BLACK CHANNEL (2020)
Game - Unreal Engine 4
Synopsis
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Black Channel is a 3D first person sci-fi horror game. On the edge of the Boötes Void, you play as Markus, a search and rescue recruit, as he repairs, explores, and completes missions aboard his deep space craft and gets acquainted with the ship’s A.I., sarOS. Together, you search within the infamous ‘Black Channel’, a Bermuda Triangle-like area of the void, for spacecraft that go missing under strange circumstances.
As you explore his ship, you interact with belongings, audio-logs, and black boxes from previous rescue pilots that piece together a mystery revealing eldritch entities that exist within the void. Encounters with these entities leave Markus’s sanity shattered, while an uncaring sarOS convinces him to join the pilots who came before him in their fate worse than death.
Brief - Matt Grainger
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Students will design, develop, and produce a complete game, specifically engaging with the development of a robust non-linear narrative. Students will design game- play that is exciting and balanced, underpinned by strong narrative foundation that highlights character, theme and story-based concept.
Personal Contribution to the Project
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As the Lead VFX Artist on Black Channel, I was responsible for creating or managing the creation of all the visual effects in the game. Later on in the project I had 2 sets of extra hands helping me, these two individuals were (at the time) second year students that I was supervising which was an enriching experience. I really enjoyed working on this project as it was a challenge for me - having never worked in a game engine before.
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For this project, all the skills I learned were self taught. I used Unreal Engine's built in softwares, Niagara and Cascade, as well as the Material Editor to achieve most of the effects. Not all the work I did made it into the final product, which tends to happen in this industry. Work I did created that did make it in is summarised in this list below:
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Custom space skybox
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Airlock Disinfectant Spray
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Airlock Shower Rain
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Hyper Speed Effect
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Boötes Void Effect
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Shooting Stars
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Ambient Particles
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Door Steam
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Vent Steam
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Engine Steam
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Ambient Fog
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Electrical Smoke
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Electrical Sparks
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Engine Heat
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Siren Alarm Light
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Water Tank
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Entity Effects
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Lava Lamp
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Goopy Flesh Effect
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Plant Mist
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Blood Leak Effect
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Blood Drip Effect
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Lots of different Decals (scratches, blood, guiding lines, room labels)