Game Design Techniques

 

Game Design and Level Design as a whole

 

When looking at Game Design and areas that I feel I need to improve and even consider more in this project, I chose to delve deeper into Level Design as a whole and more specifically creating an intuitive layout and how to structure a level. To kick off this research I first looked into the basics of level design theory and tips that could help me to plan and structure my level for this horror FPS game. The first source that I used to gather this information was an online article, in this article level design and game design as a whole was explained and best practices were given in hopes of improving my level design knowledge and practices. “the job of a level designer involves a wide range of tasks, including creating huge, detailed environments, placing items and enemies, scripting their behavior in response to events in the game, as well as analyzing players' behavior and manipulating it in order to create an ideal experience.” (Nuclino, 2024), this sentence alone explains that level design is a very wide term and can often involve a lot of steps and processes and does not just focus on the layout of a map or the functionality within a level, instead when I look at my level design I will have to consider where objects, enemies or even obstacles are placed and positioned to create a more engaging experience, In addition, I will have to analyse players behaviour and structure my level based upon feedback and player style. This has opened my eyes to the world of level design as I thought that a level designer was only focused on designing a map or layout to a level and then passing it on to develop the level in-engine, however it seems that the source is explaining that the level design process is cyclical meaning that “Level design doesn't have fixed rules” (Nuclino, 2024) and the design of a level can evolve throughout the creative process. When developing my blueprints and also prototyping in Unreal I will have to make several edits of the level in order to find the perfect balance between player engagement and also horror, as I want the player to stay engaged but at the same time I want the level design to be unpredictable.

 

Nuclino then goes onto explaining how to plan and design a level design, they recommend creating a Game Design Document, this is something that I have used in my previous Final Major Project and I felt that I underutilised this then so now I will have to utilise it correctly to ensure that I can create an effective level design, Nuclino (2024) says, “Creating a game design document (GDD) is the first step of any new game design project. It starts as a single-page game concept and evolves together with your project, keeping all ideas, assets, and design decisions organized in one place.”. The GDD will allow me to plan the ideas and mechanics of the game and decide the most important elements so that I am able to effectively create a series of level designs showing all of the most important mechanics and features in action, it also helps to show the scope of the project and ensure that I stick to the end goal, “The documentation step is important since it allows you to scope your level properly and to reduce the risk of potential problems arising during development.” (Nuclino, 2024). 

 

When designing my levels and level blueprints I must design with purpose and also consider immersion as the player moves through the level, Nuclino (2024) explains that “Every level and map must have a reason why it exists and it's crucial that the level designer stays focused on this goal throughout the design process.”, this is a key point that I selected from this source as when it comes to designing my level I must ensure that I focus on quality and not quantity, meaning that I must not over scope and every mechanic, object, enemy or even asset in the level must be placed with purpose and not just added for the sake of adding more assets. I have always considered this as when I design a game or level I always plan and think about the features required in the level first and then stick to that plan ensuring that the planned mechanics are the only mechanics in the level as these were the features that I deemed to be most important. In addition to this, I will ensure that I stick to the design plan and only make amendments when necessary to allow more time developing my level and testing out the mechanics and features instead of overscoping and being stuck with a mechanic heavy level, this will also help me to stick to my end goal as I would have planned my level and ensured that everything in the level has a reason to exist.

 

Furthermore, the last area that Nuclino focuses on is immersion, this is a key area to focus on in level design as the overall story needs to be told in an immersive way in order to make the player feel that they are experiencing the story first hand and the world in the game is believable. “Immersion and suspension of disbelief are critical for the player to stay engaged and appreciate other aspects of the level design, such as gameplay and story.” (Nuclino 2024), as stated in this quotation immersion and suspension are critical components of level design as they ensure player engagement and also enhance the narrative and gameplay, a story or narrative can be elevated through the correct use of level design, environmental assets or sound design can enhance the gameplay experience and showcase a more detailed story to the player than if I was to create an under planned level design. From this, I can see that immersion plays a key role in level design and I should consider this when looking at the level design of my horror FPS, I will be able to enhance the atmosphere and story more if I am able to nail immersion and also stick to main goal set out in the GDD.

 

Overall, this source has been extremely helpful at expanding my knowledge on level design and from this I will create a Game Design Document setting out clear goals and objectives, as well as mechanics and features to ensure that my horror FPS is engaging, immersive and also well planned. I focused on level design as I feel that this area plays a very important role in FPS games. Almost every map in an FPS has different hiding spaces, secret tunnels or corridors and also pick ups and enemy locations are planned to ensure that the gameplay feels fun and interesting to play, whilst also not becoming predictable.

 

Level Layouts

 

After looking into Level Design and Game Design as a whole, I wanted to look closer into the different types of level structures / layouts so I have a clearer understanding of the different level layouts and if and when I should use them within my horror FPS. For this I used two sources to compare and contrast my findings, the first source which was a Book and E-Book explained level layout as the following “Layout has two similar meanings in level design: the level's overall structure [and] overview drawing used for planning, sometimes called a "topdown" because it's drawn from a top-down perspective” (Robery Yang, 2024) and the next source an online article said “the layout refers to the overall structure and arrangement of a level. This includes the placement of objects, obstacles, and enemies, as well as the layout of the environment itself.” (Medium, 2023), both of these sources give a similar definition to the term level layout and this has shown me that a level layout is a typical industry standard document used, so I would be a little bit worried if the definition on one source was completely different from that of the other. From this, I have learnt that a level layout does not refer to the level itself but more the plan created to show the structure, design and basic layout of the level, it typically includes several layers with obstacles, objects and even enemy placement on it, this helps to structure the level and flow that the player will take through the level and ensure that the placements are intuitive and fit with the story progression.

 

The sources then branch off into two separate sections, the book moves onto explaining how to plan a level layout whilst the online article explains the different types of level structures. Focusing on the how, Robert Yang (2024) explains the flow of planning for designing level layouts, “Pre-production: define design goals, Parti thumbnails: brainstorm the core shapes, Bubble diagrams: visualize size / flow between areas, Floor plan: draft specific room shapes in more detail, Gameplay markup: add labels and design notes”. When comparing this to my previous source by Nuclino we can see a crossover of information, Nuclino explained that we should use a Game Design Document to set out goals and brainstorm story ideas, “It starts as a single-page game concept and evolves together with your project, keeping all ideas, assets, and design decisions organized in one place” (Nuclino, 2024), this is exactly the same as what is being stated in this source, they recommend defining design goals and then brainstorming ideas that fit within the gameplay story. This is interesting because it shows that the planning documents can be used hand in hand, the level layout can only work if the story and gameplay has been planned as well, as the level will have to reflect the story as the player is moving through the environment. 

 

In addition, Robert Yang explains that creating a basic layout after setting out a player experience goal is imperative to clear level design because without a goal to focus on the level will feel empty and worthless. After identifying the core idea or Partis, the source then explains that the designer should then start to “Sketch and label partis, simple thumbnail sketches of core shapes.” (Robert Yang, 2024), the sketch of the partis would be a series of simple box drawings of the key mechanics or features of the level such as doors or other “basic shape fits with your experience goal” (Robert Yang, 2024). The point of the partis sketch is to start visualising basic elements of the level without the need to focus on the level layout itself, this helps to ease the pressure when moving into the structural design of the level and ensures that we stick to the goal set out for the level. They then move onto say that we can use bubble diagrams to draw the basic shape and flow of the level layout, this step seems to me to be a useless step because straight after you then start designing the level on a floor plan so this step seems unnecessary for me so I will miss this step when it comes to experimenting with the techniques learnt.

 

The next step is to start creating a level design layout or a floor plan, “Draw a floor plan, a top-down drawing with walls and floors. Start with big simple shapes, omit details. Use multiple line weights and shade floor areas. For rooms with multiple floors, draw an isometric view, with attention to the floor planes. For important or complex set piece rooms, maybe sketch a perspective view and label it.” (Robert Yang, 2024). Robert here has given a basic overview of the steps required to successfully create a floor plan, you start by using basic shapes, gradually adding detail and amending the floor plan to suit the gameplay flow and then design the floor plan from different angles and perspectives to give a more detailed view of the environment and how they will look in-engine. From this, I can see that I should start by creating a very basic layout with boxes and lines and then expand upon the plan gradually adding more detail and planned features to the document, to ensure that the gameplay flows correctly for the player. 

 

I will look at adopting a similar approach to my level design because in the past I have created a level blueprint but have not given too much detail around the contents of the level or the detail in the level, this is something that I will work on as in this project I will be working with a group so we must ensure that the layout design can be read by all the members in the group. After completing a floor plan I must then start to markup the plan adding the player flow as well as gameplay notes such as names of areas or when a mechanic will be triggered or required. This is very important because it will allow me to ensure that my level layout works and flows as intended, reducing the amount of time making amendments to my plan during development.

 

Types of level layouts

 

Now moving onto different types of level layouts using the second source mentioned above, I wanted to look into the different types of level structures to ensure that I had an understanding of the different level types, how they play out and when I should use them. The source explains six different types of level layouts each of which come with varying designs and uses. The first type of level layout explained in this article is open vs closed layouts, the layouts are fairly simple to understand and reflect what is said in the title of the layouts, “An open layout refers to a level or environment that has a large, open area for the player to explore. This can be contrasted with a closed layout, which is more linear and has a more defined path for the player to follow.” (Medium, 2023), an open layout is often used for an open world game which involves a lot of exploration whereas in contrast a closed layout is more linear and in a smaller environment, now seen as I am not making an open world title I am swaying more towards the closed level design. This would better suit a horror FPS game because an FPS does not usually require exploration and the map is always a mixture of both open and closed layouts, in addition, based upon my skills and ability I do not feel that I would be able to adopt an open level design in this project as time simple does not allow it. They explain that an open design can “provide more opportunities for player choice and branching paths, as the player has more freedom to explore different areas and take on challenges in different orders.” (Medium, 2023), this further emphasises that I should not take this method when designing my level layout as I want to adopt a linear story and so I should stick to a closed design. They also explain a linear layout. This layout is fairly similar to that of the closed layout because the story flows through a clear defined path, so I do not see the difference between a closed layout and a linear layout.

 

Moving onto the next two level layout structures, Hub and spoke layouts and Parallel layouts, the source first explains a hub-and-spoke layout. A hub-and-spoke layout refers “to a level or environment that is arranged as a central hub with multiple branching paths or areas radiating out from it.” (Medium, 2023), I have often played FPS games that have used this level layout and the player must explore each spoke to progress to the next area or level objective. This layout is mostly only common in FPS games as you would have a Hub or starting point in the middle of the map and then paths would branch off from the middle starting point to other locations. They provide a sense of direction and also a clear goal because the player will know to explore each spoke because it has been presented to them in a way that showcases the paths forward. I do not feel that this design would work best for the FPS game that I am planning to develop because I am designing a single player FPS and this would work better with a multiplayer or PVP type shooter game, however I can combine this layout with another to achieve a combination layout.

 

The next layout explained is a Parallel layout, “A parallel layout refers to a level or environment that has multiple paths or areas for the player to explore, with the paths running parallel to each other.” (Medium, 2023), a parallel layout creates separate pathways for the player to explore in order to add player choices to the game, however each parallel path always leads to the same goal, this can add replayability and also variety to the gameplay. Now this layout could work with the type of game that I am developing because it would add a sense of freedom whilst still sticking to the linear design however, this would make the design aspect of the game harder because I would have to “balance the different paths and ensure that they are all interesting and worthwhile for the player to explore” (Medium, 2023), so because of this I do not feel that this would work with the time that I have to develop my game.

 

The last two layouts are very simple to understand and incorporate many design features from the layouts previously mentioned, Ring layouts, “A ring layout refers to a level or environment that is arranged in a circular or looping shape. These types of layouts often have the player starting at a specific point and working their way around the ring to reach the end.” (Medium, 2023), a ring layout basically has a clear start and end point it is often arranged in a circular shape and come with a clear sense of progression, however, they can create a sense of predictability and the story will become less open-ended when compared to the previous layouts above. I do not feel that a ring layout would suit my game because I want the environment to be explorable, the story unpredictable and linear. The very last layout mentioned by Medium is a Network layout, this is very similar to that of the hub-and-spoke layout and a combination of the open layout. Medium (2023) says, “A network layout refers to a level or environment that is arranged as a series of interconnected paths or areas. These types of layouts often have multiple branching paths and allow the player to move between different areas in a non-linear fashion.”, yet again we can see that this level structure provides a non-linear story whilst allowing for exploration, similar to the open design except the level is more within a tighter and closed space. I can see that this type of layout is better suited for games trying to adopt a non linear story whilst providing a sense of freedom, choice and exploration, however, this type of layout would not work for my game concept because I want to show a linear progression through a closed space, so I have decided that I will not be moving forward with this level layout design.

 

Overall, this source explained the different types of level layouts perfectly and provided me with a clear understanding of the types of layouts, how they are structured and helped me to come to a conclusion as to which layouts I should adopt for my horror FPS. In conclusion, following this research I believe that I should experiment with different types of level layouts and structures to see what combination works best for my project, however, at this moment I feel that I would be better suited using a combination of both closed and linear level structures, because as I stated before I want to showcase a linear story throughout my level and also into my groups levels and a closed space or layout would work best with the environment that my game is set in, a house.

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Unreal Engine Techniques

 

Technique 1: Localised volumetric fog in Unreal Engine 5

 

The first Unreal Engine 5 technique that I researched was adding localised volumetric fog to a scene or level in Unreal Engine 5. Although Unreal Engine comes with built in volumetric fog it can only be used to change the fog depth of the whole level not a single specified point, location or environment in the level or scene, I want to include this technique in my horror FPS game to add to the depth, immersion and also excel the horror atmosphere of the game. Also, I want to add volumetric fog to my game because the game is set within a person's mind so the game needs to feel mysterious and also forever changing. The first source that I looked at was a video tutorial hosted on YouTube, this video explained the step by step process of implementing localised fog or mist into an Unreal scene.

 

The first source by Ryan Laley explained the steps needed to carry out in order to create fog, the tutorial started by stating that you need to turn on the volumetric fog, “Volumetric fog is a setting you’ll find in your exponential height fog actor [...] find volumetric fog turn that on and you can see the voxels” Ryan Laley (2023). This shows me that I can use the exponential height fog setting but tweak it slightly so that the feature is barely visible, this reassures me as I was beginning to worry about the fog being displayed over the whole map, but this confirms that this will work on a localised level, “I want to turn it down enough so I don’t see this volumetric fog but also still have it turned on” Ryan Laley (2023).

 

After this, the tutorial said to create a volumetric material, this is created in the same way as a standard material however a few parameters will be needing to be changed in order to create the desired fog effect, this will include changing the materials domain and also blend mode, Ryan Laley (2023) says “Go into the material domain change it from surface to volume and you’re going to see it change to an Albedo [...] Now you’ll see an error saying volume materials must be using an additive blend mode so go to blend mode and change that to additive”, these all the most important points of the video as without changing these key settings the fog material and density will not work as intended, I will have to remember this when it comes to experimentation and finally adding the fog in game. After these points the tutorial says to add the material to a shape and resize and reposition as intended, after this the fog effect will work.

 

A key piece of information that I want to take away from this tutorial is that the fog will not render on a cube object because it uses voxels to renders so it will only work in a cube shape,”Be aware that anything round won’t come through as round as you’d hope it to be so you’re limited to boxy like shapes” Ryan Laley (2023) I will need to bear this in mind when deciding what technique to use for my fog. Overall this technique was simple to learn and understand and I feel that I would be able to use this technique and tutorial to produce the effect that I want to achieve in my game.

 

However, a second source that I have researched explains the same technique of making fog or mist but explains the process in a completely different way, instead of using the exponential volumetric fog for the whole level I solely use a volumetric material just like explained at the end of the first source. This source begins by showcasing the volumetric fog and I can already tell that this method will be more complex but will overall produce a more immersive, 3D experience, “It is the most beautiful and the most three-dimensional like actual volumetric fog” (BoroCG, 2023). The creator starts by stating that the “magic is in the material” (BoroCG, 2023), just like the previous source I can see that a similar volumetric material will be required for this method, I have also found that unlike the previous source this one has the ability for wind to affect the direction of movement of the fog creating a more realistic effect in Unreal, “We also need to increase the speed of the wind”(BoroCG, 2023). This is an excellent addition to the fog because I felt that the previous source had a more flat and static feel to it, so I will definitely be experimenting with this technique later in the project. 

 

Furthermore, I have noticed a few similarities between this source and the previous, the set up to the fog is exactly the same and the parameters are changed and tweaked in the same manner, however, this source uses a more in depth approach to the setup of the material. By this I mean that they use a sphere gradient in order to create a more rounded shape unlike the previous which was limited to a box shape, so this will be a better approach as the fog rays will fade out more realistically when compared to the box fog created in the first source. Also, the fog in this source seems to be more three-dimensional and it actually intersects with the objects and actors within the level, BoroCG (2023) says “See how this complex fog is actually hugging this bush [...] like it is actually intersecting in three-dimensions”. He also gave me some tips and points to consider before implementing the fog into Unreal Engine 5, he says to use as few subdivisions as possible in order to improve stability and performance and also I need to make sure that the shape size matches the size of the shader material just to help with quality, rendering and performance, these are the key areas that I will consider when it comes to experimenting with this method and also adding the fog to my section of the horror FPS level.

 

In conclusion, both of these methods and sources provided two varying approaches to adding localised fog to a level in Unreal Engine and I believe that through watching and analysing the research sources that experimentation will be required before I make an indefinite decision as to whether I choose the first or second method. However, I believe that the second method will provide a more detailed fog compared to the first and so I will take the learnings about sphere gradients, exponential fog and volumetric materials and apply this to my level in my group game in order to create a more horror and mysterious atmosphere for the player.

 

Technique 2: Health system in Unreal Engine 5

 

The second Unreal Engine 5 technique that I researched was adding a health system and HUD in Unreal Engine 5 to indicate the health of the player character. Although I have a basic understanding of variables and Widgets, and also have a faint idea of how to go about adding a health system I wanted to research into this technique in order to achieve the correct result in my outcome. I want to include this technique in my horror FPS game because a health system is always present in a game of this type in some form. Also, I want to add a health system to stretch my Unreal Engine knowledge and build a better understanding of using variables and HUD’s to display gameplay elements to the player.

 

The first source I looked at was a video tutorial from YouTube, this source was published by Gorka Games (2022). The tutorial started by giving the basics to using variables and a HUD system. I have previously used both of these features in Unreal before so the theory behind the features did not seem overwhelming for me.The first thing to do when setting up the system is to open up the character blueprint and create a new float called health, this will be used to store the numerical data for the players health, “Open our third person blueprint character and [...] create a new variable [...] called health” Gorka Games (2022). This variable is crucial to the successful running of this health system and I believe that the variable will also play a key role in the HUD system as well because it will probably need to be cross referenced in order to achieve the correct updated health value, I need to remember to include this is my health system because without it, it will not work as intended.

 

After this the source then goes onto say that we need to use an event condition called “Event any damage” (Gorka Games, 2022), this condition only triggers when the player character receives a hit or damage from an outside source such as an AI enemy or a projectile hit, this event is crucial for the health system as it allows the character to trigger the process of subtracting health from the players health bar. The next lines of code are fairly similar to what I have been using in the past and simply involve comparing the variable “health” and subtracting any damage from the player's health that is set at 100 at the start of the level. A branch is then used which triggers the correct line of code depending on the amount of health left, if the players health is less than or equal to zero then the string will print a line of text saying Dead, if the health is still positive the string will display the players updated health value. This is a key line of code as it will ensure the efficiency of the health system and it will allow for the player to see their updated health so they will know when to heal or pick up a recovery item, something that I will be looking to include in my game to add a level of difficulty.

 

After setting out the basic code required for the health system to subtract health and understand when the player has run out of health, Gorka Games then goes onto explain how to set up a HUD widget, this is something that I have previously used however I believe that this source will be able to stretch this knowledge further as I will be looking at adding a health bar that will continually update based on damage. This will help greatly in this project and moving forward because I will be able to understand the HUD system more and I can then utilise the system to display more complex information such as ammo or even a mini-map in future projects. The next step is to “create a user widget” (Gorka Games, 2022), this user widget will allow me to place the health slider within the viewport of the player character and be displayed continuously throughout the level. Once in the widget I must ensure that I add a canvas to the HUD as this will allow me to add any objects to the widget, this canvas is not already placed within the widget so I must ensure that I complete this step in order to successfully add my health slider. On the canvas I then have to add a “progress bar” (Gorka Games, 2022) and position it to the point at which I want it to be displayed so either the bottom corners or the top corners of the widget canvas, after adding the progress bar they then say that I have to use the percentage feature to control the health system display, “In percent is where we are going to control this [...] go here into bind and create a binding” (Gorka Games, 2022). I assume that the binding will create a link between the progress bar and the float that was created to update the health of the player, so the bar updates alongside the health float. 

 

After this, in the binding tab I have to get the player character and then cast the binding to the player character. From the cast function I then have to reference the health variable that was created, I do this by dragging off of the As third person character code and then getting the health variable. Before completing the code and joining all of the nodes together,  Gorka Games (2022) says that I must “to display correctly we have to divide this value [health] by our maximum health which in this case [...] is a hundred”, this is extremely important as this will ensure that the correct value is always displayed to the player. The final steps are to then call the widget at the start of the level and this is done by “get our event begin play [...] drag and create a widget [...] select class and that’s gonna be wphealth, [...] get player controller and the return value just add to viewport” (Gorka Games, 2022), this last line of code is standard when creating and displaying a widget and was not something new that I had learnt from this source, after this the health bar will display on the player's screen and update accordingly to the damage taken.

 

Overall, this source gave a very detailed yet short approach to adding a health system to Unreal Engine 5, I decided to research this technique as I am planning on adding a health system to my horror FPS because this is a very common feature and convention of FPS games and so I want to include this in my project game.

 

The second source that I then looked at after analysing the first, was yet again another YouTube tutorial, this tutorial explained how to add, design and programme an updatable health system widget to display the players health in the HUD system. This source, unlike the first, gave a faster and clearer approach to the health system whilst also using exactly the same theory and code. The source jumped straight into creating a widget, “The first thing we need is a widget blueprint [...] add a canvas panel [...] next add a progress bar to the canvas and anchor it to the bottom left corner of the canvas” (Unreal ART With Alireza, 2022), these steps were exactly the same as the previous source however this source created the widget design first and then added the code and variables instead of starting with the code and then adding a widget. They also mentioned using the percentage option again to update the widget to the correct health value, this is the same as the previous source and this shows me that this is the most efficient way to set up the health bar widget.

 

After, “Event begin play, create a widget, select the health bar widget and then add to viewport” (Unreal ART With Alireza, 2022), this is a more simple way of setting up the viewport code compared to the previous source as I do not have to reference the character or player controller as the code is going directly into the blueprint for the character, as this is also the same code and can now trust that this is the standard way of creating and displaying a HUD widget. After this the source then explains exactly the same method of setting up the health float and variable and then using the any damage function to trigger a branch to subtract health and then divide the health by the maximum to update the health bar. Overall, this source explained the exact same method of setting up a health system and bar in Unreal Engine 5 as the last source and so I believe that it would be a waste of time writing down the same method again.As both sources are near enough the same I will carry out experimentation into both methods and then decide from there as to what method I want to adopt going into development. Overall, this has been an excellent feature to research into and I now believe that I am capable of implementing a health bar and system into my game.

 

Maya / 3D modelling Techniques

 

When it comes to a new technique and method that I wanted to learn and understand to utilise in my 3D modelling I chose to research into using Booleans, from my understanding Booleans can be used to create more complex models without the need to extract edges and faces manually to create holes, dips, curves or inset geometry. I wanted to learn this new technique in order to improve my 3D modelling and Maya knowledge as I will be required to model my own assets in this project and I want to create the most accurate models of this college year so far, to showcase my progress and to also build up my experience with Maya.

 

The first source that I have gathered and used for my research was an article on the help page for Maya Autodesk, this article detailed the Boolean’s functions, how to access the Boolean tool and what types of edits it could make to a face or object. The source began by setting out the basics needed in order to utilise the tools for Boolean operations, it gave three options to open locate and open the tools within Maya, selecting a mesh and then selecting a Boolean operation or opening the shelf or toolkit and then selecting an operation, I feel that using the “select mesh > Booleans and then select a Boolean operation” (Autodesk, 2024), will work best as I am able to carry out this operation without navigating to different toolkits and tabs within the modelling environment. In addition, Autodesk (2024) gave a helpful tip “Assign a hotkey to any Boolean commands to quickly perform a Boolean operation”, now this is extremely useful and I will look into this in my experimentation as I believe that this will help speed up the process of modelling my assets, so I will have more time working on programming mechanics in Unreal Engine as this will take up most of my development time.

 

After this, the article then moves onto explaining the eight different types of Boolean operations each of which create different outcomes and complex shapes. The eight different different types of Booleans are as follows, “Union - fuse objects together, Difference - subtracts the second selected object from the first, [and vice versa], Intersection - Deletes any surface that is not inside another, Slice - Divides the faces on the first selected object […] creating separate shells, Hole Punch, Cut out [and] split edges” (Autodesk, 2024). All eight of these operations all have their own uses and I believe that I can apply these Booleans when it comes to the modelling stage of the development cycle. I will be able to experiment with each of these Boolean operations and utilise them appropriately when it comes to modelling my assets for my group horror FPS game, as I have said before I will be using these Boolean operations when modelling more complex objects for my game such as the weapon the main character will use and also other environmental assets such as kitchen utensils, broken tables, chairs and cabinets.

 

Target audience for horror and FPS games

 

To successfully plan and target my group game to the correct target audience I must first analyse the market and audience that typically play horror and FPS games. The main theme that we are trying to present and utilise within our game is horror and so I have first looked into the target audience for horror games and also the statistical data surrounding age and gender group when it comes to playing horror games. After searching online for professional reports, thesis’s and using previous research from my media GCSE course I have been able to find varying information surrounding the typical audience that play horror games, the first source that I looked at was a thesis analysis report, this thesis broke down the key demographics of horror games and the genre in general and supported their findings with primary research.

 

The report said that out of the UK population “around 32.9 million people” (Weebly, 2024) are said to make up the audience of UK gamers, out of that 32.9 million the source conducted a survey aimed at 4,000 between the ages of 8 to 65, out of this age range Weebly (2024) found that “82%” made up the majority of the UK gamer audience and greater yet “51% [are] male” (Weebly, 2024). In addition another source found that men are more likely than women to play a horror game, “The study found some reliable individual differences in horror video game susceptibility and consumption. Men play more horror video games, and enjoy playing them more, than do women” (Dr Mathias Clarence, 2015) This shows that the majority of gamers in the UK how enjoy horror games are male and so I must ensure that my game is tailored and targeted towards a male audience correctly because they make up a very large percentage of the market, I will do this by including more male oriented features such as violence, dark horror and also a dark tone to the game. In addition to this, it has been found that the typical age range for a game such as Resident Evil that falls into the theme of horror, has a player age range of “14 to 35” (Weebly, 2024). Further supporting this, Dr Mathias Clarence (2015) found “Most of the respondents were 18-24 years old”, this goes to show that this age range are more likely to enjoy and play horror games more than any other age group and so that is why I must ensure that my horror game is targeted towards this age group.

 

This is a large age range for a horror game of this type however, I am able to take from this source that I should target my group game at either a PEGI 16 or PEGI 18 rating, this is due to the fact that these both fall within the age ranges found and also I will be able to better target my audience if my game falls within either PEGI rating. To be able to meet this target audience for horror games I will look at only including content that is suitable for this target audience, so I will ensure that my game includes graphical violence, a scary plot and story and also drug misuse, this will play a key role as the idea that we have generated involves the main character being overdoses on sleeping pills causing him to hallucinate and start seeing monsters.

 

Next I looked at the target audience data for a First Person Shooters, I anticipated that this data would create an overlap with the data from the previous research into the target audience for horror games because from my knowledge I know that the audience for FPS games is mostly made up males aged between 18 and 30, so I will have to see what my research finds and construct my perfect target audience from both research areas. The first source that I found explained how to target a game to the correct audience however, I found a key piece of information that stood out to me, BKOM Studios (2019) says that “a first-person shooter game will most of the time target a demographic of young men between the ages of 15 and 35”, this is interesting because this age range and gender aligns perfectly with that of the horror genre, this further proves that I must meet this demographic as this is where the most of the market is so a perfectly targeted game will help to increase popularity if I was to take this game to market. To support this finding I have researched a second source, this source shows the most up to date statistics for market data in the US, on this site I found that “As of 2024 […] 30% of shooter gamers were 20 to 29 years old” (J.Clement, 2024). In addition, as I have previously stated I must match the needs of my male target audience, so ensuring that the content of the game appeals to a male audience will ensure that I meet the criteria of aiming and meeting the target audience.

 

All of this research into targeted audiences and also my previous research into PEGI ratings has shown me that the overall target audience for an FPS horror game would be males between the ages of 16 to 30, my PEGI research has given me the knowledge to know what I should include in my game in order to target this audience and I will ensure that I include violence and horror theming that creates an appropriate atmosphere and gameplay experience for this target audience.

 

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Dr Mathias Clarence. (2015). How do horror video games work and why do people play them? Available at: https://www.bps.org.uk/research-digest/how-do-horror-video-games-work-and-why-do-people-play-them [Accessed 13th November 2024]

 

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Weebly. (2015). Target Audience and Competitor Analysis Report Available at: https://team-ignition.weebly.com/uploads/1/3/9/7/13970136/target_audience_and_competitor_analysis_report.pdf [Accessed 13th November 2024]