Breach - Week 22 Development Blog

As mentioned in the week prior, during this week I wanted to focus on implementing the main level of the game based on the fact that the tutorial level and gameplay is at a suitable point for the time being.

Block out

As standard level design goes I began blocking out the level using Probuilder. When doing this I attempted to keep the design as close to the reference placed inside of my GDD as possible. However, in some instances some changes have been made based on the fact that I feel as though the level flows better with them in comparison to the diagram. The most notable example of this is on the top floor main office segment of the level. Initially it was planned to have a singular desk in the room. However, upon reflection I felt as though it would be to much more benefit to create more close quarter combat. This would be achieved through having a more traditional office environment with divided booths filling up the space.

Creation and outsourcing of assets

Following the block mesh for the level being created I began looking at placing assets into the scene. Based on the fact that I am approaching the last weeks of this games development I knew that it would not be feasible to personally create all of the games assets myself like I previously stated I wanted to do.

Once the assets had been placed in the scene it was important that the "non textured" look is consistent throughout all of the models to ensure that the simplistic art style is effective. This is achieved through the use of a universal environment texture that will be applied to all static objects (besides lighting) inside of the scene.

The List of all of the outsourced assets I used can be found here:

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1cDTqnakCEViyNi7_cm6A_h83ZukrZpmAgVenKOwczDg/edit?usp=sharing 

Lighting & Post processing

Lastly when creating the level I knew that lighting and post processing would carry most of the load when making the game look good. Upon reflection, whilst I am not going to make changes to the methods which I used based on the time remaining, I feel as though by using baked lighting in comparison to real-time, which I used in this case, it would significantly increase optimisation and performance.

In regards to post processing, as I am using HDRP I had to use a volume node which would impact the post-processing in each selected scene. I found this much more efficient than the standard unity pipeline method of postprocessing based on the fact that the I had a lot of control over the setting and had the ability to make the volume a prefab so that it could simply be dragged into the tutorial level and have the same effect.

In conclusion during this week I feel as though I was successful in the task in which I set for myself. I have managed to create a level that I believe not only looks good but also plays well (the final result can be seen below). I hope to continue this progress in the coming weeks up until the deadline so that I have a strong finish to what has ultimately been a development cycle with fluctuating amounts of progress from week to week.

Next week I plan to perform overall admin of the game, making improvements where I can. This potentially may include setting up the hostage villain to activate a shooting mode once the hostage has been released. Furthermore, I am going to try and optimise the game as by having a significant amount of real-time lighting and emissive textures the frames are capping out at around 60-70 FPS which although not too bad, potentially doesn't make the game accessible for lower end specs.

Tasks:

• Overall admin of the game

• Making improvements to systems

• Hostage villain shooting and health functionality

• Optimisation