Major Project 1
3.2.2025 - 23.3.2025 || Week 1 - Week 7
ReflectionTask 1 : Proposal Development
During the first week of the group creation, I didn't meet my group members yet as they didn't come, so I had to make a group chat without really knowing them but I proceeded anyways. Week 1 was pretty rough as not much work got done, but after meeting them in week 2, the discussion started flowing in. Our output was definitely lacking in terms of sketches but I hope we will produce more in the coming weeks.
Yong Zhen Xing || 0359473
Major Project 1 || Bachelor of Design (Honours) in Creative Media / Taylor's University
Contents
1. Instructions
Major Project 1 || Bachelor of Design (Honours) in Creative Media / Taylor's University
Contents
1. Instructions
2. Feedback
3. Reflection
Task 1 - Proposal Development
In the first task we needed to create a concept on what we wanted to do as our final year project and essentially continue developing through the entire semester. The outcome is for us as a group to decided and it has to based on our specialization.
fig 1.4, miro Board - Week 2 [Environment Reference] (17/2/2025)
fig 2.1, Apartment Layout (18/2/2025)
fig 2.2, miro Board - Week 2 [Art style References] (16/2/2025)
fig 2.4, miro Board - Week 2 [Sketches] (18/2/2025)
Here are the character sketches that we came up with right before the proposal deadline.
Final Outcome :
Task 2 : Design Proposition
fig 4.3, Environment (Interior) Reference (2/3/2025)
fig 4.4, Environment Sketch 2 (2/3/2025)
Week 5
fig 5.3, Weapon Sketch 2 (8/3/2025)
fig 5.4, Level Layout and Environment Reference (11/3/2025)
fig 5.5, Level Idea/Concept (12/3/2025)
fig 5.6, miro Board - Week 5 (12/3/2025)
fig 6.1, Level Layout and Environment Reference (13/3/2025)
fig 6.2, Weapon Design 1 [Spirit Book] (16/3/2025)
fig 6.3, Weapon Design 2 [Coin Crossbow] (16/3/2025)
fig 6.4, Weapon Design 3 [Ancient Spear & Coin Sword] (16/3/2025)
fig 6.6, 2D Environment Design 1 [The Apartment] (18/3/2025)
fig 6.7, 2D Environment Design 2 [The Street] (17/3/2025)
fig 6.8, miro Board - Week 6/7 (12/3/2025)
FeedbackWeek 2 :
The idea is there but still needs more to it. We should focus on narrowing our idea before only sketching out the concept. Since we're doing animation, we should focus on studying different animation style so that can decide which one we want to go for.
Week 3 :
We needed more character sketches as our current one is too less. We should also change the story to something more action-packed as our current one is too emotional. We also should experiment with more variety in characters because our current line up is too less. The more sketches that we have, the more we can narrow down the art style. Don't focus too much on story for now as that is something that can be adjusted as we progress.
3. Reflection
Instructions
Task 1 - Proposal Development
In the first task we needed to create a concept on what we wanted to do as our final year project and essentially continue developing through the entire semester. The outcome is for us as a group to decided and it has to based on our specialization.
Week 1
Firstly, I had to contact my group members and discuss on what we plan on doing. I kickstart the discussion by suggesting on doing a simple and short game following the story below.
Story (Rough Idea) :
A father has lost both the mother and daughter to a tragic accident. One night when coming back from the office. He started to see hallucinations in his house (double-storey and it's next to a small cliff). So in that 5 minutes of gameplay he walks around his house doing his normal routine and he starts reimagining his daughter and wife walking around as if they were still there with him. Feeling tired, he walks up the stairs about to go to bed when he looks at a mirror. A reflection with him together with his wife and daughter. Feeling angry he smashed the mirror and stares out the open balcony. "I am so sorry. I am finally joining you up there my love". He jumps off the balcony and there is where the game cuts. Final cutscene would just be showing how the wife and daughter died which would be him losing control of his vehicle when driving, but he himself only managed to survive.
A father has lost both the mother and daughter to a tragic accident. One night when coming back from the office. He started to see hallucinations in his house (double-storey and it's next to a small cliff). So in that 5 minutes of gameplay he walks around his house doing his normal routine and he starts reimagining his daughter and wife walking around as if they were still there with him. Feeling tired, he walks up the stairs about to go to bed when he looks at a mirror. A reflection with him together with his wife and daughter. Feeling angry he smashed the mirror and stares out the open balcony. "I am so sorry. I am finally joining you up there my love". He jumps off the balcony and there is where the game cuts. Final cutscene would just be showing how the wife and daughter died which would be him losing control of his vehicle when driving, but he himself only managed to survive.
After discussion, we have decided to take the idea of the story and make it into an animation instead. While creating a game could be quite interesting, we all agree that it could be quite difficult and demanding since we needed to learn coding and that itself can be extremely difficult.
Creating a miro board :
So then I created a miro board so that we all put in and share our references and ideas.
fig 1.1, miro Board - Week 1 (11/2/2025)
As a way to warm up in week 1, I also did a rough environment sketch. This is showcasing the environment that the story will be taking place in.
Week 2
After the feedback session, I worked on a more detailed version on the synopsis. I also made sure to ask opinions from my members as well. The red text in the document below shows the addition/changes in each versions.
fig 1.3, Detailed Synopsis (15/2/2025)
As the story ends with a tragic ending, our initial plan of making it a double-storey house also didn't make sense. So after discussing, we opted for a more realistic approach by going for an apartment styled environment. To match our scary theme, we also decided to use Kowloon Walled City as our reference as it had a cramped and ominous looking atmosphere.
To better visualize how the scenes would be, I decide to make a floor plan for the apartment. This would better help my group members how the sequence of events will occur. Since it is supposed to be like a run-down apartment, I made sure that the space was small enough to look like it.
Next, we discussed on the art style that we want to aim for. We narrow it down to 3 animation that looks visually interesting and well executed. The 3 animations that we chose are, "Best Friend", "Tellervo" and "CAPSTONE". We decided to take "Best Friend' as the main style with idea/reference from "Tellervo" and "CAPSTONE".
fig 2.3, miro Board - Week 2 [Selected Art style References] (18/2/2025)
Here are the sketches that my group came up with in week 2.
Week 3
After the feedback session, we worked on doing more character sketches following our story. I decided to sketch on the father, the mother and the protagonist's co-worker. Because of how the tight the first submission time was, I didn't had time to sketch the daughter but this would be further expanded in task 2.
fig 3.1, Character Sketches(24/2/2025)
fig 3.2, miro Board - Week 3 [Sketches] (24/2/2025)
fig 3.3, Final Proposal Development (24/2/2025)
In task 2, we now need to continue developing on the idea and expanding it. In this task, we also need to do more technical things this time around such as managing production workflows, exploring innovative design and justifying its creative and technical decisions using industry references.
Week 4
After the presentation and feedback, we needed to reconsider our direction of our project as we didn't really have anything solid yet. We have a mention in the group about possibly going for a game, but we didn't really did any further discussions. Due to the lack of communication between me and my groupmates, our week 4 progress was a mess. We only did what we thought was important at the time and we all had the idea of still going for our old idea.
Since we lacked environment design, I worked on doing that. Below are the moodboard and sketches I did.
fig 4.1, Environment (Exterior) Reference (1/3/2025)
fig 4.2, Environment Sketch 1 (1/3/2025)
For the sketch above, I wanted to capture the feeling of the exterior of Kowloon Walled City. So in the sketch, I made it looked very run down with dirt, wear and wire hanging on the ceiling. This could be used as a scene when the protagonist enters his apartment.
Following from the last sketch, this is now the interior of the apartment following the previously made apartment layout. For this, I references a lot of old and vintage Chinese houses to capture that feeling, ranging from old furniture to the wooden floorboard.
Changing our idea :
Late into the week, we had a discussion where we finally planned on what we're going to do. We decided to do a 2D styled horror game where the player/protagonist has to fight spirits to advanced to different levels. Some parts of this idea is related to our task 1 as we didn't want to completely throw out weeks of ideas.
Late into the week, we had a discussion where we finally planned on what we're going to do. We decided to do a 2D styled horror game where the player/protagonist has to fight spirits to advanced to different levels. Some parts of this idea is related to our task 1 as we didn't want to completely throw out weeks of ideas.
Below shows our board progress for week 4.
After the feedback session, it seems that we finally had a good enough concept to work on! After a further discussion with my groupmates, we split on what we did and I decided to experiment with different weapons for the game. The moodboard below shows some of the possible weapons that we discussed as a team that could possible fit our game style. With that, I then experimented with the weapons.
fig 5.1, Weapon Reference (7/3/2025)
Below shows some of the weapons I sketched with its own icons that would be used as a indicator in the UI design.
fig 5.2, Weapon Sketch 1 (7/3/2025)
I also decided to sketch a rough idea of how the game would look like in a 2D form, so I took some environment references from Kowloon Walled city and also look through the level designs of games. For a simple showcase, I decided to draw the protagonist jumping from one side of an apartment to another.
Below shows our board progress for week 5.
Week 6
After receiving feedback, we then had another discussion together, finalizing important elements such as game name, protagonist name, weapons and story. Since it was also submission week, we had to rush quite a lot of things. We split our work and begin working on our own parts.
Since our game needed a simple storyline, I started off with a simple starting and expand it from there. I tried to make the story as short and straight to the point as possible. We also needed to be realistic on how much we can do in a game so below how the game will play out and the story of the game.
Gameplay Idea :
The gameplay in its shortest form is just a 4 stage level where you unlock new weapons after each boss that you can use throughout the game. From the start, you will need to recapture all the spirts that you released by using special weapons. This will then lead up to the final boss fight where you need to utilize every weapon you have unlocked to capture it and free all the spirits.
Gameplay Idea :
The gameplay in its shortest form is just a 4 stage level where you unlock new weapons after each boss that you can use throughout the game. From the start, you will need to recapture all the spirts that you released by using special weapons. This will then lead up to the final boss fight where you need to utilize every weapon you have unlocked to capture it and free all the spirits.
Story :
Protagonist finds a book that had a locked on it, he also had the key for it and decides to read it. After opening the book. It releases all the pages from the book where it flew away and turned into spirits. He decides to go find all the pages back by killing them through reading the last remaining page on the book which attacks them. Killing enemy turns them into a sheet of paper where he puts back into the book. Through platforming and killing enemies in the apartment he drops the book where he has to find it. It is in the city street however only the pages remain and the book cover was gone, turns out it was stolen by a spirit and he has to chase after it through the sewers. After getting the cover of the book back, he puts all the pages back and finds himself on a bridge, where it collapse and he goes to the underworld/hell. Where he fought the boss. Then he burns the book as a sign of releasing the spirits to heaven and for peace.
For my part, I needed to create the 4 weapons that will be used for the game. After discussion, we have decided on a book, a crossbow, a spear and what is called a "coin-sword" (A type of Chinese numismatic charms to ward off evil spirits). So I went to look for some references and gather ideas on what type of weapon to make.
For the "Spirit Book" I went for a book with a lock as these spirits could be classified as cursed knowledge. Keeping the book locked can be a way to show that is something that shouldn't be open for a reason.
The crossbow design is a simple crossbow design that shoots coins instead of an arrow. The reason that a coin was chosen is related with the coin-sword and that is the fact that the type of coin used, Yansheng Coins, is a type Chinese numismatic charms.
As for the spear, it was inspired by Chinese spear that once was used in wars. The back of the spear looks like fish that symbolizes fortune and good luck for the wielder. The coin sword design has been readjusted to a smaller form factor that acts like a trinket. The way this item would work is, the protagonist would always carry it and can protect himself from enemies.
Next, I was tasked to also work on environment design. For this part, I explored on the 5 different environment that the game will have which are the apartment, streets, sewer, bridge and hell. Unfortunately, I ran out of time in the end, so I only ended up making 2 environments out of 5.
fig 6.5, Environment References (16/3/2025)
For the first environment, it is the apartment of the protagonist and where it all started. I followed a vintage Chinese apartments and house interiors and tried to capture it. To do that I drew old-looking furnitures, maintain a close and cramped space, and gave it a worn down look to it.
For the other environment design, I decided to draw the street as this would be used as a test background in Unity. To capture the feeling of Kowloon Walled City, I made the buildings tall, and close to each other with cages styled balcony. I also added what I noticed when studying the environment and that is having a lot of wires hanging everywhere. The windows of the buildings are also inspired by the buildings of Kowloon Walled city.
Below shows our board progress for week 6/7.
Final Outcome :
fig 6.9, Final Design Proposition (18/3/2025)
Task 3 : Concept Presentation
In the last task, we needed to prepare and present the slide compiling the work that we have done in task 1 and how it has evolved in task 2. It should showcase software testing as well as all of our final designs.
Since this task is mostly just a compilation and readjustment of the slides from task 2, only the final outcome is shown.
Since this task is mostly just a compilation and readjustment of the slides from task 2, only the final outcome is shown.
Final Outcome :
fig 7.1, Final Concept Presentation (22/3/2025)
Feedback
The idea is there but still needs more to it. We should focus on narrowing our idea before only sketching out the concept. Since we're doing animation, we should focus on studying different animation style so that can decide which one we want to go for.
Week 3 :
We needed more character sketches as our current one is too less. We should also change the story to something more action-packed as our current one is too emotional. We also should experiment with more variety in characters because our current line up is too less. The more sketches that we have, the more we can narrow down the art style. Don't focus too much on story for now as that is something that can be adjusted as we progress.
Week 4 :
Since we are not in the animation specialization, we didn't learn on how to write a proper story following the film industry format. Because of that, our story lacks cohesiveness. Instead what we could do is pinpoint a main reason of what is happening in the story. We could also consider doing something else if doing an animation is our of our league. We also need to explore and sketch more as our content at the moment is lacking.
Week 5 :
We now have an idea/concept that was good to work with. Now we needed to start considering aspects such as UI/UX in the base game, different enemies, layout of the map and even inventory/backpack of the game if needed.
Week 6 :
Now we need to make our drawings into a more presentable form. We also need to create a rough build in Unity and test how the game would play. Then we were to record and showcase it for our presentation. At this point we could also write down possible problems that we might encounter when making the game. A storyboard was also needed to showcase the base story of the game. Then we also need to analyze existing games to see what makes them so good.
Week 7 :
While our main idea/concept is fine, our execution of said idea misses some marks. Some sketches could be further improved. Our case study should be closer to our game concept rather than something that is the complete opposite. Bone animation does make it easier but we could combine different animation styles to make it better. Sprite animation could also be taken into consideration. There also could be a mix of using 3D models into the game, instead of drawing everything. Remember that you are not making a game but rather forming a foundation of what the game could be. Now we should continue working on the base of the game and do more extensive testing.
Now we need to make our drawings into a more presentable form. We also need to create a rough build in Unity and test how the game would play. Then we were to record and showcase it for our presentation. At this point we could also write down possible problems that we might encounter when making the game. A storyboard was also needed to showcase the base story of the game. Then we also need to analyze existing games to see what makes them so good.
Week 7 :
While our main idea/concept is fine, our execution of said idea misses some marks. Some sketches could be further improved. Our case study should be closer to our game concept rather than something that is the complete opposite. Bone animation does make it easier but we could combine different animation styles to make it better. Sprite animation could also be taken into consideration. There also could be a mix of using 3D models into the game, instead of drawing everything. Remember that you are not making a game but rather forming a foundation of what the game could be. Now we should continue working on the base of the game and do more extensive testing.
Reflection
During the first week of the group creation, I didn't meet my group members yet as they didn't come, so I had to make a group chat without really knowing them but I proceeded anyways. Week 1 was pretty rough as not much work got done, but after meeting them in week 2, the discussion started flowing in. Our output was definitely lacking in terms of sketches but I hope we will produce more in the coming weeks.
Task 2 : Design Proposition
This task was by far the most demanding especially since we had to change our plan from animation to game design. While we mostly maintain the same idea of having spirits in our story, since our story and concept is completely different, we needed to rework on lots of aspect. The schedule was tight too as we needed to do many things in the time given. It was honestly really difficult to keep up especially when we had to work on a different module as well. The last few days was the most difficult as we still had quite an amount of work to do. Although there were a lot of things to rush, we managed to finish it. However, I still think that our output could have been more and our works could be better refined.
Task 3 : Concept Presentation
This final task was simply a combination of our task 1 and 2 and what has changed from it. Since it was a presentation, we needed to ensure that the flow of the contents make sense and in way tells a story. After the presentation feedback, we now need to begin working on those aspects, expanding it and hopefully we would have a good base to continue from when we enter major project 2.
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