Mechanics Prototyping
The Mechanics Prototyping module I did during my first year was my first real time delving into visual scripting and UE5 Blueprints. I was new to the process and had no idea what I was doing when I started. I quickly picked it up however and started working on my core mechanics for the game template we had been given. Essentially, we start with a tank with a top down camera in an empty level. The objective was to create a full level, or multiple, showcasing your understanding of blueprints, and create a series of mechanics to prove it.
In the images you can see some of the design work for the mechanics and the level plan I produced. These would lay the foundations for the blueprinting I would have to do to actually make these mechanics work. For both of these mechanics, I made vertical prototypes of each, to see how close I could get the designs to the finished product, as is the objective of the module.
For this module project, I thought it would be fun to take some inspiration from a level from a Star Wars Game, creating a Mustafar-esque level with lava and some cool visuals from the metallic Sci-Fi environment.
The image featured is not the final representation of the level, but shows how I slowly built up the level from primitive pieces, adding materials that we learned how to create over the span of the module, as well as implementing the level from the designs I created.
Before seeing the final product, as a comparison you can see in this image how the game looked during the early stages, you can see how I put together a basic level with no real theming.
Here you can see my final submission for this module, a full run-through of all the mechanics I worked on during the project: