New World Junk
Video Playthrough
September 2020 - May 2021
Engine: Unreal Engine 4
Platforms: PC (Windows)
Download: itch.io
This was a prototype for a 3D Action / Platformer game I designed over the course of a semester, and then developed in Unreal during the next.
It was an entirely solo project, and involved working on:
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Platforming & player movement
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Combat & weapon system
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Tutorial & Main level design
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Enemy AI
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Shop interface
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UI
Design Process
Before production, I first had to pitch the idea for the game to my tutors in a presentation format. Specifically, it was delivered in the Pecha-Kucha format, with only about 20 seconds to spend on each slide. It was quite a challenge to keep things brief while also effectively conveying my ideas for the game, but I think the pitch was far more efficient for it.
After the pitch, I developed a full design document for the game's mechanics and levels. Part of this involved creating a large amount of diagrams to convey how each ability would work.
Working on both of these tasks let me improve not only my design skills but also my ability to communicate my ideas.
Melee Combat
Similar to the platforming mechanics, I spent a lot of time researching techniques other games use to make melee combat feel responsive to the player.
One of the main systems I implemented for this was allowing the player's attack input to be 'buffered' some time before their current attack / action has finished. There is also a generous window at the end of the attack, where the player has time to press the attack input again to continue the combo. This aim of this is to make performing combos feel smoother and more intuitive.
Some other things I implemented to help with this included:
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Moving the player forward with their attack
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Auto-rotating to face the nearest enemy if no directional input is held
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Giving player control over rotation during certain parts of each atack animation
Platforming Abilities
Since I was making a platformer game, I spent a lot of time working on player movement.
I wanted to give the player a good variety of traversal options, including:
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Double jumps
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Wall jumping / sliding
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Ledge grabs
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Movement abilities tied to weapons
Weapon Abilities
Each weapon the player unlocks has a use for platforming in addition to combat:
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Blade Weapon - Gain additional height in the air
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Drill Weapon - Launches the player forward in the air
A short while after submitted the prototype, I went back to experiment with a few extra features.
The first thing I did was experiment with the game's visuals, seeing if I could achieve a style closer to something like Jet-Set Radio or other cel-shaded games.
To do this I created a post-process shader with Unreal's material nodes. I also developed a post-process effect for achieving depth-based outlines, with adjustable thickness and colour per model.
