About Dons Through the Ages
Dons Through the Ages is a proof of concept prototype produced for the ML-AR project. This project was funded by the Southampton Institute of Arts and Humanities, in collaboration with Wimbledon FC Museum. It aims to provide players a historical penalty shootout game based around Wimbledon Football Clubs top goal keepers. The project is a blend of machine learning and smart adapting gameplay, and is playable in AR. This project was only meant to be a prototype to test the idea and see how it worked, therefore, in the time we had we only produced three of the nine levels I designed. This idea was generated with the intention of being used as a playable exhibit in the Wimbledon FC History Museum.
Players would play this game in AR, projecting a goal, a small section of the stadium and the goalie in front. Using their finger players would swipe to try and shoot and score. If players are constantly shooting in the same direction, the game adapts and the goalie would dive and save those shots, this was done to increase the difficulty of the game and make the goalies harder to best. By having the AI learn which direction the player is more likely to shoot in, based on past levels, the game would be able to become progressively more difficult. This would parallel the history of the club, as the more successful and professional the club became over the years, in theory the harder their keepers would be to best. The last level would be the hardest, where players attempt to beat Hans Seger (arguably their best goal keeper) during a point in the clubs history where they were one of the best teams in the UK.
We also planned to have historical facts accompanying each game. For instance, after playing the first level where the player would shoot against A.S.Bennett, a brief history of the clubs position in the 1920’s would pop up to educate players about the clubs history.
Gallery
Below you will find a gallery showing renders of the models I produced for the game, as well as work in progress snapshots.
My Role in The Dons Through the Ages
When the project started my main role was research and level design, I spent the first couple of weeks learning about the club, in order to understand why they were significant. During this time I learnt about their rise but also their fall. Once the research was complete and the levels were mapped out, I was able to use the references I sourced to model and texture some of the clubs most prominent goal keepers.
Historical research
This research went as far back as 1920 which were the early years of the clubs history. As the club was so small, it was impossible to track down photos of all of the goalies kits. With Wimbledon being as small as it was, not much was documented, however, I was able to pinpoint some images of the general kit the team used. For levels set during this period, I planned to texture the keepers in the teams uniform, with a disclaimer underneath. The goalkeepers that would feature in this game are: A.S.Bennett, Mike Kelly, Dickie Guy, Ray Goddard, Dave Beassant and Hans Seger, all of which I researched thoroughly. With all of these goalies I had to try and source clear enough pictures of their exact kit which they wore whilst playing in some of the most important games in the club’s history
Level Design
Through this research I was able to narrow down the nine most important games in the clubs history. These games were historically significant for varying reasons: either the club rose a rank or won something exceptional. These games were used to build the nine core levels the game had planned to feature. These levels show off the history of the club, starting with the their position in 1920, when Wimbledon came 2nd in the Athenian League and was promoted to the Isthmian League and conclude with the final levels recreating the club winning the FA Cup Final in 1987 and their position in the newly restructured Premier League in 1993 where they were placed 6th, ranking them as one of the best teams in the UK. To design these levels I had to research the stadiums that the club played in in order to get a historically accurate backdrop, as well as what the goalies looked like and wore.
3D Modelling
Most of my time was spent modelling and texturing the characters. This was one of my first attempts at modelling characters, and with the time frame we had, I decided to go for a more stylized look for them. Besides this, I also modelled the backdrop. As the game was playing with AR, the backdrop mostly just needed a goal for the player to shoot for, however I also included a small spot of the pitch as well as a bit of the background stadium to help set the scene.
