A Look Inside: The Druid's Reckoning
Level of Education of Students Involved
Undergraduate
Faculty Sponsor
Nicholas Rosasco
College
Arts and Sciences
Discipline(s)
Computer Science
ORCID Identifier(s)
Biancardi ORCID: 0009-0001-2047-1091; Brown ORCID: 0009-0005-9216-9763; Moran ORCID: 0009-0007-5990-4687; Aponbiede ORCID: 0009-0003-1489-3022
Presentation Type
Poster Presentation
Symposium Date
Spring 4-27-2023
Abstract
This project is the development of a video game based on the written narrative provided by our clients, who engaged in a semester-long design process through the ENGL 280: Writing RPGs (Role Playing Games) course. Using an agile development approach and in close partnership with the storytelling team, a fully 3D and immersive game experience was produced that brings the story to life, incorporating genre-specific language and user decision making. The playable environment was built with Unreal Engine 5 (UE5) and existing visual asset libraries, which enabled the team to quickly build prototypes and extend previously created work. The decision to leverage those tools enabled the team to both rapidly prototype and reach a higher quality deliverable by avoiding unnecessary detail creation. This created a tradeoff in time utilization because additional effort was needed to master the platform and ecosystem. Once this was accomplished we were able to maintain regular dialogue with the storytelling team in order to capture the mood and narrative fully. The constraints of the timeframe placed some limits on reworking aspects as the collaboration developed, but a full demo that is interesting and visually appealing was created.
Recommended Citation
Aponbiede, Martha; Biancardi, Travis; Brown, Nicole; and Moran, Aiden, "A Look Inside: The Druid's Reckoning" (2023). Symposium on Undergraduate Research and Creative Expression (SOURCE). 1175.
https://scholar.valpo.edu/cus/1175
Biographical Information about Author(s)
Aponbiede, Moran, Biancardi, and Brown are Computer Science and Engineering professors. We picked this project because we shared a passion for game development and wanted to put our skills to good use.