MA Games Design Diary

Finishing the Saloon Environment  I added all 3D assets and loot items within Unreal Engine and finished the saloon environment. Later in the project, I aim to improve the lighting of the scene, as the lighting I have created so far was made to just light the scene rather than to enhance the mood and style of the environment. I will also need to modify the positions of textures and materials on some of my meshes to ensure they are aligned correctly.  When creating the saloon environment, various imported assets didn't have collision; therefore, I modified the collision properties of the static meshes to ensure that the player couldn't walk through objects. I also altered the collision settings of various static meshes to ensure that they didn't interfere with my interaction and hover line traces, therefore preventing the player from interacting with or collecting objects.     Creating a Working Chest To create a chest that opens and closes, I created a blueprint...

Creating a New Level I created a new level and called it 'my_saloon', and then I imported the following assets that I will use to build the environment: Saloon Interior ,  Old West VOL.1 - Interior Furniture ,  Old West - VOL 2 - Tradesmen Tools and Props ,  Old West VOL.3 - Travel Supplies and Goods ,  Old West - VOL 4 - Goods and Supplies ,  Old West - VOL 5 - Town Props and  Old West VOL. 6 - Town and Industrial . I then used the modular wall meshes from  Saloon Interior  to start building the layout of the saloon.  Creating the HUD I created a simple crosshair widget by adding a small white box and aligning it to the centre of the canvas panel. In the character blueprint, I used a 'Create Widget' and 'Add to Viewport' node to make the crosshair visible at the start of play. I promoted the return value to a variable so I can reference the HUD widget later. Creating a Working Door To enable the player to pass through an open door, I had to...

During weeks 5 and 6, I started the User Interface in Game Design course made by Epic Games, and took some notes . I also sketched a timeline of UI elements that will be included throughout my Western game prototype to plan what UI I will need to make. I then created a simple wireframe to plan the HUD design.  I also did an updated sketch of the saloon's floor plan, changing it from a two-story building to a single-story building. I did this because I believe it will be easier to create a mini map for a single-story building, since I have no prior experience making a functioning minimap in Unreal Engine.  Since I will start creating my saloon environment in Unreal Engine next week, I collated images of Western interiors to use as inspiration. I also collected various examples of HUD designs to use as inspiration. 

This week, I wrote a blog about the UI and UX design within Arcade Paradise , as it is a great example of how UI and UX design can significantly impact gameplay and player experience. I also started to collect examples of American Western design from films, TV shows, and games to see how the Western genre is portrayed in media and to get inspiration for my UI designs.  Later in the week, I started playing WW2 Rebuilder and collected examples of its UI, because I liked how the game incorporated a 1940s design style within its map and menu designs.  Next week, I aim to start sketching ideas for my UI designs, so this week I researched what techniques and methods I can use to create and implement my UI designs. At the beginning of the project, I aimed to use Greg Wondra's Skillshare course, Unreal Engine 5: (Easy!) Mini-Map , as a resource, when creating my mini map in UE5, however, since I want to make a stylised mini map, I realised I would need to use alternative techniques...