"Bluebeard" Week 6 - William Marshall - Overall Project Fixups

"Bluebeard" - William Marshall

Week 6 - Overall Project Improvement

Intro

Last week, I insisted that I wanted to get back into the swing of my project and begin making some big improvements. This was done to ensure that I made up for the last week where I did less due to illness.

As a result, this week did not have a particular focus. Instead, I added changes as I thought them up, focusing on more general improvements for the entire project.

Main Menu Improvements
I was aware that my Main Menu looked quite bare and barren. As such, I wanted to work more on the background (as I had been putting it off for quite some time). Additionally, in this week's lecture, I was also told by Dan that I could improve my main title by making a new graphic in Photoshop.


Task 1 - Main Title

In Photoshop, I used the INSOMNIA font which I had experimented with before a few weeks ago. Since it was quite bold and looked like it had been attacked by a knife - I decided to write out 'Bluebeard' with the text, before filling in some of the scratches so only the second half of the title would be scratched up.

After this, I used effects on Photoshop (Which were the Gradient and Trim tools) in order to get the black/blue gradient effect, as well as making the blue pop out a little bit.

Once this was completed, I brought it into Unity and replaced my placeholder, where it now stands out compared to the rest of my text.

I feel like this is a good first step to upgrading my main menu, as it is something that the audience is going to notice very quickly once the game begins.


Task 2 - Background Shadows

In order to create shadows for my background, I simply used the circular ellipse tool of varying sizes to make a layered effect. I then changed the opacity for each of the circular layers 

Sticking this into Unity was quite simple and layered quite well with my static effect that I had going on.

Task 3 - Knife & Key

Using a blank template which I found online, I brought some images of a Knife and a Key into Photoshop. I then coloured them appropriately for testing, using only a base colour layer to convey what the material/look was.

The reasoning behind this was to link back to the Bluebeard fable, with the key being used as one of Bluebeard's most prized posessions and the knife which he would stereotypically use to kill the wives that used the key in the wrong place. I wanted to think of images that would make sense to have on my background.

Now my main menu has quite a powerful main image being displayed on the background, instead of it being quite bare and boring.

Level Select Improvements

Task 1 - Title Change

Much like my Main Menu, I decided to change the title in my Level Select so that the Player would know what screen they were on without guessing. I followed the same method as I did for my Main Menu, but chose to make it a little bit brighter so there was a little bit of difference.

Task 2 - Overall Movement

As you can see from the image above, I have also decided to move areas of my Level Select Screen so that I can fit a bit more content in the lower corner. In my 'Task 3 - Planning' section below, I will go into more detail of what this plan will be. 

I want to make certain that my menus aren't too boring and have a little bit of content in them to help them stand out.

Task 3 - Planning

This was the new layout idea which I wanted to present for my Level Select Screen. Whenever a player would place their mouse over one of the buttons in the house, the lower-left area will change to a thumbnail of the level they would go to IF they were to click the button. Keeping with my theme, I would also have some text stating that the player was 'running' somewhere, giving them an objective to escape from Bluebeard himself.

It would fill up the blank space in my Level Select and would be a little unique feature. It was actually inspired by Team Fortress 2's level menu.

Team Fortress 2's menu has a quick snapshot of the level being loaded, as well as a small piece of text saying the name of the map that the player is heading to in a few seconds.

It's a simple way of conveying information to the player in a visual format and a lore-friendly way.


Level One Improvements

Task 1 - Platform (Small & Large)

These are a few quick sketches that I annotated in order to figure out how I wanted my platforms to look. They were taken and adapted from the 2D Platformer references that I found above, with some of them being more 3D than others due to the perspective they had.

I eventually settled on the two in the bottom left corner, as the one with spikes fit the 'evil murderer' vibe that Bluebeard gave off, as well as looking like quite a sturdy platform itself. I then chose the left-most one due to the unique shape it had, as well as the little banner on the front of it.

Using Photoshop, I used the rectangular select tool in order to make platforms that were quite blocky and sturdy-looking, simply using a variety of different colours and shapes to apply highlights/shading where it was necessary.

It was very important for me to keep the overall style/look of the platforms similar to the rest of the level, hence why it is textured in the same way that I textured the walls behind it.

This Platform stood out as I was able to use a colour which wouldn't be a similar shade of orange/brown like the rest of my level was. It managed to break up the monotony and add a little 3D element to my platforms, rather than looking like it was bolted to the background.

Task 2 - Saturation Change

Something that I stated I wanted to do last week was change the saturation of all the assets in my scene to make it less grey and boring. After playing around with some different colours, I managed to make this nice orange/purple combo, which had the additional benefit of making it look like it was night-time outside due to the purple/blue colours.

I'm so happy with this change as I was getting tired of the constant grey colours that were occurring across my entire game, by that point.

These were the modifiers that I used to achieve this result. Which was increasing the Saturation itself to +90 and the lightness down to -15.


Task 3 - Banners

Since I had added Banners to the front of my Platforms, I decided that it would be appropriate for banners to be hung on the walls like a medieval castle. Rubbing out the large Platform left me with the same banner asset. I could then simply place them above the player to make it look like they were hanging from the ceiling.


Task 4 - Enemy Creation

Finally, I decided to do some work on creating character assets for the rest of my game. To start off simply, I was thinking of enemies that my player would come across in Bluebeard's castle. Eventually I settled on the idea of creating ghosts that haunted the hallways (being representations of Bluebeard's dead wives).

In order to think of how my ghost was going to look, I did a few quick sketches which faced sideways in the 2D perspective. I quite liked the look of the one in the middle, as I had the joints of the neck and the legs floating which were quite unique for a ghostly character. The chest/head of my ghost were also very feminine.

Since I didn't want to simply colour in my ghost with white/grey colours (as that would be dull). I decided to make my ghost a sickly green colour. This colour was inspired by the references I gathered in the sketching. I then applied shading/highlights that matched the style of the rest of my game. 

Since I wasn't sure whether I wanted my ghost to have the black outline or not, I decided to create two versions and bring them into Unity. I then instantly decided that the version with the black lines looked more noticeable and clear, so I went with that one.

Plans For Next Week

I will wish to continue with the general improvement of assets/menus in my game. As such, most of my plans will be as follows:

-Enemy Particle Effect

-Background Addition

-Level One Background Pieces

-Main Menu Animation

-Level Select Plan Implementation