HammerGirl Project: Week 1 - Mechanics

 

Following on from our Unreal Engine Level Blockout project we moved over to level design using pre-made assets and predetermined character designs.

The brief has asked us to use the assets provided along with the mechanics given - however, we were also told we could implement a few mechanics of our own and create a few simple assets should we need them.

I wanted to spend the first section of this 4-week project creating some additional mechanics I felt would be useful in the type of game I wanted to create. Firstly, I wanted to make the player pick the hammer up at the beginning of the game. This was easy enough to add, a simple pickup version of the hammer left in the world which when picked up activates the one on the HammerGirl blueprint.

After creating this I used the bones of this blueprint to create one for a torch. I want the player to have to go and explore a mine and lighting in this environment will be crucial. All I needed to do extra here for implementation was switch out the static mesh in the Hammer Pickup Blueprint for one I could use as a torch. Following that, I needed to set up a mesh for the torch on the HammerGirl blueprint, I used a scaled-down lampost for now and created a simple fire particle system in Niagara to add to the top along with a point light to illuminate the area once in use.

My next step was to create a couple of destructible meshes to use within the game for collecting some items I wanted to focus on rocks and barrels for now, but will probably add others later on in development such as boxes and possibly secret walls.

From this, I also decided I wanted to have a level inside a mine and wanted to set up a quick puzzle for the player to solve involving lightable pillars which will unlock other areas once they've interacted with the player's torch.

Now that the majority of my core mechanics have been created, I will be spending the next week designing the layout of the Hub Village and then moving on to creating a puzzle level. Currently, I have in mind the idea of creating a mine for the player to explore, but this could change between now and next week!