Entry 01 — Introduction
Welcome to the blog dedicated to Project Dissonance, our final year project for our course (BSc. in Computing in Games Development).
This project is a team effort, our team members are:
What is Project Dissonance?
Project Dissonance is a third-person stealth game developed on the Unity Engine. We first conceived the game in May 2018. Our first meeting involved a lot of brainstorming for ideas, the main goal for this meeting was to decide upon something that each of us would want to work on.
Eventually, after our second meeting in May, we settled on the idea of a stealth game with a post-apocalyptic cyberpunk setting. This stealth game concept was inspired by popular stealth action franchises like Tenchu and Metal Gear.
After much deliberation, we also decided on the art style of the game: cel-shaded visuals along with anthropomorphic character designs. We felt that both of these elements would set our game apart from the rest and leave an impression on the player. A good example of anthropomorphic character designs can be seen in popular game franchises like Ratchet & Clank and Sly Cooper, the latter of which also happens to be fall into the stealth game genre.
By the end of May 2018, we had a solid concept of what our game would be.
To put it simply:
Project Dissonance is a third person stealth game with a post-apocalyptic cyberpunk setting developed on the Unity Engine. It will feature characters of an anthropomorphic design, brought to life with vibrant cel-shaded visuals.
From Inception to Now
Our first order of business was to come up with a name for our team. Initially we had decided on the name Occultist Games, over time however, we felt that we could come up with something better. After each of us proposed a potential name, we voted and decided upon the name “Killing Spraoi”.
We also decided upon each member’s roles in the project early on. They are as follows:
- David
- Programming, Narrative/Scenario, Gameplay, Character Design, UI, Video
- Jack
- Programming, Narrative/Scenario, Engine, Environment/Level Design, AI, Project Blog
- Adrian
- Audio Programming, Composing, Sound Design, UI/UX
- Donnacha
- Programming, Environment/Level Design, Character Design, Art, UI
Over the Summer of 2018, our artists/designers David and Donnacha came up with a lot of concepts for character designs as well as logos for both our team name and the game itself. The logos have since been finalised. The final designs can be seen below.
The team logo that Donnacha has created for us.
The logo that David has created for the game.
We are still creating concepts for both the protagonist and the antagonists, here are some examples:
Protagonist Concepts
An initial design for the protagonist by David.
Another concept for the protagonist created by Donnacha.
Antagonist Concepts
An early enemy sketch by David.
An initial enemy design by Donnacha.
Donnacha’s design for the helmets worn by the enemies.
A second helmet design by Donnacha.
On August 29th, I wrote up a first draft for the game’s scenario and placed it onto Google Docs for the other members to see. We discussed this draft and decided upon changes and additions to make. By the 28th of September, we had the game’s story and setting finalised.
This Past Week (8/10/18 - 14/10/18)
On Tuesday the 9th of October, David got this blog up and running with the help of GitHub Pages and Jekyll. This, along with getting everyone on the team familiarised with making blog posts, has been the primary focus of this week.
As for myself, my primary tasks to complete for this week are to:
- Make this blog post (completed, if you can see this).
- Fill out and upload our project proposal form.
- Ensuring any concept art I may have is submitted and finalised.
Next Week (15/10/18 - 21/10/18)
My primary tasks for the following week are to:
- Sketch a basic map layout (top-down perspective) and construct it with blocks in Unity.
- Create an enemy object and implement AI/Pathfinding for it.
I think that about sums it up for my experience on the project so far. By next week we should be out of the concept phase and instead be deep into the code. Wish us luck!
‘Til next time!
