Week 13: Final Project Presentation

This week we presented our final projects and I couldn't be happier with the outcome. I made the design of the document match the presentation to make it all look cohesive. Also, to add more character and fun I added graphics to every slide and page that relate to France. The links to the presentation and document will be down below. This was a fun project to do and I enjoyed doing it. Making the presentation and document was fun and I feel like it would be a very cohesive first draft of a potential game. The class seemed to enjoy my presentation and I was delighted to hear all the positive feedback on it. In the future, I would love to develop concepts for other games using other countries. In the presentation I added the US, UK, and Italy as 3 potential candidates and if this game was to ever become a reality I would certainly consider them. Tess also had a good idea where I could do national parks and that could also be a great possibility. Maybe they could be used as awareness for national parks and a portion of the proceeds could go to maintaining them! I truly enjoyed doing this project and it was definitely my favorite this semester.

FINAL PROJECT PRESENTATION

FINAL PROJECT DOCUMENT

Week 12: Finishing Final Project

This week I focused on getting my final project done for next Tuesday. With the trailer done, all I had left to do was the presentation and document which were the easiest parts of the assignment. For my presentation I had to account for all the changes I made along the way so I added them to the original pitch presentation, as well as modified some old slides. There were some big changes in the game which started out with new game modes. I added this feature so that players can decide how easy or hard they want their questions on the quizzes to be depending on their skill level. This ensures that every player can work at their own pace and take the time they need to understand the material. I also implemented different amounts of points per question depending on the mode you play. I also added VR and multiplayer modes so you can take virtual tours of the monuments and play with others online or with an AI. Another change I had was adding avatars. Players can now make or choose an avatar for their profile and this will be the character they play in the game as well as the one displayed on their profile. It's just a fun way to make your profile your very own! Another change in the project was notebooks. Notebooks will store your facts and key information in 1 place so when it comes time to study for your quiz, you are able to access them with ease. They come in different styles and colors, with the chance to unlock new looks with points. You may also even be able to unlock the peek feature that allows you to peek at your notes during your quiz. One last big change I made was adding tourist badges to the game. These badges show your progress in the game and some can even be displayed on your profile. The bronze, silver, and gold badges show what place you got in multiplayer mode, and the red, turquoise, and black badges show how many quizzes you've answered with a 100%. The black badge is a rare and special one as it gives players access to an exclusive club where other black badge members can play and challenge each other around the world! These are just some of the changes I've made to the presentation and I believe it was for the better as it made the game more fun to play and still kept its educational element.

Week 11: Thanksgiving Check-in

This week I focused on compiling my sequences into a finished trailer. When thinking about how I wanted it to look and feel, I knew I wanted it to be polished and clean. I don't favor doing jump-cuts and cutting videos up to put it all back together especially in this sense. I wanted it to have a seamless transition between the monuments flow nicely so that's why I made my sequences try to flow into one another. After putting the sequences together I needed to give it some life. I've never seen a trailer that didn't have music let alone sound at all so I needed a creative way to talk about the game while the sequences are happening on screen. The professor mentioned that we could use AI as a voiceover for our projects and it was the best decision I made. I knew going into it I wanted someone talking, but I didn't want my own voice in it. To combat this, I used "ElevenLabs" in order to find a perfect voice for my project. First I started off with French voices but I soon learned that some words got lost due to the accent so I had to go a different route. The next best accent would be a British accent. American accents wouldn't fit right with a game talking about France so I felt that British was the next best thing. That's when I stumbled upon Lily, the voice of my trailer. She sounded intriguing and captivating while also having a gentle voice for the younger audience. Lily really tied the trailer together and made it a huge success. I then added copyright free music from "Uppbeat" to give the trailer some music and character. Lastly, I needed a fun way to show the title of the game in the trailer. I didn't want to use the presets in Premiere as they are boring to me so I decided to look elsewhere. I came across a website that had free title cards and that's how I found the one used to display the game title, as well as the one that names the monuments. I used Premiere Pro in order to put it altogether and I couldn't be happier with the way it turned out. The finished trailer is below!

Week 10: Continue Final Project

This week we continued working on our final projects. My main goal this week was to get the first 3 monuments and their sequences finished. I was able to achieve that, and the sequences came out stronger than I had hoped! The finished sequences are down below. The only problem I faced during this process was the length of the trailer. After finishing the first 3 sequences I realized I was already at 1.5 minutes which is typically right around the length of a standard trailer. I knew that if I continued doing the other 3 as planned, the trailer would be at or over 3 minutes which was too long for my liking. This forced me to go back and rethink how I wanted the trailer to look and what were some things I could cut out. After some deliberating, I decided to make the last 3 monuments purchasable within the game. This led me to creating a point system in the game which adds a whole new element to the game that I didn't previously have. With a point system, I can have players unlock monuments, badges, and features in the game (11/30 edit: I go more in depth about this in Week 12). I am excited for my improved game and I can't wait to see the finished product!

Week 9: Start Final Project

This week we started our final projects, and the first thing I wanted to do was block out the sequences for the trailer. I knew I wanted to have smooth and clean shots between all the monuments, which meant using less keyframes when sequencing it out. I then had to decide the order I wanted the monuments to go in. I looked at a map of Paris on Google and wanted to find the best route for traveling so the camera wasn't jerking in all different directions. I decided that the best route was to start at the Pantheon and continue to the Eiffel Tower, Arc, Palais Garnier, Louvre, and end with the Notre Dame. This way the flyovers would be smooth and continuous as the monuments go around in a circle. Below is a visual to help understand the flow of the shots.

Week 8: Pitch Presentation

This week we shared our pitch presentations with the class. I was able to fully develop my idea and knew exactly how I wanted to execute it. The game would be centered around 6 monuments in Paris which include, Eiffel Tower, Pantheon, Arc de Triomphe, Notre Dame, Louvre Museum, and the Palais Garnier. These are some of Paris' most visited landmarks so I knew I had to include them in this project. I had to decide on a theme for the pitch so when scrolling through Canva, I stumbled across a template that looked like a composition notebook. It was perfect for this project as I needed something that had to do with writing ideas and school. I made the template my own and added some fun graphics to give it some life. I attached the link to the presentation below. The presentation outlines what the game is about, what's included, and how it will be executed.

PITCH PRESENTATION

Week 6-7: Final Project Brainstorm

After the midterm, it was time to think about what to do for my final project. Since I've been using the Cesium Ion plug-in all semester, and it's worked out well for me, I knew I wanted to use it again for the final. When trying to think of an idea, I kept drawing blanks and was unsure of where I wanted to go with it. I knew I wanted to do something with France because it is one of the most high fidelity cities Unreal offers with the plug-in. I started Googling ideas for the game I wanted to hypothetically develop, and that's when I stumbled upon the idea of creating an educational game. The game would be centered around teaching the history of the monuments and implementing quizzes in order to facilitate learning. This was a good start to get the ball rolling for me, and as I developed my idea I was able to create the pitch presentation