Throughout this project I have developed and learnt many new skills such as using substance and unreal to give my textures a bit more realism. This has been extremely important in making my map look the best it possibly can, which is evident in my final result. I would like to improve more on my level design theory though, In which how I can lead the player around the map with small hints from the assets itself. For example, to lead the player towards my ventilation system I added some ivy and dirt around the entrance that stood out so that the player would look at it and venture towards it. In order to make improvements in future projects the following actions would really help me  differently, I would manage my time a lot better and spend less time on some things that weren't as important such as making some assets that I eventually scrapped so that I would have time to create another storage room. That I never actually got to create.

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There was a couple pieces of inspiration that comes to mind when I think about my original idea, such as the film "Ratatouille" and my liking of the game "Grounded". My goal was to create a map that merged these 2 inspirations. Grounded was a perfect inspiration when first looking at this idea. By the player being extremely small you can pay more attention to the details of the map that may not stand out if you were a lot smaller. Such as smaller items or insects. But also the textures as they need to be a lot higher resolution so that the player does not see them as blurry. This could effect their experience walking through the map. I felt that I have managed to create a final product very close to my original intentions. Although the map may not be the same of what I originally designed, but everything else is exactly how I wanted it to be. Ran down and dirty was the key aspect it bringing this map to life. In which I feel that I succeeded in that. The textures were the key to that. That's why substance was needed when making this map come to life. Because of the research I did along the way, I now have a way better understanding of the genre of my game now that my project is done. Technically, I now know 2 programs better than I did before the project in the from of Unreal and Substance Painter. I can now effectively texture to high quality and place them as I want into Unreal. Theoretically I now understand a lot more about level theory and color theory and how they can effect a players experience a lot even if they don't sound so important.  Level theory has shown me how to lead a player throughout the map by only showing the player things. Such as a eye catching poster or scratches on doors that you are supposed to go towards. 

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I decided that I needed to do a lot of research into this genre of game and assets that I have in it, mostly because I wasn't familiar with some of the topics that I explored throughout. When choosing what I needed to research I had a look at what aspects I had the least amount of knowledge on. Such as different kitchen layouts and bugs you may find in one. So to help facilitate these ideas I looked into Arachnophobia and did some primary research on the actual college kitchen. I would say that my research was thorough enough because I covered every main topic that may be included in a game like this. Such as weapons map design and enemies. My primary and secondary research really influenced my production more than I thought it would. Because of the amount of research that I did into kitchen it equipment, making assets became a lot easier as I had a lot of images and references to work from. This is all thanks to me visiting the college kitchen and taking photos for myself. Secondary research on the other hand helped me place everything in the right place. By this I mean, I learnt how to create a path for the player by placing assets in the right place for the player to climb. One of the best outcomes of this research is that it allowed me to create something entirely new by building on the information and work of others. For example, as I took a lot of references from games such as Grounded, I built on the idea of the smaller scale but adapted it to a kitchen. Creating a whole new project that I had never seen before.

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I have learnt many practical skills throughout this project, by utilizing Substance Painter and Unreal Engine I was able to create some very realistic assets and textures that make the level come to life. These skills will really help me in the future as I can now use substance for every time I wanna texture a asset and unreal for making the actual level or game playable. This also opens up the door for me to improve on these skills now I know how to use this software's. Making my work even better in the future. I utilized the resources around me extremely well, for example, I started messing around with substance painter originally and saw how good it was for texturing assets compared to Unreal Engines already made textures or texturing in 3DS Max. Then that moved onto using Substance for every asset that I had created, which is the reason why all my textures are so high quality.

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I feel that my practical skills that I had developed throughout this project really helped me create a product suitable for its genre. By learning Substance Painter and Unreal engine so that I could make a functional map, it overall made the quality of my work so much better. Research wise because I did exact research into the scale of the character when they are around a environment, It became so much easier when importing all of models into the right place so that the player could climb up them effectively. But also my research into colour theory and colour pallets helped me immerse then player. By having a good color scheme that matches, it helps add more depth to the level so everything matches. My most valued development has got to be substance painter, this software allowed me to accurately texture every single one of my models so that they all look as realistic as possible. That was the key to making this map come to life. 

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The ongoing reflection has really helped me see what I have done right throughout my project, such as my primary and secondary research. Because of my primary research into a actual kitchen, I was able to re create a lot of the items that I found. What made this process easier was that I could get more angles of the item I was looking at so that I could get a way better perspective when it came to modelling. I was able to really manage my project well because of this, knowing that I was always on track because of my research and saving me a lot more effort in the long run as I didn't need to find a ton more reference images. My standards also stayed very high during this project, which is evident in all of my assets because of the quality of the textures. But also this reflection has really helped me interpret information and analyse my own performance extremely well. I took notice to my time management throughout this project and noticed that I may of put a lot of time into less important items such as smaller items instead of working on my ventilation system that took way longer than I originally expected. But also I had some other problems with my decals and creating dirt for the floor and walls. This problem took me even longer to fix as nothing seemed to be working. But after spending a lot of time researching and trying to figure out what the problem was, I finally found the solution.

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When it comes to my final product and outcome, I may of changed some of the aspects of my original proposal form but I feel that it worked out for the better as the overall quality of my assets improved. The strengths that really stood out had to be my texturing. Due to me starting to learn Substance Painter at the beginning of this project, it really helped improve the overall quality of my work. Because they all happened to be 4K textures once I had moved them from Substance to Unreal, you could really see the detail up close as the player. But with strengths there always comes weaknesses and things I can always improve on. Such as map design, art , time management and mechanics. When talking about my map design, I felt that I could of created a better layout for my map if I had better time management throughout the project. As my original design had a storage room and a walk in freezer that I didn't get to add. Moving on to art, as I'm not the strongest when it comes to art and drawing. I focused more on the 3D Modelling and texturing more than anything else, which I feel that it was the correct decision as my final outcome really reflects the hard work I put into my assets. Last on my list of weaknesses that I found while writing this evaluation is that my mechanics were very basic, I may be only focusing on the map that I had created but It would of been good to add maybe a crouch mechanic or some audio or maybe a inventory system if I had managed my time a lot better. I think the biggest change that I made that effected my final product quite a lot had to be the map layout. Throughout the project I struggled to fill a lot of empty space around my map. Only a certain amount of items duplicated can get you so far. So I had to find another way to make sure that my map didn't look extremely empty. That's when the idea of creating a small door that the player could not enter but only just see through went through my mind. Not only does this allow me to add another asset to my game and fill up a ton of empty space, but I was also able to add a extra couple walls so that the room isn't entirely a square or a rectangle but it now has angles that the player can walk around and jump around freely. This has got to be a positive as I see no negatives in any of these decisions. I would 100% argue that my final project was perfectly suited for its intended audience, mainly because I acted on all of the feedback that I was given during my play test and my original survey. So that the player feels like they influenced the production of my map. Making the play testing and the survey that I first released was a key part of what made this map the best it could be. I am very glad with the response from the audience about my final product as it shows that I was doing the right thing throughout the project. By listening to my audience and implementing changes, I suited my map even more to my audience.

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At the start of this unit, I was only really familiar with 3DS Max and that was really it, but I decided to learn unreal bit better and start using substance, which was a very good decision as it made my work so much easier. Compared to my SWOT analysis earlier on in the project, I have worked on my drawing a bit more as I got some good concept art and original sketches before I moved onto 3D Modelling. Meaning I have learnt 2 software's and how to manage my time a lot better. Moving forwards I would like to develop my Unreal skills and learn how to implement game systems and add some game mechanics for the player to use.