This project was done in collaboration with Safe in Our World and Steven Coltart. I am so happy with how Safe in Our World worked out. I learned a lot overdoing it and found a passion for tech art which I now want to take forward into the future. From this, I think I will redirect my projects in the future to showcase more of the work I want to accomplish and the career I want to have in the future.

For safe in our world I decided that I didn’t want to create a game that just talks about mental health, but I wanted to make a game to help people; offering a fun and tranquil experience giving a sense of freedom that is an extended metaphor for each of our journeys. A key theme I want my game to grant a player is serenity. Serenity is a calm and untroubled peace, which I think is extremely lacking in the modern world.

Because of its metaphor, I decided to call my game Quintessence, meaning the intrinsic and central constituents of something’s character. In how I view this, it is comparable to a spirit or soul but without religious or spiritual connotations, instead being a universal idea that can be shared by everyone.

Early Game Design

For the game design of the game, I decided to make the player an ethereal bird that can fly through the level. I created the controls to be as bird-like as possible while not making it too difficult to fly. The controls I chose were W and S to determine forward speed, A and D to strafe from side to side CTRL to lower the bird, and space to raise the bird, also using arrow keys or mouse to rotate the camera around the bird.

Where I Am Now?

Recently I have been developing new skills in Unreal Engine that are geared more towards level design which is not something I plan to do in the industry though it is good in terms of practise and indie development. The reason is Game Developers often have to do more than one job role in an Indie studio, such as doing level design as a Game Developer.

I have found it interesting how the terrain and foliage tools work in Unreal but there is another area I have learned that I have found much more interesting.

Tech Art

I had not done much tech art inside of Unreal before this project but I can say that I found it extremely interesting and enjoyable learning and creating things in tech art. Learning the Niagara particle system and the way Unreal materials work on an advanced level has been extremely insightful and I look forward to using these skills later down the line.

Doing this has given me some inspiration going forward and I may try to go into this as a career in the future.