Role Breakdown

 

Scripting: For this project scripting was my primary role within the team, the game developed was very technically heavy and took on many challenges that I had never before attempted. The focus while scripting was on:

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• Core systems and gameplay design.

• Core character mechanics.

• Designer tool creation.

• Procedural level generation.

• Design with a focus around gathering items to be used, bought and sold.

• Any particularly complex script.

• Tutoring and aiding juniors in script .

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Here's the main aspects I worked on and developed throughout the project:​

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Item Mechanics & systems

• Fully functioning inventory system and hot bar with functionality for: ​​

  • Multiple items.

  • Item stacking.

  • Item addition and addition to partial stacks.

  • Item removal and removal from partial stacks.

  • Check for if the inventory is full.

  • Item selection, reordering and movement within inventory.

  • Use selected item.

  • Inventory communication across all other systems (crafting system, shop, etc..

• Item implementation, used throughout multiple systems with hierarchal parenting & data table to allow for easy addition of new items for designers .

• Crafting system, allowing for character tool upgrades and ship repairs/purchases​.

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Character Mechanics

• Character movement, including smooth 360° character rotation to follow the mouse.

• Character camera 

• Character hoe tool, the tool is used to create "crop plots" on a grid based placement system.​

• Character hose tool, the tool is used to water crystal shards placed within crop plots.

• Character directional interaction.

• Character drill tool, the tool can be used to:

  • Hold to collect crystal/crystal shard items from crystal resource nodes, while within drill range.

  • Drill will not function on crystal resource nodes that are too high level.

  • Can be upgraded in the crafting system to level the drill up and mine higher level crystal nodes.

  • The drill tool is used to harvest "planted crystal nodes".

  • Used to deal damage to and defeat enemies with a basic.

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Level Systems, Mechanics & Tools

• Crystal rarity system & crystal resource node blueprint, with functionality for:

  • Procedurally set rarity level, dependant on the number of levels the player has progressed through​.

  • Rarity is percentage based and customisable for designers in a data table.

  • There will always be at least one of each crystal type for the rarity level.

• Level creation tool for designers, allowed for:

  • This tool is a single blueprint that allows for designers to drag into an empty unreal level and start designing.

  • Addition of attached blueprints through the click of a button​ (resource nodes, enemies, hazards, entrance/exits, etc.).

  • Blueprints already pre-referenced to allow for correct and automatic initialization of actors.

  • Therefore allows for dynamically spawned levels to be implemented.

  • Designers can set which actors are required to complete the level through a list of "level complete actors" and eyedropper tool. This leaves the code open to future design changes if required.  (e.g. all enemies required to be defeated to complete the level)

• Procedurally generated levels system, allows for:

  • Important to note the cave layouts are in-fact designed and pre-set, however the order in which the caves generate is procedural. 

  • A new cave level will be streamed dynamically once the exit hole is activated and all "level complete actors" have been completed.

  • ​The entrance and exits between levels are linked/refrenced dynamically at runtime to ensure designer freedom when creating a level.

  • Levels will not repeat after each other but are otherwise procedurally generated in a random order when needed to keep different playthroughs unique.

  • When initialised upon level streaming start the system will determine the current rarity level from the "crystal rarity system" and dynamically set the crystal type for that cave level.

• Developed further a "rock wall tool" for designers. Originally developed by a junior this tool allows designers to generate rocks along a spline. I added the following functionality:

  • The spline tools is able to save and remove any layouts the designers like.

  • The tool will remember saved meshes rather than reconstructing upon initiation.​

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Farming Mechanics & systems

• Implemented the farming system. This system has the functionality:

  • Players plant using crystal shards in an empty plot (created with character hoe tool)

  • Shard can then be "watered" by the player (using the hose tool)

  • The shard will then proceed to grow, the growth time is determined by the type of shard planted (taken from datatable).

  • Once grown the shard will reach the harvestable state, ready for the player to drill.

  • Harvested crystals from farming give significantly more crystals

 

Shop Mechanics & systems

• Implemented variety of shop systems, including:

  • Buying and selling functionality​

  • Shop stock updating based off what the player has already mined.

UI

• Implemented vast majority of fonts and dynamic buttons

• Implemented spatial UI functionality, the spatial widget simply needs to be drop and dragged for designers to edit the text.

• Implemented resource spatial UI and animations

• Implemented main menu functionality & camera.

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Leadership: The team was composed of 17 students, 6 final year students and 11 second year students. For this project I chose to take up the position of technical lead due to my knowledge of the engine. I managed a team of three juniors for the technical side. I also took the position of project lead as I had a solid grasp on the direction of the project and knew the technology well. My leadership roles included me:

• Mentoring juniors (& seniors if needed) on the technology and workflow in my area of expertise.

• Giving presentation of ideas and gameplay to the team and examiners alike

• Building the project daily to ensure it functions and plays as intended.

• Organising playtest sessions where the play testers reported bugs and gave feedback to iterate on.

• Ensuring deadlines are met across the entire team as well as my own.

• Ensuring the team is happy with the current project, scope and workload.

• Hold frequent meetings to allow for questions and ensure the vision and core pillars of the game are kept.

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Project Management (Source Control & Jira): As the project lead I took on the role of project management as well. The main team split into smaller teams (tech, character art, environments, design, etc.) where each team took a lead. This lead would then assign tasks using Jira to other students in their team. At the end of each day the senior would have a roundup meeting to show off work, ask questions and give a progress report. Also as part of my role I managed the source control, we used GitHub for this project. I lead a presentation on how to use GitHub and how it works, if anyone had any questions or worries, I was the person to come to. 

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