Final Game Screenshots

Continuing Surfacing

 

Beginning Surfacing & Set Dressing

Documentation & How to use Digital Assets

The lantern asset has a few different parameters, you can get a completely random lantern by pressing the 'Random Lantern' button. You can turn on and off bars in the windows of the lantern by clicking the check box. All the sliders are advanced settings, you can pull he slider and it will change the style of a particular part of the lantern, this allows for intentional designs.

You can see arrows pointing to the part of the lantern that each parameter controls.

The Japanese door has a few different parameters. You can change the height, width, depth of the railing and how many decorative door bars/vertical grate bars there are. 

You can see arrows pointing to the part of the door that each parameter controls.

Doors and Lanterns in the Engine

Finished Lantern & Door HDA's

Lantern HDA

The rule that governs this asset is that the basic size/style of each piece has to match every other piece. We don't want a lantern that looks unproportional in the way it is built so each piece has to fit perfectly with all the other pieces, in size and in style. This is why I've opted for a switch node for each different section. Because I want all of my lanterns to be the same height and look very similar the variation will be minimal, which is why this switch method will work well. Eventually I would like to implement a button that will randomly select pieces for the lantern but I want to also give the person using the HDA to be able to pick their own pieces if they choose.

Lantern HDA Plan

The most minimal way I can think to represent my object would be boxes stacked on top of each other. My plan is to make a file that you can replace each 'part' of with a different part. So I will have 3-5 different shafts, roofs, bases, platforms, etc. that can be toggled between. This will be set up where each new piece sits perfectly on top of every new piece and scales properly that they still all fit together.

If I could only have two parameters I would have one that scales that height of the shaft and then another that randomly selects the different styles I have created for each piece of the lantern. This way I would get an array of lanterns with different styles and all different heights. But I'll make the lanterns similar enough that every combination of pieces looks natural with every other piece.

Whitebox Video

Currently my only interactive element is being able to open each door (pressing Q opens the water doors, E opens the earth doors etc.). I'm still trying to figure out how to get the lighting to change and the doors to close when another door is opened. This is a video of most of the whitebox with noon lighting.

Final Whitebox

I've started experimenting with color a little more. I've decided to give each door a designated color (blue-water, light purple-air, green-earth, red-fire). I think this will help the player be able to distinguish between each area. The night lighting and noon lighting are basically finalized but I'm still considering switching water to dusk and air to dawn. The purple/pink morning light might match the doors better. 

Whitebox Lighting

This is my look and feel progress on lighting for the whitebox, from top to bottom is dawn, noon, dusk, and night. I'm thinking that dawn and dusk might look too alike right now, I might add a dim pink filter to the morning light. Also, the final version of the night scene will have candles/lanterns to add light. The last two are looks at misc areas in the game. 

Whitebox Progress

The two images above are testing lighting and the feeling of the space. This is supposed to be a pink morning light (in the final version the sky-box will have a morning sky). I've increased the fog a lot to give the area a dreamy feel, also to push the mountains into the background, I want them to look like they are far in the distance. 

Research

Water in Unreal Engine 4:

• https://wiki.unrealengine.com/Water_Shader_Tutorial

Dynamic Sun Cycle in Unreal Engine 4:

• https://wiki.unrealengine.com/Tutorial:_Time_of_Day

Physics Actors/Assets (Wind Chimes):

• https://answers.unrealengine.com/questions/57206/does-wind-directional-source-affect-physics-actors.html

Asset List

Areas (Ground Floor): uniform cobblestone in a circular pattern

Area Walls: cobblestone

Paths (Ground Floor): uniform cobblestone

Path Walls: cobblestone

Japanese Style Window Frames: mahogany wood

Japanese Style Gates: cherry wood, stained red & mahogany wood, stained dark brown/red

Terrain: grassland & mountains

Central Tree: large cherry blossom tree

Water Pond: plane with water shader & lily pads/flowers

Candles: small, white wax candles (tea lights)

Japanese Wind Chimes: metal and paper

Rock Garden: sand & large rocks

Environment Design

Reference Images

Above is an example of the way the lighting will change as the time of day changes, the dawn will be pink, noon will be white, dusk will be orange and night will be blue/purple.

Interactive Design

I want to make a first-person virtual Japanese meditation garden that focuses on the four elements; air, water, fire and earth. This 'game' is about finding your center and relaxing. I want the garden to be semi-realistic. The textures will probably have a painterly feel to them and the lighting will be dramatic. I want the resounding feeling to be tranquil.

The character starts off in the center area which is a large area full of plants and an extremely large tree in the middle. There are four doors in this area, each one of them is closed and has a symbol on it that shows either dawn, noon, dusk or night. The player cannot go anywhere so they search around. In front of the tree a pedestal sits, this is where the player will go to change the time of day. Depending on what time of day they change it to will open certain doors, only one door can be open at a time. Lighting will also change depending on the time of day, the 'tint' of the light will be either pink, white, orange or blue/purple. This is an open world 'game' where the player is encouraged to visit each area and relax, there is no way to win or lose.

I got my inspiration for this game from Journey, created by thatgamecompany, because it is a beautiful game about exploration and self-discovery. This idea came from me thinking about my great grandmother, who is 95 years old, and cannot leave her house very much anymore without a struggle. I wanted to make something that could be beautiful and relaxing for her, that she can do from the comfort of her own couch. Combined with the power of the Oculus Rift and a set of headphones I think this could really be a good thing for a lot of people like her who have trouble even going outside.