WIZARDS WORLD
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5 weeks (half-time)
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Unreal Engine 4
TRAILER
CONCEPT
My goal with Wizards World was to make a third person game prototype with an open world atmosphere, but in fact more linear than it looks like. I thought that could be a fun challenge and the goal helped me focus on one track in the world, which was good because of the limited time for the project.
I even wanted to enable for different kind of gameplay like combat, exploration and platform-like jump sections.
The first rough sketch.
ART
I chose a low poly art style, a style I like and it saved time to work with cleaner shapes and have meshes to scale without there being any strange texture stretching. I skipped the blockout stage and played around with the meshes from the very beginning.
All assets are from Epic Games Marketplace:
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Battle Wizard Polyart (The Player)
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Great Grey Goose (Enemies)
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Low Poly Forest Vol.2 (Environment)
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Low Poly Village (Environmenet)
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Infinity Blade Effects (VFX)
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Particles & Wind Control System (VFX)
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Amplify LUT pack (Post Process)
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Craft Resources Icons (UI)
Example of building an area with low poly meshes.
STATE MACHINE OVERVIEW
STORY
I set up an very easy story plot just to keep something in mind: "You are a wizard who must heal the old priest who is sick. Head for the village to find him."
SCHEDULE
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Week 1: Scripting
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Week 2: Scripting
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Week 3: Scripting
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Week 4: World and Level Design
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Week 5: World and Level Design
SCRIPTING
The main scripting goal in this project was to set up a player character from the very beginning, with movement and animations (state machine) and have a simple enemy AI run by a Behaviour Tree. This is something I am interested in but have some experience of. Except that I kept scripting to an easier level when I implemented pickups, upgrades and UI.
I took the most useful animations from the asset pack and linked them together in this state machine:
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IDLE
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RUN
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JUMP
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ATTACK
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AIR ATTACK
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PICK UP
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DIE
WALK AND ATTACK
In the asset pack there was no animation for walk and attack at the same time, attacking while moving looked strange. To solve that I used the function "Layered blend per bone" which makes it possible to blend animations and play them at the same time. I needed two animations, the upper part of the body should play the attack animation and the lower part of the body should play the walk animation (which is a blendspace). The breaking point between the animations should be in the midpoint of the body so I had to refer to that specific bone in the skeleton which is: spine01
The upper part of the body plays the attack animation and the lower part plays the walk animation. I think this
looks okay! The synchronization between the speed of the character and the footstep animation could have been better.
the design and appearance of the world
As mentioned earlier I wanted the open world atmosphere. To make the world look big I need depth and distance. My way of getting it was to put mountains far away in the background and add exponential height fog.
The world is limited by mountains, water and dense forest but some playable areas need to be larger and open up for exploration. This creates a feeling of freedom as is the foundation in an open world game. It should not be possible to take the straight path forward, to create the feeling of traveling it must take some time. Working with different settings can probably help to get the feeling of traveling. Except for some differences in biotopes I changed the time of the day while the player gets through a tunnel.
GAMEPLAY
The core mechanic in the game is to use the wand to defeat enemies and destroy barrels (to collect pick ups) and for variation the game has some jump puzzles. Exploration is meant to be a part of the game but is so far limited because of time. I felt that the regular way to use the characters wand was a bit boring so I added the ability to aim. This made the attacks more controlled and non-repetitive.
The Blueprint script for aiming.
WORLD OVERVIEW
START
GOAL
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Press on the icons for more information.
1
On this cliff the player gets a good overview of the world (and a hint where to go) without revealing too much.
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2
I want the player to go for the barrels, round the windmill and then face the gap between the mountains. To make it more interesting I put a cave painting on the mountain wall (highlighted).
Bubble, that the player
can stand on until it burst
Red and orange arrow: double jump needed
START
Rotating board
Collectable coin
If the player falls, take this way back
Enemy
Barrier
In this puzzle I was thinking about progression, variation and if the player falls they can return to the jump sections without going the whole way back
4
In this misty area I let different kinds of lights guide the player. The fireflies take the player to a spot where the lit house is possible to see. There is an opening in the forest where the player gets a hint of the distant, hidden village.
5
I used a cut scene (Level Sequence) to make a strong presentation of the last area in the world. In addition to the drama it forces the player to see what you want them to see.
DESIGN AND REFLECTION
In my opinion the level design in this game is uncomplicated. I used classic things to guide the player like lights, paths and points of interest. I was keen to have height differences to create an interesting environment, for nice presentations of the world through viewpoints and as a part of my jump puzzles (I wanted some regular platform elements in the game). In an extended version I would focus on exploration and reward the player for taking hidden paths. There is a lot of forest to be cleared to make room for it! I am overall happy with the result, I had a good plan and a fair scope. When I look at it now I could have been more dare in my design, skip the AI and put some extra polish to the world.