Stone Tower Temple - Flipping the Puzzle Concept Upside Down

I've always admired the Zelda games for their interesting and well thought out puzzles, and Majora's Mask has got to have some of my favorites of all time.

The Temple itself

The fourth and final dungeon in the game, dubbed the Stone Tower Temple, is rife with puzzles. To enter the area, you must play a song on your ocarina which spawns a duplicate of you that stands in place, which is used on a series of switches to spawn a bridge that you can jump across.

The effigy which spawns in Link's Hylian form

But perhaps the most interesting mechanic of all which is found in the temple is the ability to turn the entire place upside down. The entire dungeon is literally flipped, but everything stays in the same place. The dungeon can be flipped by firing a light arrow at a gem located above the entrance to the tower.

The location of the gem

An interesting note about this mechanic is that the light arrows are not actually found until about halfway through the dungeon. That means that you are forced to go through quite a bit of the dungeon, witnessing chests and switches and all sorts of different entities on the ceiling, but you are always unsure why. When the mechanic is revealed, the player is forced to recall on all of the strange things they saw and encountered throughout the dungeon, and how the changed properties of the map make actions and solutions to puzzles which were once impossible now possible.

Because the layout of the map is changed, the player is required to enter each room at least twice, using this new perspective gained as a result of the map flip. In a way, the mechanic hearkens back to the light world/dark world mechanic found in A Pink to the Past. 

The mechanics which make up the Stone Tower Temple almost turn the entire entity into one, giant, walkable rubix cube. There are also few encountered within the temple allow you to flip it while you're still inside. By giving you the typical mechanics of a Zelda game and coupling them with the flipping of the temple, the player must think in two different mindsets at all times.

Hey everyone! Check out a sweet trailer I made of everyone's levels from this year's Sophomore Spinout, including mine!

Making a fitting trailer for my race game level

What's up! I've lately been doing some research and finding some examples of interesting racing game trailers from throughout history. There were definitley a few that caught my eye!

This one comes from Blur. It stood out to me because although it lacks any type of HUD or gameplay interface, it still consists entirely of in game footage. It begins by showing off the game's visual fidelity, then moves on to some pretty intense action. The fast cuts, intense music, and cool effects draws viewers' attention in, while at the same time distinguishing itself from any other game of its genre. It might as well be wearing a sign that says "I'M NEW AND FRESH!". We see cars exploding, shooting weapons, jumping, flipping, doing crazy boosts, and tons of other cool tricks. But they're real cars?! What? Crazy!

Anyways, here's a bonus video that almost made the cut...

Making a Racing HUD

Hey everybody! Recently for my programming class, I've been working on a HUD that will display along the Volkswagen T2 Type 1 I modeled for the Sophomore racing game. I decided to go along with my mod kit and create something that follows a busted up skeumorphic design. 

To begin my research, I looked at pictures of the actual dashboard of a T2 Type 1.

As you can see, the speedometer has a very distinct classic style to it. When it came to integrating the actual design language of the speedometer into what I wanted to do for my hud, I had to do some research of some games with cool examples of skeumorphic HUDs.

This one is from Fallout 2.

This one is from S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Call of Pripyat.

And here's a photo of a dashboard from Mad Max: Fury Road just for fun!

When i t comes to integrating all of this within a hud, I had to get creative. First, I grabbed a really nice reference image of an actual T2 Type 1 speedometer, and made some customization to it to make it look more beat up and rustic. Then, for elements like the dashboard HUD and the gear indicator, I went into maya to make a 3D model of what I wanted to depict, then textured it all in Substance Painter before doing some further modifications in Photoshop. The results I came up with can be seen below, one with callouts and one without.

As you can see, we are depicting the speed, the gear, the RPM, ammo, lap times and lap number, vehicle health, ammo, and kills. The kills are displayed as little notches in the bottom of the HUD, giving everything a more savage look. The bar (which was originally a weapon cooldown meter) will depict the health of the vehicle, and the slider on the left will be used to depict the current reload status of the weapon. When the slider is at the top, it will be ready to fire. However, when the slider is down and coming back up, it will indicate that the weapon is reloading.

I'm really excited to get this all working in Unreal soon!

BOOM SHAKA LAKA

 

So here's a fun look at my finished barrel blueprint and model. Had fun with this one!

Thanks for checking it out!

Analyzing the Intro to a Racing Level

For my racing map, I will create a "fly through" to give players a view of what is to come before they actually play on it. Before I do this, however, I thought it would be wise to do some research on how other games accomplish this.

Take a look at the level intro from DK Summit, a level present in Mario Kart Wii. It begins by showing a key landmark of the level, the giant statue of Mario snowboarding, to set the tone of the track. It then trucks through a half pipe, displaying multiple hazards which are present in the level. Finally, the camera pans down to reveal the start area, mentally leading the player right into the race.

I always thought the Mario Kart series did a really great job introducing players to their levels, and they do it in a super simple yet effective way. Hoping to emulate something like this in my own map!

The Infamous Exploding Barrel

In our programming class, we've been tasked with creating the coveted "Exploding Barrel" found in games throughout history!

BAM!

So far, the programming aspect has been pretty much completed. However, the actual art side of the asset is still under construction. I've uploaded some pics to sort of give a sneak peak of what I'm thinking. It still has a long way to go, but I'm planning on doing some fancy stuff with light effects and sound.

In terms of a visual target, I am heavily inspired by the design of the "Thermal Detonator" from the Star Wars universe.

My race level - Now with particle systems!

Been making some new particle systems, and I felt like seeing how they look in my level! It's all greybox so far, and I'm not done with all of the particles I plan on including, but this video should give an idea on how I'm planning to have them work in game!


As you can see, I currently have a steam emitter, a smoke emitter, fire, and a spark emitter blueprint. More coming soon as well as footage of my level as I progress!

Exploring Particles!

For the past week, I've been messing with particles for the first time... well, ever! They're awesome!

Most of the time I've spent following Zak Parrish's tutorials for Cascade in UE4 on Youtube (which, by the way, are totally awesome and you should check them out if you're also new to particles). However, after going through a bunch of those, I thought it would be high time to test out my own skills with something a bit more advanced.

For my racing level, I'm planning on including a variety of particle effects, ranging from fire to steam, dust to smoke. Doing a little bit of reasearch for each one, I deducted that the most complicated of them all would be the fire. Perfect! I found my starting point. In the video below, you'll see that a gentleman has set up a prime example of what I'd like to reproduce inside of UE4.

See? Fire is cool! Particles are cool! What happens when we combine the two? How do we combine the two? Well, the folks over at ImbueFX have provided a great free tutorial on how do do such a thing.

I used this tutorial as a guide as well as examining some of the already existing fire effects in UE4's libraries to make my own fire. It's currently a work in progress, as I haven't yet added smoke or sound effects, but so far, I'm really happy with how it's coming along! You can check it out below. Right now, it consists of the main licks of fire, combined with the embers which use the orbit function to circle around the flames in interesting variations.

Bam! There it is.

Here's how the effect currently looks in Cascade.

Here's the guts of the main flame material. Squint your eyes!

And these are the guts of the Ember material.

What's this?

And that about wraps everything up for now! I'll be sure to post the finished product when I'm all done with it. Until next time!

Researching for a Racing Level Pitch

Here at Ringling, we're getting prepared to pitch our ideas for our racing level that we'll be working on for the majority of this semester. Over the past few days, I've thought about what I wanted to do quite a bit.

I've decided that the setting for my racing level will be Titan, the largest natural satellite of Saturn. I reached this decision as the creative liberties offered by Titan as well as the opportunities for hazards and interesting environment elements are many!

Being that Titan is covered with a thick atmosphere which is rich in methane, giving off a brilliant blue hue when viewed from certain angles. In addition to this, the ground is a deep, rusted orange, which pairs nicely with the blue light emitted from methane. It was here when I first settled on a few options for my color scheme.

As you can see, the warmer tones will cover the many ranges of colors found on the surface and in different parts of the atmosphere of titan, and the cool blue tones will cover the methane lakes and reflected light from the atmosphere.

I initially had some trouble with determining how I wanted to represent the surface of Titan, being that it shares a lot of similarities with Earth. I decided to use a little bit of artistic freedom and drew up some rocks that looked a little alien at first glance.

The locale for the racing level on Titan will be an old, dilapidated space station that has been repurposed and revived by scavengers, gamblers, crime lords, and other shady folk. Over time, the place has become quite the popular destination, and is especially known for its specialty of hosting matches for the "Interplanetary Space Racers", a league with questionable legalities.

To make this place look awesome, I looked at a number of artists work and photos from around the globe and beyond. One of my go-tos is the work of the late Ralph McQuarrie, the original concept artist for Star Wars.

I've always been a big fan of the architecture from the Mos Eisley Spaceport, and I thought that something in that vein would be quite fitting for the buildings in my level. If i were to go with a more contemporary science fiction style, I'd probably go with something like the following.

As for the location of the buildings themselves, I thought that having them located on the side of a cliff like the monastery seen below would be pretty interesting.

So, without further ado, here's a very work in progress top down view of what I currently have planned for my track!

And a landmark to boot!

Here's a little bit more on how the stunt above will work exactly!

As you can see in the diagram, there are different tiles on the old satellite which will fall when driven on. This means that the next time the player comes around for their second lap the path will be changed, forcing the player to take an alternate route when traveling along the satellite. Additionally, there will be boosts on the satellite to not only guide the player, but to give them enough velocity to launch the full distance of the jump.

I have just about every beat of the map marked down in the following thumbnails. I had fun with these!

Anyways, I'm really excited to see how this all turns out soon! Thanks for reading :)

Programming Basic Platformer Traps in Blueprint

Hey everybody! Been hard at work learning how to make some awesome stuff with Blueprint in Unreal 4. Our latest task in Programming class was to make a Thwomp-like spiky death trap for our platformers!

After figuring out the ins and outs of getting such a thing to function within my level, I created a series of challenges to test out the guy. Check it all out in the video below!


I find programming in Blueprint to be a lot of fun! This trap combined a lot of the concepts we had learned previously in class as well as introducing some new ones. In addition to creating a trigger box that would activate upon Grandpa Mario entering it, I programmed the "face" of the block to change colors in accordance to its movements as well as making the camera shake upon impact. Some of it was a little challenging to grasp at first, but I enjoyed figuring it out and am excited for what's to come.

You can check out the finished and commented blueprint below! (Though you might have to click on it to see all the juicy deets.)

Anyways, that about wraps it all up for this one. Thanks for reading!

Platformer Level Design - First Pass

Recently have completed an initial prototype-esque design for the platformer we'll be constructing this semester in Game Design! The level is currently called Doubloon Depths. Why? I'm glad you asked!

The game starts off in a relatively easy area which the player should find themselves comfortable in. After spawning, the player will learn how to move and jump around their surroundings. Not too long into the level will the player encounter their first enemy (likely a gator). An illustration or a sign next to the gator of it being stomped on by a boot may inspire the player to take care of it in a similar fashion. Next, the player is introduced to a moving platform above a spike pit. In order to advance, the player must learn how to jump onto the moving platform to cross the trap. Once the player has accomplished this and is feeling confident, they will advance towards the next area.

Before they enter the cave, there is a gauntlet of moving platforms. This is a bit of a jump in difficulty from the previous challenge, but as long as the player stays patient and persistent, they should be able to make it no problem. Here is also where the first "Challenge Coin" is introduced. Coins are not all that common in this level, and that is for a specific reason: I wanted to make coins truly a reward in the sense that they are often in hard to reach areas or areas which require an extra amount of finesse on the part of the player. That way, when a player does happen to retrieve a challenge coin, they feel particularly good about themselves and their accomplishments, and it drives them to play more. I am also thinking of including a potential special ending for those players which collect all challenge coins in the level.

After walking into the cave, the player will find an elevator with two unlit torches of different colors. To use the elevator, the torches must be lit. The player must then proceed through two different challenges (of which the entrances are color coded) to light the torches and enable the elevator. Each stage uses different elements to produce different challenges for the player. Once each area is completed, the player will step in between two colored blocks to teleport back to the main elevator room where they can take the elevator down to the gold room.

Upon taking the elevator down, it will get close to the entrance to the gold room, then suddenly break and fall into the lava below. There, the elevator will begin to float to the right at a steady pace, as the player is forced to keep up with it or become left behind. If the player makes it past all of the obstacles and completes this unexpected challenge, then they will find another lift which will take them to the real gold room, and thus ends the level. Huzzah!

I'm very excited to start translating this level over to unreal, and am interested to see what works and what doesn't work and the changes which will accompany that. Definitely looking forward to the near future! As always, thanks for reading.

Mega Man X Level Analysis

When it comes to great tutorial levels, the first stage in Mega Man X is absolutely amazing. This is a game which teaches you nearly all of the mechanics of the game, both old and new, in one simple yet eventful stage. Yet, it does so without even giving the player a single literal tutorial, control sheet, or any tips whatsoever. But how?

All of the teaching is done through the gameplay that occurs throughout the level, which is carefully constructed by the designers to continuously challenge the players and force them to use their heads to figure out how to defeat certain enemies and escape traps. To better understand what I am going into here, feel free to enlarge and then take a look at this analysis of the entire stage, which includes everything from the player (Mega Man X), the platforms, enemies, traps, mini bosses, and boss.

The design starts off right from the get go, leading the player to the right and instantly provoking an encounter with the first enemy, a (rather stupid) Spiky. The spiky rolls at a pretty high speed, but is small and can easily be jumped over by X. Wait, what? But how do you jump? The game forces you to explore the four buttons on the pad to figure out which one does which, until they figure out the right one to press to dodge the Spiky's attack. Phew! One enemy down.

Suddenly, the player encounters another enemy. A dreaded Gun Volt! These enemies are too big to jump over, so an alternative must be found. This is when the player is forced to use their buster for the first time. The Gun Volt will fire off projectiles that must be jumped over (now that the player knows how to do this), doing so until it is defeated by the players buster. Alright! Now the player has mastered firing.

The next enemies encountered are pairs of Crushers, who position themselves above the player and slam their spikes down to create sizable pits in the platforms below them and (ideally for them) the player. If the player successfully dodges their attacks, his only method of defeating them are to jump and shoot at the same time, combining the two previously learned techniques.

After fighting through a few more enemies and progressing to the second section of my analysis, the player encounters the first mini boss, a massive Bee Blader. With ever hit of the buster, the Bee Blader advances one more space to the player as it attempts to spawn enemies which slowly make their way to the player as well. Once the Bee Blader is defeated, it falls down on the platform below it, causing both the player, the remains of the Bee Blader, and the platform to crash down to a sort of cavern below. The player has absolutely no knowledge of how to get out of this predicament... Until they attempt to run towards the wall. This is when the player learns how to wall jump by jumping and holding themselves against the wall, allowing them to escape the pit and progress forward inside the level. In addition to this, the two health packs are visible as the player is stuck in the pit, allowing them to go down and retrieve them to test out their newfound skills.

For the remainder of the level, the player progresses through a gauntlet of enemies, running and gunning their way and jumping off of falling platforms until they get to a long straightaway road which leads them directly to the boss of the level, Vile. Vile spawns from an airship which approaches from the top of the screen, and starts to fight the player after a brief monologue. The player can try to fight Vile, but will do absolutely no damage, until Vile inevitably stuns the player and puts them into some sort of energy cage. It is at this moment when the player feels absolutely hopeless, as all of the tactics and methods that they have previously learned have failed them.

But! Out of nowhere, Zero (Another Mega Man) fires off a shot at Vile, causing him to flee and rescuing you in the process. He tells you that while you are powerful, you still have much to do and are not as powerful as you can be. This inspires the player to go forth and play through the game, where they collect armor and ability upgrades and various powerful weapons to defeat Vile and even bigger, badder bad guys later in the game.

This game is an absolute masterpiece in terms of teaching the player through its level and enemy design, and I cannot stress that point enough. Every game designer should know how it accomplishes this feat, and I reccomend that you play through it to see for yourself if you haven't already!

As always, thanks for reading!