lucyngtnarrative - Tumblr blog

[lucyngtnarrative]

Project Evaluation

What Went Well?

With this project, I believe that a lot went well. I was finally able to stick to a proper colour scheme, I kept the pixel art at a proper constant pixel density, and I created my first proper enemy and boss AI alongside a range of other cool new mechanics I had never tried before such as grappling hooks and micromenus. I was also able to show proper use of data tables within the 5 cutscenes I had made for the game and my use of arrays, custom events, and macros to save on unnecessary messy code to keep my blueprints easy to follow and concise.

What Could Have Gone Better?

Like usual, I found myself to be prone to distractions and procrastination during this project. I cannot afford to do this seeing as I can do next to no codework at home due to the poor state of my laptop. I would’ve been able to have a lot more mechanics and content in my game if I had been focusing properly the whole time and doing things such as making quick to-do lists at the start of each day.

Next Time?

In my next project, I will try to distance myself from all distractions as well as possible and work on what I can at home, at home. I can easily do this by setting myself small goals in the form of a to-do list every day I attend college. I find it easier to work when listening to music so I could also set up a nice playlist so I can fully cancel out any background noise and interruption. Overall, this project went very well and I learnt a ton of new skills which I hope to use to a further extent for my next project to be my absolute best work by far.

[lucyngtnarrative]

Making a 2D Boss Fight

To start with, I wanted this fight to be the player’s first proper bout with Hades. I decided to give him a silly mech due to a (now scrapped) plot point. The God of metalworking and crafts, Hephaestus, would be under Hades’ control and would be teaching him how to build his own soldiers without needing to rely on the damned to fight for him. The H4D35 R0B0 Mk I is Hades’ first attempt at creating a piloted soldier. Small details were included in the animations such as Hades falling out of the mech due to it being too big for him and the lack of any safety straps. The mech itself is also literally a washing machine with poorly welded arms and legs attached (which can be seen with a leg falling out of place in a couple attack animations).

[Setting up the boss fight and upcoming attack (which varies with boss phase)]

[Charge attack - Dashes to the player’s location in phase one or a fast dash to either the left or right in phase 2 (always dashes the furthest distance)]

[Jump attack - Jumps above the player before slamming down. Causes shockwaves in phase 2]

[Shockwave attack - Jumps to the center of the arena before Hades jumps up and down on top of the mech to cause 4 sets of shockwaves to shoot out left and right]

[lucyngtnarrative]

Chosen Software

Unreal 2D

I decided to use Unreal Engine 4 to make my project in a 2D mode rather than a 3D mode or something like Unity because I find Unreal in 2D to be vastly easier for me to work with. The blueprint style of coding is a ton easier for me to understand and work with instead of Unity’s C# code. And I much prefer to work in a 2D space rather than a 3D space because I find working with sprites and flipbooks to be so much easier, in terms of creation and animation, than 3D models.

File examples:

.exe

Photoshop

I decided to use Photoshop for my sprite creation and animation as it is the only software I have fully learnt to use and I have grown very accustomed to its quirks and how it works. Using the tools within, I am able to create both simple and detailed spritework and animation which would take me forever with other software which I would be vastly unfamiliar with.

File examples:

.psd (Photoshop Document)

.png

.jpg

.gif

Soundtrap

I decided to use Soundtrap.com to create the music for my project because the site’s studio mode is incredibly similar to Logic Pro X, a piece of advanced music software which I used during my high school Music BTEC.

File examples:

.mp3

.wav

.m4a

Bfxr

I decided to use Bfxr to create sound effects for my project because it is currently the only way that I can think of to achieve the proper bitcrunched sounds that would be produced by a game with the pixel aesthetic that I like to use.

File examples:

.mp3

.wav

[lucyngtnarrative]

Kishotenketsu - GMTK

4 - step level design

Introducing a mechanic in a safe environment

Using the mechanic in a more dangerous situation

Introducing a twist to the mechanic (show it being used in an alternate way)

Show proof of mastery over the mechanic towards the end of the stage

[lucyngtnarrative]

Quicktime Events

QTEs

Quicktime events are typically used in games to provide the player with a sense or feeling of interactivity during a scene or cinematic segment of gameplay which otherwise wouldn’t have any player input at all.

Custom Events

Custom events can be used in blueprints to provide an easy and reusable way to neaten up code and prevent the extensive use of space within the blueprint. They essentially act like macros but can be set and used in the same event graph blueprint or be split between separate blueprints for use with casting, etc.

QTE Setup

(Widget BP)

(Widget Spawner BP)

(Player BP)

Useful To Me?

QTEs likely won’t be useful to me in my current project but knowing how to set one up has the potential to be extremely useful in the future. Custom events are already very useful to me and I have already been using them in previous projects due to their usefulness.

[lucyngtnarrative]

HUD Reworking (Pixel Density)

Before

Looks out of place

Pixels don’t line up properly

Compressed too small for the detail

After

[lucyngtnarrative]

Picking Up Objects in Unreal

Physics Constraints

Physics constraints link together two actors whilst still enabling physics between them. This allows each moving object to move, rotate, and wobble as they realistically would.

Line Tracing

Line tracing spawns an invisible (though it can be visible if you choose it to be for debug-only purposes) line which can detect a hit with a specific object or an array of objects such as a PhysicsBody (which is essentially any object with physics enabled). This hit detection can then be used for a number of things such as laser tripwires causing an alarm to sound, an outline appearing on an object indicating that it can be picked up, an invisible trigger which spawns something behind you for a jumpscare.

Functions

Functions help make code clean, concise, and efficient. They can be reused over and over again and each function contains its own blueprint which greatly helps keep the main Event Graph clean and easy to follow. Functions can also bring output values with them to cross over into the Event Graph.

Our Usage

In my testing, I used all of this to make a connection between a player and a box which allows the box to be picked up, dropped, and thrown at will. 

[lucyngtnarrative]

Midpoint Review

Current Progress

Currently, I have a beginning / introductory stage to the game alongside the first cutscene of the game. I also have two fully animated cute 8x8px characters and the beginning phase of a selectable powerup system.

Next 3 Weeks

For the next 3 weeks, I will do my best to add some more stages to the game, at least one boss fight, and a couple of music tracks. I will also try to finish the powerup system with all of their individual effects and animations.

Doability

Most, if not all, of this will be easily possible in the time I have left though I may have to cast aside minor additions like music so I can have more time to develop this blog.

[lucyngtnarrative]

PEGI

My game will likely end up with a PEGI age rating of 7 due to the mild non-detailed violence and mildly frightful theming of the world the game is set in.

[lucyngtnarrative]

Audience

The audience for my game would be those aged 7 and up (as stated by my likely PEGI rating) and it would be for English speakers only unless I find a way to add more languages to the game. Due to this, my game will be fully aimed and focused towards England and the United States.

The game would be built out to be fully functional on a PC though I would also like to see how much of it would fit on a custom blank GBA cartridge.

[lucyngtnarrative]

.CSV Files and Data Tables

[lucyngtnarrative]

Bug #1 - Moving tile snapping to new location

In this cutscene, at a certain point, the ground is meant to open up. When given the code to run, I expected the object to move left by 0.1 on the x axis and I expected that to happen 160 times. This, in theory, would create a smooth movement effect. However, instead of this, the object instantly snaps to its new location.

Fix Attempt #1 (Fail)

-Switched the AddActorLocalOffset node with a SetActorLocation setup

Fix Attempt #2 (Success)

-Used a float timeline to lerp the object between point A and point B

[lucyngtnarrative]

Visual Inspiration

(Super Mario Bros. - NES)

(Jelpi - PICO-8)

[lucyngtnarrative]

Hades Design

[lucyngtnarrative]

Control Prompts

At points in the very early stages of the game, I thought it may be helpful to place the player in a situation where they need to use a new control or mechanic in order to continue. Here, the player must jump out with the space bar. The prompt above the player appears once the player falls into the small hole. I may remove this later on as anyone to have ever played a game ever knows how to jump.

[lucyngtnarrative]

Olympus Fields Background

[lucyngtnarrative]

Persephone Design