Spiky Block Blueprint Class

The Spiky Block, or SpikyDAD like I like to call him is a simple hard working grunt that guards treasure 24/7. This subspecies of SpicusBlokus is a very simple life form. All they know how to do is hover above the ground motionless and because of their small brains they startle very easily, causing them to lose their breath and fall down temporarily. Here we see them in their natural habitat, really just there occupying space until Jumping Jim walks underneath them. Even then they aren't really much of a threat and Jim would have to stop moving to actually be crushed. Still, SpikyDADs try their best. Bless their hearts.....and their potato brains. They have no ill will towards Jim but their small brains can't help getting startled when Jim walks under them. SpikyDADs are outfitted with the latest fashion of spiky golf cleats to protect them from the harsh world.

          

 This challenge assignment was a nice wrap up to the basic blueprint material. It really challenged me to try to incorporate all the basic blueprint techniques and knowledge I have learned over the past weeks. Animating with the timeline made it much easier to organize and optimize my node network. Although animating with the timeline in Unreal isn't the most glamorous feature. 

            

Here is the Blueprint Event Graph for all the features and animations

   I tried my best to keep everything relatively clutter free and organized. Since I am a very visual learner it serves as a reminder to stay focused and organized instead of cluttered and chaotic.

   Originally after the initial class when we created our character we didn't jump into dynamic materials or animating the facial features. I decided to try and make the shadow scale, and have a dynamic color changing material before the following class. That is why there are two different styles of color changing. The eyes change color with the use of a timeline, where as the body changes colors in a more manual way. I used a series of nodes, with exact hex color codes to change the color of the main body blue and then back to the original color. Later when we were introduced to color graphs in timeline I decided to have the eyes utilize the timeline and the body stay separate with its own line of code. Simply because I wanted to keep a visual reminder that there are 7 billion ways to crack an egg.

   Everything other than the timeline is very basic, using the event begin play node to gather the relative locations and scale of actors on the top left. Camera shake and play sound cue on the top right, nothing innovative on my side since its very basic and just as how my instructor showed us.

Treasure Block

The Treasure Block platformer is done and 

here the official play through from start to finish. 

Enjoy.

I decided to add two new characters to the mix, there is the black background text "spirit" and the blue background text "ghost".

The black text is the spirit that runs all the obstacles in the treasure cave, and the blue text is the ghost of a previous treasure hunter that died to the obstacles years ago. Now as the player is the newest treasure hunter they have to complete what the previous hunter couldn't. As the player progresses they are helped by the blue ghost as he left teleporters for the new hunter and gives them hints to help them complete the obstacles.

TREASURE BLOCK

You find yourself in an ancient tomb full of dangerous obstacles, levitating environment, and mystical portals, but this is just another day in the life of a treasure hunter.

In my level I decided to present various mechanics in two separate sections that are blocked off from each other. At the start the player is shown exactly how high they can jump with no threat of getting stuck or being killed. The spikes in the first room are introduced to the player but there are unreachable and are just for setting the mood of the level. Next they are given a small test of skill when a moving platform is introduced, now they have to get used to timing their jumps in order to progress through the level. The player is shown a gate blockade, displayed in a different color than the walls to differentiate the two. At the end of the first section the player is basically given a midterm test on everything they've learned so far. Now there is a threat of being killed by the spikes first introduced in the player start. The player must time their jumps perfectly to grab a key to the gates blocking their path.

Only to find complete despair that there are two gates safeguarding the treasure! Now armed with their mastery of jumping and timing the player is shown the new elements of the level, teleporters and jump pads. The new elements are introduced in a harm free scenario to demonstrate how they work, you need fuel to power the teleporter, and then they will teleport them to the matching color portal. Since nothing too extreme is introduced they are thrown into their final test that combines all elements of the previous section mixed with teleporters, jump pads, and moving variants of both.
Finally the player will reach the final gate key and have access to the final teleporter, which does not require fuel, and the treasure is theirs for the taking.

PLATFORM GAME ANALYSIS | MEGAMAN X |

MEGAMAN X

ANALYSIS

MEGAMAN X  is an awesome platform game developed by Capcom back in December of 1993. Since then the game and franchise have become staples in video game history, and because of so has been ported to various consoles. I have the pleasure of playing this game on my phone whenever I please.

This game is wonderful for many different reasons and it makes a fantastic great impression. Simply put this game doesn't treat you like a baby incapable of pressing a button. No, this game treats you like an intelligent human being and it even rewards you for such. 

MEGAMAN X's intro level drops the player right onto a road/ bridge system with cars driving by. Right in the beginning you aren't in any real danger because the cars are part of the background. Right there is the first seconds of the game you are taught that some of the elements you see on screen aren't harmful to you. The layout of the level helps because you are on a simple bridge where you are able to see the underside of the bridge. There aren't secret rooms or passages you have to find, yet. 

The game doesn't try to kill you until you start to move to screen right, so you have some time to press all the buttons to try and see what they do. But something else is happening in the background, X, the character the player is controlling seems to be absorbing some type of blue energy around his body, which then if charged enough turns yellow. After the player shoots their weapon they see a giant blast come from the hand cannon, but then what happens? Now X is only shooting these small yellow blasts, why can't they shoot the big powerful blast? When the player stops shooting they animation of the energy absorption starts over and when the player shoots again they are able to fire the giant blast. The game is teaching the player a very crucial part of the game without you even realizing, charging a move is very useful.

 Half Charge

 Fully Charged

After the player starts to move to screen right they are presented with a spiked wheel that is headed towards them, if the player doesn't jump or shoot at the wheel it will do damage to X. After that thought there aren't any enemies until you reach the end of the screen and reappear on the next section. The intro level paces itself very evenly, they present an enemy to the player and give them ample time to deal with the threat. When the player learns how to shoot basic spike wheel enemy on the ground they are presented with an enemy that is stationary but fires missiles at them in intervals. The level continues to up the challenge with flying enemies with different attacks, after that they are shown more difficult enemies with more complex movements and more enemies on screen. After some enemies are defeated they will drop a health object that replenishes your health bar according to the size of the object.

Health Item

 Spiky Death Wheel

Stationary Missile Launcher

This continues until you reach a mini boss that upon destruction causes the bridge to collapse. 

Mini Boss fight with different enemies

 

Mini Boss collapses and X is trapped 

Now this is where this game really makes you feel special. Up until this point you've had to jump and shoot to defeat different enemies and progress forward. The greatest part is that the game didn't have to tell you a single thing for you to figure out what to do. The difficulty was amped up with every enemy at a reasonable pace that anyone can understand. But now you seem to be stuck in a hole, the mini boss is defeated and you are safe but you don't see a way forward, did this game trick you into this inescapable prison? Of course not, the game let's you figure your own way out without any outside help. Eventually the player will jump on a wall and notice that X slides down the wall slowly. What does this mean? Why is he doing that could it be a clue, you better believe it. When the player presses the jump button while sliding on the wall they perform a wall jump that will get them out of the pit. This way the obstacles were presented to the player in a setting that allowed them the necessary time to figure out the full range of X's abilities without spoon feeding them the answers. 

 

WALL JUMPS!?!?!

 The player is also rewarded because of their knowledge and discovery. Immediately after the mini boss section they come across a small gap that has a vertical wall on the bottom. Which is strange because its the only gap so far that has that feature. If the player decides to go down the gap they are rewarded with health items that replenish their health meter. Showing the player that there are secret paths hidden in the game and if the player explores more they will find treasure or rewards, which ties into the game later when X has the possibilities of finding upgrades through secret paths.

 Secret Path?

Discovery Reward!

Afterwards there are sections where the ground underneath X starts to shake and eventually collapse so the player has to run through quickly to avoid falling to their death. This is also paced out perfectly because the first piece to crumble is on the edge of a gap and has a small chance of actually killing the player. But later there is a whole section of ground that collapses and will kill the player if they aren't fast enough to react. The game is fair on the player, allowing them to make mistakes early on and not die immediately for not realizing they were in danger but then tests them on their ability to react and adapt with harder circumstances.
 

The ground can crumble?

Later as the player progresses they are challenged yet again by new enemies that drop mines on the ground, showcasing yet again more possible enemy abilities. There are enemies introduced near the end of the level that are riding vehicles, and if the player hits them with a smaller blast they will knock them out of the vehicle but the vehicle stays intact and the player can jump on top of them while they are moving. Essentially just introducing mechanics that will become crucial later in the game.

Finally to really drive the main idea of the game the developers pin X against the real boss of the intro level. No matter what the player does here they will lose. They simply are not meant to be able to defeat the boss yet. X is saved when Zero comes to his rescue, then he tells the player that you aren't strong enough to defeat him yet and you need to power X up to his full potential. This sets the objective for the rest of the game and ties the story into you objective, find power ups to get X to his full power and defeat the boss.

 Inevitable Defeat, Git Gud

 Zero is the best

X git gud, Man

-Below is the intro level layout-