For the past 6 weeks, I've been working on another Game Genre Studies project. This time, it's a beat 'em up game made with Unreal Engine 4. I decided to make the switch over from Stencyl due to a multitude of reasons. The primary reason was because I now felt more comfortable with Unreal, but the ending of Adobe Flash Player, and the greater amount of Unreal resources available were also major factors.
For the first build, I only included the base features that were required of us. So, I added an AI enemy that chased the player, and damaged them on contact. I added a player character that had a single attack that would damage the enemies, and health bars for both the player and enemies so that both could die.
For the second build, I decided to make a standalone level, as the first build was using the Example Map that Unreal gives in their Third Person template. So I created a new map, using textures that made it seem like either an old temple, or a hidden base within a rocky area. I added a sprint ability when the player pressed shift, to be used as a mobility option to avoid enemy damage. I also added punching animations to make the enemy seem more dangerous, instead of them blindly walking into you. This week was the first week with playtesters, and so the feedback I recieved was that there was a lack of visual representation of damage, both to the enemy and to the player, and that the sprint felt redundant. I had 2 iterations of the health bar, each with a different placement, and I decided from feedback to keep the original health bar on the bottom left.
Following that, after the Chinese New Year holidays, for the next build I removed the sprint and replaced it with a dash forward, which seemed to be recieved better. I also expanded the level slightly, and added a health powerup that gave the player some HP back, as they would take a lot of damage from enemies and die to them eventually otherwise. I also fixed some collision issues with the enemies, and added visual and audio feedback when the enemies were hit and killed. Feedback from this iteration was good, just that testers found the combat relatively dull, and that they found that there weren't enough health powerups around.
For the fourth and final iteration, I expanded the level even more, making the player now go onto the roof. I also added some more health powerups around the map, fixed some issues with the dash, and changed the enemy model entirely, from the Male mannequin to the Female one. I did this as I plan to add a tankier enemy in the coming weeks, and so I intend for that enemy to use the Male model instead. I also updated the lighting around the level, to make it look much better, and added some fitting background music to add an element of atmosphere.
(Above) The new enemy model, the health pickup, and the health pickup effect
Building a game around the Beat 'Em Up genre has been quite an interesting challenge, as it's easy to make the gameplay extremely repetitive, and so I'd have to think of elements that could switch things up and keep it fresh. Working out hitboxes and hurtboxes was difficult, as sometimes they could malfunction and make contact too many times, leading to an untimely death in an instant, which was not ideal, to say the least.
There are a couple of features I would like to implement in the future, if the next implemented genres allow for them. I would especially like to add more kinds of enemies, to keep the gameplay more interesting, and add an element of strategy to the game.
All in all I'm happy with my progress made, and I'm looking forward to the next genres and iterations, and to see how the game will change.
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