Ash and Blood
Project Type: Personal Project
Genre: Action-Adventure
Software Used: Unreal 5.4
Language(s) Used: Unreal Blueprint
Project Background: Ash and Blood started off as just a concept that I created one random semester during my time at AAU. Nothing was prototyped it was all just writing, but I didn’t want it to end there so I took the narrative I envisioned in my head and made a blockout of level. Then from there it became 2 levels, then 3 and now (with a bit of polish) it’s a whole semi-open world with villages and a city.
Goals: Create a fully playable demo/ vertical slice of my own semi-open world RPG.
Responsibilities: Blockout and polish a playable area that is traversable using desired mechanics. Create dialogue to further the story. UI/UX design. Character design, sound design, blueprint interactions. Documentation, optimization, designing player/enemy encounters, systems design and cinematic sequences.
Playthrough
For the project I set out to create a vertical slice of my own semi-open world RPG. The main pillars I decided on were traversal/ exploration, narrative, and combat. I see games as the ultimate way to tell a story and that’s exactly what I aimed to do with this project.
My biggest struggles at first were to make sure something was catching the player’s eye every few steps. Whether that be a change in elevation, something to interact with or showing them a vista view of the environment.
The rest of the demo will include more forest areas, caves, and the city of Tidegate… There will be some side quests that players can partake in alongside the main storyline. I will continue to update with each big milestone I accomplish, whether it be finishing the city’s blockout or finish writing a questline.
Blockout/ Environment
I did something I don’t usually do, and I just started building out my beginning area. Usually, I get motivation and creative ideas when I’m designing a map, but this time I felt like I knew exactly what I wanted so I just started building.
To start off, I blocked out most of the environment using the landscape tool. It started out as a small little base camp that ended up being a massive mountain range that borders a harbor town. I used megascans for most of the polished environment pieces and foliage. Everything I did for these levels was hand placed by me, I created the landscapes from a flat plain, I placed the foliage using the foliage tool and then I added meshes to that to bring it all together.
I stepped out of my comfort zone working on environment art, but it has been such a blast making the forests and creating points where the player can look back on the areas they just traversed. Whether it was the mountain ranges or a cave connecting two parts of the map together it was both extremely challenging but very rewarding when it all came together in the end.
The main thing I wanted to focus on during this project was the pacing and making sure that each beat felt like there was something worth doing. I didn’t want it to feel like you were aimlessly walking through a forest.
Optimizing the foliage was a challenge in itself, but once I figure it out (culling and HLODs), I was able to really start bringing the environment to life. I’m excited to continuing fleshing out some areas I have in mind and continue to bring the world of Umber to life!
Beat Breakdown - Starting Area
I am a firm believer that players get bored quite fast and to keep them from shutting off your game and opening up League of Legends the game designer needs to keep their attention with beats.
Me being a gamer myself I am subject to the same short attention span. I want something to do every (x) number of seconds. I want to jump over something, see something happen, hear an NPC say something odd, fight something, etc.
And that’s what I set out to do, so throughout my levels I made sure there was something to interact with every so often. To attempt to keep the player’s attention.
Beat Set #1
So, the beginning of the demo is going to start off with our MC waking up from a dream via IGC, player will wake up say something brief and then gameplay starts.
The player is given their first task (quest) to collect their weapons before they set out for the day.
Upon exiting their tent, the area will open up and the player will be able to check out their camp but will be guided to check out a note on the tent adjacent to theirs. I created the layout so that the player would both be able to get a good look at the environment as well as get eyes on where they’re supposed to go next.
I let some friends play through this and before I did so I noticed that the first thing they wanted to do was look around the camp. And only then did they wonder what they were supposed to be doing. After adding some UI to the note, they went to check out that first before exploring.
The player then goes to the note, and they start to get a sense of where they’re at, who’s with them at this secluded camp in the woods, why they’re there, and what they have to do going forward. Hence pushing along the narrative while guiding the player to their next objective. Also, allowing them to participate in their first sub-objective/ mini-game.
Beat Set #2
The player then can decide to do I want to participate in this side event or should I just continue on with the main story.
Upon receiving this note the narrative is furthered even more and the player is introduced to one of the main mechanics, the Wristhook.
This area gives the player a space where they can practice this new mechanic and get accustomed to firing it.
Beat Set #3-6
After continuing down the path the player is introduced to the climbing mechanic that will be an integral system throughout the game. This “course” allows the player to get familiar with climbing in a variety of directions, players also get more familiar with the character they’re playing as, as he shows his adventurous personality through dialogue.
After some climbing the player is then introduced to another important traversal mechanic and that is the grapple point. Allowing players to launch themselves over large gaps to reach different areas.
Some more climbing takes place and the player starts to get a look at the larger environment, a tiny vista view of some mountains.
Once the player is finished climbing, they get a nice dramatic vista view of the mountain ranges that surrounds them.
Beat Set #7-8
The player continues their path along the mountain. Seeing props such as the stone monolith that hints to the player that they’re going the correct direction.
Making it to the final section of this level after introduced to another traversal mechanic which is the leap. After this section the player crosses in between a narrow pass which takes them to the next level. In level 2, the player gets a view of the city they’re trying to get to as well as encounters with some possibly friendly bandits and some not so friendly goblins. Combat is introduced as well as the dialogue system.
Branching Dialogue
I was heavily debating if I wanted to do a linear narrative, something like Uncharted or God of War. But I am a sucker for games where the player gets to make decisions that actually effect the world, they’re immersing themselves into. So, I decided to go with a branching dialogue. Currently in the works of implementing said dialogue, but I have written many of the encounters already.
There are a lot of software out there that can help with doing so, the one I really like to use is Twine. I got accustomed with it in school so early on that it’s kind of my go to for projects like this.
It allows me to both plan out and experiment where different decisions will bring the player. Whether that’s them being taken captive by the city guard or telling jokes to a group of bandits to avoid conflict. Each decision has its own unique dialogue that allows the player to play multiple versions of Elian, while still retaining his identity.
Story
Ash and Blood is a fantasy action-adventure RPG, that places the player in a war-torn world, amidst everything going on the player finds themselves next in line for the throne.
I created the story for this game in my Story in Video Games class, my junior year at AAU. All we were tasked with was creating a simple synopsis for some game that we would expand upon over the semester. But once the idea for the game started flowing in my head, I started writing more and more for it. In the PowerPoint above I go very briefly into the lore of the world and its inhabitants. The more I wrote the more I fell in love with the story, but the goal wasn’t to write a book. It was to create the world that my game would take place in. That being said this is a demo so only a very brief section of Umber is shown.
One thing I struggled with at first was trying to do all of the story first. Yes, I was thinking about gameplay and such but not enough. So, I had to take a step back from writing and actually figure out how my mechanics were going to support the story and make it a fun world to play around in. So, I took a step back from writing and actually got in engine and started creating what I wanted.