Losing a Dimension

My previous post contained my final piece of work (a guide for creating 2D adaptations), meaning that semester 3 - and my entire MA - is finally done and dusted. All my blog posts that were posted after the 13th of May 2022 contain semester 3 work, and are intended to be included in the submission, including this one. This semester went well! I started it out a little worried about getting everything done but ended up finishing everything in good time and to a standard I'm very happy with. I wanted to post a conclusion of sorts to wrap everything up - here's an excerpt from How to Lose a Dimension that sums up my thoughts on the whole project: The whole adaptation process was interesting and challenging, encouraging both thoughtful analysis and creative thinking – it also ended up being a lot of fun. For these reasons, I believe that the process is a valuable exercise for anyone with an interest in games design, whether they want to research it, learn about it, or just do it. H...

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This is just a masterpost where you can find links to all three of my 2D adaptation documents. Resident Evil 2D | Click here for PDF | Backup link Subnautica 2D | Click here for PDF | Backup link Skyrim 2D | Click here for PDF | Backup link See you in the next one!

Finally finished my final adaptation, Skyrim 2D! Here's an excerpt from my adaptation document where I reflect on the project: Overall, I’m super happy with Skyrim 2D, which is good as before starting the project, the scale of the original game was quite intimidating! I actually started the demo before the document this time, as I was keen on setting up the HD-2D visuals with the depth of field effects. This ended up being a good move, as it let me know that it was possible (there weren’t difficulties like with Subnautica 2D’s ill-fated cylindrical world) and that it looked great and worked the way I wanted it to work!  I had an interesting realization while working on this project. While I want to make it clear that my previous adaptation, Subnautica 2D, ended up being a successful project which I’m proud of, I found myself being a lot more enthusiastic about both Skyrim 2D and Resident Evil 2D while working on them. For both Skyrim 2D and Resi 2D I had a clear and distinct vision...

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Here's the full playthrough of my Skyrim 2D demo, should give a good impression of how the game would play! Since the last update I've mainly added finishing touches such as music and sound effects, working magicka usage, NPC text, and some more VFX, specifically for absorbing the Dragon's soul! Very happy with how this one turned out as well!

Added a lot since the last video!  The Dragonborn is no longer naked - now he's wearing the armour from all the promo material! There's also a sword attack animation, and an NPC with his own armour who can be blown away by the - now working - Unrelenting Force shout. There's also a dragon! To slay it, you have to go into sidescroller mode so you can properly aim at it in order to take it down. The ground is also now appropriately snowy and muddy too. This demo is almost finished, just some finishing touches to add, as well as some music!

I finally finished my Subnautica 2D adaptation project! Here's an excerpt from my adaptation document where I reflect on the project: I’m happy with the result of this adaptation. As was inevitable, Subnautica had its own unique set of challenges compared to Resident Evil – notably dealing with my idea for the layout of the world, as well as dealing with the fact that the original Subnautica has a freely-controllable first-person perspective. This has a knock-on effect on the world and level design, as well as how certain mechanics work, as the player can’t aim and interact with objects in the same way. However, the 2D perspective meant I had more control over what the players can and can’t see, and it was useful not having to design a world in which the player can look at from every angle as this would have been time consuming; instead, I could focus on implementing gameplay and mechanics etc. As I mentioned earlier, Barry Purves’ talk inspired me to go with making the game a side...

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 This is a full playthrough of the demo to give you a good idea how the game would play.! I added a decent amount since the last update, here's a quick rundown: - Added moving Peeper and Reaper Leviathan  - Added foliage - Cleaned up the UI (recreated the item bar from scratch to clean it up) - Added titanium to pick up - Added craftable O2 tank which requires titanium and increases O2 timer - Added working habitat builder which requires titanium to build a small base - Added music and sound  - Retextured UE4 mannequin to resemble Ryley from the original game I'm very happy with how this turned out!

 In my previous post, you may have noticed that in the Subnautica update video, the playable level area was a straight horizontal plane as opposed to having the player scrolling around a large cylinder. This is because trying to make that idea a reality was being an absolute pain, and was getting in the way of progress. Due to this, I decided instead to try to set up a fish-eye lens effect, to give a similar impression as scrolling around a cylinder. Unfortunately, this was also a massive pain, as the necessary post-process effect was interfering with the underwater post-process effect.  After struggling quite a bit with these two issues, I was a little burnt out with Subnautica, but I still wanted to be productive. I decided to start putting together ideas for my third and final 2D adaptation... Skyrim. Sounds like a big task, I know - but I had some ideas I thought would work really well. I knew I wanted to take inspiration from top-down Zelda games (Link's Awakening Switch ...

 Here's the second update video showing my progress of Subnautica 2D: There's a fair bit of progress in this update. First of all, I sculpted the landscape, creating the shallow starting area, a trench to the left, and an island to the right. I also implemented a working depth meter as well as working oxygen depletion. Additionally, I modelled assets for a small base, as well as a lifepod. When you enter both of these, the front half of the asset disappears allowing Ryley (the player character) to be seen inside. When you swim into the base, your oxygen gets refilled and stops depleting, and your movement mode gets changed to walking, as it's technically an inside area. That's all for this update. See you in the next one!

Semester 2 is now done! All my blog posts that were posted after the 7th of January 2022 are intended to be included in the semester 2 submission, including this one. So are the WIP posts, like last time. This semester went decently - completing the Resident Evil adaptation as well as the playable demo was satisfying and received positive reactions, which was encouraging. It also left me feeling as though I had a better grasp in how to approach my subsequent adaptations, and creating the demo helped a lot as it allowed me to see whether my ideas actually worked. Subnautica 2D started out well, but I ended up being held up at several occasions due to needing to focus on my essay, as well as struggling to get UE4 to work exactly how I wanted, specifically with getting scrolling round a cylinder working well. Being an important aspect I put a decent amount of time into trying to get it to work, but as of yet haven't got it working. I'm thinking that I might be able to fake it to g...

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 Here's an early update video of my Subnautica 2D project. As of right now I've set up the swimming animation, added the water and made some adjustments to the camera. I've also added a camera zoom feature where eventually you'll be able to make your field of vision larger at the cost of light and added feelings of being a small fish in a very large alien pond. That's the idea anyway! I've also started work on the adaptation document, but it's just in notes form right now. I ended up being a little held up by my semester 2 essay but I'm back to focussing on this project now! My main issue right now with my playable proof of concept is that I wanted to have the player sidescrolling around the sides of what would essentially be a large cylinder. I would have attached the player to a spline, and had that spline go all around the outside of the ocean in a circle. Subnautica is set in the crater of a volcano, so I wanted to give the effect of moving all aroun...

Finally finished my Resident Evil 2D project! Here's an excerpt from my adaptation document where I reflect on the project: Overall I’m very happy with how this project turned out. It took longer than expected, but I’ll put that down to it being the first project in the series, and I also ended up making the vertical slice, which wasn’t in my original plan. It really made me think about why certain aspects of design are implemented, where I might not have given them too much thought otherwise – the camera angles are a good example. Adapting Resident Evil into Resident Evil 2D was less straightforward than I thought it would be, as there was so much to think about, but I think what I came up with captures the essence of the original in a way that plays to the strengths of a the 2D point and click genre. I’m looking forward to investigating other games that are completely different to Resident Evil, and seeing what must be done to capture their essence in 2D!  For future projects, I’...

Here are my two final demo update videos: Been doing some final touches such as changes to the UI, working ammo counter, the key showing up in the inventory, decorating the rooms, and finally adding some sound (all of which is actually from the Resident Evil PS1 games apart from the gunshots!). Also reworked how shooting enemies functions as it was unreliable before, works every time now! Finally, here's a complete playthrough!

Here's the third update on the demo! Added working doors as well as doors that need specific keys, also added a sprite for the zombie (just used a stock image and used the program JuiceFX to make it wiggle)!