What I did:
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Owned entire project
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Level Design
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Blueprint writing
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Testing
Software: UE5, Blueprints
Initial Idea
I wanted to make a level for a game like FromSoftware's Shadow Tower: Abyss. At first, I was going to combine different asset packs for functionality and art. The longer I tried to do this, though, the more convoluted the solutions became. So, I set out to learn Blueprinting as well as flex my level design muscles!
Project Goals
My goals for this project were many:
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Learn Blueprinting
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Make fun levels
Ideology
Movement
The goal for the player experience is to have methodical movement without feeling too slow (or too fast). The player should never feel too safe, and a 'measured' movement system with slow turning and stamina should reflect that.
Blueprinting
Character Blueprint
One of the main goals for the character blueprints was to leave room for mechanics changing values.
This is part of the blueprint I made for the character's roll. However, I realized that it wasn't doing what I wanted; while this solution places the player at a specific coordinate, I wanted to have the player traverse a specified speed and time over obstacles and terrain.
In order to reliably and cleanly keep the player from moving during a roll while still being able to do things like look around and interact, I decided to learn how to use the Enhanced Input System and Context switching. The image below was my initial attempt at doing this - where the Main context has walk, crouch, roll etc, the "Roll" one has everything from Main minus walking. This worked, with some caveats - it was clunky, took up space, and would be a pain to utilize later in the project.
I figured out how to properly switch between contexts outside of the event I was switching in - this allowed for a much more streamlined approach throughout the project while only clogging up a single area of the blueprint.
Here is that section at the very top of the blueprint, which allows for a more structured approach to context switching. Since I want the player to be able to use multiple different weapons and types of weapon, I have set up a way for the player to seamlessly switch contexts when they equip a weapon - now, if they equip a melee weapon in their right hand, the GunR and NoWeaponR contexts will be removed and the MeleeR context added (not shown because they aren't made yet, hold yer horses)
Updated input types so there's no chance of mis-typing or needing to go up to the Switch
