ashtonfmp2

[ashtonfmp2]

Extra minigame ideas

If I get round to making more minigames, I'll add a random system to pick a minigame. The next minigame idea would be to pop the balloon on the opponent's back using spikes on the front of your vehicle. Speed and turning could stay the same whereas offence would increase the size of the spikes on the front of your vehicle whereas defense could make your balloon smaller, making it harder to hit. If you get hit on your side, I could make it spin you a bit making your back vulnerable. Weight could decrease how long your vulnerable and how far you spin.

Inspiration

This is based on the Mario party 2 minigame, bumper balloon cars. The difference is mine would be a lot larger as the vehicles and arena are much larger then the ones used in the Mario party minigame.

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Models and textures

In my game, the textures and models are the starter content found in unreal engine. The car model is the base car model from the vehicle game template.

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Evaluation

Media and techniques

In my project, I learned about splitscreen, physics bodies and vehicle based games. I wouldn't have been able to figure out split screen or how to use widgets correctly in split screen if I didn't research it. When I came to the conclusion that I would have to have only one mini game at the end, my brain jumped to a mario party minigame called Sumo of Doom-o which is based on sumo so I did research into sumo. I combined that idea with my first game idea I had at the start, a platform fighter like super smash bros or fraymakers, and made a knockback system to work. My game is mainly inspired by the gamecube game Kirby air ride, specifically the city trial mode. This inspired the idea behind the fragments. When making both of these, I had to look into the set velocity node to make them both possible.

Purpose / theme / concept

When I learned about how I couldn't change the max speed or turn rate on the vehicle, I had to think of something quick otherwise my idea wouldn't work at all. I then had to think of a way to move the vehicle that is easily editable. The node set velocity then came to mind so I worked with that. About half way through my project, I realized that I wouldn't be able to add some stuff because of the limited time I had. One example was that I couldn't have multiple final minigames so I had to go with one idea. I then thought back to my first ideas. One being the game I was making and the other was a platform fighter. With this in mind, I made the final minigame a sumo fight inspired by 2d platform fighters. To do this all I needed was some sort of knockback system which included the collectable fragments.

Outcome

I did get to my MVP but I do wish I had some more time to add some more cool stuff. I got an arena complete with hazards for the players to race around in as well as fragments which enhance the vehicle. One thing that I was able to make one day was a way for the vehicle to drive on walls and ceilings. However, I didn't use it as I would have to make a lot of changes to the arena so players would go flying out the top.

Conclusion

Overall, I need better time management and I need to stick to a timetable better as there were some things that I wanted to get done but I didn't have the time to do as I spent too long on the mvp. I could've spent more time working at home in my free time so I could've done things quicker and then moved onto the next thing. Next time I should dedicate an hour or so a day towards my game so I have more time overall to work with. If I did have that spare time, the first idea I would look into would be adding more to the level to make driving on walls and ceilings possible and useful. Another thing I would’ve looked into if I had more time would have been power ups. These wouldn’t enhance the vehicle in the way fragments do but they would've been like items to hit your opponent with similar to mario karts items. I would have also tried to do some sort of drifting system too if I had the chance.

[ashtonfmp2]

Gameplay videos

Due to a round being around 2 minuets long, I've split a video into 3 parts to show the different things.

Start of the game

During the game

Endgame

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Crossout

Crossout is a game where the player builds a vehicle with the intent to attack others and enter in either a pvp mode or a pve mode. The pvp modes are either a team game or a free for all game. In the team game, there are based you must capture to win whereas in the ffa modes you have to be the last player standing or earn the most points depending on the mode.

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Robot wars

Robot wars is a tv series where competitors build robots to compete in challenges against each other. The robot is entirely up to the maker as they could focus on whatever they wanted eg design, speed, power or defense. The arena has hazards such as pits, flamethrowers or areas heavy objects would fall onto from the ceiling.

[ashtonfmp2]

Forza horizon - mini games

Forza horizon 5s event lab is a minigame maker mode where you can set the rules, conditions and events. One example is when you hit a bowling pin, you score points or after a timer, the gravity is reduced etc. with different combinations, hundreds of different mini games are possible.

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Gran Turismo

Gran Turismo is a racing game designed to simulate real life races. One attention to detail is the vehicles as they are based on real world vehicles with a great attention to detail.  The first game in the series took 5 years to develop. In the first two games, the cars were 300 polygons whereas the third and fourth games were 4000 polygons per vehicle. some cars in Gran Turismo 5 have 500000 polygons. They have massive amounts of cars and tracks too with the first game having 140 vehicles and 11 tracks whereas the 5th game has 1074 vehicles and 81 tracks.

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Burnout

Burnout is a racing game series that's mostly known for its “crash” mode. In this mode, you get rewards for doing dangerous things such as getting your opponents to crash. One example of a reward is a speed boost. 

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Visual

I plan to use magicavoxel to make voxel based models for my game. For textures and some objects ill use the default unreal engine content. The power ups and some obstacles will be voxel based whereas the arena floor and walls will just be cubes from unreal engine.

Dragon Quest Builders

One example of non-voxel in a voxel world is Dragon Quest builders. This is a spin off to normal dragon quest games as you can mine build and craft to create your own world.

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Sumo

Sumo is a form of wrestling where the objective is to force the opponent out of the ring. This sport is mostly seen in japan. Its first mentioned back in the year 712 in the kojiki. This describes how  Takemikazuchi and Takeminakata wrestled for possession of the Japanese islands.

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Initial D

Initial D is an anime/manga about illegal street races mostly in the mountains. The racers use a drifting style of racing. All the places shown are based in real world locations in the kanto region of japan.

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Obstacles

To make the level not just a flat square, I put a ramp in the middle as well as some spinning hammers to add a hazard.

I've put some more hammers further to the corners too. This is so the backs aren't as empty. To give the middle some color, I made the ramp look like rocks and added a grassy patch in the middle.

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Feedback

I recently had 3 people playtest my game and I've learned about some bugs and suggestions I wasn't aware about. 

Player 2

for some reason, the second player doesn't have an input. I went back to try and fix this later on, but when i plugged the second controller in it was working just fine.

Energy

They suggested I add more energy to the game such as Hud elements specifically during the last round. The game now has a slow down part in between the rounds as well as a widget that says “TIME” which then sets up for the final round. it then says “SUDDEN DEATH” and then it says “GO!”

Final platform

When the final platform comes up, i need to set it so player input is disabled and fix the height of the platform. This is because the game uses less frames when there's 4 people so the platform doesn't come all the way up. to fix this, the platform wont stop moving till its high enough.

Weight fragment

they didn't recognize what it was representing so i may need to change the icon.

Controller rumble

I could add rumble to make the game feel more alive.

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Lighting

because I made the level so dark, I had to change the some of the objects to be more visible. 

To make the building light up, i had to split the model into two different models. The first is the building and the inside with the lights off and the second model is just the yellow rooms. 

For the textures, all I had to do was get the texture sample and put it inside of the emissive color slot instead of the base color slot. This means it will have a glow making it visible without needing light to shine on it.

I then used the same material on the fragments and made separate materials for the car headlights and rear lights.

[ashtonfmp2]

Wacky Races

Wacky races is a 17 episode American animated series where multiple racers with their own gimmicks race across America. Each episode is split into two segments. 

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Gumball Rally

The Gumball Rally is an American comedy film where multiple racers race from New York to California in a coast to coast race. During the film, the racers gets in all sorts of trouble such as being chased by a police officer the entire way there. At the end, the races make it to long beach however, their vehicles get towed away as they all parked illegally during the party when the parking lot is supposed to close at 11pm.