we-do-a-little-developing

[we-do-a-little-developing]

Making a cassette in Maya

First I created and scaled up a cube, then I added symmetrical cuts either side to create the shape at the bottom of the tape by highlighting the sections where the cuts overlapped and using the scale tool.

I then added the labels and shapes that will make the holes for the tape window.

Using the Boolean tool, I punched a hole in the cube with the aforementioned shapes.

I then exported the UV map and began decorating it but again couldn't apply it, so I stopped decorating it

[we-do-a-little-developing]

Making a Boombox in Maya

Modelling:

To start, I created the basic shapes and handle. I made the handle by making equal cuts in the bottom and extruding those until they connected with the Boombox body

I then created and exported the UV map [flat plan of an object with all the textures] to photoshop and created a texture for it

Unfortunately, I was unable to apply this texture to the boombox model as I couldn't find the option to [not for lack of trying]. This was a test texture, I planned to fix the rainbow and add more stickers

[we-do-a-little-developing]

PEGI, examples of games similar to mine and game ethics

The Pan-European Game Information rating system is a standardised way of rating games depending on their content and assigning them the lowest recommended age for playing - 3, 7, 12, 16 or 18. The considered content is profanity, fear [or horror, threat, etc], nudity, violence and gore, gambling [whether as a mechanic or depiction thereof] and drugs to name a few. Violence and gore is allowed if its clearly non-realistic, such as fighting in LEGO games or non-red, cartoonish blood.

Although it is legal to play a game rated higher than your age, it is illegal to supply one to a person who is of a lower age than the PEGI rating.

I - ULTRAKILL [18]

THINK, V2, THINK

Ultrakill is a fast-paced, retro-themed shooter developed by Finnish developer Arsi "Hakita" Patala. It is one of the best fast-paced shooters to have been created, not in spite of but partially due to its Quake- and Half-Life-like graphics. I have never played UK and its doubtful I ever will, however I've seen enough [too much] of it to understand how it works to a decent degree.

I tried to emulate UK's fast-paced action in my own game with the inclusion of movement mechanics. This didn't go particularly well because I'm not very good at programming, and half the game's pace comes from the movement whilst the rest comes from the gunplay, which is also not ideal in my game.

II - Team Fortress 2 [16]

and here we are again.

TF2 is the quintessential team-based shooter and by god, if you're this far into my research you know it. Although there are notable differences between TF2 and my game [astonishing, I know], I took heavy inspiration from 3 of the more predominant classes for my tapes - namely the Scout, Sniper and Soldier as Tapes 1, 2 and 3 in that order.

Tape 1 takes the TF2 Scout's scattergun and uses it as a single, repeatable blast. I also used a stun mechanic which I now realise is similar to that of the Sandman, but at the time was unrelated. Tape 2 takes the TF2 Sniper's single high-damage shots, but instead of the Sniper's SMG, I decided to go for mobility to help the player reposition between shots with added damage potential. Although initially based off the Sniper, Tape 2 is more assassin-based, similar to Zer0 from Borderlands 2.

My game contains cartoon violence and not really much else that would warrant a high PEGI rating - there's no gore, cartoon or otherwise, no drugs, horror/fear, etc. It's a fairly clean game.

[we-do-a-little-developing]

Soundscapes and their impact on gameplay

Soundscapes are the combination of all sounds at a given moment - the soundtrack, character breathing, echoes, footsteps, etc. These are as integral to immersion as visual design - brilliant visuals and an equally high quality soundscape can create perfect realism and immersion, vastly improving player experience.

The importance of a good soundscape

Nothing makes us feel as much as good music does. Except maybe seeing someone steal candy from babies. As a result, game developers have used soundtracks to convey information about environments and characters since audio has been used in video games. In particular, audio can be used to create fear and tension in an environment and keep a player on edge, or make a trusted character seem suspicious by differentiating them from the rest through the soundtrack. Similarly, audio cues can also convey information about a situation, particularly in shooters where they can inform the player what they're up against before the threat shows itself. Audio cues can also give players direct feedback on an action before anything happens visually, such as hearing a fuse blow when repairing an electrical system in a horror game and having an 'uh on' moment before the lights die or a scraping and clank noise when the submarine collides with a wall in Iron Lung [a game that I have a lot of opinions on the ending of]. Alternatively, audio cues can break tension in the same manner a visual gag would - most information given visually could [and often partially is] given through audio cues and changes in soundtrack. When combined, a soundscape can inform a player of a threat before it's seen or heard, unnerve a player or immerse them in an open-world environment.

How a soundscape is made

A soundscape is composed of a soundtrack and audio cues. That's it. However, the composition of both can make or break immersion. To work, a soundtrack must keep in theme with the world, Read Dead Redemption's soundtrack is inspired by old Westerns, whereas Skyrim's is more medieval. The game's time period limits the instruments allowed, and certain situations calls for heavier use of certain ones over others. The soundtrack must also be relevant to the situation - walking around a town in Skyrim and fighting a dragon would call for vastly different music. The music must reflect the feelings of both player and their character whilst keeping in tone with the environment. Audio cues, however, emphasise elements of the environment or gameplay, whether that be the location of enemies, where a certain objective is or a piece of information. Use of dynamic sound physics, such as the Minecraft mod 'Sound Physics Remastered', can add far more realism by adding echoes and better fading out sound without needing to manually create new sound cues.

[we-do-a-little-developing]

Audio and its impact.

My process for selecting audio is simple - I filter the results by how I would describe what I'm looking for, and I find the right one by listening to each one until I find one I like.

In this case, I only needed sound effects as the main theme had been created for me by a friend of mine - Harry Vincent

Although I'll need to loop it, I'm extremely grateful to him because I can't make music to save my life.

Emotional Impact from audio

Horror: The main impact on the player from audio in horror games is either to build up suspense or to terrify them. The music will typically be quiet and suspenseful, often slightly melodic and jarring [typically due to the contrast of the music and location] to keep the player on edge, even if nothing will actually happen. High-strung [like the player] string instruments are commonly used for this. However, there needs to be an event that the build-up is for, and that's where the second type of audio impact in horror comes in. During chase scenes or fight sequences, the audio will shift tone entirely. The music will become far louder and higher-paced and will reflect the developer's intended outcome for a sequence - if the player is intended to fail or be caught for narrative purpose, the music will be a lot heavier and foreboding, reminding the player of the inevitability of what they're being chased by. Alternatively, if the player is intended to win a fight, the audio will incorporate elements of the enemy's theme if it has one, but will predominantly use more heroic melodies [Yugo Kanno's 'Noble Pope' isn't from a horror game but it's a good example of these heroic melodies] for a moment of catharsis where the player overcomes an enemy they've been faced with for some time, and typically beaten by. This causes the player to feel more powerful, although this can be [and often is] tempered by other musical elements such as the bridge in a soundtrack or the aforementioned use of a theme. A lack of music can also be used to highlight a certain line of dialogue, such as in Darian Quilloy's 'Vita Carnis' analogue horror series [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nIuJVtXYEHU] where the line 'the mimic's diet, however, is composed entirely of human flesh.' is supplemented with a dead silence, contrasting the music we've heard throughout the video.

Puzzle Games and Real-Time Strategy: Unlike horror games, puzzle games don't really need music. They don't typically add a huge amount as the player's focus should be on solving a certain problem and unlike fear, music can't add to this all that much. It's for this reason that puzzle game music isn't usually particularly emotional - it's there to work with the puzzle game's theme and because the player would feel unnerved if the game's soundtrack was complete silence as explained above. [I only spoke about puzzle games but everything here applies to RTS games too]

Shooters: Depending on the type of shooter, there can be a lot of overlap in techniques used with horror games in audio use, even if it's used less to create fear and more make the player feel empowered. Payday 2 [hey at least I didn't use TF2 as my example] uses audio to communicate the stages of a heist to the player, with stealth sections being quieter, anticipation building up tension and the assault stage going all-out [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FzGNCc2Zmk8]. Payday 2 is a notable exception however, due to its inherent complexity. Typically, multiplayer shooters such as Team Fortress 2 [I lied] will only used music to keep the player engaged without distracting them, excluding the theme playing at the start and end of matches, and The Art Of War song playing during a votekick, reminiscent of puzzle game's use of audio. Singleplayer shooters, however, can use more emotionally intensive audio as the player often controls the gameplay pace and can use the techniques stated above.

Adventure Games: From Pokemon to Subnautica, adventure games tend to use music to express danger in a situation [uncomfortably well in Subnautica's case] with the same techniques as horror games, often making use of themes and motifs [oooo look at me] to convey what an item/entity is or safety in a town or a home base. More predominantly in Pokemon-themed games than Subnautica, upbeat and heroic music is typically used during fight sequences to help make the player feel more powerful and in control with regards to the fight's outcome.

Overall, games only typically use music to supplement an environment, whether that be in using country music for a western game or terrifying the player in a Resident Evil game, or to emphasise a certain aspect, as in Vita Carnis or TF2's votekick. A good soundtrack, like good programming, is often not noticed or recognised, but the player can easily identify a terrible soundtrack. Fear/tension and heroism are brought to the fore most predominantly by music as they are intrinsic to human nature and felt the most during gameplay. Also, everyone likes feeling badass.

Cognitive Impact from audio [cues]

Horror: From the squeaky doors and creaking floorboards of Resident Evil's mansion to the roaring of the Reaper Leviathan in Subnautica [hey it felt like a horror game to me], audio cues serve the same purpose as a soundtrack in that they cause suspense or terror, although they're fair more immediate and serve as feedback to an action or an indicator to get out oh god its right behind you run escape. Although it's more than possible to create a sound that conveys heroism, such as the 'metallic thrumming' or 'metallic whooshing' that about half of the Tumblr userbase will recognise*, fear through audio cues is far easier due to human fear of the unknown, and that it's more appropriate in a horror game such as the grating of a rusty knife or how I always manage to hear a Reaper Leviathan before I see it [I wasn't kidding, it genuinely consistently scares me]. Unnecessary tangents aside, audio cues tap into the player's fear of the unknown or subvert their expectations to instill dread in them.

Puzzle Games and Real-Time Strategy: These only really use audio cues to convey information, such as the completion of a task - like in horror games, they serve as immediate feedback to an action.

Shooters: Both singleplayer and multiplayer shooters use audio cues primarily to convey three things - the firing of a weapon, the movement of a [typically unseen] enemy or a change in the environment [such as a door opening]. These allow the player's focus to remain exclusively on what's happening on-screen, particularly on what their enemy is doing if it's a 1v1 situation, and all other information is conveyed through ideally clear audio [such as the demoman's charge scream in TF2 alerting the player to a huge, charging scotsman with a sword rapidly approaching their location]. This information is so important that it's integral even outside of active combat, such as during the stealth sections of Payday 2 where an unexpected guard or camera can summon the entire NYPD. Or in War Thunder, where the only way of knowing where an enemy in close proximity to you is by listening for the firing of their guns or their engine noise, and possibly working out what vehicle it is from that [turbine engine? Probably and Abrams. Huge explosion? Either they died or that was a Sturmtiger that just fired].

Adventure Games: The purpose of audio cues in adventure/exploration games differs heavily on what the individual game is like - with Pokemon style games, audio cues are primarily used in battles, being negligible is most other usage. In Fallout and Subnautica adjacent games, however, audio cues serve a similar purpose as in shooters - conveying non-essential information without distracting the player or letting the player know of an unforeseen threat.

Motivational Impact through audio

Horror: I touched on this earlier, but players often have to react quickly to audio cues due to them signalling a threat [such as a quick-time event or jumpscare]. As a result of this, they'll often be far more aware of their environments and wary of possible threats/dangerous areas and motivated to avoid them at all costs.

Puzzle Games and Real-Time Strategy: Yeah, these don't really use audio to motivate the player. It's mostly just to convey information.

Shooters: Audio cues in shooters/action games are typically very important, as they allow the player to gauge whether they can win a fight before starting it [the most important skill in any shooter], such as estimating a tank's capability by the noise of its engine and guns in War Thunder, hearing a Dozer yell how you're up against a wall and they are the [redacted] wall in Payday and running away, or hearing a Heavy unrev his gun and knowing you have a window to attack him whilst he's defenceless in TF2. These all require information [and probably access to confidential documents in War Thunder's case] from the player to understand the meaning of the audio cue, but once they do, they will tend to play a lot less reserved as they are able to improvise far better as they can often gauge what's around the corner.

Adventure Games: Audio cues in Pokemon style games are mostly reactive, so the player isn't really motivated to do much by them. In Subnautica and Fallout, however, audio cues are used to express direction, such as where a quest is or hearing something big and going away from it very fast. The audio motivation in these games is usually on a larger scale towards a vague objective, but on a smaller scale away from threats.

damn

[we-do-a-little-developing]

PEGI rating and accessibility

My game contains cartoon violence and not really much else that would warrant a high PEGI rating - there's no gore, cartoon or otherwise, no drugs, horror/fear, etc. It's a fairly clean game.

As for accessibility, there's no UI or menus at all, the game isn't particularly difficult [I have the low skill floor, I just need a high skill ceiling] and even in black-and-white, the enemies are still visible enough. Although controls can't be remapped in-game, they're 9 buttons and a mouse - it could be played on an arcade machine. No audio cues are required for effective gameplay either.

As a result of that, the low PEGI rating and that I'm not insane enough to charge anyone to play this, it's a fairly accessible game.

[we-do-a-little-developing]

Creating an environment

Originally, I had planned for a circular dome arena with a singular boss. However, due to being bad, I couldn't achieve this. The main problem would have been in creating and decorating the interior of the dome due to working with curves and non-ideal angles. Eventually, I went for a storm drain design with an overhead road/train line. I genuinely do not know why.

I decided to deepen the basin and raise the walls, and the player start area with it as you can see below. I then applied a grid texture so that the entire thing wasn't a blinding light without actually making textures for it.

I then duplicated the road/track to break up the playable area and make it less monotonous, however it's still a little sparse. I added textures to the basin of greys getting slowly darker to create a gradient, and rebuilt the start area using a cube grid in the modelling tool so that I could better apply my stone brick texture to it

I was on and off about whether or not to have lights in the other tunnels, or in fact how many tunnels to have, but I eventually decided that tuning down the ambient lighting and adding neon lights made the visuals seem more coherent. I'm really getting my money's worth from learning how to make textures glow aren't I

I have also added placeholder objects. These should break up the environment, provide cover, etc. Problem is, I don't know what the actual objects should be.

This is a pile of tires in a fairly empty corner with a launchpad in them. The launchpad fires the player -1500x their X and Y velocity, flinging them across the map. This allows for more fun character movement, rather than just walking or using the sniper's dash. It took me a concerning amount of time to realise that it wasn't working as intended due to the fact that I hadn't placed this specific bouncepad in and only had one that launched you up instead. Due to the momentum this gives the player, I've heightened the invisible walls so they can't be launched out of the map.

[we-do-a-little-developing]

Creating a flying door and start area

In here is where the player spawns. I designed this area to be neutral without any colour, hence the flurorescent lighting and brick walls. This perception should change upon seeing the main area, so I wanted the transition to be noticiable. Having the door fly off its hinges is something I've wanted to add since I came up with this disaster.

To create the grate, I just made a cube with a reused texture from my sidescoller, Dauber, and added a hitbox.

This is how the computer decides what to do with the grate. Upon being triggered, it plays a timeline which updates the grate's x co-ordinate and sends it flying. Physics and gravity are then enabled so it tumbles, and the collision response is changed to not affect the player. The last section required a lot of trial and error as I don't really understand it. I just felt that having things collide with the grate wouldn't be needed.

This is how I controll the creation of the button prompt. I hate how it looks, but I can change that later [I likely won't]. When the player overlaps the grate's hitbox, they're given a prompt to press E which fires the door. I had to do this as because the grate isn't a character, it can't recieve any inputs.

However, and I don't know how, all grates spawn where the main grate is when they're triggered by enemies spawning in them. I have absolutely no idea why

I FIXED IT

I completely reworked the grates. Now, they lerp fowards in accordance to the timeline and their residual momentum carries them forward after when gravity and physics are toggled on. Now, they act like the player grate.

[we-do-a-little-developing]

Maya vs Magicavoxel

With my first-person game, I can use either Maya or Magicavoxel to create the models. Maya is much more difficult to use, but it' very comprehensive - there's a reason it's industry-standard. Magicavoxel, however, is far simpler and creates a very distinct artstyle.

Detailing is far more comprehensive in Maya as visible above due to the cut/extrude tools, but it's also a lot more difficult to create a comprehensive artsyle than in Magicavoxel. Moreover, I wouldn't have been able to create my L3/33 in Maya like I did in MV, at least in anywhere the same timescale. Maya also requires ability to create UV maps, which [although I'm doing my best] I'm not very good at.

In conclusion, I may use Maya for certain details that Magicavoxel can't do, however I intend to use MV for the vast majority of what I make as I simply don't have the competency to use Maya.

[we-do-a-little-developing]

Programming weapons [oh god]

For all of the tapes, I need to summon 1 or more projectiles. To do this, I'd need to create and spawn the projectile, make it do a line trace from where the camera is and is pointing to a distance specified by a bullet distance variable. It will then need to travel that distance. There also needs to a delay between firing, and on shotgun blasts, there needs to be a 'spread' mechanic.

This is how I programmed the bullet being spawned and working out where it goes. 1.1 is Tape 1 Primary, so the Scout Tape shotgun blast. Once this event is called, it spawns a pellet in the direction and location of the camera and then works out, also from the camera location and direction, how far and in what direction to go.

This is how I programmed the fire rate. The player character has two variables called fire_rate and canshoot. fire_rate controls the time until the gun can be fired again as it's used as the delay between canshoot turning on again, and canshoot is turned off after firing for however long fire_rate is and the gun can only be fired if it's on

I, eventually, managed to make the bullet move via a Projectile Movement component. In here, I could set both the starting and max speeds rather than attempting to use timelines.

Unfortunately, for some godforsaken reason, bullets cannot be fired at an up or down rotation, so all bullets can only fire directly forward

[this was fixed by changing the Get Forward Vector node to reference the camera rather than an arrow]

This here abomination is how I program the spread. Effectively, the computer gets a random number between two variables, adds it to the camera's Y and Z values and sets that to the rotation when a shotgun pellet is spawned. This occurs 7 times, so 7 pellets are spawned

This was how I fixed the bug that caused enemies to be invulnerable at extremely close range. From what I can tell, this was due to the pellets spawning inside the enemy's hitbox so never actually starting to overlap it. Effectively, it just spawns the pellets slightly behind the camera.

This is what happens when my enemy takes damage. If this damage kills the enemy, it explodes and the enemy is destroyed. If the damage is non-fatal, sparks are produced. Unfortunately, despite my best attempts, the sparks linger after actor destruction. I do not know why.

This code controls how much damage is taken by checking what the enemy was hit by and applying the relevant damage.

This is the code for the knives thrown during the sniper's secondary attack. The Z angle at which they're thrown is based on a variable that increases by 5 degrees every time one is thrown before resetting after all knives are thrown, creating a symmetrical arc. I added this to give the dash ability more use.

This is how I initially programmed the Scout's stun mechanic. My thinking was that it would function as a stun baton, forcing the player to get close to stun the enemy. However, due to technical restrictions [AKA: I don't know how to control the line trace range or apply stun], I elected to make the stun mechanic a projectile. After all, the player is already getting up-and-close to use the shotgun blast, so the stun's range limit is redundant.

uh oh

[we-do-a-little-developing]

AI and making an enemy

This is how I made a basic AI enemy. First, I created a character and set the skeleton mesh to a mannequin. Then, I added a NavMesh from the Volume menu [NavMesh dictates where an AI can move] and added the code on the right. This did not work. As it turns out, the NavMesh didn't quite reach the floor so the AI could never move. I fixed this by lowering the mesh so it clips into the floor.

Here, instead of continuously moving towards the player, the AI finds a random point in a given radius every 2 seconds and moves towards that. If there was no 2 second delay, it would be continuously rotating as it turns to move to the next point but by that time, another has been chosen.

The enemy also had no animations, staying perfectly still in its reference pose as it comes towards the player. To fix this, I toggled 'Use acceleration for paths' on. This did not work. The enemy is still in its reference pose, which I'd argue is more intimidating.

This is the Pawn Sensing component. If a certain pawn is in the green cone, Pawn Sensing will be triggered. What happens then depends on the code.

This is the code that activates when Pawn Sensing is triggered. First, it checks if the player character was observed, then it sets a boolean [true or false] value to true and makes the AI move towards the player. This will keep happening until Pawn Sensing is no longer triggered, then the second part of the sequence plays out which waits 0.5 seconds before setting the boolean value to false.

I also added a piece of code to the section that makes the enemy walk randomly so that stops when the boolean value is true [so, when the player is seen] otherwise the enemy goes back to random movement

Finally [I hope], I added this code to make the enemy move between four points. This is only triggered after the boolean value is set to false on the last image, so the AI only circulates between the points when it can't see the player. There is also a delay to make the enemy wait at each point.

This is how I tried to create an enemy spawner. Safe to say, even if it worked, it would have been hella inefficient [as the kids say]. I didn't need to use a timeline, I could just use a delay [which I DID], and I just could NOT get it to loop. Can you tell I was very tired when I wrote that code.

This is how I fixed it. My biggest issue was that I was spawning an actor rather than an AI, so the enemy just staid where it spawned [lay - laid so stay - staid. I will die on this hill]. Having said that, Set Timer by Event also allowed me to loop the spawning which was a godsent

TL:DR - ginge is dense in the head

My game also kept crahing due to an infinite loop.

originally, I thought it was due to the above code as I still had remnants of my terrible attempt, so I cleaned it up. That didn't work. Then I actually read the log and realised I had a While loop in mt enemy AI. I removed this, making the AI completely break, but the game didn't crash. The AI I have is awful, I mean look at this

half of this doesn't even do anything. End my suffering

I attempted to fix the lack of animations by adding a blend space and animation blueprint

As the speed increases, the enemy should go from idle to walking to running. Despite following a tutorial, the enemy is still stuck in a reference pose. I don't know why. I created a whole new enemy character which I applied these to and fixed all the missing references. I'm consistently doing something wrong but I don't know what.

This code changes the colour of a glow on the head of the enemy depending on it's spawn location as the vents they spawn from have different colours

This is the model I replaced the mannequin with. Not only does it fit the game's style better, but it has no limbs so needs no animation

[we-do-a-little-developing]

Megascans and their use in games.

Megascans are so detailed and accessible in UE5 that they are widely used in AAA games, such as Metro Exodus [the one I didn't play], RE Village and Cyberpunk. This allows for lessened workload on the asset designers and level builders, so more time can be spent polishing the gameplay loop, fixing bugs [Cyberpunk was a bad example them], etc.

Metro Exodus:

Due to the diversity and scale of Metro Exodus' environments, the developers at 4A needed to use Quixel Bridge's Megascans to keep a consistent level of graphical fidelity without compromising on other game aspects.

Resident Evil: Village:

RE:V is another game with a huge scale and equally high graphical fidelity. The developers used Megascans to construct the buildings and environments of RE:V, with grass and wooden plank models being the most used. Capcom also used megascans to degrade the walls of buildings individually without needing to develop more textures.

I'm not writing out another paragraph for Cyberpunk - it's the same deal. Huge game, amazing graphics, needed QB Megascans to keep a consistenty high level of graphics.

In my opinion, using Megascans is absolutely not cheating as it allows for more work to go into perfecting the gameplay loop or trying to fix bugs. Sharing work and resources is already a large part of programming especially and the whole commercial hardware and software sectors, so it would be a waste to not use accessible high-quality resources in games and label it 'cheating'.

[we-do-a-little-developing]

health/ammo packs in games

[we-do-a-little-developing]

Timelines, Lerps and moving platform

This is how I worked out the two points that the platform starts at and ends at. The top section works out where the cube [platform] is when the game starts, which is needed to be done before any movement. The lower section gets the position of an invisible sphere where the platform stops, and Lerps [Linear intERPolation - interpolating between two points] between them, outputting the value as the new location for the platform. Effectively, the Lerp works out the line between two points and tells the platform to follow that.

However, nothing would happen. This was because there was no Alpha value, so the Lerp doesn't know how fast to move the platform for, or at what speed. To fix this, we create a timeline node. I called this Swiggidy Swoogidy. I'm the programmer here, you can't stop me. This timeline was then pulled into the Alpha value, and the Update node was pulled into Set World Location, so the Lerp interpolates between the location of the cube and sphere, then makes the platform move fast enough to reach the sphere as the timeline ends.

This is what a timeline looks like. Here, it has three points - at 0 seconds it has a value of 0, at 4 seconds it has a value of 1, and at 8 seconds it has a value of 0. Effectively, at 0 the platform is at its start position, at 4 it's at its end position and at 8 it's at its end position. The computer works out the space inbetween these points so the platform moves as slowly as possible.

I ended up adding a hitbox to the top of the platform. Only when the player overlaps this hitbox will the platform actually start, instead of continuously looping from start.

By adding a Flip-Flop [I love this] and typing A to Play and B to Reverse, when the player first overlaps the hitbox the platform moves normally, but when they overlap it again it reverses. Originally, I had put A and B at Play From Start and Reverse From End however this teleported the platform to the start position every time it was overlapped which, safe to say, wasn't ideal.

[we-do-a-little-developing]

Tapes and combat mechanics

My game will use cassette tapes as weapons, with all 3 having a different primary/secondary attack, hence the code in the last post. There will be a slight delay with attacks changing as the tape animation plays, with a tape being inserted into the tape player

This is my model for the cassette player. It's inspired by the Walkman and the ECHO player from Borderlands 3. The two decorations either side are from two playable tapes, and I just think they looked cool. There are also stickers on the back, namely the American Idiot album cover and the sticker from the Nimrod album - more will be added

aforementioned inspiration

This is Tape 1 - Scout. The music it plays is upbeat and energetic, reflecting the more active playstyle encouraged by the attacks given by the tape - namely the risk-vs-reward bat that applies a 'stunned' statues effect, briefly stopping the enemy from attacking, and a single-barrelled shotgun that is most effective at close range.

This is Tape 3 - Sniper. The played music is a lot calmer and maybe a little jazzy, reflecting the more laid-back playstyle encouraged with the slow-firing but hitscan and high-damage rifle and a dash secondary ability to help keep the player at an effective range

This is Tape 3 - Soldier. The music is more percussion-heavy and militaristic to reflect the playstyle encouraged by the primary rocket [which can be used as mobility at the cost of health] and a secondary melee that does a lot of damage if used whilst airborne

When it comes to healing, I have 3 options: 1] no. All damage is permanent until the fight ends. This makes the battle considerably more difficult 2] healing via damage done. This system is used in games such as Ultrakill and encourages more of an aggressive playstyle, but I likely won't be able to implement the mobility mechanics to keep up 3] healing manually. This requires the player to cease attacking and play an animation of them rewinding the tape. Because of this, they have to make snap risk-vs-reward decisions as opposed to the snowballing health system above

[we-do-a-little-developing]

Adding audio

This is how I added audio to my bouncepad. The audio is client-side, so it isn't being emitted from an actual location in the map

[we-do-a-little-developing]

UE5 animation

These two videos demonstrate the capabilities and resources for animation in UE5. From the first video, I learnt how using UE5 over other programs can greatly speed up the animation process by getting real-time results, rather than needing the entire sequence to be gradually rendered. I also learnt how much real-life integration has and its resources for making photorealistic faces, and their use in industry. Quixel Bridge and similar plugins, I discovered, are also widely used in the animation/games industry using UE5 due to the extremely high graphical fidelity of the content there and can be used to create photorealistic environments.

Love Death and Robots:

These are frames from LDR short films. The creative liberty given to the artists and story writers allow for extreme versatility in their art direction. The 15-minute limit on stories also forces the script writers to cut back on all unnecessary action and dialogue, effectively trimming the fat as it were.

Tenacious D - 'Video Games':

This is the music video for Tenacious D's song 'Video Games'. The changing artstyle depending on game inspiration makes the video feel very unique, and the cartoony animation matches the comedic nature of the song

'The Voice In The Hollow':

The Voice In The Hollow is an award-winning short film made in UE5. What I particularly enjoy about this animation is the use of colour to highlight environmental elements and distinguish characters alongside the less photo-realistic, more geometric shading which makes the film feel more unique.

Borderlands 2 cutscenes:

The Borderlands franchise has a very strong visual identity, and this is present in its cutscenes too. Part of this is the solid, bright colours and black defined outlines which shift dynamically depending on player perspective in-game, and another part is the shock factor emphasising the brutality of the borderlands.

Team Fortress 2 - Expiration Date':

Borderlands' visual identity and status is nowhere that of TF2 however. The colours and form of the mercs allow them to be immediately recognisable, even from silhouettes. Moreover, the comedy of the 'Expiration Date' short film flows naturally from believable interactions, which also helps to establish the character's personalities almost instantaneously alongside their actions.