The Final Class-Update

This is the culmination of the game I have created for my class project, and as such, I will give a fully comprehensive rundown of the design processes I went through for the creation of this game, going from things like concept, down to the technical methods used. I will start things off with the overall game's concept. Early on, I tried out and enjoyed the mechanical idea of having to get passed escorts to reach a specific target, and I started to build the game around that idea. Some of my inspirations leading into it were things like Assassins Creed, (at least the more original ones, not as much the newer ones), and Splinter Cell. 

Gameplay Loop

Starting off, I'll explain the general gameplay loop. Once you get through the menu, you will be brought into the game, and given instructions on your objective, and what you're able to do. With that information, you can approach the objective however you like while avoiding the guards. Once you are able to take out the target, you will then be invited to return to menu, or play again. A very simple steamlined loop.

Level Update

With this last update, I ended up creating a wholly new play-level that I feel better complements both the intention of my game, and leads to a better feeling gameplay loop while playing. Where originally it was a more rural looking forest and cave, it is now instead a more medieval themed walled town. I felt like it would make more sense in this setting for guards to be patrolling, and a noble that you are targeting to be passing through. It also helps lend into giving more areas and places to utilize more of your abilities, and give alternate routes.

Visual Theme

Visually, I went with a very clear medieval-esk theme. I tried to keep to more older style looking materials and assets for buildings, and tried to avoid too hyper-realistic, opting for a more consistently stylized look. I used models that thematically fit with this as well. I also tried to construct the level itself in a way that looked like a baiey-style sort of castle-town (usually defined by a walled stronghold within a walled section of town).  

Lighting

The lighting in the game is toned down a bit, in order to have strong contrasts between lit and dark areas, making it very clear visually which shadows that you should be able to hide in. It also helped to make the lights pop out more, which is important since I used them to mark out the major routes, as well as a few alternate routes that are less likely to be guarded.

Audio

I setup music in the game so that it would be readily apparent when you've triggered a guard to chase you, as well as when they've given up on finding you. I also added footsteps that will help you listen for guards that you can't visibly see around corners or walls.

VFX

 As far as VFX goes, I kept things quite lite, as I did not want to make the game too intensive to load. Some things I could do with VFX I also found some routes to mimic the behavior through other means, or through post processing. The main visual effect is the player's outline when they are hidden. I really liked how it looked, and the glow doubles as a method to navigate in the stark dark shadows. I feel like it also lends into the more fantasy/medieval sort of theme, as it's like a supernatural ability your character might have while they are in shadows, is to become undetectable.

Post-Processing

As far as Post-Processing goes, I'm not usually a fan of this when it's overdone, and wanted to avoid the classic "Everything is yellow" or "everything is blue" feeling that sometimes happens in games or film. Still, I did warm the temperature, and try to create a sort of late evening almost "Golden Hour" feel, while adding bloom to help the lights pop just a bit more. For a bit of taste, I added the faintest lens-flare, and color abberation. It's always been a bit hard for me to pick up on post-processing, but once you're working on a map, and you have a direct "with" and "without" it's hard not to see the smallest use of it and wonder if it's too much, so I sided with caution and erred on keeping it light.

One effect I did with post-processing, was using stencil depth in order to create a silhouette of the target that can be seen through the walls and buildings of the map. this helps the player keep track of their target even if they break line-of-sight. This also doubles as creating a nice distinct outline around the target while visible, to ensure that the player recognizes them.

Conclusion

One the technical side of things, I feel like I put together everything I worked on in a good setup. The game of course could absolutely use some polishing runs, and there's still thinks I can learn about weird quirks I have ran into along the way, but that's always the story for developers. You never stop learning, and trying to figure out better methods for things. Unreal Engine is certainly quirky, and very popular, so sometimes trying to find information on specific things is difficult, and finding methods for stuff can get you unreliable or less-than optimal methods to do stuff, but I still strive to do new things outside of what I know. 

Thank  you for reading my final-update devlog, and please feel free to try out the game.
If you like, I'm including a video going into more details about the game. The map is still using the old level (you'll just have to try the game to explore the final one), but it does go into a lot of relevant work I did for the final update.