make a difference.

The point of the player’s role in the world is that they are supposed to feel powerless. That they are a bystander who can do nothing but watch while the world they know and love falls to pieces.

Evaluation

This evaluation will be formatted so that I ask myself a few questions about my project and answer them based on how well I did in that area.

What was my vision for Project Humanity?

When I first received the assignment, I was very unsure of what to do and where to go with my project. I was juggling in my head between the given options of environment art, mechanics and animation/VFX as they all sounded interesting to me. In the end, I decided to hone in on environment art as it was the area I considered myself best at at that point in time.

I wanted to create a short walking sim which encapsulated the horrors of a dystopian city, as inspired by sources such as Blade Runner (1982) and Final Fantasy VII. I thought environment art would be a perfect match for this style of genre. Additionally, brutalist architecture was a major focus of my research which influenced my the project.

I also wanted to focus a very small amount on mechanics. I wanted one or two simple puzzles involving exploring the main map to piece together a code, which opens up the final area.

Did I achieve this vision?

To an extent, yes. If it wasn’t for time and skill restraints, I would have loved to go absolutely nuts and create plenty of assets and more backstory for this world I have created. I will definitely play around with this idea more in the future.

The environment art aspect of my game was good, in my opinion. The opening area is by far the area I am the most proud of. As it is an enclosed space, it creates a claustrophobic type of oppression. Not to mention the atmosphere and lighting, which I think is at its strongest here.

The city was a bit weaker in terms of overall design and atmosphere. I would have liked to build a more cohesive area with an extra building or two. Again, this had to be cut because I feel like it would not have been as good as it could have been with the amount of time I had left. Overall, I still think it is good enough.

Obviously I am no city designer, but I might have liked the map to be more “city-like” than feeling like a flat plane with a few buildings.

The final area is good. I intentionally decided against the lack of a traditional skybox, and instead opted for a sphere. This was to further emphasize the liminality and nostalgic vibes. I would have liked to spend a bit more time modelling some flowers, grass and leaves for the tree. When I eventually remake or come back to this project in the future with a further expanded skillset, that will be a priority.

In terms of the mechanics, I am happy with the single puzzle I have. I would have liked to have the third digit in a separate building, as opposed to lumping the second and third together. Again, this was due to time constraints.

How does my final product differ from the proposal?

There are a few ideas which changed over development. A few features which never got added include;

• Item descriptions
• Checklist
• Notes
• VFX
• Easter Eggs

Overall, the initial scope of my project was a bit bigger than it probably needed to be. As stated above, I decided against including item descriptions and the such in the final project as it did not really apply to the product and I did not want to shoehorn in an unneeded feature for no reason.

The concepts of class divide and pollution were barely touched on in the final product. These were mentioned in the Final Fantasy VII section of my project proposal. Once again, this was mainly a timing thing.

Last but not least, I would have liked to emphasize the AI revolution themes more in Project Humanity. After all, that was what I decided to base the name on. Unfortunately, I could not figure out a sufficient way to communicate this with my current skillset. I would like to come back to this idea in the future.

What skills did I develop over the course of this project?

Obviously, I used Unreal Engine for my production. However, I already knew a lot of what I used here from my time developing Escape The Matrix.

The areas I developed the most were my texturing and 3D modelling. With regards to Blender, that was mostly just refining what I already knew. However, I was completely new to Substance Painter going into this project. I picked it up fairly quickly, even if I still have yet to master its intricacies. I will say that it makes texturing a breeze, as compared to what I would do before. To summarize, I used to export the UV maps from Blender, open them in Photoshop and create the textures there. If I wasn’t happy with the final result (which I wasn’t 9 times out of 10), I had to go back into Photoshop and adjust it. This obviously lacked the flexibility of Substance Painter and was overall a massive pain.

I would have liked to focus more on the writing and backstory if this were my own personal project. As it is for college work and under a time limit, I thought it best to focus on the areas I am graded on.

What did I find difficult in this project?

Most of my problems came down to poor time management skills. As mentioned earlier, a few aspects had to be cut from the final production due to this.

I had a few streaks where I would not work on the project for days at a time. This is purely down to my busy schedule and the occasional energy/mood drop.

There were a few frustrating areas in development, but this mainly came down to me not exactly knowing what I’m doing 100% of the time. Things like struggling a bit with the keypad and messed up normals. But mostly, I found development to be fun and I thoroughly enjoyed it. For future reference, as long as I keep in mind that frustration is normal and a natural part of development, I should be good.

How did my research influence the final product?

The research and influence carried out on topics such as brutalist architecture, my chosen games and game pitches helped a fair amount with my production.

A key aspect I took inspiration from in my final product is the concept of using lighting to subtly indicate to the player which buildings can and can’t be entered. This was obviously taken from Bloodborne.

The research I carried out on brutalist architecture also heavily influenced the design philosophy of the buildings in Project Humanity.

My primary research also helped me ascertain what an audience wants from a walking simulator-type game. This influenced what I should prioritize.

What should I do differently in the future?

A few things. In particular, I need to work on my own time management and self-discipline skills. I would also like to improve on my own general game development skills via the use of watching videos, reading, and most importantly, doing.

When it comes down to research and planning, I should probably try to be a bit more thorough.

Did I appeal to my target audience?

As mentioned in the proposal, the target audience is anyone aged 16 or up who is even vaguely interested in dystopian literature and themes. I feel like I probably could have done a bit more to appeal to this crowd.

My project has a few dystopian-esque themes, but I feel like I didn’t explore the topic deeply enough. Maybe I’m being overly critical of myself, but I would have liked to include a few more references to dystopian literature. As it stands, I feel like my project did an adequate job of getting the dystopian vibes across.

Peer feedback

Above is some feedback I received from a few peers. As one can see, it is generally quite positive. I find it interesting that the sound was highlighted as a high point, as it was probably the aspect I put the least thought into. It definitely makes a difference, however.

Conclusion

Project Humanity was deeply satisfying to work on and I am mostly happy with the end result. All I can do from this point onwards in hone my skills and work towards creating more great works.

This unit may be over, but Project Humanity will forever thrive as a major achievement of mine.