escape room project: early development

project screenshots: mid production demo section 

 

these screenshots are from the room in mid development as you can see this is under detailed as its primarily the bones of the starter room. this is the main structure of the room on which I will create custom assets and materials to add detail to the room, this will give the player a feeling that the environment is lived-in helping to increase the players immersion and desire to continue with the level.

to get to this early stage first I had to grey box the initial room, grey boxing is key so you can make the changes to the bones of the environment before you make too much progress to make those changes at a later time. once I had grey boxed I then added the materials. the materials I chose align closely with the space theme of the game, I heavily leant into metallic materials to carry this industrial sci-fi theming through the environment design, there are other details that I implemented into this early stage of development such as the the widow and the indented shelves and beds that will add depth when I further detail the area.  

  

At the point when these screenshots where taken I had added more finer details to the starting room, this included many of the 3d models that had been made by me, Harrison and Cam, of these models I had created books and a computer screen at this stage his added more detail to the level and challenged me in some ways as these models had custom UVs, this is the first time I had done this, I created these custom textures in photoshop, this allowed me to have creative freedom and make these textures complex and fit in with the design language of the environment, this meant the textures are rough and have a used tactile appearance with display graphics that emulate those seen in 80s sci-fi films. as these films were a primary influence for the level design it was important to carry this over across the project. 

I had created a book model to fill the shelves this added a lived in feeling which is extremely important to have when trying to create an immersive space for the player to enjoy exploring this allows for other gameplay elements to shine even more. I also made some other key additions for the storytelling element such as the signs displaying that a lockdown is in effect, this is a key element to have as the first thing the player must do is break the lockdown by finding a way to unlock the door, having these small details is what keeps the player immersed in the experience.   

I challenged myself by creating multiple 3D objects for this early stage of the development process, a key object that I made early was the modular pipes, having objects like this that you can use universally across your environment is extremely useful as it reduces development time when detailing areas to have objects that you can place anywhere in the level and they will still fit thematically. 

to add a layer of story telling I created a picture frame that held an image of the players fictional family, this humanizes the character, this may make some of the intended decisions you make throughout the more impactful to the player with this small piece of background information. the other objects I created serve their purpose of populating the environment, it is key to have objects to populate the world these will help add interest to the level and immerse the player more, having a populated environment encourages exploration hopefully leading the player where they need to go or where we want them to go.      

Here I am progressing with expanding out from the starting room, the hallways and the cafeteria room have all been created using a modular wall system created by cam, this wall system helped to significantly speed up the construction of the environment allowing for rooms to be built in large segments making the process of putting together the level quicker. I decided early on that I would create the entire level using the modular system then populate the halls and the rooms later on in the development process this meant that I could easily adjust parts of the level as I wanted because the room were empty. I put a lot of thought into how I layed out the level  

client presentation and feedback:

the client came in to observe as we demoed what we had completed of the game in unreal and then we showcased some of the other work that we had done, this was key to present everything to the client as they need to know everything about the product that we are producing for them so they can offer feedback for us to implement.    

the client offered feedback on some of the story elements of the game, they suggested that we cut down the amount of endings that we had, they also suggested some ideas for endings that included some morally better endings, we have carried these suggestions over and reduced the endings to mainly help reduce the development time. this would also make the game more linear which I feel is more appropriate for such a condensed experience, however there is an argument that can be made in favor of having multiple endings and choices for the players, this would create a far more immersive experience for the player and it would better emulate the real life experience of partaking in an escape room. overall the client presentation was successful as we received positive feedback on what we showcased to the client and we received some critical feedback that we have taken onboard and we have implemented some of these ideas into the game.