Code Coven Time Cohort Final Group Project 2022
Goal
Create a short, 3D walking simulator to experiment with creating a branching narrative in Unreal Engine 4 within 2 weeks.
Role
Programmer, Writer, Producer
Takeaways
1) Branching narratives are possible in UE4 but takes tons of blueprint finesse
2) Setting GitHub up right makes all the difference
3) Always allot 1.5x more time for bugs/troubleshooting
4) Good enough is great
Tools
UE4 - Engine
Notion - Project Management
GitHub/Fork - Repository
Discord - Communication
Team
Premise
You are Rhys, an archaeologist that just made an incredible discovery - you've stumbled on the Garden of Eden! However, an android that has been protecting this place for the last 200 years is intent on vaporizing you for trespassing. Can you change their mind?
Contributions
I chose Programming as my primary role because I wanted to challenge myself and become more comfortable working with UE4 Blueprints. Since UE4 doesn't have built-in framework to facilitate narrative gameplay, I had to get creative. I ended up repurposing an AI behavior tree into a branching dialogue tree.
Before I could implement full strings of dialogue, I spent a significant portion of time setting up the HUD, event graph inputs, and implementing a sphere trace to get the player character to recognize when it's in an interactable area.
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After I achieved this, I edited and added to our script to convey more of our setting and round out the short experience before implementing it into the Behavior Tree I'd set up. By the end we'd had about 165 lines of code into the tree.
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In addition to my programming and writing responsibilities, I also led production meetings, created our timeline and task list via Notion, conducted 1-on-1 check-ins, and hosted coworking sessions in an effort to streamline project progress.
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Triumphs
1) We scoped accurately. We kept the script under 500 words because we knew there was a possibility that the programming time would curtail how much of the story we could fit in.
2) We sourced all assets via Creative Commons. This eliminated time needed to create bespoke assets and allowed us to focus on our core gameplay mechanic and creating a memorable island.
3) Utilizing class and coworking time worked really well in ensuring we all committed time to complete and test the project.
Roadblocks
1) Our choice of game/mechanics wasn't ideal for Unreal Engine. While it eventually worked after hours of wrestling blueprints and the behavior tree, a lot of time was spent debugging which curtailed our ability to focus on other areas of the game.
2) Github was huge hurdle. Our team struggled to set our repository up which hindered our ability to properly commit branches to the main sector using Fork and Github. Not only was this time-consuming, but we also lost some work or branches were simply incompatible.
Takeaways
1) Other engines may be more suitable for programmers interested in creating narrative games. It can work, but you have to be pretty knowledgeable about UE4 blueprints.
2) Know Github and Fork very well before trying to collaborate with it. One misstep in setup and everything goes awry.
3) Always allot 1.5x more time for troubleshooting than you think you need. You never know when a bug will scurry through your code.
4) Good enough is great! We didn't get to implement everything we would've liked like rigging a custom player character, but our minimum viable product was realized and that alone is great!
Overview
My final group project for the Code Coven Time Cohort, ‘In Eden’ is a short, 3D walking simulator. Our goal was to experiment with creating a branching narrative in Unreal Engine 4 within 2 weeks.