tyrantdev

[tyrantdev]

Dev Log (7/21/25)-(7/30/25)

Yes, I know a log for multiple days might seem a bit... much, but the current progress with Project Valkyrie is that the Dialogue Component is done. I built the blueprint version back at the beginning of the month and now it is fully moved over and the BP assets were removed to stop some unusual conflicts.

With only C++ and Unreal Engine the Player Character and a Non Player Character w/Dialogue Component can display text to the screen. So now I can talk to the player through the game.

For those who want to see how worked on it I did stream the debugging of the system live on YouTube: DeathKnightCorp. I wanted a way to show potential employers how I solve problems so I plan to intermittently stream some of the progress and tribulations with the game.

On the count of streaming I do ask for patience as I am completely new to using streamlabs for livestreaming. I had a lot of problems during Wednesday's stream that I wasn't sure how to fix but in the end we made it through and the dialogue system works as a boon.

I said this on the YT side but if you do want to watch my content I do ask for the understanding that I am by no means a master Game Dev I am learning much like you are. If you treat this as a learning opportunity for both of us we stand to gain a lot. That being said I am also open to advice, I know I could use it.

Now onto looking forward. Today, as I am writing this, it is EVO Vegas Friday. As I do every year I am ceasing all operations to watch and enjoy the best the FGC has to offer. I might update things on other blog if I want to air my opinion about that.

FRIDAY - SUNDAY

EVO Vegas

MONDAY

Video Dev Log for the Dialogue System

TUESDAY / THURSDAY

Project Valkyrie - Starting Combat Systems

WEDNESDAY

Streaming (Project Valkyrie Development or Play Elin)

[tyrantdev]

New Resume 7/15/25

Built a new resume better than the old resume.

This one has numbers because VMock said I needed more quantitative data. So numbers.

For notes on why I have been quiet. Thursday, I moved a bunch of the Dialogue system to code and spent 3+ hours trying to get my struct recognized by my DataTable, that was fun/stressful. Friday was when the Star Rail event went live. I love it everyone else hates, this is why I can't like things. Saturday I discovered Umamusume Pretty Derby and also lost Sunday the same way.

Today I built resume it has numbers. Just be glad you weren't there when I discovered triangles during graphics development.

TUESDAY

Career Advisory Appointment

WEDNESDAY

Job Searching

THURSDAY

Finishing the Dialog System code

FRIDAY

Adding Project Valkyrie's development to the website. Updating outdated information on the website.

↓ I have it without top text now.

bottom text

[tyrantdev]

Just Finished the introduction to Python Course on HackerRank.

[tyrantdev]

DevLog 7/1/25

Today I worked on the dialogue system for Project Valkyrie. Not a lot of progress was made, but I got some basics working. In short, it's testable, not finished.

First I needed to make an NPC or something to be interacted with.

This BP_NPC he is interactable, that is it. If you interact with him he will say Hello through the Debug Log. I haven't made it to the point of getting the text on the widget I made a while back.

Next, we need a separate collider for detecting interactable objects. Most videos I found just use a very large sphere collider and that is what I went with.

Here you can see the sphere collider. I current have it's hidden property set to false to make sure that interact works with object inside and not with no objects.

As I am writing this I am currently moving everything from BP to Code. On Thursday I will try to get further in the video to see what I need to do to print dialogue to the screen beyond the debug log.

Before I sign off here is my schedule for the week.

Wednesday

Honkai Star Rail 3.4 (Yes I know VGs are usually a Saturday/Sunday thing but if I don't get it out of my system it's all I will be thinking about)

Thursday

Project Valkyrie Dialogue System

Friday

Resume building and Job Hunting (Yes I still need a job)

[tyrantdev]

Update 6/25/25

Friday I updated the website to have pages for all the titles I have worked on. They don't all have content but are ready to add to.

Saturday I played Honkai Star Rail and focused a lot on Achievement hunting. I also played Wuthering Waves but just kept up with my dailies.

Sunday I started having problems. My body started to feel extremely lethargic and I had difficulty even moving for periods of time.

Monday I had problem sleeping. I couldn't sleep for more than two hours at a time and was still feeling very lethargic causing me to lay in bed for most of the day, hoping to sleep.

Tuesday I did German lessons. I listened to the Coffee Break German podcast on Spotify and that was for a couple of hours. I did take some time to look for advice on Project Valkyrie's dialogue system. I found something I will go over later. I also cleaned my bathroom.

Today I have been primarily focused on resetting my sleep schedule as I have a meeting at 1700 on Friday. I already cleaned my room and updated LinkedIn with my Wednesday reflection; so now I will sign off and try to get some actual sleep for the first time this week.

Thursday

Portfolio Website MegaDude and Sole Survivor Descriptions

Friday

Meeting with Career Advisor Job Search

Saturday/Sunday

Honkai Star Rail Achievement Hunting (prepping for Kebin, Hanabi, and Artor) Trails through Daybreak Act 2-B

[tyrantdev]

Updates for 6/16 and 6/17

6/16: I work up late since I knew I would be staying up late. Shadowverse Worlds Beyond dropped at 2300 hours. I played that game until the sun came up. Me and some friends formed a guild and played some games until we were to tired to stay awake.

6/17: While listening to the story of Shadowverse Worlds Beyond I browsed the fab store for assets. This made me realize that assets in the fab store only work for items created in UE5.3+. Since I was working in 5.2 that meant that I could not use most of the assets that I found.

I am also unable to afford paid assets at the moment, which is fine, I can bookmark them and buy them when I have a job. Although I did take the time to download 5.5 and try out some of the store assets I did have.

Since, I can't update directly to 5.5 and I can't afford anything I plan to continue using 5.2 for a while longer. However I am realizing some other problems with my current plan.

Problems: 1. Currently the game is planned for it's RPG version 2. There are still a lot of things I don't know how to do 3. I have no one of higher skill level I can ask for advice 4. I don't have anything in mind for the genre switch 5. I'm feeling lost as to development

Now, I need to talk about what I'm planning to work on for Thursday or I'm going to feel like I only have problems. I'm going to stop worrying about assets for now. If I have to develop something I plan to keep it simple and in engine.

Thursday: + Work on Dialogue System + Add NPC class + Add BP_NPC + Find a way to interact with NPC + Attach dialogue box upon interact + Develop the Dialogue system

Now for the Calendar:

Thursday

Project Valkyrie Development

Friday

Website development

Saturday/Sunday

Trails through Daybreak 2 Act 2-B Shadowverse Worlds Beyond Wuther Waves Card Game Event Completion

Monday

Python Studies HackerRank and Minesweeper

[tyrantdev]

Note 6/12/25

Slight adjustment to the expected schedule. I was planning doing Game Dev work today, but I just felt inspired (I guess that fits) to do job searching instead.

Tomorrow will be working on my Portfolio so look forward to the changes on the website.

[tyrantdev]

10 posts!

Oh cool. New Game Dev blog and I wasn't even counting. Is the next 50 or 100? Either way we are making steady progress on this journey.

[tyrantdev]

Dev Log 6/10/25

I got the camera controls up today so we can move forward, back, left, and right as well as look up and look down.

I don't have the animations set up just yet but I am planning on using the animations from the starter content for now. I might look for some other animations later.

Since I am working on an action for now I know that I want to use melee combat as the focus. So I need to find a sword asset to put in the characters hand and then we can start working swinging the sword.

Other than the basic movement finally being programmed I have the text box design started.

For now it is really simple but I want the box to display the speaker's name and display the npc dialogue underneath. Based on how long it took to find a video for this I can't imagine this will be as easy as I had hoped.

So the next thing to work on is: + Finding a melee weapon asset + Creating an attack method to swing the weapon + Building the test level + Jumping... ... and around a million other things that need work right now.

Since I have been so good about keeping up with this blog, this week. Tomorrow's blog post will be a review of items done this week. Over on LinkedIn I will be reviewing my job hunting efforts. If you want to read that the link should be in tomorrow's post.

Side Note: Once I have the test level up I will be posting updates to YouTube. I am still thinking how I plan to do this, whether to use my current channel or make a new one but I will have my answer by the end of the month I believe.

[tyrantdev]

Python Log 6/9/25

Wow I'm a wizard already. 30 years and still know more about video games than people. Can't call myself a NEET since I have a degree but still need a job so I can move past this phase of my life. At least I remembered to get some lunch today.

Now onto what I write these for, I just completed the Arithmatic and Loops section of HackerRank's Python course. The arithmatic was easy however I clearly misunderstood the loops assignment. I thought the input was filling a list. I'm not even certain how I would set that up yet.

The biggest issue I find is everything from C++ feels so much harder. Like take an example from the video I just watched earlier today. ex. The patients name is John Smith he is 30 years old and he is currently in the hospital.

In Python I need to make a variable for all three: name = "John Smith" age = 30 status = visiting

The problem I have with this is what if we have multiple persons to keep track of you. You need to assign a variable to every individual name, age, and status.

In C++ we can solve this by making a struct.

Struct { std::string name; int age; std::string status; };

Now I can just reuse this object whenever I need to add someone to the record. Does Python just not have a good way to deal with this? I know that Python focus is more about algorithms but I just feel that if the language doesn't allow for modular information it might be difficult for someone like me at least.

Either way I'm still having fun, I did not work on the AI today and tomorrow I plan to work on the game. I'm planning to wrap up a bit earlier than usual, been a bit tired today. Maybe I should finish that Wuther Waves film event before the server reset on Wednesday.

[tyrantdev]

Dev Log 6/6/25

Let's start with Thursday. Thursday I spent about 4ish hours working on the Minesweeper AI with ChatGPT. The program creates a board, prints the board, and can change the information on the board (only randomly right now). The AI at the moment is entirely random and the rules of the game are yet to be put in however we are able to simulate the start and end of a game alongside the process of selecting cells.

Today, I worked on my portfolio website. It's still not done, but I made some serious headway today. Today's main goal was getting images displayed where originally I only explained the game. Now there are title screen images that link to the details of the game. Next time, I will add details about what I did on each game. I also plan to add two more projects that are currently not listed.

For a quick list of all games I have worked on

+ Sole Survivor - a zombie shooter/escape game where you must repair your escape vehicle before you can leave the map. The game was made using Unity and C# programming alongside Unity's built in library.

+ Julien Jumper - A vertical platforming game that is bare bones as can be. The game was made using only the DX11 API for graphics and Git for version control.

+ MegaDude - It's pretty obvious what this was based on, this game was a side scrolling megaman clone. As is with Unreal we had a difficult time building a 2D game in a 3D environment but we succeeded, even got wall jumping. This was a game made using UE5.2 and Unreal's C++ library. For version control we used Git which was a problem for a while, we didn't find the .gitignore until day 3.

+ Noble Roots - the only game that I worked that did not finish development. We wanted but all the team members moved on after school wrapped up. For this game we were making a sprite based farm/life sim.

Next week all of these projects should be available on the website but for today, it looks like this.

The full changes are in the git repo: https://github.com/TyrantofChaos/strangegamedd/commits/main/ for those that want to see it.

Saturday/Sunday

Honkai Star Rail and Trails through Daybreak updates on https://www.tumblr.com/tyranochaos?source=share

Monday

My Birthday; still going to work on Python studies + HackerRank + Minesweeper AI

Tuesday

Project Valkyrie

+ Mouse Controls + Text Boxes + Design Change from Turn Based to Action Game

Wednesday

Midweek update blog

[tyrantdev]

Devlog 6/3/25

Was going to make a video but then I remember that I forgot the jump button.

The testing player character is ready, has a controller, and moves. Alright we have a game charge 90 bucks. No, no...no. IT does move I don't have the camera controls set up yet and haven't made it to designing the text boxes yet. But my head hurts so I think I am going to call it early.

I know I didn't get much done today but we have the player character so now I just need to finish the basic controls and then I can work on the testing environment. I think I am going to switch gears into making an action game for now, something simple but I have an idea or two. I'll talk about it more when I work more on the game Next week.

Wednesday

Amir Game Job Resources (recommended by career advisor)

Thursday

Minesweeper AI / Python Studies / Job Search

Friday

Portfolio Website: Pictures / Previous Projects / Workload Descriptions

[tyrantdev]

Logs 5/29 & 5/30

Thursday I switched the Minesweeper AI from C++ to Python. This decision was made twofold: 1. I am still in the process of learning Python so it would be beneficial in getting used to the language, 2. I have determined that if I wanted to make the AI in C++ I would likely need access to the backend of the game (I want the AI to play the game in a way that any normal user would).

For the AI I am using a mix of Videos, Google Searches, and Chat GPT Queries to learn the basic structure. Once I get it working I want to try and recreate it without having to ask one AI how to build another. Since I don't know Python at the moment any resources feel fair to use, should I have started with an easier idea... yes, but this is what I am doing.

Friday was different instead of Python were working with my website HTML. HTML is easy and anybody could probably learn it in an hour since it's mostly a text formatter. I didn't really mess around with the CSS. Friday was the day I started adding JaveScript to my website. The goal was to remove the script sections from my HTML code and add those repeatedly used scripts to their own file for use when ever I want to call them.

I did use ChatGPT to help with moving from the HTML script to the JS file. I'm glad I did since I didn't realize I would now need variables to hold the ID name for the div. There are some things I am still unsure about such as what catch is doing so I'm going to spend some time learning JS later alongside Python.

For now the AI is slowly coming along and the website is being updated to fit the format I want it in. Once the AI is done I will go back to HackerRank to see if I learned anything. After I finish adding the JS file to my other HTML files I plan to expand my portfolio project descriptions in the way my Career Advisor stated.

For now I plan to take the weekend off to relax and play videogames. I'll be running through Trails through Daybreak 2 with hopes of finishing before Trails beyond the Horizon comes out. Before writing this I was working on my last leg of the Divergent Universe at Threshold Protocol 6, been stuck here a while.

Below is the schedule I am currently operating by...

Saturday / Sunday

Trails through Daybreak 2 and HSR Divergent Runs TP 6 Discussion about video games I am playing here: Tyrano Chaos Personal Blog

Monday

Python Studies and Job Search Next Dev Notes

Tuesday

Project Valkyrie Player Controller + movement and Text System Design Phase Next Dev Log

This post is already long enough but I wanted to add it here. I have been told by many professionals now that I should downscale Project Valkyrie from a Turn-Based RPG; so I will likely be focusing on the overworld section of the game for now and potentially moving the focus to a more action oriented genre.

[tyrantdev]

Dev Notes 5/28/25

I still can't find a job after looking for six months. I have been applying since I was in school and I still can't find anyone willing to look at me. Todays log is called a note and will mostly be me writing down my thoughts about what is going on in my life.

The reason I started this note, I have started a side project to work on more skills. I am trying to learn how to screen grab in C++ for the purposes of creating a minesweeper AI. I know how to create click events and pathfinding algorithms already so I just need to learn how to show the AI the game board.

Besides looking for a job I also picked up Trails through Daybreak. I finally finished Trails into Reverie. That was how I lost most of last week. Although exercising through all the cutscenes I feel like I'm losing weight so that's good. I managed to finish the last dungeon for Daybreak on Saturday and have now started Daybreak 2.

I love the Trails series immensely and Daybreak evolved on a lot of turn based JRPG formula. Daybreak 2 appears to be focusing on improving player comfort with shops you haven't visited being marked and combat being much faster.

I received my rejection letter from Naughty Dog earlier today. I still have a lot of outstanding applications both to Game Dev companies and Companies in need of Software Engineers. I'm looking forward to getting back into my Unreal Engine game.

The game currently going by Project Valkyrie I need to set up the player controller then I can use the current testing environment. After the player controller I want to create a text system followed by a way to interact with NPCs.

Adding the below schedule as a promise of what to work on. Going to need to find a way to keep track of my schedule.

Thursday Minesweeper AI and Project Valkyrie player controller Friday Updating my portfolio website and Job Search Saturday and Sunday Trails through Daybreak 2

[tyrantdev]

Update

I attended a career fair yesterday. I don't feel like I have increased my chances of claiming a job. Very few tech jobs and only one game company actually attended.

[tyrantdev]

Dev Log 5/8/25

The log is a few hours later than I intended due to issues with UE5.2.1. Rider and Unreal Engine Desynced and I lost the test project I had started. Fortunately since I hadn't even finished the baseCharacter I was going to use I felt safe in simply deleting the project and starting from scratch.

Since 2300, I have managed to get a new project started created my baseCharacter and derived my test player from that Character. Lastly since I started with the third person starter content I ripped the game mode base and used the game mode to create a BP variant. This should allow me to switch the player out when I finish implement the controls next time. I need to remember to add a player controller for the player pawn, I might be able to use the one that already exists since I'm only planning to add to it instead of take away.

Lastly I was able to get Rider link integrated properly with this project so I shouldn't have any more issues with the project losing the link.

Next I am going to finish the testable player so I can get started on the basic animations which are contained within the starter content.

[tyrantdev]

Dev Log #1 05/05/25

Started working on a mind map or inspiration collection for the game. I am using Mila note to organize my thoughts. The process involves transcribing my Word document which lists my ideas in a list format into more visual components.

I plan to fill this out more as ideas come. I also have the storyboard set up but I need to work more on it before I am comfortable showing anything.

Tomorrow I am going to work on trying to track down a job. On Wednesday I plan to start working on a testing area in Unreal Engine. Yesterday I switched from using Microsoft Visual Studio to JetBrains Rider IDE. The change in development environment will take some time to get used to but Rider has already proven to be more useful in Unreal Engine Development.

Lastly, I plan to hit these dev logs with as many tags that feel like they fit as a way to advertise. Hopefully once I have more to show I can build a community together to help support the game.