3D obstacle course
For this assignment, we have to create our own 3D obstacle course. Before starting to design my level in UE4, I did a mindmap, moodboard and some floor plans to get some good solid ideas down.
My level
This is my main menu system, I've kept it neutral because it is the menu for two very different styled games. The 3D Obstacle course is Stay Alive.
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Once you click the game, you spawn in the first room where there is some furniture and a button that opens the gate to let you out once you press it. I think this room is okay, but looks a bit plain, so to improve it, I think I could add possibly a couple more assets.
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When you press "P" in game, it brings up a pause menu. I think this makes it feel a bit more professional having that option to pause, because I know very few games where you can't. I made sure the font in the menus/help boxes match all the way through the game, so it all flows nicely and fits the style. Also, when the pause menu appears, the game itself pauses in the background too, so you can't still move him around.
As for the pause menu, I don't think there needs to be any improvements as it does everything it needs to, and fits in well. When you have finished the corridor area, you are faced with a square room, in here is a spinning lava tube of death, where if you touch it, you die... So you have to get across to the other side without touching it. This was animated with a timeline. You cannot complete this section without using double jump, so I've added in another help widget which lets you know you can use double jump. When my colleagues tested this part of the level, a couple of them said I needed to slow down the tube to make it easier; I haven't done this, as it is possible, it's just more of a timed obstacle, so you have to be pretty much spot on to get across which I think is good, because it's a challenge and I don't want it to be too easy.
In the next room, another help widget will appear to tell you there is no gravity for a small portion of the next section, and not to run, as your character will disable the no gravity and die. So the character has to just run until they get to the next platform. To panic the character a bit, I added in a large spider above the doorway, so they are more likely to try and jump to get away.
To improve this section I think I could possibly make it a little more challenging, as there isn't actually anything that can kill you other than if you fall. Once you get to the next platform, another widget appears to let you know the gravity has returned and you can now jump again. You will then step on the platform in front of you and it will take you up to all the other moving platforms.
Once to the last moving platform, it will move down and then you will walk to the end of this platform and jump onto the glowing jump pad, which flings you towards the end section of the game.
Again, there isn't much to improve here, as it's just how you travel to the next section. You will land here, and then it's only a short distance to the end, you just have to get across the platforms, some being destructible, and others not. If you die, you re-spawn at the start of this part again, and so do the platforms that have broken, so you have to remember which ones break and which don't.
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Once out of the first room, you come into a long corridor where the floor is lava. You have to use the metal scraps and barrels to get across to the other side. All three barrels are animated to move up and down with a matinee just to make it a bit more difficult and to make it seem a little more realistic. If you're to miss any of the barrels and touch the lava, you ragdoll (die), and re-spawn at the end of the corridor to try again. As well as the lava, in some areas, spikes shoot out of the wall that are activated by trigger boxes, you can't tell where these are going to pop up, so you have to just guess and hope a bit.
To improve this section, I think I could change the lava so you sink into it when you die, rather than just hitting it like concrete as it takes away a bit of the immersion. This is just an image showing the room a bit more clearly, I like this room because I think it looks quite professional and it follows the theme I've chosen well. I've also added arrows in some of my rooms, to clearly show the ways out.
These are just physics actors that move because of a matinee and the no gravity area. They don't harm the character, just more there for the aesthetics.
In this bit, you have to jump across the platforms successfully, while avoiding the big swinging weapon in the middle. This weapon will kill you and not just knock you, so if you die here, you will re-spawn just before where the no gravity is.
The only thing I think I could've done better here, is possibly changing the platforms from squares, to something else that suits a bit better. While you fall down, you have to direct the character so it lands on this platform. To show you are near the end, I made the scenery seem more calm and tranquil.
This is just the side view of the end, the orange orb is just for aesthetics, and once you walk through the first arch, it triggers it's matinee which makes it float towards the end. There aren't any other obstacles, so once you get to the end platform you are finished.
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Once you land, "finish" pops up on the rocks and then a well done widget appears after a couple of seconds giving you the option to restart the game or to quit out.
To improve the end, I think I could make the actual finish look a bit more interesting/ exciting, as at the moment it looks a little dull, but it does everything it's supposed to do and all the buttons work.
To improve the end, I think I could make the actual finish look a bit more interesting/ exciting, as at the moment it looks a little dull, but it does everything it's supposed to do and all the buttons work.
Secret area
I created a secret area in my game which leads you to an alternative way to get to the ending. Just a fun Easter egg!
To get to the secret area, you have to walk up to the machinery wall in the room with the spinning lava tube, if you look carefully, red text appears when you're in a certain space and it says "Press E".
When you enter the room, you activate a trigger box which make all the circular platforms move. You have to jump across them all, and then you will see an entrance behind the blue machine.
You have to jump down the tube to get to the next section. I really like this part as I think it looks really mysterious and quite scary.
The last part of the secret way to the end is just up a fast conveyor belt that drops you onto a jump pad, that then fires you to the end bit, just before you jump across the destructable objects.
I think to improve this last bit, I could've made it so there were obstacles on the conveyor belt that you had to dodge, and if the conveyor belt could actually fire me off the end itself, rather than stopping at the end and just dropping me onto the jump pad. |
Once you press E, you have to then look around for where the secret has appeared (Which is in the corner opposite to you, a door will open) You they have have to get around to it and it leads you into a Sci-Fi looking room.
You have to jump across without touching the blue floor, otherwise you will die and re-spawn in the doorway again. once you are safely on this side you see a blue glowing arrow pointing down.
As this area is only a secret area, I think I have done a decent job in making it look nice, everything works in the room and it isn't too cluttered. When you drop out the end of the tube, you are outside, and there is a large path in front of you, to the player, this area looks like there is nothing there, but I have placed 4 spikes randomly under the floor linked to a matinee, that when it's walked over, the spikes shoot out of the floor and kill you. Too get past this bit you have to just try and guess where to go that doesn't have spikes.
Analysis of briefMy level follows a lot of my brief, but also a lot of it is very different. For example, in my brief I said the character was going to be able to roll, that most of the game would be in a house, and that there would be monsters/ghosts. The similarities are that most of the controls are the same, and that the level itself still has a small element of horror, as there are large animated spiders, and dark rooms with lava.
Future Development
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