Wrong Line Of Work

The goal of this project was to put together a single level that has basic mechanics, and conduct a series of playtests, within the span of a single month. Long story short, it went reasonably well and I had an explorable level that playtesters enjoyed. This level fits in an exploration based game that has shooter mechanics, however, the gun is meant to exorcise ghosts rather than kill folk, and there are treasures hidden everywhere meant to be found.

This game project is a first person adventure game, at heart, with a gun.

The level is based on an old mansion, forgotten on a cliffside. A couple exterior walls are broken down, but for the most part it remains intact, if unclean. There are various different rooms to explore and behind the mansion, at the beach dock, is a rusty boat that still works. That is the goal the player must reach to complete the level. However, the boat needs a key, so the player must explore the mansion, finding treasure along the way, until they find the boat key. It is entirely possible to find the key without interacting with the main mechanic of the level, but, unless the player goes a very specific path, they will find ghosts throughout the mansion.

The backstory is that an Exorcist owned this house, and this exorcists used a sci-fi plasma gun. This gun has two settings, red and blue, that corresponds with the eye colors of the different ghosts. The Exorcist is long dead, but his gun works just fine and can be found by entering via the front door. The Exorcist won’t be missing it and the player will be able to use it to gain access to more loot.

Based on playtesting, the level can take up to 10 minutes to traverse and find everything, if the player was thorough, but can take as little as 4 to 5 minutes if they moved fast. Though, as the designer, I can clear the level in under 1.5 minutes if I forgo any treasure. However, the end goal is to find all the loot and exorcise all the ghosts.

Something to note, during creation of this level I wanted to try out the Modeling Plugin that UE5 has. Though it wasn’t a fully flawless plugin, I saw potential in it to be a valuable tool to make the mansion. As is, I would’ve had to find external assets or struggle using the Super-Grid pack otherwise. The main reason I say struggle is because I wanted towers, and I didn’t know any grid based Unreal Engine pack that would give me that ability easily.

Ultimately it came out well, even with some difficulties with learning how all the tools work. That and figuring out which series of tools I needed to use to make the towers I wanted. It took a couple days, and a couple tutorials, to get it done the way I needed. In hindsight, it may have been best to scrap the towers for simplicity and times sake, but I am glad I was able to make it work out. The downside was that I was unable to properly use grid materials, and I didn’t have the best time making the materials I did use look good.

The following videos showcase the blueprints for the mechanics and the final showcase.

WLoW Post Mortem

There was a lot that went well in this project. Among them are blueprints that had no issues, success in building the terrain, and creation of a decent mansion model. Of course all the struggles I faced were valuable learning experiences, but there were some issues I was unable to solve. Prime among them was lighting and animations.

Looking back at the good parts, I had little issues getting the blueprints to work. The ghosts were easy to set up and have them switch between red and blue eyes on the spot. The interactive system was mostly easy to set up, with a few hiccups, and was easy to adjust to get a good feel for the reach. And finally, the gun, while not the easiest of the three, was able to properly swap between ammo types and shoot a projectile.

Now for the bad parts.

The oddest thing that I couldn’t solve was my lighting issues. I assume it was a bug with the Modeling Tool, or perhaps I used it wrong, but there were zero black areas in the mansion. The closed off attic was easy to see in and the ceilings were oddly bright. Despite my best efforts, I was unable to solve the issue. Granted, the lighting doesn’t look bad, just not as I expected.

Another issue I had was with animations. I wanted to have a simply animated ballista, but because of the angle, all my efforts failed horribly. Unfortunately by the time I got around to it I didn’t have enough time to look up a proper solution, so I basically made the bolt disappear instead. The idea being that it broke on impact with the door and shattered. Part of the reason I ran out of time was because I assumed I could get it done with relative ease. I’ve done basic animations in the past, after all. I did not take into account that moving along all three planes complicates the setup needed.

A final issue I came across was the bullet the gun fired. Ultimately it turned out fine and usable, but my intent was to have the bullet fly in a straight line. Despite my efforts and research, I could not get it to go straight. Perhaps I looked up the wrong phrases in Google, but I had no luck and had to settle for a gravity influence bullet.