firstproject2dplatformer

[firstproject2dplatformer]

Main takeaway

The main thing I have taken away from this project is that I should not be too ambitious, especially since we have such a short time to complete a whole game, and because I am still getting used to coding as a whole. It is much more valuable to use your time to make consistently good levels and worlds instead of spending all of your time on a mechanic or unique play style, and leaving no time for interesting level design, simpler mechanics that glue the game together, and a pleasing HUD. Despite me not finishing my game for this project I am glad that I have learnt all of this now instead of later down the line, as now i get to use this mindset for every project going forward.

[firstproject2dplatformer]

Death pits

To make the character die when falling into a pit, I made a collision box and just copied the code I used for my snake that was originally planned for the game. I then placed it wherever there was a bottomless pit and dragged it across the bottom.

[firstproject2dplatformer]

Frog brother sprite sheet

I wanted to end the level by finding one of the frogs stolen family members. This is different to anything I have seen in other games and makes sense in the story. I gave him a little more personality by giving him a hunchback and shoes. I made the brother quite similar to my main character as I was planning the further you progress in the game, the more outlandish and different the family members look. However, I will not have time to create any other levels due to my swinging and grappling mechanics taking up so much development time. This is slightly disheartening but has taught my to not be so ambitious with such a short deadline, especially because it is my first time using unreal engine.

[firstproject2dplatformer]

Grapple coding

For the grapple coding I made it so once crossing a point, the character would be dragged to the vibe, acting as a grapple. This worked for what i needed it to do, however I sadly didn’t get time to make it so it would drag me from any point to the fine, so it wasn’t so scripted.

[firstproject2dplatformer]

Swinging coding.

I am unhappy with how my swinging came out. In game it comes across as a sprite following a very linear path across the screen from point to point. I used a weeks worth of time with Chris’ assistance, researching swinging and trying to code it into my game. This time could have been used to add another level, code win and lose screens, add enemy’s that move and I would’ve still had time to spare. At first I found it hard not to see this as a failure for the whole project, but seeing what i’ve learned from my mistakes and successes makes me particularly confident for future projects.

[firstproject2dplatformer]

Final death text.

I added a gradient to the text as it makes it look less artificial.

I then duplicated the layer, and dragged the second layer down as to create a 3D effect. I like this a lot as it really gives the text some life. I also made the second layer a lot darker to replicate a shadow.

[firstproject2dplatformer]

Death Font

I thought about using this font as it was childish and cute like my character and game, however I decided that it was too cute for game over text and Id rather have something more menacing.

I much prefer this font as the splatters as well as the red shading kind of makes it look like blood, suiting the death theme. It could also look like it has been painting my a child which is something my main character would do.

[firstproject2dplatformer]

Chapter Complete - Celeste

I like this win screen the most as it is so cozy. The art is like a reward in itself for completing a stage. Every artwork throughout also is like a little story summary which can help a lot as the long levels may leave you needing a reminder.

[firstproject2dplatformer]

Fonts for game

I have decided to use 'Jungle Jam' as the Text in my game as it has soft edges to suit my characters unserious personality. It looks like a child has painted it which mimics my characters childishness.

The rest of these fonts were ones I considered. I found that searching words related to my game actually came up with fitting results.

[firstproject2dplatformer]

Elden Ring - Enemy felled

In Elden Ring, when killing a boss enemy, text will appear on the screen saying Enemy Felled. I like how the colour and text style is coherent throughout the game. For example when you discover a lost grace the same text appears saying grace found.

[firstproject2dplatformer]

Course clear screen - Mario 3D World

I like this win screen as it is a lively and more expressive version of the classic Mario bros win music and pose. I like how the dance changes depending on the power up and so does the noise they make.

[firstproject2dplatformer]

Camera trouble.

When playing my game I noticed a problem immediately, the camera. When moving, the camera would constantly be focused on my character, following it as it moved or jumped, this became a problem as I designed my level with left to right movement in mind and nothing more. This caused you to be able to see the void above or below my level when playing, depending on your height.

The code above shows how I did this. With a camera blueprint you can see how it follows the character for the Y movement but the Z movement is fixed tp 350. This means it will only move left and right. I also made the Y movement stop at both the start, and the end of the level.

[firstproject2dplatformer]

Health Bar

Using the UI widget I mostly did this the same way as the score. You can see that it is dividing by 3 because I wanted to be able to take 3 hits before death. Enemy's are not a focus in my game and I am questioning whether to include them at all or have the entire game based on fun swinging past environments. For this reason I wanted to be quite lenient with the amount of health as to not create too harsh a challenge.

[firstproject2dplatformer]

Score Tracker

I created a widget and named it UI. Then I opened it and added a canvas. Then I added a text box which will show the current score number. I then downloaded a font from dafont.com and imported it into unreal to use for the score text. The code above makes the score show up.

[firstproject2dplatformer]

Problem Solving

When putting my new tile map into unreal, for some reason the colours were being altered. Where in mine I had 4 colours, 2 greens and 2 browns, unreal was adding a few more shades and I struggled to find the reason for this. I found that deleting and redrawing the tile map on photoshop solved this issue. I believe that this happened because I tried adding an updated version of the tile map to unreal but it had the same file name, so it merged with the first one.

[firstproject2dplatformer]

Level

After becoming confidant in placing tile map pieces into my game, I crafted the starting section for my level. I tried to make it as player friendly as possible teaching them first how to jump and swing in a safe environment, and then adding pits below to add risk and challenge after the player gets confident with the controls. I do worry however that since I have designed my whole level around a swinging mechanic that I am struggling to build and haven't yet completed, that I might not be able to complete it and this level would be deemed useless. For this reason I will be focusing large amounts of time with my teacher to figure out how to do this.

[firstproject2dplatformer]

Tile map 2

For my second tile map I decided to change the design of the vine. This was both to make it easier to wrap a tongue around and also less hideous to look at. I also changed my mind about not including slopes as when the tiles are this big, I feel it is necessary as you are not able to jump up many tiles, which is why it worked so well for the games I took inspiration from.