Project: Unreal Engine (University Project)
Role: Designer, Programmer, Cinematics
About
This project was to create a top down shooter game with a rough 20 – 30 minutes play time from beginning to end but also to include some replay-ability. To spice things up a little a decided to include some metroidvania style mechanics where the player can only reach certain areas and secrets once they had unlocked new abilities as they progress. I also had to create an accompanying trailer to showcase the game’s story and mechanics which can be seen above.
Skills Used
Unreal Engine Blueprints
Level, mechanic and tech design
Cinematography
Table of Contents
Game Documentation
Below is a PDF of the game’s documentation, click the two arrows pointing right on the right hand side of the box to bring up the tools menu and select presentation mode for better viewing.
I started off by opening up the framework given in the Unreal engine and having a play around with the core gameplay mechanics, just to get a feel for how the game played.
Next I went through each video provided by the course leader presenting demonstrations on how to use the framework and what could easily be tweaked to my own specifications. While I was watching these videos I realised that this task was going to be a difficult one and I would need to pay extra attention to the scope of the project, what I could technically do, how long it would take to add blueprints, change textures etc and still meet the deadlines.
The framework was a top down shooter, when researching this genre I picked out a few of my favourites:
I could see that they have a few things in common with each other besides the genre. One of these things is that they are all fairly fast paced, meaning the player will have to react quickly in order to avoid damage and to rack up points towards their score. Another thing in common is that the player has access to different weapons and is able to upgrade them in two of the games. They also have a unique graphical style which sets them apart from one another. Each game seems to have a rhythm involved when playing, it is difficult to pick up and play these games and master them. It involves a warm up through the levels and a rhythm to start racking up your score. These games could also be considered quite difficult for the casual gamer and seem to be aimed more towards established fans of the genre, this is something I took into consideration when balancing the game. One last thing I took note of was the replay-ability, which also came back to the scoring system. These are all things I considered when coming up with a concept for my game.
Concept ideas
Idea 1 – The Blob
This idea stemmed from games such as Mutant Blobs Attack and Touch my Katamari, where the player is a ball/blob and can move around the environment slowly gaining size as items are picked up: