Blog Post #1: Ahead
This past week, I have gotten quite ahead. Let me explain.
Here are my milestones— set two weeks apart, starting next Wednesday.
Milestone 1 Goals.
Start Unreal Engine familiarization through tutorials.
Review GDDs.
Deconstruct comps (from a player perspective).
Milestone 2 Goals.
Continue learning Unreal Engine.
Start filling in GDD for the end project.
Milestone 3 Goals.
Start working on the greybox prototype.
Continue completing GDD.
Milestone 4 Goals.
Continue work on the greybox prototype.
Start work on developing the alla prima mechanic.
Milestone 5 Goals.
Finish GDD (including base script for vertical slice).
Finish basic development of the alla prima mechanic.
Finish the greybox prototype.
More explanation is necessary.
What is the project?
From my project proposal:
“Working title: [Pareidolia: Unbound].
“This project will be the researching and development of a unique mechanic in a functioning prototype. This project will cover all of the school year, and will set the stage for my Praxis project next year. Essentially, the movements of a 3rd-person character— specifically the movements of their attacks— will create a trailing streak, which will smear the two-dimensional image of the three-dimensional scene. This smear will act as a smear of wet oil paint composing the scene; the smear of colors, shadows, and details will reconstruct that with which it comes in contact— altering the three-dimensional layout of the environment. The working name for this mechanic is “alla prima”— the artistic term in Italian for wet-on-wet painting.”
“The end goal of the project— which will continue next year in Studio— will be an action RPG vertical slice. Aside from using alla prima to alter the environment (to bypass obstacles, solve puzzles, etc.), it must also be used to destroy certain enemies (typically stronger types, like bosses)— a finishing move. If alla prima is not used, even if a boss’s health is reduced to nothing, it will not be defeated. Both uses of alla prima require a consumable resource (working name: Inspiration Points).
“It is currently called Pareidolia: Unbound, because of the meaning we attribute to meaningless stimuli— which really presents a fair analogy to the alla prima mechanic. In addition to this special mechanic, enemies will spawn only if the MC’s perspective in the three-dimensional environments aligns specific visual details that come together to compose an organic, character-presenting shape.”
Let’s delve deeper into what I’ve done this past week.
9/5-7/2024
I bought the Learn C++ for Game Development Udemy course, and put in 3.5 hours into it these three days. The entire course is 12.5 hours. I also bought the Learn Unreal Engine 5 C++ Programming by Creating an Action-RPG Style Open World Game! course from the same instructor. That one is 53 hours, and the instructor recommended completing the prior course first, so that is what I am doing.
I also did some research into comps. The only one that I found to be immediately relevant was Viewfinder. Viewfinder has a unique mechanic in which photographs can be placed in front of the 1st person perspective, and the structures and objects of the photographs become real and interactive. I found a tutorial on emulating that in UE5 (Viewfinder was made in Unity). More on that tutorial later.
Viewfinder (2023)
9/8/2024
I wanted to start implementing my findings as promptly as possible, so I started a tutorial on creating a 3rd person game. I slightly modified the process: changing where the camera is to have a more intimate feel; having perspective constantly from behind and to the right of the MC.
Ignore the T-pose. This is the perspective that I decided upon for the 3rd person angle.
I got the “Brute” model from Mixamo. Obviously, I’ll create a unique mesh for Alice, but the bald-with-tattoos worked better for now, and I want something better than the standard robot mesh.
I set up the keybinds for basic movement.
9/9/2024
(2 hours)
Today I scrapped the Brute mesh because I got frustrated about not knowing how to import animations to it— back to the basic mesh. Then, I followed this tutorial to add a 1st person toggle. Well, really it’s a 1st person switch; I need to figure out how to have it go back to 3rd person when I release the trigger.
Updated 3rd person perspective.
Then I got 10 minutes into this tutorial on emulating Viewfinder in UE5. The plan is to follow the two parts of this tutorial and really get a handle on the Viewfinder mechanic, then add a combat animation with a refraction weapon trail; assign the “photo” to the trail.
Still today, but after walk: I realized that I don’t need the “flip flop” between perspectives if I want it to only go to 1st person while the button is pressed. So I deleted all of those nodes. It works, but two things can be improved upon:
1) If I try to go to 1st person, release, back to 3rd person, press to go to 1st person again— it doesn’t work; I have to press the trigger an extra time to activate 1st person perspective again/or have pressed some other button since. How to fix this? I currently do not know.
2) Going into 1st person perspective, release, back to 3rd person, press (twice) to go to 1st person again— the 1st person perspective is the same as where I left it; the angle of view is the same; if I previously was looking at the ground in 1st person, it returns to that same view when I go back into 1st person. I want the 1st person perspective to return to default whenever I go into it. How to fix this? I’m not sure.
This is what the blueprint looks like after removing the Flip-Flop, and swapping to a toggle.
9/10/2024
(1.5 hours)
I met with Shivansh, a second year graduate student. He helped me import the Animation Sample Pack from the Unreal Marketplace, and bind the running and jumping animations to my mesh. He also helped fix the issue where it took two taps of the trigger to re-enter 1st person. I’m not sure what he did— I’m pasting a screenshot of the blueprint code here— but it worked. He also tried to fix the issue where the 1st person perspective returns to what it had been before going into 3rd person. He couldn’t help with that at the moment, but he tried some solutions— none worked— and decided to look into it in his free time. I will do the same.
Shivansh's code.
I also research GDDs, and started making my own. Here it is.
And for my worldbuilding class, I am tasked with creating a worldbuilding project. I have chosen to use this opportunity to develop the setting of my game.
I detailed the notable sites in order of how I think the game plot will go— at least at this time. The class is inherently skewed towards hard worldbuilding; I am determined to add some softness to my project.
Next steps:
Continue implementing the Viewfinder mechanic tutorial in the 1st person mode.
Add more animations, such as diagonal running, running backwards, and ledge grabs (I will need to greybox a ledge in).
Add a basic weapon attack animation, and link a refraction trail to the weapon.
Figure out how to use the refraction trail as the “photo” of the Viewfinder mechanic.
To remind you, these were the Milestones for #1:
Start Unreal Engine familiarization through tutorials.
Review GDDs.
Deconstruct comps (from a player perspective).
So yes, I would say that I have gotten quite ahead.
