My team is officially:
- Me (obviously)
- Taciana V.
- Jeff Desmarais
- Dang Nguyen
Alright so i started researching Sidescrollers for iPad and Android Tablets, and they more or less ALL have the same layout. Two directional controls, and an alternate button. Since in our game, we'll be jumping and shooting projectiles, il would seem logical to me to make two buttons; one for each.
i was also thinking of a way to make the game more interesting. Since our game (so far) is about a kid using his imagination to get through levels, i thought it might be fun to be able to either switch from Imagination mode to Real-Life mode, OR have parts of the levels where imagination mode would kick in, and the stuff would switch up. OR We could make it an on-the-fly switch, and have the player only be able to pass certain parts using one or the other. That way, instead of making 2 incredibly complicated levels (which would be longer and harder to do) we could make one really kick ass level and have the 2 LDs (JF and myself) design the Real-Life/Imagination worlds parallel to each other!!
To be honest, i'm really excited about doing tests for this XD!!
My Dev Journals
Saturday, 29 October 2011
Wednesday, 26 October 2011
One moooore thing!
I'm thinking of giving back to the Kismet/unreal community and i might be making a series of tutorials on how to do the things I've figured out this semester! There are Zero videos on any of it online, and hopefully, I'll be able to help out the aspiring LD :)
Shpank yah later!
A lack of time
Due to a lack of time, I will be unable to update my blog appropriately for the time being, but I've had GIANT developments in my second project, and I was able to finish ahead of time of the extention deadline, so I maximized my productivity!
Instead of doing nothing for the last three days after I'd finished polishing up my map, i started looking into scaleform in a DEEP way. I've essentially made myself a template which I'll be perfecting to fit my level design portfolio at the end of the year! Basically, I can't wait!
I even included this in the project which I will be presenting in class today.
My goal this semester is to learn how to do right, everything we did wrong LAST semester during the abysmal organization/results of the Aliss project. To be honest, the more I learn, the more I realize that Aliss was the "learn what not to do" project on about every level, and I find myself realizing very quickly how the way things were being done were just NOT right. All I can say about big projects is that Source Control is a magical thing (love you, perforce!)
So I modified my level based on the comments I received in class (though ill be honest, there weren't many, and that didn't make it easy for me to detach myself from my project to get an outsider view of it.) hopefully, i got a great result out of it, and it will play flawlessly!
Next time, we eat my Kismet!
Oh, and photos and maybe a video coming your way! ;)
EDIT: Here are those photos i promised!! Just did a quick play through so i got main spots the player will be in.
Instead of doing nothing for the last three days after I'd finished polishing up my map, i started looking into scaleform in a DEEP way. I've essentially made myself a template which I'll be perfecting to fit my level design portfolio at the end of the year! Basically, I can't wait!
I even included this in the project which I will be presenting in class today.
My goal this semester is to learn how to do right, everything we did wrong LAST semester during the abysmal organization/results of the Aliss project. To be honest, the more I learn, the more I realize that Aliss was the "learn what not to do" project on about every level, and I find myself realizing very quickly how the way things were being done were just NOT right. All I can say about big projects is that Source Control is a magical thing (love you, perforce!)
So I modified my level based on the comments I received in class (though ill be honest, there weren't many, and that didn't make it easy for me to detach myself from my project to get an outsider view of it.) hopefully, i got a great result out of it, and it will play flawlessly!
Next time, we eat my Kismet!
Oh, and photos and maybe a video coming your way! ;)
EDIT: Here are those photos i promised!! Just did a quick play through so i got main spots the player will be in.
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| The Main Menu I worked on. Serves a BASIC purpose of launching my map, fullscreening to 1080p, and exiting. Simple. |
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| This is the camera's main view. I was able to work out the auto switching with a bool toggle and trigger volumes. |
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| This is the Top view, which would come on when the player needs to examine his surroundings/navigate a puzzle. |
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| going upstairs, it flips back, so the player can easily navigate the stairs. |
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| After seeing Jean-Francois's climbing system, i decided it may be a good idea to have to climb something so it wouldn't feel too much like a 3d platformer. |
Saturday, 8 October 2011
A BREAKTHROUGH!!
Captain's log; Stardate 65234.1
Alright, so i've had a mighty break through with my next level design project, and developed a really cool customizable cam system that could be used for any game!
I was thinking about how i could get this system made, and I ran some tests.
At first, I figured that if i could make two cameras and have them switch back and forth at the click of a button, that i'd be able to get my system working.
My problematic was that i didn't actually have a way to make a "button click event" strictly with Kismet (ahh gotta love limitations!), BUT i did a little bit of digging, and all it took was a slight tweak in ONE setting in the DefaultInput.ini Script, and i was ready to go!! :D
Alright, so i've had a mighty break through with my next level design project, and developed a really cool customizable cam system that could be used for any game!
I was thinking about how i could get this system made, and I ran some tests.
At first, I figured that if i could make two cameras and have them switch back and forth at the click of a button, that i'd be able to get my system working.
My problematic was that i didn't actually have a way to make a "button click event" strictly with Kismet (ahh gotta love limitations!), BUT i did a little bit of digging, and all it took was a slight tweak in ONE setting in the DefaultInput.ini Script, and i was ready to go!! :D
Once i chose my button binding (in this case rightclick) i was able to make it cause an event which i then named. I also realize now that the simple command "causeevent" in combination with the Kismet command "Console Event" will allow me to be able to simulate ANY future mechanics i need to make, and assign them to a buttonpress!!
My formula was simple enough. I needed for my camera to switch every time i rightclick on my mouse. I figured the easiest way to have that happen was to Toggle a Bool. When true, one camera would be the one targeting the player. When false, the other one would be it. This worked out perfectly! The only problem with this system is that the cam was twitchy, and sudden. Quite annoying to any player, to be honest. So i thought about it and took my initial cam, made a Matinee group, and set up the bool to play the animation on True, and to Reverse the Animation on false. All i did is make the first camera's end position be exactly where i had placed my second cam. The GREAT part of this is that I can use this system for any game i want, make the button be anything i want, and have the cameras be at any angle i want! 3-in-1 design WIN!! :)
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| The final Camera Movement system! |
This was my final result!! As for the attaching of the initial camera, it needed to be pre-attached to the player in order for the whole system to work, and i just did a simple Attach to Actor, and i Camera Target, both using the cam as a shadow, and Player 0 as the target! Simple as pie! :)
GREAT VICTORY! HERE'S THE VIDEO OF THIS WORKING!! :)
Tuesday, 4 October 2011
Level Designing for a horrible Game Design
Captain's log; stardate 65223.5
Biggest challenge so far this semester, by far!
Instead of trying to tweak all kinds of nonsense in the game design doc, I'm going to try and stick to it as best as i can, to try and give them a result that would be interesting to have.
Obviously the map that was provided to us made no logical sense, so that aspect, i'll be changing. Other than that though, i'm going to run tests with the desired camera angle and all that jazz, and see is it makes anything worthy of my portfolio. If i don't think so, I'll most likely end up making something "a ma facon" as they say. This is a screenshot of the whole "isometric" cam they wanted. I might be able to muster something interesting with this if i can change the FOV of the Camera.
Before i get around to tweaking that though, i'll do the level design to tighten the whole thing! i'll start by making sure it's pretty in first person. THEN i'll worry about 3rd.
here's hoping this works out as i'd like it to! :D
Biggest challenge so far this semester, by far!
Instead of trying to tweak all kinds of nonsense in the game design doc, I'm going to try and stick to it as best as i can, to try and give them a result that would be interesting to have.
Obviously the map that was provided to us made no logical sense, so that aspect, i'll be changing. Other than that though, i'm going to run tests with the desired camera angle and all that jazz, and see is it makes anything worthy of my portfolio. If i don't think so, I'll most likely end up making something "a ma facon" as they say. This is a screenshot of the whole "isometric" cam they wanted. I might be able to muster something interesting with this if i can change the FOV of the Camera.
Before i get around to tweaking that though, i'll do the level design to tighten the whole thing! i'll start by making sure it's pretty in first person. THEN i'll worry about 3rd.
here's hoping this works out as i'd like it to! :D