Siderscroller Prototype

This prototype was made as a part of a concept design course at FutureGames. I developed this quick prototype myself in a week and spent the most time with implementing features, scripting UI, and designing the level to showcase the features.

Siderscroller
prototype

Project Details

Genre:

Project length:

Developers:

Game engine:

Responsibilities:

Sidescroller

1 week

Solo

Unreal Engine 4.23

Blueprint Scripting
Game Design

Onboarding

In this brief adventure, called Lux, the player must traverse a broken and bleak world all on their own. The only company and power they have... is a faint trace of light!

Use your "glow trace" to solve puzzles by keeping switches activated while you sneak past an open door. It's a calm and soothing adventure... but an adventure none the less!

Implementing the Glow Trace

The glow trace is a separate entity spawned in the world that can trigger events with objects in the level.

Using the glow trace would initiate several different functions in the game state, so I made use of event dispatchers and the player controller to fire several events at many different places. Here are some effects
that are triggered by using the glowtrace:

Switch camera state focus.
Start a countdown before recalling the glowtrace.
Show some HUD to visualize the countdown.

Go To Glowtrace Function Blueprint

Go To Glowtrace Object Blueprint

During this project I got to learn a lot about the player controller and game mode blueprints, and how to use them efficiently. By having event dispatchers and health in the controller, I could hand these to my healthbar widget with ease. Using these blueprints together made it easy to categorize logic depending on how it should be used.

It also made it easier to 'talk' with other blueprints by making variables and functions more easily accessible, especially for widgets.

Go To Player Controller Blueprint

Go To UI Setup Blueprint

From the pawn, call a function in the player controller

From the controller, call an event in the countdown widget

Finally, bind the event dispatcher in the widget to a widget animation!

How I play a widget animation when I spawn the glowtrace

Camera states and implementation

Since the player can drop off an essential entity in the level, I needed some way for the camera to encompass both the player and the glow trace.

This was an excellent way for me to practice vector math! The code can be found in whole below the image, as well as the math itself down below.

There is an issue if the player strays too far from the glow trace, but most puzzles within the demo can be solved within the normal screenspace, it wasn't too much of an issue. Something to consider if this project would continue development!

Go To Camera Follow Blueprint

Onboarding the feature

For this project I focused on the implementation of the features themselves, so for presenting the features I wanted to design examples of how they could be used in gameplay.

Most of the obstacles were presented in a way that they can't be solved without using the glow trace.

The 'puzzles' aren't particularly hard per se, but they do showcase how the mechanic can be used in different context.

FutureGames (2019 - Current) Game Design Student

FutureGames (2019 - Current) Game Design Student

bobmakesgames@gmail.com

BOBBAN JONSSON

TECHNICAL DESIGNER

This prototype was made as a part of a concept design course at FutureGames. I developed this quick prototype myself in a week and spent the most time with implementing features, scripting UI, and designing the level to showcase the features.

Siderscroller
prototype

Project Details

Genre:

Project length:

Developers:

Game engine:

Responsibilities:

Sidescroller

1 week

Solo

Unreal Engine 4.23

Blueprint Scripting
Game Design

Onboarding

In this brief adventure, called Lux, the player must traverse a broken and bleak world all on their own. The only company and power they have... is a faint trace of light!

Use your "glow trace" to solve puzzles by keeping switches activated while you sneak past an open door. It's a calm and soothing adventure... but an adventure none the less!

Implementing the Glow Trace

The glow trace is a separate entity spawned in the world that can trigger events with objects in the level.

Using the glow trace would initiate several different functions in the game state, so I made use of event dispatchers and the player controller to fire several events at many different places. Here are some effects
that are triggered by using the glowtrace:

Switch camera state focus.

Start a countdown before recalling the glowtrace.

Show some HUD to visualize the countdown.

It also made it easier to 'talk' with other blueprints by making variables and functions more easily accessible, especially for widgets.

From the pawn, call a function in the player controller

From the controller, call an event in the countdown widget

Finally, bind the event dispatcher in the widget to a widget animation!

How I play a widget animation when I spawn the glowtrace

Camera states and implementation

Since the player can drop off an essential entity in the level, I needed some way for the camera to encompass both the player and the glow trace.

This was an excellent way for me to practice vector math! The code can be found in whole below the image, as well as the math itself down below.

There is an issue if the player strays too far from the glow trace, but most puzzles within the demo can be solved within the normal screenspace, it wasn't too much of an issue. Something to consider if this project would continue development!

For this project I focused on the implementation of the features themselves, so for presenting the features I wanted to design examples of how they could be used in gameplay.

Most of the obstacles were presented in a way that they can't be solved without using the glow trace.

The 'puzzles' aren't particularly hard per se, but they do showcase how the mechanic can be used in different context.

This prototype was made as a part of a concept design course at FutureGames. I developed this quick prototype myself in a week and spent the most time with implementing features, scripting UI, and designing the level to showcase the features.

​

Project Details

Genre:

Project length:

Developers:

Game engine:

​

Responsibilities:

Sidescroller

1 week

Solo

Unreal Engine 4.23

​

Blueprint Scripting Game Design

Onboarding

In this brief adventure, called Lux, the player must traverse a broken and bleak world all on their own. The only company and power they have... is a faint trace of light!

​

Use your "glow trace" to solve puzzles by keeping switches activated while you sneak past an open door. It's a calm and soothing adventure... but an adventure none the less!

Implementing the Glow Trace

The glow trace is a separate entity spawned in the world that can trigger events with objects in the level.

​

Using the glow trace would initiate several different functions in the game state, so I made use of event dispatchers and the player controller to fire several events at many different places. Here are some effects that are triggered by using the glowtrace:

Switch camera state focus.

Start a countdown before recalling the glowtrace.

Show some HUD to visualize the countdown.

It also made it easier to 'talk' with other blueprints by making variables and functions more easily accessible, especially for widgets.

From the pawn, call a function in the player controller

From the controller, call an event in the countdown widget

Finally, bind the event dispatcher in the widget to a widget animation!

How I play a widget animation when I spawn the glowtrace

Camera states and implementation

Since the player can drop off an essential entity in the level, I needed some way for the camera to encompass both the player and the glow trace.

​

This was an excellent way for me to practice vector math! The code can be found in whole below the image, as well as the math itself down below.

​

There is an issue if the player strays too far from the glow trace, but most puzzles within the demo can be solved within the normal screenspace, it wasn't too much of an issue. Something to consider if this project would continue development!

For this project I focused on the implementation of the features themselves, so for presenting the features I wanted to design examples of how they could be used in gameplay.

​

Most of the obstacles were presented in a way that they can't be solved without using the glow trace.

The 'puzzles' aren't particularly hard per se, but they do showcase how the mechanic can be used in different context.

Siderscroller
prototype

Blueprint Scripting
Game Design

Using the glow trace would initiate several different functions in the game state, so I made use of event dispatchers and the player controller to fire several events at many different places. Here are some effects
that are triggered by using the glowtrace: