This was my final project for my Unreal class at SMC. It’s goal was to showcase what I’ve learned.

I have to say that I loved working with blueprints in Unreal and creating prefabs with fully adjustable features. For example, I made a platform with options to set it as moving and set a relative position to move to as well as an option to make it a falling platform when stepped on by the player.

Then I made a rising lava pool that would randomly spawn bubbles of various speeds and sizes. These lava bubbles damage the player on contact before they burst.

What I Learned

Blueprints – How to add functionality to actors in-game like spawning enemies, triggering hazards, respawning the player, collecting items, adding power-ups to the player, moving elevators by button input, or playing cinematics.

Basic AI – Enemy characters chase and damage the player some triggered by sound others by sight.

Actors – Created bouncing, spinning, and glowing pick-up items that disappear and add capabilities to the player when collected.

GUI – Implemented a UI that displays information to the user dynamically.

Materials – Learned how to add properties to materials and make them variable and hence, adjustable by its children.

Cinematics – Created cut-scenes that are triggered by player progress.

Animation – Rigged new models correctly in order to allow them to use the build-in animations for the player. These were done for the baddies in the game.

Matinees – Create animations based on actions taken in-game

Level Blocking – Created standard pieces for the environment using Maya to block out the level and rapidly prototype.

Modelling – Used Maya to create custom models based on the standard blocks and imported them into UE4.

UV Mapping – Created textures in Photoshop and mapped them using Maya, then imported them into UE4.

Sound Effects – Adjusted SFX in UE4 sound tools to add sound attentuation, looping, etc. SFX made and edited in Audacity.

Implemented Features

• 0:13 – Button Trigger with Cinematic – Turns off Laser Trap blocking Elevator
• 0:29 – First Elevator Matinee, Activated by Trigger
• 0:33 – 2nd Cinematic, played by trigger box. Shows Level 2 and Objective
• 0:49 – Moving platform and Laser Obstacle. Laser has sound attentuation and deal damage to player.
• 1:01 – Health pick up that bouces. Disappears and plays a sound after collected.
• 1:05 – Wall trap obstacle course. Walls play a sound when they hit the floor, with sound attenuation. They deal damage to the player when they smash on top of him.
• 1:17 – Death respawn
• 1:55 – Lava has been rising this whole time and has consumed level 1.
• 2:18 – Third level Cinematic
• 2:29 – Falling platforms that blink when they are stepped on, fall, and then return after a time.
• 2:43 – Wall obstacles on 2nd floor, now you have to jump through them.
• 4:05 – Falling platform section, now with laser traps
• 4:11 – Flickering light with sound effects.
• 4:20 – Level 1 Cinematic, show the lava rising and that your objective is blocked by lasers
• 4:39 – Laser trap deals damage when touched
• 5:03 – Bad guys chase you. They have their own animations as well.
• 5:20 – Lava bubble hazards. They spawn randomly within the lava’s boundaries, with random sizes, speeds, and lifespans. They deal damage when touched, disappear, and play a random pop (out of 5 sounds) and burning sound.
• 5:50 – Playthough
• 8:45 – Third level – Two small bad guys and giant Boss. They chase you when they see or hear you. They deal damage when touched. Giant Boss jumps on you when you touch and deal damage.