myarcadegameproject

[myarcadegameproject]

Presentation Slides

[myarcadegameproject]

Research Slides

[myarcadegameproject]

Proposal

In my last project I really loved my outcome and was proud of it. In this project I will improve on my documenting ideas. I have ideas and then do not document this. This is a weakness of mine I will focus on in the next project. 

I will also spend more time polishing the title, win and death screens. In my last project, these screens were very basic and not very visually appealing. I will correct this in this project. 

I am planning on making a 2D game with all of the artwork done in Photoshop. This is because I preferred 2D to 3D as I found it simpler and preferred the overall process. I really enjoyed using pixel art in my first project and I am using pixel art again to see what I can do with it. I am planning on using a lot of animations in my next game as I also really enjoyed animating my pixel art characters and objects.

In this project I aim to make a 2D game where a character launches itself around the screen. The player will have difficult controls. The character will spin a circle and the player will choose when and click the button to shoot themselves in that direction. This, hopefully, will make the game more fun to play and will make it more satisfying to win. This is because the game will be more difficult so therefore more satisfying to complete. This will make the game addictive and this is a key feature of the arcade genre. I will research lots of different arcade games and compare their features to the features in my game. This will help me decide what I want my game to look like and play like. I can take inspiration from these arcade games to make my own. 

I anticipate that I will produce a game that is fun to play and suits the arcade genre well. I will do this by implementing bright colours, addictive gameplay and a simple concept. I will only require one button to be used on the arcade machine. This will save time coding and make the game simpler. This is because there won’t be multiple controls for the player to have to try and use simultaneously. Also it will be quicker to code because I won’t have to write the code for a joystick (which would be hard) and other buttons.

[myarcadegameproject]

Evaluation

I enjoyed learning, in this project, about the arcade game genre and the limits of making a game made for an arcade machine. I learned about making arcade games addictive and repeatable. Also, I learned about custom inputs to make other controls work and using axis and action mappings to do this. This was surprisingly easy and simple to set up. I have also enjoyed learning about attract modes and marquee designs and making these was very fun. I used Photoshop to make both of these and I am happy with the overall results. I found a new way to import these into Unreal to get around a problem I was having when using the conventional method. All of these things I learned helped to improve my game and my knowledge about Unreal and about games design as a whole.

I solved problems by trial and error. This is a time-consuming method but as long as I had other ideas I could solve the problem in the end. If I ran out of ideas, I could ask for help. I found asking others for help to be a very helpful resource as I would learn how to fix the problem and how to think in a different way to get around it. This would help me approach similar issues with other projects too. 

My initial idea was to have a banana that would spin and a button would be pressed and the banana would be launched in that direction. Then when the banana stopped moving, it would start spinning again. Then I had to adapt this idea to fit the theme. I decided that I would incorporate a flood like in the biblical story Noah’s Ark. In order to do this, I changed how I would control the character in my game because the original idea was very slow and would cause the game to be impossible with a rising flood. So I adapted my idea to be that the banana spins at the beginning and then keeps moving. This means that the banana’s movement speed is dependent on the player and often they press the buttons. This means that the flood rising could work as the banana could travel faster and get away. I also added the cannons as a way to ensure the player is able to get away from the water as they could shoot the player very far with some control. 

In order to make my game I had to use many programs. Unreal Engine being the one I used the most. I am learning more code in Unreal all the time and my understanding and knowledge is improving every day. I like using Unreal as I find its visual approach to coding, using blueprint, to be easy to read and understand and use. I also used a lot of Photoshop. All of the art, animation and sprite design was done for this project using Adobe Photoshop. This is a program that I love to use for pixel art because it is easy and versatile. The tools are easy to understand and the animating process in Photoshop is very simple and, despite being very tedious, is very simple and useful.

In my project proposal I set out to make a game with bright colours and that fits the arcade genre. I believe I have done this as my game features many bright colours and is addictive similar to other arcade games. However, I also stated that I wanted to make a game with one button as its controls. I did change this as the control system and added a joystick to this for a few reasons. I realised that it was far easier to set up a joystick than I realised and that it would greatly improve the quality of the game. I use the joystick to rotate the cannons and I think this will help immerse the player in the game and makes the game more complicated with more elements. This makes the game more interesting to play as there is more to think about while playing. 

I built my game around the limited controls because I thought that it would be easier to make a game designed for limited controls than have an idea and have to slim it down for less controls. This turned out to be true. I am very glad I chose to have the limited controls at the centre of my design as it greatly helped me with my game. It also helped keep my game in the arcade genre. This is because almost all arcade games have limited control systems.

If I redid this project I would plan out the level design first. I would do this because it would make the process of level design easier and less time-consuming. I didn’t plan my level design because I thought that I needed to test everything so planning wouldn’t help. But this isn’t true. I did need to test everything but if I had planned it first I could always adjust later at least I would have rough ideas. This would have helped me and I will plan my level design in the next project. 

I have learned a lot in this project about arcade games and about how to code your way out of a problem. These skills will help[ me massively in future projects I make.

[myarcadegameproject]

Firework Code

I added 2 fireworks into my game so that the win screen is more satisfying for the player. The code is shown below:

A custom event is set in the firework blueprint, that spawns 50 at that location. This will cause the firework to go off. This is shown in the image below:

This means that when the event is called, the firework is spawned and this causes the amazing effect. This was very easy to set up and I really like the final effect. It is shown in the video below:

I really like the effect of this as it is bright, colourful and exciting for the player. Paired with the confetti it looks really good and will give the player a sense of achievement when completing the game.

[myarcadegameproject]

Confetti Code

I decided to add confetti to the end of the game to make the win section of the game more exciting and to give the player more to look at. The code for this is shown below:

The code abode means that when play begins, a material instance is made then a parameter is set for a random number for R G and B. This will randomly change the colour of whatever is spawned. Then the material is set to the cube and an impulse is added to spray he cubes everywhere.

The final result is shown below:

I think this is very effective as it is satisfying and was brilliant to look at. It will help give the player a larger sense of achievement and help them not feel disappointed at the end of the game.

[myarcadegameproject]

Win Screen Code

I added the code for the win screen to appear. I had to do it without the use of widgets because I did not know how to add a video in a widget. Instead I added a flipbook to the camera and then could toggle its visibility.

The code above is in the trophy's blueprint and means that when the banana overlaps the trophy, confetti is spawned. Then after 3 seconds, the show win screen custom event is called. Then, the fireworks custom event is called.

The image above shows where the custom event is set in the CamActor. The visibility of the flipbook is turned on and then after a 3 second delay the level is reopened. This is a very simple way of restarting the game.

The video below shows the final outcome:

As you can see above, the screen is very satisfying and I think it works well. The trophy I think also works well and is effectively recognisable.

[myarcadegameproject]

Trophy Sprite

I decided to make a trophy that when collected would activate the win screen. A trophy symbolises success and victory so to me this made the most sense. This took 2 attempts to get right and they are both shown below.

The image above shows my first attempt at making a trophy. As you can see above, it is the basic shape of a trophy. It did take some time trying to get the proportions correct but I am happy with them as they are shown above. However, despite the fact that I think it was recognisable as a trophy it was not completely obvious.

The image above shows my second and final attempt to make a trophy and it shows the same trophy but with shading. The shading can add a lot to an image and with the trophy it helped it look more 3D. It also helped the trophy be more detailed and match the rest of the assets that all have shading.

I like how this turned out because it works with the other sprites, is recognisable and is easy to understand. This needs to work very well as the player needs to know to go towards it and that it ends the level.

[myarcadegameproject]

Win Screen Outcome

I made the win screen for my game in Photoshop. The final outcome I shown above. It was quite simple to make and animate because it was only one element moving and I could centre it to the screen to avoid jolting in the final animation. I used a different font for the "You Win!" because the other one was too big and looked strange. I decided to make the background the sea to link it back to the game and to make it more exciting to look at.

[myarcadegameproject]

Win Screen Idea

I need a win screen in my game. This is because without one there is no win state. Games do exist without a win state but I would like my game to be completable. I would like the win screen to have the banana in it otherwise it won't link to the game. But I have a few ideas about what it should look like. These ideas are listed below:

Idea 1: The banana comes towards the screen with "You Win!" written on it. If the banana zoomed in slowly to then reveal "You Win!" on it, it would be satisfying to watch. This would be good for the player as I do not want the win screen to be disappointing for the player. Also, it would be easy to animate and this would mean it would be reasonably fast to make.

Idea 2: The banana spins from left to right on the screen then text appears saying "You Win!". This would be satisfying like the first idea and would have a stronger link to the game. However, animating the banana to spin is very hard and takes multiple hours to get it right. I discovered this when making my attract mode. So because of this, this idea would take too long to do.

Idea 3: The banana explodes and it says "You Win!" in the fire of the explosion. This would have an amazing effect and would impress the player. It would also have a very strong link to the game. But it would take an insane amount of time to animate the the explosion. If I wanted it to look good there would need to be shading and many colours and it would take a lot of time, work and effort to get it so that I was happy with it.

I chose idea 1 in the end as it made the most sense. It would be satisfying for the player and it wouldn't take an incredible amount of time to complete.

[myarcadegameproject]

Score Code

I added the code for the score into my game. It will count the score in a widget, assign all of the objects a point score and add this up. This was a lot of code but it is simple.

The image above shows the code for adding the text for the points in the world. It means that when the game begins, the game will get the score variable from the widget and set this value to a variable that can be used to make the text spawn in the world. Then after half a second the text will disappear.

Then, in the banana, the variable that was just made is used and spawns the text and adds the score together. This is a custom event so will be fired every time it is called on to fire. This is useful as it can make it easier to because the same code won't have to be written many times in a row.

The node above calls the custom event to fire. This node sets the point value to whatever that objects point value is and will be in many blueprints. Anything that should have points for. I have this node in the blueprints for the bomb as it will add points when hit.

The video below shows the final result. I like this feature and I think it can help the game reach more players as some people prefer to chase high scores rather than completing the game. This means that my game can now be played by everyone.

The video above shows the points being counted and scored. I think this feature is subtle and effective and it helps the game feel more like an arcade game. This is because most arcade game have a scoring system of some kind.

[myarcadegameproject]

Score Idea

I want to add a scoring system into my game. I think it would add a competitive element to my game. This is because players can compare scores. It would also be very satisfying to have the points show up in game and it would create a new goal in the game. Get the highest points. I won't emphasise it too much to the player because I want the player to focus on getting to the top but I will add a score counter to the UI widget in the top left so that the score is kept track of. This shows the player that score exists but is not a main part of the game.

[myarcadegameproject]

Adding Sound Code

It is incredibly simple, easy and fast to add sound into a game using Unreal. It is one node Play Sound. Once I chose my explosion sound I added it. I will put this node in the bomb, banana and cannon. These will all be the same to make it easier. The element of sound adds so much to the game and will really help immerse the player.

[myarcadegameproject]

Title Screen Process & Outcome

The image above shows my title screen. I really like hot the logo turned out and I decided to add the monkey to link to the attract mode. I also added the banana shooting out of the cannon to link back to the gameplay. The text is very basic but I wanted it to be readable and had limited time so focussed on getting the code for this to work.

To make my title screen I added a new level called MenuLevel. I then set this to the default map. In MenuLevel all I had to do was add the title screen widget. The code for this is shown below:

I added this code into the level blueprint of MenuLevel. A level blueprint is a general blueprint where all of the code about the level can go. Its a place perfect for adding widgets as this requires no references.

Then I added this in the blueprint for MenuPawn. I had to make a pawn in the menu level because so that there was something for the player to possess. Then when any key is pressed the other map is opened and the game begins.

The final result is shown the video below:

The video above is the final result that I am very happy with. The title screen shows all of the important mechanics about the game and references the attract mode. However, if I had more time I would change the text to a better font.

[myarcadegameproject]

Bomb Code

I added the code into Unreal so that the bomb launches the banana in the direction I want. The image below shows this code.

The code that is shown above means that when the banana overlaps the bomb, an emitter is spawned. An emitter is a particle effect and this one is set to an explosion as this is what makes sense for my game. Then an impulse is added and moves the banana from where is it to where the scene is. A scene is a reference point in space in Unreal. In the viewport I can then move the scene and direct the banana to go any direction I wish. Then the custom event is used to add points for hitting the bomb (worth 300 points). Lastly, an explosion sound is played. This sound will help immerse the player and I think it is very effective at doing so.

The final outcome is shown in the video below:

As you can see above, the code isn't flawless but it does push you in the right direction and I think it works well. The chaos the bombs cause really add to the game and they help the player aim what they are travelling towards. I think the bombs are effective at guiding the player and engaging the player too.

[myarcadegameproject]

Bomb Sprite Design Process

The image above is my first attempt at making the bomb sprite for my game. As you can see above, it is very basic and has no detail. It is a grey circle and this won't help to engage the player as it looks boring.

The image above shows my second attempt at making a bomb sprite for my game. As you can see, I added the work "bomb" onto the centre of the bomb. This will ensure that the bomb is recognisable and it adds detail and makes the bomb look less basic. This is because there is no empty space.

The image above is my final version of the bomb sprite. I have added this one into my game. As you can see, it has shading across it. This makes it seem more realistic and helps this fit in with my other sprites as they have shading too. If the assets in a game look like they go together it can help to bring the whole game together.

I really like the final result as it is recognisable and simple. This fits with the rest of my game.

[myarcadegameproject]

Bomb Idea

I wanted to add a method of launching the banana where the player has no control where they were going but they will go a specific direction that I can set. This will make playing the game drastically easier as there will be things helping to throw you in the right direction. These could also be used to make checkpoints. This is because if there was something that always pushed you one direction it could make the player never be able to fall backwards.

I thought that it could explode on impact with the banana as this would explain the boost of speed you would get when colliding with the object. This meant that the object had to be explosive. This is when I decided that it should be a bomb. This would make sense with the overall game and explain the explosions.