Design Challenge: Remake StrandWilds
StrandWilds was a Third-Person, Narrative based, adventure game that I developed in Unity as part of my Masters in Indie Game Development at the University of Falmouth. Whilst I had completed the project, I was not happy with how the game had turned out. This is mainly due to technical issues that I had with the project that was holding me back (Issues with animations and rigging, programming the hoverbike etc). Therefore, I left too little time for polish resulting in an unfinished, unsatisfying game. This is also why I have omitted it from my portfolio however it is still available to play on my Itch.io.
In StrandWilds, you play as a lone wanderer travelling the desert on their hoverbike uncovering the mysteries of what happened long ago. However, you find that every 5 minutes, you find yourself back where you started.
I have decided that I would like to remake this game as it will prove to be an interesting learning experience and challenge for me. Therefore I have set a few goals that I would like to achieve by working on this.
Learn Unreal Engine 5
Make the Game interesting.
Create a Polished Game with a polished store front etc.
Improve the Visuals
Learning Unreal Engine is important for me as it will allow me to diversify my knowledge, many jobs now require experience with Unreal Engine and practising will make myself more employable.
I chose to say interesting as I don’t necessarily think it is a “fun” game as it is more of a narrative experience. However, it will provide a challenge to make it interesting as I have to rely on the visuals, the story, the ambience and the level design to make the game interesting since there aren’t many mechanics.
Creating a polished game with a polished store front is important to me as I believe that the polishing process is invaluable to create an enjoyable experience. In addition, one of the reasons why I most likely don’t get that many downloads on my games on Itch.io is most likely due to the lack of an interesting store/game page. Creating basic but appealing art assets for the store page will help make the games look more polished and enticing.
I am not an artist by any means. I am a game designer. However, visual cohesion was definitely an issue with this game. Whilst the visuals don’t have to be incredible and high quality, I would at least like them to be relatively pleasant to look at.
Over the next few weeks, I will be posting regular updates on the games development, the design behind it, what I have learnt and any issues encountered.
