HND Project Week 21

HND Project Week 21
This week I have been working on the mechanics of the game. This includes the health bar and damage system as well as the enemy AI.
First of all I have created a health bar so that the enemies are able to deal damage and kill the player. This was done by creating variables such as current health, max health and health regeneration. I have stated in the max health variable that the max health for the player is 100 and the regeneration to be 1 health every 2 seconds. I have made there be very little regeneration because it doesn't feel right to just be able to hide and have health regenerate without the player doing anything.

 The enemy AI have also been created and follow a basic patrol between two points. When the player enters the AI's field of view, the AI will follow the player until they deal damage. There are several different version of the same AI which each do different amount of damage to the player.

 There are 3 sizes of enemy. Similar size to the player, slightly bigger than the player and the boss AI. The standard enemy will do little damage to the player whereas the larger enemy will do much more. However the boss enemy will be doing much more than the other two enemy types. In the variables for damage the smaller enemy will be doing 20 damage, the larger enemy doing 30 damage and the boss enemy doing 40-50 damage. For now the enemies and player will have the default unreal mannequin until I create or find some models that fit the game thematically.

When the player takes damage from the AI a vignette will appear on screen to signify that the player has taken damage. The health bar will also update and remove the health. Upon reaching zero health the player will die and the respawn at the last checkpoint. however currently when the player dies, the game ends.

All of theAI was created using blueprints and the health bar was created using a widget and is cast to the players viewport.

HND Project Week 20

HND Project Week 20
After designing the hub and altering the tutorial map, i focused on the next map which i have decided will be similar to a Victorian Gothic city much like the city of Yharnam in Blodborne.
Originally i wanted the game to be as non linear as possible however i believe that this would have been too ambitious there fore i have designed to to be a progression system where from the hub, one level which is much harder to complete can be done at anytime however the easier map should be done first. This Gothic city is going to be the harder map.

The main streets of the city are going to be like a labyrinth where a player has to always be cautious when progressing as enemies could be around any corner. There will be 2 main landmarks, one being a shrine which could be a checkpoint or offer some sort of temporary buff such as increased run speed or damage reduction. The other is a large cathedral which houses the boss. At this point i havnt designed the boss however i have designed the arena. 

When a player enters the arena, they will not be able to escape until the boss is beaten. The layout is a rough design and i would like for there to be pillars and obstacles that a player can use to hide.

HND Project Week 19

HND Project Week 19
This week i have made some changes to the tutorial map as i was not completely happy with it as it lacked any features that make the ground stand out. This was because the sculpt tool was used to create the landscape. I also changed the texture of the landscape from gravel to basalt to make the landscape much darker. This because i thought the landscape was too bright for the atmosphere that i want on this level.

In order to make the floor of certain parts of the level different, i have added brick floors which look as though something once stood in the area.

The image above shows the floors that i have added. They are also in other parts of the map such as the boss room which is behind the smoke in the image. 

My original thoughts for the tutorial map was to have it be set at night however it didn't look right when i had the landscape texture as a lighter colour. After i changed the texture i made the map night so that it is dark and atmospheric. However after changing the lighting, the map is too dark.

The 2 lights on the wall of the boss arena are the default brightness. I like the darkness, however, i believe that it is too dark and may not be fun to play in as enemies would be able to ambush a player and this would not be fair. Therefore, i plan to brighten the map up a bit so that it is dark but not pitch black.

HND Project Week 18

HND Project Week 18
Last week i completed the hub and was happy with the layout. However i was not happy with the main building as parts of the inside were invisible allowing a player to see outside, this was because i didnt know how to create interiors effectively and tried to basic shapes to make the insides. Therefore this week, i deleted the old building and remade it using geometry shapes instead. This allowed me to make them hollow and use subtractive brush type rather than additive brush type. This allowed me to create dorways into the hollow shapes and this made the building look more like a real building.

I am currently more happy with this building compared to the old one as it looks much more detailed and doesn't have parts of the wall that clip through the other walls. These images were taken using a lighting less mode in unreal this means that the insides are dark. To fix the darkness i could just place light sources inside however i plan to create a torch model that will emit light to make it more realistic and atmospheric.