Adventures in Game Development

 First Playtest! This week, I got to experience my first official playtest of my game. I've play-tested other games before in development, but it's really different when it's YOUR game! It was really awesome to get feedback and see how the game performed or didn't perform, on other PCs. It was also great to get some thoughts on how to make the game more fun and some neat things I can implement, some of which I have started to already! A lot of this week was spent optimizing, adding the new enemy types, and applying some of the feedback I received in the playtest.  Here's a short video comparing last week to this week: This week's Main Focuses: Lighting Overhaul for Performance and Atmosphere First up, I've updated the game's lighting. This was a careful balance to strike; my goal was to enhance performance without sacrificing the unique atmosphere of the game. After some experimentation, I'm happy with the results but I think there's still room f

This Week's Dev Dive: Major Strides & Cool Vibes! Alright, this week has been nothing short of a rollercoaster, and I'm here to share the ride with you! I've taken some giant leaps forward in making this game not just playable but something you'd want to keep coming back to.  Here's a Video to Demo the differences from last week to this week: Gameplay Loop: Rounds & Waves Are Here to Stay I've finally cracked the code on the whole rounds and waves issue, making the main gameplay loop a lot more engaging and fully functional! It was a bit like trying to solve a puzzle in the dark at first, but I  did it! Now, I can start to tweak the curves and feelings of different elements in the gameplay loop. Sounds Effects and Music: Bringing the Game to Life This week, I also turned the volume up (literally) by adding some free sound effects and a music track I made. It's amazing how much life a bit of background music and well-timed sound effects can add to a g

This week, we really dove into many more of the deeper mechanics of Unreal Engine blueprinting and gameplay. We focused mainly on further developing the player character before moving on to start the actual gameplay loop mechanics. This involved delving into the math for curves, with which I'm not super familiar. However, Vives did an awesome job helping me understand, as did my girlfriend, who is way better at math than I am! Ha! This week I had a lot I accomplished, but here are the highlights: Improved character mechanics: We added a cooldown on the attack to prevent the character from freezing. This involved the mechanics of a cooldown paired with connecting it to the UI. Improved the map layout: I replaced the simple map with a better, larger layout with these neat medieval assets I found online that are public domain.  Improved the AI's path-finding ability: I added the use of an Environment Query System using Pathing Grids and looking for the Distance to the Flag or Play

Wow, I am actually feeling like I am playing a game when I play test!  This week it feels like my game really became almost an actual game! The mechanics are coming along nicely, and the feel is very close to what I'm hoping to achieve in the final product. Vives and I did a LOT this week with animations and getting further into some cool technical options to use in blueprints. I had fun breaking stuff and trying to fix it as I challenged myself, and Vives challenged me, to try to use the newly gained knowledge in different applications.  Enemy Development: Completed the basic Enemy parent using Blueprinting. Implemented Sphere traces to check if the player is within a certain radius to change the behavior tree state accordingly. Utilized Box traces for calculating weapon attack hits. Incorporated blend spaces in the animation and worked on the animation blueprint to change enemy states during an attack. Player Development: Updated the player character to a more cohesive style, com