Adding Consumable Loot

Today in Unreal Engine we looked at creating useful loot which drops after a target is killed.

To do this we created a new blueprint actor which we called loot and assigned any static mesh as a placeholder, we then added a collision box which allows it to interact with the player. From here we accessed its blueprints to tell it to add 30 to the players max ammo when it is walked over and then to destroy itself.

To make it drop from the target we opened the targets blueprints and created the string of code that when its destroyed it will drop the loot in the air in a random direction.

Texturing In Maya Using Gradients

Creating my gradient –

First of all I had to create my gradient which I will use for the colors of my tree. I started by created a canvas 256 x 256 pixels wide and long and using the gradient tool to create a brown and green gradient. The bottom pegs of the gradient menu are to change the color and the top are for opacity. Once done I placed my gradient on my canvas and saved it as a JPEG.

Using my gradient to texture the tree –

To do this I opened the tree file and then selected the object and pressed the “Display Hypershade Window” button which opened the materials of the object, I selected Lambert 1 and then opened the wire map, I added a file to it which was my gradient and then had to connect the file wire to the objects wire map, to do this i dragged the out pin to the color pin of my object.

This gave it the colors but they were not correctly aligned.

To align them I opened my uv map, selected the trunk of the tree and selected planar on the UV tab, this then allowed me to drag the UV map of the trunk into the brown part of the gradient which then made the trunk brown,

I repeated this for each bunch on top of the tree to make them green with the top part being lighter than the others to create the effect of a light source impacting the object.

This is what it looked like when I had finished.

Trends

Today in Game Theory we looked at popular trends in the gaming industry in the last 5 years so that we can compare to our own ideas to see what people will enjoy and make sure the ideas are not out of date.

I created a mind map to help to visualize this process.

Creating A Custom Health Bar.

Today I created my own health bar which is in the shape of a heart, to do this I used photo shop to create an outline and a fill image of the heart which would gradually go from fill to outline depending on the damage you take, I saved my images as PNG’s with hidden backgrounds so that it is transparent once I imported it to Unreal Engine.

This is my completed health bar in game.

Creating My Own Character In Unreal Engine.

The First Person Camera –

I placed a camera where the players head will be to create the first person perspective view, this will control what the player sees.

Input (Action/Axis Mappings) –

Here I created binds to all character controls, movement being action mappings and view being axis as it uses the mouse.

 

Pixel Art

Pixel Art is digital art which is created using individual pixels, usually in very small canvases (16×16, 32×32, 64×64 etc) which are square. It is usually less detailed compared to other art forms as there is not much room for added details when comparing to  other forms of graphics.

Terraria is a more cartoony take on pixel art as it has thicker black borders around the environment and objects and brighter colors which give a more lighthearted and casual feel to the game.

If we compare this to 3D graphics on Battlefield 1 we can clearly see the difference between the art styles, one being far more realistic and a lot more expensive to create.

Game developers might choose to use pixel art for their games as it is a very unique art style and it is quicker to design and create. It is also a nostalgic art style as many older games used purely pixel art graphics, such as golden axe. It is also cheaper to create than 3D graphics.

Here is an example of a pixel-art heart that I made –

To create this I created a new canvas which is 16 x 16 pixels to create a square. I then created a new layer to create my heart outline. Once this was done I cleared overlapping pixels to give it a thinner look and created a new layer where I colored the heart in red, from here I used different tones of red to give my heart shading.

 

Types Of Research

There are 4 main types of research: Primary and Secondary; Qualitative and Quantitative.

Primary research is research that you carry out yourself which involves gathering new data that has not been collected before. For example, surveys using questionnaires or interviews.

Secondary research is information that has been previously collected which can be obtained for your own use, e.g an online survey.

Qualitative research is research using words such as interviews and questionnaires; Quantitative research uses numbers such as graphs and charts.

An advantage of using primary research is that it is your own and it is new which represents latest trends.

Secondary research is cheaper but may be outdated or redundant. This means that it could be wrong.

Qualitative research is more in depth and gives you a better idea of consumer demands.

Quantitative is quicker to collect and gives you a general idea of consumer needs.

To utilize these methods of research I will see how other video game developers resolve certain issues and look at special features of their game and take “inspiration” from their ideas. I will also look at the game reviews to see what worked well and what people disliked about the game.

This would be qualitative and quantitative research because I can check % of positive reviews compared to negative and read what peoples feedback are then I will use their reviews to improve my own game.

Creating My Blueprint Actor and Working Flashlight In Unreal Engine 4 (Horror Game Part 2)

Battery Actor and Blueprint –

This is my Battery actor and blueprint, every time the character collects the battery it will disappear and add 0.4% battery life to the torch to a maximum of 1.0.

I added a box collision the the static mesh which then triggers the set of blueprints when the first person character enters it.

Working Flashlight Blueprint –

I added a spotlight component to my first person player to give my flashlight the actual light. It works on the basis of battery life, if it reaches 0.0 the torch will not function. The blueprints will check over the amount of life left to determine if the torch will turn on or not.

I set it to use the F key to toggle on or off.

Creating Static Meshes For My Horror Game

Today I used maya to create 3 assets for my horror game, a flashlight; battery and a collectible item.

Flashlight –

To create this I used a cylinder and extruded it to give the base and duplicated the shape and shortened/ widened it to create the rubber handle. To create the switch I used a cube and extruded it into a rectangle and then rotated another cube to make the actual switch.

To texture it I selected the parts I wanted to texture and applied new material which for the grip I used lambert but for the switch I used Blinn.

Battery –

To create the battery I used the cylinder tool to create the body of the battery and duplicated then resized it to create the top part. To texture it I selected the shape and assigned new material then selected lambert. From here I selected the color and changed it to file, I had downloaded a battery label so I used this and applied it. I then generated a UV map to reshape it to fit my model.

My Collectible (Paper) –

For this I reshaped a cube to be tall and thin and applied an old page texture using lambert.