A1: Noir Game

Monday 8th January 2024

A Noir game is a 19's styled action game on which the protagonist is usually a detective or a privet investigator. This role usually falls under the masculine stereotype. The genre itself is shown by its cynicism and moral ambiguity in their characterization, the overarching feeling of fatalism and that what the player does it will not matter in the end of schemes. As if looking at life within a pessimistic viewpoint.
The general atmosphere and visual appeal of a noir game is within a monochrome colour style with at times, a mild bit of colour however that is usually muted. Using that colour as a highlight to draw the players attention towards something specific and usually of importance. The pallet typically has a heavy contrast within its black and white it uses shades of grey to provide depth within its environment. Shadows appear as sharp and edged providing senses of an ominous and a threatening atmosphere.

Example - Hollow Knight

An amazing example of a noir game is the 2D game called Hollow Knight. The game is mostly filled with black, grey, white, yellow and red on which are accompanied by hues of blue and green within some areas. The fatalism within the original storyline is apparent as the character progresses the player gets told that they were mass breaded and produced just to seal away an infection that haunted the kingdom until it's demise. Along with them being called back to their home location just to replace the prior, yet flawed, 'hollow knight'.

With the game's main protagonist is unable to talk and remains mainly unnamed, apart from times being referred to as "Ghost". You can see within the design of how Team Cherry uses the colouration of black, white and dark grey with an apparent lighter grey to show the depth of the head and nail. At first, you are left within the dark of what you are doing here and why the inhabitants here are extremely aggressive along with the backstory of this protagonists. Later on, mentioned by the Dreamers, they are attempting to replace the previous Hollow Knight to seal the infection permanently. It is then revealed  to the player that they were called upon by the Radiance or from the Hollow Knight however it will not be shown until the player climbs from the birthplace of where it was created which is most likely after they finish the game's the seal ending. The actions of the protagonist can be seen as ambiguous by the accounts of murdering species in the alluded hope of a chance of sealing away the infection of this ruined civilization.  

 

Hornet, a female main character, contrasts to the player's design , along with most of the other NPC's that they have seen so far, with comparison to the monotone or muted colour scheme. This can be seen as a hint to pay more attention towards her standing her out when in contrast to everyone else. We see within her first appearance that she tries to indirectly make the player follow her eventually saying we are stalking her. We see within her dialogue that she does not believe that the player can successfully seal away the Radiance. That is however until the victory against her more advanced version, that being Hornet Sentinel, where she states to the player to "receive the mark upon your shell and claim yourself as King."

Greeted by an unwanted sight of dead and pierced corpus's, Deepnest can be seen as a suspenseful and alarming place. With random enemies entering by the foreground along with tunneling up from the floor, crumbling floor traps, fake corpses hidden within normal corpses and spikes lining every surface to be seen Deepnest is not a good area to be within for a prolonged amount of time. The colour in this are as entirely made of black, white and greys. With this in mind, it becomes apparent that the player should keep their guard up higher in this area when compared to the other areas within Hallownest.

 

Wednesday 10th January 2024

I do quite like the aspect of the highlight colour between the darker and dismal backgrounds and character. Accompanied with the high false sense of security with the reanimated bodies and trap falls that is Deepnest. 
I have thought that a feature of the game could be within that there could be a horrendous fog or storm of sorts and as you progress through the game it clears away as a none subtle progression system of sorts. The goal of the game could be to restore what is left of this town and to be rid of the crimes within. Slowly unlocking on why this small town is engulfed within the fog/storm. It may take aspects from hollow knight and it's character design along with the uncertainty. The game will, in hopes, make the player question the morality of the protagonist. 

Monday 22nd January 2024

We had created a GGD for this project

.Game Design Document (GDD)

Game name: P.I private eye.

Genre:
FPS, Noir.


Game Elements:
Attacking enemies.


Players: One.

Technical specs

Technical Form:
3D format.

View:
3First person

Platform:
PC, Xbox.

Language:
C#

Device:
PC, Xbox.

Game Play:
Within a black and white cityscape, a singular retired Pirate is left to wonder on about the reasoning behind the sudden increase of recent missing cases through the city. Uncover the mysteries of this place as the story unravels itself while you progress.

Inside of an abandoned building, is this supposed to do that? You feel like you're being watched every move you make. All you know is one thing, get out as fast as possible.


Game Play Outline:
> Melee Attack.

 > Ability to heal lost Health.

> Ability to use powerups that they have collected.

 > Upon the player’s Health losing zero, you have the option to retry and attempt again.

> After the story is over, completion will eventually show you the significance of the building.

> Due to the suspense and both the storytelling and the combat sections, people can find fun within.


Key features:
> Healing,
> Different enemies,
> Abelites by powerups.

Design Document.

Design Guidelines.
> Within the style of an Isometric game.
> Apply to the PEGI 12 rating.

Game Design Definition:
A player wins by defeating enemies and getting out of the house.
A person would lose by their health reaching zero.
The main focus of the gameplay is to uncover the mystery.

Player Definition:
Maximum Health: 100.
Weapon: Flint lock.
Action: Healing, Blocking, Attacking.

Player Rewards:
Health potions.

User Interface:
W –Forward.
A -Left.
S -Backwards.
D -Right.
Right click -Attack.
E -Inventory
Space -Jump.

Joysticks -Movement & Camera.
Right Trigger -Attack.
Left trigger -Aim.
A – Jump.
D-pad -Inventory.

Due to me mistaking the word 'private' with 'pirate', the group of people I am doing this project with thought to jump onto that and have this game to be that of a pirate detective game which was based around the mysteries of an underwater city.

To apply to the request of a vehicle to get across this sunken landscape, because of that mild mistake I had made, I started to draw out a few ideas on how a boat may look using Photoshop. While also researching designs from the timescale of the 19th century to gain a general idea on how they looked. With using a method of silhouettes having a few aspects big, medium and smaller than the rest. This can be seen with how I drew the deck of the boat large, one of the sails being medium sized while the other being smaller than the rest. 

So with that, I began to creating one of the boats I had designed prior within Maya. Starting with the modelling, I used the box method to get the general idea of the boats basic shape. Accompanied by the  smooth preview key and edge loop tools to get it closer to it's actual shape. Using the mirror tool on the X axis to effectively and symmetrically create the design by manipulating and moving the vertices and edges.

The boat's shape looks accurate with how I wanted the basic shape to be. However, I dislike how the sail of the boat turned out. Upon revaluation and reflection, I should have spent a bit more time and a few more sketches on how the sails are.  It looks, for the most part, 2D and as if it would be unable to receive wind if it was used for an actual boat. I could to improve that look father into how a sail works and to not just have a singular image to base it from. The boat was also discontinued due to the miscommunication between myself and the team. That being it was changed from the landscape being flooded to it being a regular cityscape. This could have been easily fixed by keeping a better communication towards the other group members.

 

Tuesday 22nd January 2024

Monday 5th February 2024

Finally starting onto the model of the main protagonist, as I was given it from the artist of this group today. We would need this model to be done due to us having a few 3rd person cut scenes in mind for the game. 

Once again, going on the baselines of the boxing method starting on the head of the character. Using the mirror tool on the Y axis I was able to make sure the model was perfectly symmetrical. Along with the smooth preview mode  Manipulating the vertices and edges to then create that of a strong looking jawline for the character. I had also used an aspect of lego modelling to create the beard since it was my first time delving into hair. 

I do like how the chest turned out and the depth with what I did. I however did not have enough time on the character as the miscommunication of a sunken city had limited my time on it even more. As it was then later unusable as it was left unfinished.  As I had stated before, this would have been fixed with me communicating better. Getting onto the model itself, I dislike how the beard is very choppy. It looks as if it would be very stiff and uncomfortable. To go against that, I can develop more strength in hair modling and how to do it as I go on. 
 

Tuesday 6th February 2024

I rounded the bottom half of the torso to give some depth to the character.

I had to separate what was supposed to act as "joints" of the character for the fact of easier animation.  

Monday 12th February 2024.

I began to UV unwrap a few models that I was given. This being a barrel.

This one being a table I was given. I also textured it using substance painter along with a wood grain paintbrush.

Tuesday 13th February 2024.


Wednesday 14th February 2024.

Post Mortem.

Through this game project there was a lack of team communication on which greatly effected the outcome for this game it in the long run. Several people, myself included, were not present at times of bigger decisions which in an outsider's point of perspective had hindered us greatly. A few miscommunications were caused due to that. An example of it being that I had thought we were creating a sunken city, thus the boat, however due to that misconception, I had wasted a days too even weeks on creating something we would not have used when in reality I should have asked and double checked with the team to see if we were going ahead with an old plan of ours on which was discussed prior. When I could have been doing and modeling something useful with the very limited amount of time this project was if I had checked in. I should have also made the character modal my highest priority rather than the boat. Time control proved to be an issue later down the line as the model of the protagonist was left unfinished thus rendered as unusable.

The fact of  people giving me their plain model files for me to then UV unwrap and texture allowed me to help with doing something that others find to be a 'nightmare' while I do not mind doing it and quite enjoy it. Despite the hold back of the boat, I managed to fully unwrap and texture two bottles, a barrel, and the tables. I should have realized that I should have included and explicitly state what the items I was unwrapping were. That is something I will remind myself to do for the next project.