Introduction:
I learned how to create focused and controlled destruction, added some clutter and props to the game and found some code regression.
Anchoring:
It’s always fund working with destruction. I learned how to add Master Fields to the explosive barrel which is another way to create a ‘blast’ of energy outward from the barrel explosion that can affect objects that fracture. Using anchor fields I was then able to control more of the destruction, for example, how much of a wall crumbles when an explosion goes off nearby…or rather how much of the wall does not crumble.
Unreal Engine’s destruction is labeled ‘Chaos’ and you can use it to make destruction as simple or complex as you’d like. It’ll be fun working with that in the future as well.
Clutter:
I spent a little time adding some clutter and other objects into the levels to make it look more organic. This part of the process, doing a pass over the whole game, could take many hours depending on how detailed you wanted to be.
This practice also made me realize how important concept art is for a game. If I already had an idea of the scenes and environments look I was going for it would be much easier to try and create that. Instead I don’t have a real direction with this game outside of the tutorial itself, so it’s kind of a mash-up of various assets. Despite that, I’m glad I got this experience as this is exactly the type of information I wanted to learn from doing these full game tutorials.
Regression:
Unfortunately I’ve had a few instances where events and code that was working before is suddenly not working. Also random pieces of assets/art are being placed in the game world as well and I don’t know how they got there. At the moment I’m struggling with the web that burns away when the player touches the torch to it. This was working and I did mess with that code since, but now the web doesn’t fully disappear when burned.
I have a feeling it might be something related to how unreal engine handles crashes of the editing software itself. I’ve had a few crashes now and after reloading there’s always few things that are out of order with no explanation.
Conclusion:
I’m going to continue on with adding more visuals to the game, more assets, more objects, and soon more lighting. Every day of this tutorial increases my desire to make my own games.