Neon City

The Multiplayer Tank Game

'Neon City' is a small diorama environment, set in the slightly near future in a part of a city. I created this project during my 3rd year at Glasgow School of Art, the main purpose of this project was to create a multiplayer tank shooter and implement multiple 'destructible' objects within the environment. The main inspirations of this project were Batman: Arkham Knight (Rocksteady Studios) with the aesthetics being inspired by the colour schemes from the movie Nerve (2016).



Genre: Tank, Shooter, Multiplayer
Engine: Unity
Development Period: Approx 9 weeks
Platform: PC

Art Direction

The Neon City

For the environment, I wanted to create a sort of cramped small city-like area for the cars to go around that was strongly lit by the neon lights of the streets.
I heavily drew inspiration from a multitude of films, games and music videos that all, at somepoint, used 2-tone neon lighting in their visuals, with all of them commonly using blue and pink.
My intention was to combine the streets from something like Arkham Knight (Rocksteady Studios), with the bright neon lighting from medias released at the time of this project.

Here is the moodboard i created at the time, depicting different medias of which i drew inspiration for the design for this project.



When it came to designing the vehicle that the players would be controlling, I thought a lot about the movie franchise Death Race (2008) and the way that the vehicles in these movies were made. Having different types of weaponry attached to the front and rears of the cars and also having metal plating welded to the car acting as an armour, protecting the drivers from bullets and other types of damage.
Combining this style of vehicle with a slightly futuristic vibe that would be better suited to the neon environment that I was creating.
Growing up, I had a real soft spot for the Ford Mustang due to playing Need For Speed: Most Wanted (EA Black Box) as I thought it was a really cool car and I still do think it is nice looking, so I wanted to use that car as the base of my vehicle. Coincidentally it was also the protagonist's vehicle in Death Race (2008).

Here are some images that I had collected for inspiration for the vehicle I designed.



This is the final outcome of the vehicle that I created.

Documentation

Simulation

For the Destruction Elements of this project I look at MassFX and Tyflow in 3DS Max to create them. After playing around with them i settled on using Tyflow for this project. I wanted the diorama to be on a small island I looked at water simulation and potentially having water effects in one of the destructibles.



I tried a couple of ways to animate waves for the project, initially playing around with Fluids in 3DS Max and learning how to simulate water with the tools available to me within the program. I eventually settled on using a noise modifier on a plane and animating it that way to create an ocean for the project. While I may not have used any of the water simulation tools to create the ocean in the end, at least I now learned about them and how to use them.

This is how the ocean ended up looking in the project.

Destruction

One of the main purposes of this project was creating Destructible elements in the environment. So I began thinking of ways that I could tie destructibility into my environment that would make sense.

Here is concept of the destructible objects that I came up with.

For the destructible side of the project, I used the plug-in Tyflow to help me create them. Using the GUI Editor in Tyflow, I began to experiment with how I could create each type of destructible and then trying to improve them by using Surface Test and Time Test to have multiple "events" in one animation to further increase the quality of the destruction.



Here you can see a Pre Vis for my Brick Wall fracture and also the events system that is behind the animation. Using a Surface Test to select a certain area of the wall to be destroyed and then also having a Time Test so that the bricks will fracture into smaller pieces after a set time to make it look like they are breaking apart when they hit the ground.

Below is a short Destruction Reel that I made, showing off the different types of destructions I had created.

Assets

Due to the scale of the island that I wanted to create, I felt that creating a modular environment would be the best way for me to be able to create a larger environment and also still be able to complete all of the other aspects of the project within the deadline that was set for me.
Creating slightly different building pieces I was able to create this larger environment without it feeling too repetitive.
This was the asset list for the project.

Asset List
Barrier	Benches	Bins
Building (Long)	Building (Short)	Building (Square)
Gas Pumps	Gas Station	Highway
Island	Ocean	Parking Garage
Road Types	Ramp for Highway	Signs
Streetlights	Tank	Walls

Unity Implementation

Creating the Unity Project

In parallel to the creation of the models for this project, I was simulataneously working on the Unity side of the project in small amounts. I began with creating a character controller for the Tank that gave the feeling of driving. Next adding projectiles that would be fired from the rear of the car that would be the way for players to inflict damage upon each other.

Once I reached a stage that I was happy with the environment and also the animations for the destructions, I then began importing everything into Unity. My first steps were to make sure that all of the objects were properly textured and in the correct places. I then began to import the animations for the destructions. Encountering a few issues with the Alembic files appearing correctly in Unity that I had to fix.

I used the plug-in, Mirror Networking, for the multiplayer side of things as this allowed me to test the game as I worked on it easily, using a different window for each player.

Self-Reflection

Areas that I believe that I did well on during the process of this project;

For every project that I create, I always aim to create or learn something new during the process. For me I feel that I really achieved that with this project. Due to classes and my own interests, I managed to learn about multiple areas, from modelling a vehicle, to different ways for simulating water, to using plug-ins in 3DS Max, and also creating a larger environment using a modular workflow. Finding new ways to work and improving my skills in different areas is something I find really enjoyable.

With this project at the start of 3rd year one of my goals was to become more organised and plan ahead better, I began to actively learn from my mistakes and began using Gantt Charts to help me become a more orgainised individual.

(While I did find Gantt to be useful, I would later switch to HacknPlan as I felt for me personally, it was a lot easier to read and digest what tasks needed to be completed and also helps with motivation as moving tasks into the completed section helps me see the progress I am making, even if in the project it doesn't look like I have made much visual progress.)

When planning this Gantt Chart, I had left a week at the end of the 9 weeks empty in case there were any setbacks, which in this case there was as I was sick. Thankfully due to my improved planning I was still able to deliver this project in time due to planning ahead.

While it may not be representative of my current level of work, at the time, I was really proud of how the Tank turned out for this project as it was my first time attempting to model a car of any sorts. In order not to go over the hours that I had set out for creating the Tank, I spent extra time later at night working on it, as well as over a couple of weekends too, making sure I was completing other tasks and staying on schedule during the days. I like to hold myself to high standards when it comes to the creation of my projects as my work is incredibly valuable to me.

These are some areas that I believe I could improve upon.

Due to my desire to create a high standard of modelling I sometimes let it take priority over equally important parts of the project, such as the coding side of the projects. This tends to lead to the Unity side feeling a little basic in comparison. However I am working on improving my division of work and applying my high standard of modelling towards my coding too.
Taking these steps will allow me improve the quality of my Unity projects, making sure that I take the time to test and debug them, allow me time to implement UI and other quality of life things to my projects.

I sometimes find it difficult to ask for help with coding as to not be a burden even though asking for this help would allow me to finish an assignment more effeciently.
Because of this it can lead to my Unity projects being completed to a lesser standard than I would like. I am trying to be better at coming forth and asking for help with coding as well as taking time out of my nights to try and become a better coder overall to help improve the standard of my work.

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