# Games for Good (1J6Z1016_2324_1F)

## Individual production log

## Poppy Wade (20029709)

## [ Link to Group Portfolio ](https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1-qwa03_rUXnC4Xh2AlBIr76vgFM4bQqGfttzOUkFnQQ/edit?usp=sharing)

### [Original document with correct formatting, links and videos ](https://hackmd.io/@mqfHQ7bvReiL--olJnOf-g/Bko2Qr5cp)
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## Introduction

### Learning outcomes of this project

* Research and analyze how games can be used to communicate ideas. **Research & Contextual Understanding Evaluation and Analysis Communication (Written/Oral)**

* Work effectively as a part of a team to design and produce a working game that addresses a societal issue or research topic showing a comprehensive understanding of game design. **Technical, Craft & Design Ideas/Concept generation Communication (Visual /Audio) Problem Solving/Application, Collaboration/Teamwork**

* Respond critically to feedback from wider communities at the university and beyond.**Organisation & Planning Professional conduct Citizenship and Cultural/Social awareness**

### Unit Brief: students will work with peers in SODA and beyond to create games that explore key societal issues or research topics of their choosing.

**Team:** Holly Nicholson, Kiera Steel and myself
**Structure:** Digital 3D game
**What are we designing?:** An educational low Poly style 3D game that focuses on the effects of habitat destruction and endangered animals, target audience swaying younger about 8+.
**Direction of my personal work**: To explore marine environments through 3D modelling, rigging and shaders. I will also support my 3D with concept art in an iterative manner. Due to the subject, it is imperetive that I consider contextual research to ensure I can address the issue in an appropriate manner.

## Preproduction

### Exploring the thematic and solidifying our concept
To kickstart the project, my team and I elected to use a collaborative whiteboard (MiroBoard) to generate lots of ideas to jump off from.


Using this tool, we noticed that a lot of the ideas we put down were to do with animals and ecology. As it seemed to be a topic we shared a passion for as a team, we chose to focus our project around raising awareness for endangered species and the threats their habitats face.


Finally, we worked as a team to solidify the concept and to help ensure we were all on the same page about our goals and expectations of the final outcome. The final concept is:

An animal sanctuary simulator where you collect, take care of and run a sanctuary for animals that are at risk of extinction due to habitat loss and destruction.

Gameplay includes: Going to the original habitat, searching and safely capturing animals who have developed injury/sickness from a threat their habitat faces, then nursing them back to health in the sanctuary.

* An educational low Poly style 3D game that focuses on the effects of habitat destruction and endangered animals.
* A range of animals will be chosen under the theme of Land, Sea and inbetween.
* Pegi 7 as educational content tends to sway lower, along with the artstyle.

We also assigned which environments and animals we would like to focus on individually:

Holly - Sanctuary building with enclosures, Black footed ferret and Gharial
Keira - Forest environment, grassland environment, African wild dog and Red panda, Logo
Poppy - Ocean environment boat on top, Mantaray, Horned sea turtle and Hammerhead shark

Individually we created asset lists of what we aimed to do/create to put towards the final product:


### Game Pitch Feedback

After pitching our project to the class, we were able to gather feedback on our concept and the work we had done so far.

###### Peer feedback forms

Here I got a recommendation to look into the game ‘Endless Ocean’ as a reference point which I found incredibly useful when it came to solidifying the aims of the marine environment area.

###### Tutor feedback

The most common comments that we received were:

* Create a GDD or artstyle guide
* Make it clear what the aims of the game are
* Start to block-out some environments/make some environment concept art
* Make asset lists and schedules for production

### Group Organisation

#### Time Management

###### Kannban Board

After assigning assets and roles, Holly made a group gantt chart that timelined the project and highlighted milestones and check-ins to help keep track of progress and streamline our workflow.

###### Holly's Gantt Chart

I also made my own personal gantt chart from Holly’s as I needed something that was less visually cluttered and suited to my personal project as I was going to explore different technical work than my teammates.

###### Personal Organisation Gantt Chart

#### Team Meetings

Our main forms of communication were Discord and in-person meetings. We documented the official meetings using the Miro board, meaning everybody in the team could add to the notes as we went through our itineraries.


### Creating a style guide


To help streamline the vision of the game, I consulted with Holly and used her references to develop a style guide that we could all work from when 3D modelling. This was incredibly helpful as we all have separate preferences and artstyles. When comparing Kiera and myself's 3D models, they look like they belong in the same game due to following the styleguide.
###### Keria's wild dog compared to my turtle

**Main elements from the styleguide:**
* Natural animal colours
* Sharp edges while maintaining overall accurate shape of the animal
* accurate proportions to be easily recognisable
* Modular assets to be used to unify areas

### Contextual Research

#### Trip to Manchester museum

To gather understanding and reference images for our project my team and I took a trip to Manchester Museum’s zoology exhibit, one of the largest collections of shells in the UK. It has large collections of birds, eggs, bryozoa (small marine animals) and a very diverse collection of specimens preserved in spirit.^1^


This was a great opportunity to curate our own images to use as reference when modelling, as well as give us an understanding of scale.



#### Hammerhead Sharks


Hammerhead sharks are critically endangered due to overfishing, and changes in their habitat. The sharks are highly prized for their fins, a key ingredient in shark fin soup, leading to unsustainable fishing practices that significantly deplete their populations to keep up with the cultural demand for the delicacy. Additionally, hammerheads are often unintentionally caught in fishing gear intended for other species, a phenomenon known as bycatch. Habitat degradation and pollution further accelerate their population decline by reducing the availability of prey and suitable living conditions. Scalloped hammerhead sharks are listed on Appendix II of CITES meaning that all international trade of this species must be registered.^2^

#### Manta Rays


Manta rays are critically endangered due to similar reasons as the Hammerhead. Overfishing, bycatch, and habitat destruction have had severe ramifications for the species. Targeted for their gill plates, the exploitation has led to a significant decline in their populations. Additionally, manta rays often fall victim to bycatch, becoming entangled in nets intended for other marine species. Habitat destruction, driven by coastal development, pollution, and climate change, further threatens their survival by disrupting their feeding and breeding grounds. The cumulative impact of these threats has led to a sharp decrease in manta ray populations, resulting in their critical endangerment as recognized by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN).^3^

#### Hawksbill Sea Turtles


Hawksbill turtles are crucial for maintaining coral reef health by eating sponges, which improves access for reef fish. They also hold cultural and tourism value, particularly in the Coral Triangle, where they attract visitors and support local economies. Found mainly in tropical oceans, they feed on sponges, sea anemones, and jellyfish. Despite their ecological importance, hawksbills are critically endangered due to habitat loss, egg collection, fishery-related mortality, pollution, and especially illegal trade for their shells.^4^ These combined threats have led to a significant decline in their populations and their ‘critically endangered’ classification.

### Games as tools for social change

Games have always been a form of interactive entertainment, serving various purposes such as socialisation, education, and therapy. Video Games intend to engage players, using immersive experiences and a sense of accomplishment upon success. In his article Games as Tools for Social Change Communication: A Critical Review‘ Dhiman strongly suggests that video games not only entertain but also enhance critical thinking, cognitive skills, socialisation, and teamwork.

He goes on to explain that ‘Games are powerful tools for training, education, therapy, and social change communication due to their ability to engage, motivate, and evoke emotions. They provide experiential learning opportunities and can be easily distributed, making them accessible to a broad audience’^5^. In essence, games can raise awareness about social issues, encourage critical thinking, and promote empathy. Additionally, Gaming influencers (Twitch, Tiktok and Youtube) foster community and give exposure to games.

#### ‘Endless Ocean’ (2007)

"Endless Ocean," published by Nintendo for the Wii in 2007, is an underwater exploration game that emphasises marine conservation. Players, acting as scuba divers, explore underwater environments, interacting with marine life and learning about their behaviour, habitat, and conservation status through an in-game encyclopaedia.


The game promotes non-invasive interaction with marine creatures, integrating conservation messages by showcasing the beauty and fragility of ocean ecosystems. The soothing soundtrack, beautiful visuals and interactive elements encourage a sense of empathy and respect for the creatures you interact with.


‘Endless Ocean’ has been praised for its seamless and unobtrusive educational content, effectively raising public awareness about marine biodiversity and the importance of protecting it.


Drawing inspiration from this game in our project, we would like to incorporate the interactive exploration of the environments, as well as try to replicate their use of subtle education. One of the main gameplay elements will focus on the conservation missions, similar to ‘Endless Ocean’s’ focus on promoting real-life conservation efforts.

#### World Wildlife Fund- 'The Most Epic Quest' Fundraiser
The Most Epic Quest" is a fundraising event organised by the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) using the popularity of gaming and Twitch streamers to raise awareness and funds for wildlife conservation. The event collaborated with high-profile Twitch streamers and YouTubers, in order to leverage their audience in order to gain donations. Due to the personable nature of live streaming, viewers were able to interact with the streamers and make donations in real-time. Participation from popular streamers like DrLupo and Jacksepticeye were key in the success of the campaign.


"The Most Epic Quest" included partnerships with influential gamers, who helped draw attention to the cause and inspire their fans to contribute. The event aimed to integrate educational segments about biodiversity, the threats facing various species, and WWF’s conservation efforts.^6^

The success of "The Most Epic Quest" not only raised awareness and funds for WWF’s conservation projects, but engaged a demographic that may not be interested if the campaign was run through traditional means of charity fundraising.


In our Games for Good project, it would be great to be able to collaborate with a charity to do a fundraising stream. Team member Holly runs her own twitch channel, and we hope to explore the idea of a fundraising stream in which we can showcase our final vertical slice and share the information we have learned through research.

#### Charity Communications

To help give our project more validity, I reached out to various charities and organisations that are based in the UK whose goals align with what we are aiming for in our game. In my correspondence, I asked if they would be interested in answering some questions about their charities and their thoughts about the themes of our game.


Though I received limited responses, I was able to have an email thread with Graham McGrath- Managing director of The Sealife Trust^7^. He expressed interest in our project, and was happy for us to do a hypothetical ‘collaboration’ with the trust. Unfortunately, we were unable to get a proper interview with Graham, however moving forward, I planned to include as much information from the Trust’s website as possible in my research, as well as in the information boxes in-game.

### Concept Art

In the early stages of the project before we had solidified our 3D style guide or confirmed roles, my team and I drew up some rough sketches of what our outcome may be moving towards, as well as a moodboard of animals and environments I would like to focus on in my 3D work.



After conferring as a group Keira and I decided we would like to develop splash art of the environments we were going to be 3D modelling, which could then be used as loading screens between each area.

For my splash art, I was inspired by aquarium tunnels as they are my favourite part of an aquarium. I wanted to push my skills in environment painting through the use of colour and light, as they are elements that are most eyecatching in the tunnels.

I gathered reference images of tunnels, coral and the animals I had chosen, and created a reference board to work against. Rather than a focus on realism, I wanted the main elements of the tunnels to command the attention, such as colourful lighting, coral and the reflections of light on the surface of the water.

###### Pureref board


###### Animal positions

###### Experimenting with layouts


Due to the nature of it being a wide open space of water, I wanted to use the rule of thirds to ensure my composition was dynamic. Overlaying a grid was helpful in repositioning the animals.

###### Final layout using a grid


###### Colour Blocking

Using the photoshop colour picker, I was able to get accurate colours for the water

###### Blending the water surface texture and adding lights

###### Final background render

###### Adding in the Manta Ray

###### Using a blur filter to blur the midground Shark

After adding in the first animals, I noticed that the piece was looking very monotone and blue, which was drawing focus away from the animals. To counteract this I started to work on the midground corals.

###### colours taken from coral references

Initally, I was worried about the pop of colour taking attention from the animals, so I experimented with balancing the colours I had picked from my references into a muted pallete in the blue/cyan tone.


After blocking them in with the original pallet, I liked the way they stood out and broke up the blue of the piece, so I chose to keep the vibrant colours.

###### Coral colour blocking

###### First pass on details

###### Final coral details

I decided that the positioning and painting of the Manta Ray was very distracting as it didn't feel like it made sense visually.

###### Changing the positioning

###### Final render of the Manta Ray


###### Finished piece before adjustments

###### Final concept piece

## Production

### Animal modelling

Before modelling I gathered reference images of the animals I wanted to model in Maya. Having multiple angles of each animal, as well as a reference of a 3D model in the style was helpful as I was able to use free image planes in Maya to model the objects against.

###### Pureref board for animal modelling

###### Manta Ray model


###### Hammerhead Shark model


###### Hawksbill Sea Turtle model



###### Size comparisons

### Environment modelling

Using a combination of the references images I gathered from Manchester Museum, along with my environment moodboard from earlier in the project, I began modelling assets for the marine environment.

###### Boat model

###### Tube coral

###### Fan coral

###### Brain Coral

I had a lot of issues with this model as I didn't take appropriate steps in terms of optimising the UVs or mesh so it wasn't used in the final rendering.

###### Branch coral

###### Sea urchin

###### Comparitive scale

###### Assets as they would be used in the environments

I used Keira's rock model to try to unify the different areas and streamline workflow. I also used her grass models in later compositons.

###### Bunny Slug

I also modelled a few smaller creatures to act as 'easter eggs' due to their popularity as cute animals.

#### Environment composition

###### Basic set up with skydome vs stage set up

###### Environment stage

I chose the 'stage' setup rather than using a basic aiskydome as I wanted to have the option to add a water surface to my environment for the boat model to sit on. This would have needed different lighting effects for above and below the surface, so I chose the stage in order to have control over the lighting.

###### Shark composition

I used a basic cartoon sand image for the sea floor, and added a deformer handle in order to give it a more 'sandy' effect. I also sent this over to Keira for her Savannah environment in order to further tie in our environments.

###### Seafloor image

### Creating an underwater environment

I was keen to challenge myself and explore ways that I could make my scene feel believable as underwater, so I began using different methods to achieve this. I began by looking at examples of other underwater 3D work and trying to pick out aspects that I wanted to replicate, for example, caustic light effects and depth of field in the render.

###### Example of 3D underwater effects

#### Using fog to create depth of field

following this [tutorial ](https://help.autodesk.com/view/ARNOL/ENU/?guid=arnold_for_maya_rendering_am_Underwater_Scene_with_Fog_html/) ^8^

My first step was to create the depth of field by changing the environment atmosphere effect in the render settings from none to fog.


###### Fog enabled, no additional lighting

###### Fog applied to my own environment after editing settings

###### Exploring colour tints

###### Final render with spotlight and fog settings edited

#### Adding caustic lighting effects

To further create the underwater scene, I played with adding caustic lighting effects. To acheive this effect, I had to add an AIGOBO to the spotlight's slidemap.

Next, I plugged in [this](https://opengameart.org/sites/default/files/styles/medium/public/Caustic_Free.jpg)^9^ jpeg of a caustic pattern however in my test the lighting effect was being stretched, and wouldn't show up in my shark environment at all.



For my second attempt, I used a different computer, along with a different caustic map. [This map ^10^ ](https://https://henrikbc.gumroad.com/l/figmentcaustics_freesample_caribbean) is intended for use in animation but I believe the difference in output was mainly due to the computer I was using.


Changing these two elements gave me great results in my test render, so I saved the spotlight into my assets file and exported it into my shark environment




#### Final scene composition

My final scene is made up of assets I made myself, along with Keira's plant models and Holly's sanctuary prop models. I used Holly's models to act as the pollutants that impact marine life.


During gameplay, the aim is to identify the animals in need of assistance, such as the hammerhead with plastic rings wrapped around his tail. Then, they would be transported to the sanctuary for healing and care.



### Virtical Slice using Unreal engine.

The final step in the project was to export the complex and environment assets into unity. Using Holly’s basic complex, I began by importing the basics and blocking out the interactable elements using the default first person template in Unreal. The gun is a placeholder for Keira's sponge asset, and if I had more time on this project, I wanted to make it behave like a sponge, replacing the shootable spheres for bubbles.

###### Complex imported into engine
<iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/IEpPeJycTUw?si=IepBRugBZQ7y96Qi" title="YouTube video player" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" referrerpolicy="strict-origin-when-cross-origin" allowfullscreen></iframe>

###### Holly's complex model
I had a lot of trouble with this as my teammates hadn’t followed proper naming conventions in their models, particularly with the building complex. The entire Maya file was made up of unnamed objects which I tried to sort through, combine and name in order to be able to export it into Unreal.


At this stage I began adding lighting to the underwater area and input some of my assets to get an idea of what the area could look like in-game. I tried to light it atmospherically as I wasn’t able to translate my render effects into the Engine

###### Aquarium area

Using Kiera's assets I also put together a visual of what the sanctuary gameplay would look like.

###### Gameplay visuals

## Project review

Overall, I feel as though we worked very well as a team to convey our original concept. One of the strongest elements of our collective project is the way that everyone's animal models look convincing as the same game, and they don't vary heavily in style. I believe this is because of the style guide I established early on.

###### Savannah Environment next to Marine

In my personal work, I am very happy with how the caustic lighting turned out in my environment, as it look quite a lot of trial and error to make it work.

###### Caustic lighting

To improve/elevate the project, I could consider rigging my shark model. I decided to explore the underwater render effects rather than an animated model as I felt it would be beneficial to our final project to have a completed environment.

## Bibliography

1. Zoology (2023) Manchester Museum. Available at: https://www.museum.manchester.ac.uk/collections/zoology/ (Accessed: May 17, 2024).
1. Scalloped hammerhead shark (2023) Galapagos Conservation Trust. Available at: https://galapagosconservation.org.uk/species/scalloped-hammerhead-shark/?gad_source=1&gclid=Cj0KCQjwgJyyBhCGARIsAK8LVLPgqOmjizM1_s6ezFmD4gS7NHQCwcfl_K_y6qrAsenw60esfE8DPNkaAgP2EALw_wcB (Accessed: May 17, 2024).
1. Fisheries, N. (2024) Giant manta ray, NOAA. Available at: https://www.fisheries.noaa.gov/species/giant-manta-ray (Accessed: May 17, 2024).
1. Worldwildlife.org. Available at: https://www.worldwildlife.org/species/hawksbill-turtle (Accessed: May 17, 2024).
1. Dhiman, B., 2023. Games as Tools for Social Change Communication: A Critical Review. Global Media Journal, 21(61). Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=4401202
1. Worldwildlife.org. Available at: https://www.worldwildlife.org/pages/fundraise-for-wwf (Accessed: May 18, 2024).
1. Merlin, What is the, SEA LIFE TRUST. Available at: https://www.sealifetrust.org/en/ (Accessed: May 18, 2024).
1. Help Autodesk.com. Available at: https://help.autodesk.com/view/ARNOL/ENU/?guid=arnold_for_maya_rendering_am_Underwater_Scene_with_Fog_html (Accessed: May 18, 2024).
1. Opengameart.org. Available at: https://opengameart.org/sites/default/files/styles/medium/public/Caustic_Free.jpg (Accessed: May 19, 2024).
1. Figment caustics - free sample (no date) Gumroad. Available at: https://henrikbc.gumroad.com/l/figmentcaustics_freesample_caribbean (Accessed: May 19, 2024).