My Final Video

As the MA comes to a close, I started with my team hoping to make something fun, exciting and following the flow of a released game. we wanted a couple weapons, a short game  of around 15  minutes that we could play together. what we finished with was a 60-minute mash-up of intense shooting within a fully interactive virtual world on par with any released games I have played.

here is a link to a shorter video showing the game off. due to low-quality videos from the systems during 4 player playtests, I haven't included that into this video. i am still wanting to progress this project further and I will create a full 4 player trailer with my team after the MA is finished.

Nick Orchard Final MA Third Semester Video

https://youtu.be/w5zFx1awXEs

Creating a Development Video

As the MA rounds up, i have created a video from all of the recordings I and the team have made to show off things that haven't been included in the final video.

this can be found here: https://youtu.be/nfZQ8SjGGwQ

Video Talking about my Project, the mechanics. our Team, Communication and other things

so the video explains itself, it is around 30-40 minutes covering a range of things in one place

https://youtu.be/jR7wXmqrQV8

Working With Fiverr

So one of my Team members. Simon Ashcroft introduced me to a Mobile App called "Fiverr"

It is an app that works as a third party between freelancers and the public looking for jobs to be completed...all I have done is created 2 "gigs"(Jobs) that I can do and a set price, then people contact me(nearly Daily) for work, if I was intreated....some of them are odd or have ridiculous requests but they can be seen a mile off "can you make second life for me, $100 budget"...that being said, I have completed 1 job for $170, took around 4 hours work.

I have started another job working with a team in America to help turn there game multiplayer :
https://store.steampowered.com/app/957800/XONG_VR/
This is a link to the current projects steam page.

This is a link to my Fiverr account, currently created completely on my phone: https://www.fiverr.com/nickorchard941?up_rollout=true

I have been telling a lot of other students or friends about this service.

Semester 3. May till Sept 2019

Ok, so I haven't written a blog post in a couple months so I figured I would write a follow up on what I have been doing for my third semester.

I began with the project I had created for the second semester and found many of the other students were interested in wanting to playtest or be involved in the project. i ended up with a team of 7-11 people as time progressed, many enjoyed the thought of helping out but when it came to doing the work...that was slightly different. the team is as follows :

Myself: Lead Designer / Lead Blueprinting / Project Manager
Lukas Kyc: Level Design / World Building / 3D Art Lead
Adam Kay: VFX / Zbrush Sculpting / Organic Modeling
Simon Ashcroft: Level Mechanics/Blueprints
Alex Keates: Character Artist
Ryan Colburn: Sound Design / SFX / Audio (currently studying his MA in music production for SFX and Audio Design)
Rebbecca Robinson: 3D Animation (Just finished her Degree in Animation)
Jacob Simpson: 2D Level Design
Dan Butler: Small asset creation
Louis Fray: 3D Character Concepts

We meet every Wednesday / Friday at 11am till we had finished discussion of what each member had been doing and what direction the project was heading.

There was a number of other students that joined the team but after "X" amount of time, they still hadn't produced any work so they are not on this list but can be found on the Information Sheet I created to keep track of all the work

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1igHlf7L1XgoGz5-ecaUj5c7Ao2mVqyhozgHxYm1NM84/edit#gid=1858356761

I created an  ICD (initial concept document) :

https://docs.google.com/document/d/17BtCybPX_0H2s8uWAMMZYzWUSt4UQQM3BGNFLU3e6yU/edit

Overview of the Project for any outside interest :
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1EvKoSJumWE83uF3GOjoiQq3u85Cy-A5hwb2lUCrYy14/edit

Breakdown of the Biodome Level :

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1DWBjZeePKRu43V3JnbFjP92fJ0n9CyF7cROUnqPdoCU/edit

Full Audio List:

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1dOuuA4nn4jbHCG58_JDMpbIca9zTa0j1y1Rxbs49mMY/edit

Full level Script :

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1F1syZtVBhk_shL2MOCFtYXpHp9cgilq-TsOvjRdA3NM/edit


we have around 20 Videos from the playtests because each test was around 40-60 minutes, they became quite a job to get them on youtube(4 hour wait times) but I did submit a couple here :

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC2_y9qgNZNeVX_QpG3awsAQ

we have full 4 player replication working across Steam. with a genuinely fun game to play. I am very proud of my team members and i know they will go far within the industry.

I will follow up with a fully edited video from the final project over the next week or so.

Kraft Heinz took me to Holland!

ok, so I have just gotten back from an amazing experience brought on from my 3rd-year work, I created a virtual reality factory to help factory employees evaluate risk management while working and they wanted me to travel to Holland to the Kraft Heinz Research and Development Centre in Nijmegen  to show it off to a room of 25 Operational Risk Managers from across Europe, while having a room set up for the duration of the event for anyone else to come in and try out this experience.

No expenses spared!. Stayed at a 5-star hotel, all meals and accommodation paid for and to top it off, I felt very much part of the team while I was away.

The feedback from my presentation and from people trying this experience was mixed, though great. many had a great time trying VR and trying to complete the tasks in the software but when i came down to discussion, what was the cost of having every employee using this training over the time spent in other areas of health/safety.

The whole week these operation risk managers were away, it was for discussion. i may or may not be contacted by Steve or Kraftheinz again but i was very grateful for the experience.

End of Semester Learning Agreement

 Here is a my learning agreement for thew end of second semester.

Overview of Semester 2

I started this semester with an slight understanding of replication and Virtual reality games, i wanted to start to create a full multiplayer VR experience, I found a number of hurls to overcome as i went, like the fact I need to repackage my project every time i wish to play test, i also need to have access to 2 VR headsets, 2 good enough computers that can run them and then allow access through the firewall from administrator passwords.

I have spoken to a number of professionals about my work and getting a better grip with talking to industry, i spoke to Pete Bottomley about his journey from Uclan to owning White Paper Games.

here is a link to my questions : https://docs.google.com/document/d/1V4-LJfnHKcrw5tw1pVDtpPiiG4yOeW_EpgalZh_D-a8/edit?usp=sharing



I have reconnected with my Live brief client from Kraft Heinz who i created a VR game for during my Degree. we are travelling to Amsterdam on the 20th of May to showcase this work to the CEO's of Kraft Heinz with the hope of continuing my work after i have completed my MA.

I have gathered a team of 9 students who who wish to continue to progress my project to make vertical slice of my coop game, we have had 10 meetings from idea generation to interviewing potential others. we shall be applying for various grants and funding currently available such as the Epic Games Mega grants.


This shall be my focus for 3rd Semester.

Final Multiplayer Play through of the Cooperative Multiplayer Game Mode

as i come to the end of the second semester, here is my final run through of the round based game-mode i created on a development map, mainly to try new blueprints, explore replication and new ideas.

So this is one of the most recent videos of playing multiplayer coop with Adam Kay, a fellow student at Uclan  : https://youtu.be/NsRvBbN2OFw

I am happy with the results so far, i have a basic understanding of replication for multiplayer games and i hope to continue on with this project through into my 3rd semester.

PVP Multiplayer modes.

Over Easter i had the idea to create some different game modes, while i was developing the map and modes, i found a number of difficulties that come with introducing a new game modes.

I was required to create a near similar player controller, game state, player state and character that would operate differently depending on mode this made me have to create new weapons and interactions for the new player.

Here is a quick video of changing settings for joining Multiplayer Modes.

This shows team settings options for the Host

https://youtu.be/qeXTrHepDbg

I will continue with this over the next few weeks as the Kills and Flags aren't being counted on a multiplayer match.

I have test played this 6 times but without the game state changes, I do not wish to show the videos

I also wish to implement a lobby area above the map for round or game changes.

MA 2nd Semester Paper

I have been briefed as part of my MA design with a 2500 word assignment on Networking with industry designers and attending lectures from guests from different areas of design to understand who to take their workflow to help my understanding of mine.

Networking with industry designers was very enjoyable and I have learned a lot of information from them, trying to get an understanding of how ceramics, pattern and textiles or interior design could affect my workflow when creating virtual reality multiplayer games were a struggle and felt very unmotivated to speak about.


Google Drive Link :  https://docs.google.com/document/d/1tWZyTbI4AQUV5K-nRmOLlaZY9gKOcV4d8SVWIWelLZ0/edit?usp=sharing


I have completed this paper now and I can back on with my work.

Easter Break

Over Easter, I have been working on making a PVP multiplayer map to explore a greater understanding of multiplayer games, I want to make create multiple modes running from the same map.

I will try creating :

Team Deathmatch - first team to X kills

Capture the Flag - First team to capture X Flags

Timed - Most kills within the time limit

Survival - Each player per team has 1 life per round.


I this will help me explore the use of different game modes within UE4 loading from an external Hud Menu.

Creating a Battle Mech

I wanted to play with the idea of having a Mech within the game. maybe for a boss battle or a horde event.

I also wanted to see how difficult it would be


I got the mesh from sketchfab.com
went into Maya and separated the mesh


This is around 2 hours in :   https://youtu.be/9sXyq3TTny8



Then this is the end of the day : https://youtu.be/ZhU21Dre6Vk

I want to have some people test play as it seems quite overpowered.

I will look at replication and multiplayer to allow all players inside.

Gun Run Arena

Had a number of Playtests and feedback from players

This was mainly to see how other people would use weapons and felt about motion controls and an enjoyable way for testing weapon mechanics

I will create premade feedback forms... "that was great and loads of fun" doesn't help me much.


Link to check out one of my playthroughs: https://youtu.be/3R4pMPY8htA

15th of March

I spend all my time working on perfecting my mechanics and increasing content for immersing Virtual Reality users.

Over the last 4 weeks, I have achieved so much. I have 90% of my blueprints replicated to work in a multiplayer, new mechanics have slotted in nicely.


I have created a video to show the weapon mechanics current in the game. Par a bolt action sniper as it has just fallen apart while I was setting up some replication earlier hahaha.

Meshes that are being used are placeholders found on Sketchfab.com

https://youtu.be/BnJg6kyItsc


Multiplayer is coming along nicely. It just has a slight increase with the difficulty of recording content then editing them. I will have a showcase video compiled soon.

Here is a Singleplayer play through I created, for now, some co-op mechanics are edited on here and I have given my player a boosted 10,000 points to make recording a video quicker.

https://youtu.be/a0gFzCV-2P0

Meshes are from Kitbash Scifi pack bought from the epic games marketplace.


Over the last month, I have been asked by other members of the Games Design BA to help progress this project onto the steam and Vive marketplaces.

I will be leading the team. the team will be around 10 members in size


 This is the Initial Concept document I have emailed to the Head of Animation at Uclan in regards to finding an Animator/Character Rigger.

https://docs.google.com/document/d/17BtCybPX_0H2s8uWAMMZYzWUSt4UQQM3BGNFLU3e6yU/edit?usp=sharing


This is the Narrative Ideas for a Story driven game to incorporate the Mechanics and cooperative gameplay.

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1EvKoSJumWE83uF3GOjoiQq3u85Cy-A5hwb2lUCrYy14/edit?usp=sharing

As a team, we have been creating Paper level designs, we meet, 1 person will draw on the Wacom. as i am the leader of the project I am talking through each level saying, "ok, we are in X location, what does it look like, what are we there for, how long will this section of the game last? what weapons will we have? how will we progress"

Week 17 - Creating Mechanics

Over this last week, I have been wanting to perfect the weapon mechanics before creating level-based gameplay, although I have created some, all include replication for shooting within multiplayer.

Weapon Mechanics

  Colt - 1911 Handgun - single fire


  Gs9 handgun - fully auto pistol


  Ak47 - new model added, fully auto shoot mechanics


  ACR - Single shot rifle


  Single barrel pump action Shotgun


  Barrett 50cal Sniper with working Scope.

Gameplay mechanics

  Manually operated doors


  Generators, fuses and turning the power on

  Buying Access to new areas from points gained from killed enemy monsters

Weeks 15 - 16

Now I have managed to get a connection across steam for any players to join my game and managed to have a test of multiplayer VR through a packaged version of my game I can start to create gameplayer.

I have researched through youtube different virtual shooter games, both single and multiplayer, I have found how I want my weapons to reload in the VR shooter. I am going to stick with my AK47 reload mechanic with a need to Load the bullet into a chamber each new magazine providing there wasn't one from the previous Mag, as realistic as possible.

I will start with making a Pistol Base that single fires and takes mags in the lower end of the gun, an assault rifle, a single barrel shotgun and a bolt action sniper with a scope before moving onto more heavy weapons or special types of these guns.

I want to create a story to my game, but not like a story-driven game, more of a gun and run type, find something, move on, kill anything in the way....the realistic reload mechanics are a great foundation for gameplay to begin.

I have started using a Kitbash Asset pack from the Unreal Marketplace to better display my work, along with some realistic gun models from Sketchfab I have been using.

As I am wanting to move this project onto the VR Marketplaces eventually, I will begin to make a team from other students within the university.

I have for my Current Team

Simon Ashcroft - Game Design
Lukas Kyc - Level Design
Adam Kay - VFX / Animation
Ryan Colburn - Sound Design
----- Animation / Rigger
-----Character Artist

I will run as project lead and create the storyline, gameplay mechanics, network connections and help with any other blueprints created for this project but i am hoping to run this with an indie studio mentality and work ethic.

Semester 1 Recap

Here is a recap of my flow over the first semester of my MA as I have been designing and developing none stop since the beginning, created 3 working Virtual reality design concepts and 2 replication projects that, technically are far more advanced than many of peers yet I was only given a 52/100 overall.

Start of my MA: Created a fully working singleplayer Virtual reality racing game in 1 week, created the vehicle mechanics, load and save lap and race times, gained 10+ playtests from other students and feedback for my next project. This was a "quick and dirty brief" to show something "cool" to my lecturers. I was using this project to get back into UE4 after the summer and I am proud I managed to get it working in such a short period.

During my playtests many of the users had been ignoring the races to explore around the map in the car, going up and down the hills and asking for ramps to play on. This gave me my next project idea "Mars Rover"

I then spent 3 weeks designing another Virtual Reality game which looked at exploring the solidarity of being inside VR and if that was directly affecting games which people choose to buy and play.

For this game, I created a mars-like level, very barren and blank, I changed the racing car to a Nasa Mars Rover and implemented a game concept where the player had to rebuild his Spaceship from parts found around the map, I made an "anti-gravity Gun" similar mechanics to the one from half life but more interaction from the user, they must hold with one hand then pull the lever with the other, these parts could be attached to the Mars Rover, Driven back to the spaceship building Site, then Attached.

Once I had created the mechanics, the Mars rover was driving smooth and the game was completable, I found during playtests, many players were getting bored of finding the parts asking for more "things to do". I then did spend the next week implementing Space mining and a mechanic for growing vegetation.

I did start to feel frustrated that even though there was gameplay, it didn't feel good enough for either of my games.... I needed to go down a Multiplayer Route. through looking at whats genuinely making money in VR are multiplayer Arcades, Experiences, and Multiplayer games through Steam or Vive Store.

I used the next week to try to mash what I already had of Mars rover, my then, none-existant knowledge of multiplayer in UE4 and 2 HTC Vives. through trial and error in this project, I now know how I can get my games working but at this time, I failed to get mars rover working multiplayer, as play in editor does not allow traveling to maps and you can only play in VR in play in editor or packaged games and I had a lot of errors when I came to packaging due to upgrading the engine version during the project.

I had, however, managed to get it to work using my First-person character to join the game world from a separate PC but when my second player joined, many of the Events he did wasn't "replicated".

Replication is a way of ensuring all commands are run through the games server rather than from each player. this can stop hacking or cheating but also notifies every other player of an action

Player 2 shoots gun > Tell server > Server tells everyone.

I did not know any of this then. I spent about a month learning about how replication works, what it is for and how to implement it in my Projects.

I did this over Christmas when I had no access to a second Vive or PC to test so I Began to create my first project on replication. PVP Tower Defence for Mobile. this came out fantastically well for what I needed to learn.

Both players Can host, find or join from a Mobile in the same Wifi router. send units, build towers, upgrade towers, lose lives, restart, end and Leave games. I also made it completely optimized for inputting any new Tower Classes in just a few clicks.

It's easy to write in a couple lines what I achieved but that doesn't show the days of having nothing or many things not working how I wanted them too.

I also made a multiplayer Drone racing game for mobile devices that followed replication and using similar mechanics to the VR racing Game.

I have found through my first semester. Solitary in VR is not the way to go at all. it would be like living on Earth, Singleplayer.

All of this was so when I came to make my Semester 2 project "Multiplayer VR shooter" I can hit the floor running with Replicating events, multiplayer hosting, and network connections so my worry can be about implementing immersive gameplay for the users.

Global Games Jam

This year again, I entered the Global Games Jam to try to challenge myself. not only blueprinting wise but with team management. every game jam I have don't for or at UCLAN, I have been a team leader. I do enjoy it and I help better my skills.

this time, we made something awesome. packaged and in on time!! takes a few years practice haha

Here is a Direct link to the Game on the Global Games Jam website :

https://globalgamejam.org/2019/games/homester

Here is quick gameplay of our finished game: https://youtu.be/YRDmQVMN0bc

I am still trying to get my VR shooter game to allow all of my players to server travel into the next Map. I don't think it will be too hard, many naff steam games have multiplayer working.

Drone Flying Game

last year, another student created a drone racing game for PC, I wanted to see how it would work on Mobile and how difficult it would be for me to create.

This is a quick development that I did over 2 days. -   https://youtu.be/98XT3m-vPfA

when I launched to mobile, the AI stopped working so that is something I would need to look at.

I created this for a bit of fun.

Week 13 - Finishing of my Research into Replication

What I have been doing the Past week is looking into getting Servers and Clients to talk through the use of blueprints, I have set up a Player versus Player Tower Defence Game Mode that the user is able to Host, Find and Join sessions within a Local Wifi game.

Achievements over this week -

Building Towers for player 1 and they can be seen in player 2's game.
https://youtu.be/4Z4xvvspYLs

Building towers in Client to be seen by the Server :
https://youtu.be/U6ws0IH8NIo


Sending Units from Each player
Stage 1  - https://youtu.be/DmpvIJyEV4E
Stage 2 - https://youtu.be/XDkALR9Kh-g


Joining a Local Game through Wifi on PC

Optimized the blueprints for easy access to adding countless types of towers with different effects, damage, and ranges.
Upgrading individual towers, Structure data for Units, Towers and Projectiles.


Here is a Link to me showing the controls on my Mobile: https://youtu.be/uivsYfhpXVA


Here is a link to playing 2 players on PC: https://youtu.be/ArTukAktEOs



I want to look into joining games from mobile to mobile this next week

Week 14 - VR Shooter Design

From what I have seen over the last few weeks on the Steam market, many indie studios are masking a mark on the Marketplace with VR shooter games. I wanted to look into creating my own.


Made an AK47 reload mechanic for Virtual Reality: https://youtu.be/GpqOT8RCz6U

Here's another link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vUtBIMn9Hac

also got full body meshes with moveable hands working in VR  : https://youtu.be/LmHCfvbW5bU



I have some AI Spawners and pathfinding AI.

managed to get a basic zombie shooter game running

I wanted to look with this multiplayer project to include the use of Advanced Sessions and SteamWorks Plugins to allow easier access to connecting my games through steam. I am still in the course of implementing these plugins.

Joining Lobby through Steam Servers : https://youtu.be/FWS6kk8YgYA

I have now tested through these plugins to get 3 players into my game world Lobby,  with their steam names and players with replicated movement, Health, and shooting. we are able to join the game map but all players are frozen at world 0,0,0 without a Player controller. this is great progress and the players can atlest get inside the correct game

VR Twisty Grenades :  https://youtu.be/KWqw5G9BvgE

Week 12 - Christmas - PVP tower Defence Game

What I have been doing?:

I decided to not take a Break over Christmas for developing my ideas, instead, I have started to create a Player Vs Player Tower defense Game to better understand multiplayer replication and Server/Client relationships.

What I am hoping to achieve is to get 2 phones connecting through local wifi into the same game world.

The theory and practice of replication within UE4 are the same regardless of creating 2 Virtual reality games or 2 mobile phone games. I just have easier access to 2 mobile phones than 2 Vive headsets and 2 PC's over Christmas.

The Development of the Game was a enjoy over time, once I managed to set the grid in place with hex tiles without getting any out of line (I did originally consider making a grid creator but I wanted to leave that till after I had a game going) i wanted to create the path that the Units each player would send would actually travel down. I created 1 spawn grid tile and 1 end grid tile. I then set up a line trace to create a spline that would go from one to the other, I was able to create the Units from a Button Click on the HUD and move along the spline using a navigation volume, but the spline wasn't able to be moved by blocking towers. i had to create a system that makes a line down from the spline checks for the closest grid square, makes an actor, then makes another spline along the actors to give a great navigation pathing, just took a few days to figure out.

i want each of the players to be able to send units and Build towers that can be seen from the Other player next and i will spend the next few days getting that going, here are some links to me progressing with the spline that makes a spline.


Stage 1 : https://youtu.be/Uo5_6hPZB7c
Stage 2 : https://youtu.be/I_J1DaFAOcQ
Stage 3 : https://youtu.be/mH_pnosfcbY
Stage 4 : https://youtu.be/zxR7re8Xu8Y

Learning about 2 player Replication : https://youtu.be/FZXr3QeYVZk

Week 8-11 Written Assignment

What I have been doing?:

Over the past 3 weeks, I have been trying to gather the motivation to write my assignment on understanding the future of VR games...

The paper was on the future of Virtual reality and development for players but really, the main focus is where is the money coming from and what are the small market of current consumers going to want that I can make before the Virtual market really starts to kick off. Angry birds is not the best game on mobile. it was just one of the first.

I learned from Media, Indie development teams, business insiders and of the new surge of investment for "virtual Arcades or experiences" across the globe. I do feel my MA focus is the correct direction.

the paper now completed and handed in, I feel I have spent as much time writing as I have designing games over the last 2 months and with no other written assignments before, during the degree, it took longer than expected to write.

I do now look forward to getting back into Unreal and starting a new project.

I really want to start looking at how to get a project running through Local Wifi connection then get stuck into the Problems.

Creating Mars Rover showed me Virtual Reality is all about playing with people, regardless of how difficult it is to get 2 vives in the same place at the same time.


What will I be Doing Next? :

Taking a week or 2 breaks from work and trying to get some development time for new ideas and get round to recording my videos from MarsRover