Game Jam

During Game Jam I worked in a team of 5 on a game centered around the theme of Boiling Point. The game was also required to utilize a fixed camera.

For our game, we decided on creating a small scalextric style racing game named Pace Race. The game would use a temperature mechanic where the car's speed would have to be managed to prevent from blowing up. Pick-ups and simply "pacing" yourself prevent the car from heating up too much, with an array of obstacles reinforcing this mechanic more so.

My job within the team was asset creation and particle effect creation with more emphasis on the former due to time constraints. I felt like deciding on the assets as a team and going ahead and creating was much more time efficient than concepting every single asset out beforehand.

I worked closely with our programmer to create certain dynamic events in the game such as the spawning deer and barricades. I produced a lot of misc scenery for the environment as well.

During development, we ran into a few issues regarding polycount on a few boulders which were easily fixed using zRemesher within zBrush.

Below are in-engine renders of the assets I created:













And here are the particle effects I created for the game:




    

   

End of project character

This is as far as I could get with features in the allocated time due to each new feature added causing countless amounts of bugs and breaking of other mechanics. I would have liked to add a few more maneuvering options for the player but just trying to implement a dash feature without other things breaking was a nightmare!

I would also have liked to flesh out the shooting mechanics more and perhaps make the character move in a lane based system rather than free form moving, this would have allowed me to make the game even faster and not have to worry too much about level errors with spawning (which is what is happening right now)

I am also having problems with my menus and gameover screen as when the game starts, my characters life drains even when they have not spawned, causing an instant death? On top of that, lives dont actually save with each level restart so you can never truely get a game over. Score also restarts, which I want to keep going until you run out of lives at which point it saves. No luck with any of that yet.

Post-Process

To get the ultraviolet colour scheme for my game I have decided to create a post process system based off a cell shading blueprint to allow for certain colours to be replaced with colours of my choice.



This is the completed post process after some trial and error, although I will probably make the colours a little higher in contrast to make them pop more. This system means I can spend more time coding without having to worry about textures for objects too much while giving me the effect I wanted in the first place!

Here are some cool additional effects I managed to produce, I may utilize these in a sort of random event system that could occur, or maybe side effects to picking up certain powerups?

Procedural level

These are all the blueprints for allowing me to create a procedural level within UE4. I followed this tutorial: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLZlv_N0_O1gbY4FN8pZuEPVC9PzQThNn1



This is my floor tile. I wanted to create something of a tunnel that would free the player of distractions as I want my game to be quite fast paced and reliant on reactions as well as split second decision making. I added collision boxes to prevent the player from jumping out of the lane and attach points for item spawning and obstacles.



Sticking with the retro theme I have decided to keep my item as basic as a cube, simple and easy to recognize and with a rotation component will keep the players attention at all times! I hope to set up a health system so that upon collecting these cubes the player will gain health/energy.

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Blueprints for my item! Featuring a health system just like I always wanted!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Setting up my character.

I set up my character to run automatically when the game starts as per an endless runner game, while setting up a corner turning system that will allow my character to turn 90 degrees at specific corners and points in the game.

Input settings within my project, I want to keep the controls for my game relatively simple and familiar to allow players to easily pick up and play the game.

My overall game idea has since changed slightly, i've decided to scrap the rhythm based mechanic and instead focus on shooter elements for my game. I will also build upon my desire to create some form of retro style for the game and keep an ultraviolet colour scheme throughout the game world. Instead of funky electronic music I will also opt for a rather eerie drone and retro sound effects to add some character to the rather cavernous and dingy colour scheme.