2D Platformer | Fredrik Westerlund

FATHER OF THE FOREST

SUMMARY

The father of the forest senses a dark power lurking somewhere in the shadows and must travel the lands to extinguish it until it annihilates all existence.

SPECIFICATIONS

8 Weeks
Reference game: Super Mario. Bros.
Unreal Engine 4 (2D template)

Summary & Specifiations

INTRODUCTION

I was given a number of 2D environment packs for this project, all of which used the same building blocks but were using different element styles to it.

Knowing that my resources were limited and that a lot of the assets had a similar look to each other, I needed to make sure that my levels changed visually and progressed alongside with the overall gaming complexity.

I wanted to depict a narrative in which a person travels to a specific location because something horrible is happening. But, because I didn't have a character to use, I wasn't sure in which direction I would approach. I searched the internet for free 2D assets and came across this nature-like wizard who I believed would work well in the game.

To finish off the game concept, I used the nature-like wizard and environment packs to make the levels start out green, vibrant, and bright, but gradually decay and become all dark as you go from level to level.

DIFFERENT ENVIRONMENTS

Introduction

GAME FEEL

CAMERA MOVEMENT:

When I first opened Unreal Engine's 2D template, I noticed right away that the camera linked to the character was very static and stiff and it wasn't at all comfortable to playtest with. This was something I thought I needed to fix before starting the project.

I searched up a small tutorial on how to add a delay to camera movement to make the gameplay feel smoother, and the outcome was fantastic.

However, after fixing the camera movement, I encountered an unexpected result. With this adjustment, the game gained a parallax-like effect, allowing me to operate in layers with all of the tiles. In other words, everything in the foreground, middleground, and background moves differently in relation to the camera's movement.

WORLD BUILDING:

When I discovered that I had achieved a parallax effect in the project, I decided that I wanted to play around with it, e.g. putting trees in the foreground and background at varied distances to achieve different depths.

I also wanted to add depth to my world by creating it in a more 3D-like way to give it a more distinct feel. However, because the process was very time consuming, I opted to just leave it at the end and beginning of each level, as shown in the introduction video.

CAMERA DELAY

OFF

ON

PLAYER + CAMERA DELAY BP

Camera Delay
Blueprint

Game Feel

COLLECTIBLES

COINS:

Inspired by the Super Mario games, I wanted to add coins to the levels for the player to collect, so they would have something to do while running through the courses.

The coin system is a simple blueprint in which you destroy the coin actor when the player overlaps the coin and then add an integer value to a pool of integers that caps at one hundred.

These integers are then displayed on a HUD in the top left corner, displaying the number of coins picked up by the player.

CHECKPOINTS:

Each level has two checkpoints that the player can activate by walking over them. When the player dies, they will respawn at the last checkpoint they visited,

if no checkpoints have been visited since their death, they will respawn at the beginning.

The checkpoints are built with a box collision that ticks a bool when the player enters it and then spawns an animated sprite (flipbook) on the checkpoint to indicate that it is active.

When the player dies due to either falling or walking into spikes, the blueprint checks which checkpoint was visited most recently. I accomplished this by simply adding branches that examine the checkpoints in a particular order to determine where the player should spawn.

COINS BP

COIN HUD BP

CHECKPOINTS BP

Collectibles

PLAYER INTERACTABLES

PORTALS:

The portals were inspired by Evergate, a game that I saw footage of. When you use a portal in Evergate, you are transformed into magical substance and transported along a path that leads you away from your current level into another, giving you a sensation of 3D immersion.

This was the aspect of that game that struck out the most to me, therefore I decided to include something similar in my game. I wanted this feature to work as a pleasant break for the player, so they didn't have to expend all of their energy of constant running and dodging obstacles all the time.

I began by creating a blue portal that would turn the player into magical substance and then move them down a spline. I wanted to utilize a spline since it allows me to precisely control the movement of how the player would travel. At the end of the spline, I needed to ensure that the player reverted to their original form, which I accomplished by simply swapping the flipbook sprite.

I wanted to experiment even further since I am fascinated by the concept of time and space and the ability to bend reality. In level 2, I chose to flip entire islands in the background where the checkpoints are located upside down. So, when the player teleports to the island, I slowly rotate the islands to give the impression that the user is standing on an upside-down island. When the player exits the island, I rotate it back to being upside down to enhance the experience.

However, I believed that if I utilized this spline teleportation everywhere, it would disrupt the game's rhythm, so I decided to design another portal with a color of pink. This portal would teleport the player in the blink of an eye, pushing the player to time the teleport correctly. If utilized wrong, the player may fall off the level or get killed from a mass of spikes.

GRAVITY SPHERES:

Returning to the concept of time and space, as well as the power to bend reality, gravity spheres are interactable objects that cause another object or section to move or turn around.

Instead of having everything enabled upon walking over something, I added these to give the player greater interactivity in the world. In my opinion, interactable objects in a game makes the player feel more a part of the experience.

This feature was built in the form of a collision box, which the player must stand inside in order to trigger the sphere. When activated, it triggers an event in another script which rotates an invisible cube. Everything that is grouped and attached to this cube, will rotate and move along with it.

These additional scripts generally revolve around twisting objects to a certain degree, which opens up new paths for the player to explore.

Activating an elevator, opening up a spike floor for safe passage, or turning a whole island to reach another area of the level are all examples of this.

Player Interactables

DANGERS

SPIKES:

The spikes are the game's threat, as contacting them instantly kills the player. Throughout the game, these spikes might occur in a variety of locations and ways, such as in small holes in the ground, throughout an entire floor, or as moving spike cubes.

The moving spike cubes behave similarly to their static counterparts on the ground, but by attaching a spline to them, I was able to offer the cubes alternate movement patterns. These patterns consist of going back and forth and in circular patterns, which are simple enough for the player to register their behavior early on but can still be tough due to the varying movement speed.

When the player comes in contact with a spike, their controls gets disabled for the duration of their death and regain the controls upon respawning.

STEEP SLOPES:

Because of the project's strong default gravity,
I discovered that steep slopes behave like a slide, preventing the player from executing any actions until they reach the end. I saw this as an unintentional feature that I wanted to experiment with, so I decided build the slopes in various ways.

The slopes would sometimes behave as slides that the player would slide down quickly and other times they would act as little elevation impediments that the player would have to jump over in order to reach higher ground.

However, as the player progresses further into the game, the more dangerous the slides get, as they will eventually hurl the player off the map if they wind up on one by accident.

FALLING PLATFORMS:

To raise the difficulty and put more pressure on the player, I decided to include some kind of platform or ground that activates a type of behavior when the player stands on it.

With Super Mario in mind, I went with a classic choice of falling platforms that trembled in place to alert the player that something was about to happen before dropping.

When I first made the falling platform, I tried to make the drop by enabling physics and allowing it to fall freely. However, because it was a 2D sprite, it would occasionally fade out of vision as it spun. I couldn't figure out how to keep a fixed rotation, so I went with a spline that the platform would follow instead.

The trembling and falling sequence starts when a collision box has detected whether or not the player has landed on it. I used two timelines to regulate the flow of the movement: one to control the trembling and another to control the fall pace.

When the platform reached the bottom of its fall, I made sure it respawned in its original spot so the player could step on it again.

During this performance, I received an unintentional effect in which the platform blinks at its original position, informing the player that the platform is about to respawn. It's an effect that can be seen in a lot of games, so I chose to maintain it.

SPIKE CUBE BP

FALLING PLATFORMS BP

Dangers

LEVEL OVERVIEWS

Level 1

Level 2

Level 3

Level Overviews

FULL GAMEPLAY

Full Gameplay

FATHER OF THE FOREST

SUMMARY

​

The father of the forest senses a dark power lurking somewhere in the shadows and must travel the lands to extinguish it until it annihilates all existence.

SPECIFICATIONS

​​

8 Weeks

Reference game: Super Mario. Bros.

Unreal Engine 4 (2D template)

INTRODUCTION

DIFFERENT ENVIRONMENTS

GAME FEEL

CAMERA DELAY

OFF

ON

PLAYER + CAMERA DELAY BP

Camera Delay Blueprint

COLLECTIBLES

​

​COINS:

Inspired by the Super Mario games, I wanted to add coins to the levels for the player to collect, so they would have something to do while running through the courses.

​

The coin system is a simple blueprint in which you destroy the coin actor when the player overlaps the coin and then add an integer value to a pool of integers that caps at one hundred.

These integers are then displayed on a HUD in the top left corner, displaying the number of coins picked up by the player.

CHECKPOINTS:

Each level has two checkpoints that the player can activate by walking over them. When the player dies, they will respawn at the last checkpoint they visited,

if no checkpoints have been visited since their death, they will respawn at the beginning.​

​

The checkpoints are built with a box collision that ticks a bool when the player enters it and then spawns an animated sprite (flipbook) on the checkpoint to indicate that it is active.

​

When the player dies due to either falling or walking into spikes, the blueprint checks which checkpoint was visited most recently. I accomplished this by simply adding branches that examine the checkpoints in a particular order to determine where the player should spawn.

​

PLAYER INTERACTABLES

​PORTALS:

The portals were inspired by Evergate, a game that I saw footage of. When you use a portal in Evergate, you are transformed into magical substance and transported along a path that leads you away from your current level into another, giving you a sensation of 3D immersion.

This was the aspect of that game that struck out the most to me, therefore I decided to include something similar in my game. I wanted this feature to work as a pleasant break for the player, so they didn't have to expend all of their energy of constant running and dodging obstacles all the time.

​

​

GRAVITY SPHERES:

Returning to the concept of time and space, as well as the power to bend reality, gravity spheres are interactable objects that cause another object or section to move or turn around.

​

Instead of having everything enabled upon walking over something, I added these to give the player greater interactivity in the world. In my opinion, interactable objects in a game makes the player feel more a part of the experience.

This feature was built in the form of a collision box, which the player must stand inside in order to trigger the sphere. When activated, it triggers an event in another script which rotates an invisible cube. Everything that is grouped and attached to this cube, will rotate and move along with it.

These additional scripts generally revolve around twisting objects to a certain degree, which opens up new paths for the player to explore.

Activating an elevator, opening up a spike floor for safe passage, or turning a whole island to reach another area of the level are all examples of this.

​

DANGERS

SPIKES:

The spikes are the game's threat, as contacting them instantly kills the player. Throughout the game, these spikes might occur in a variety of locations and ways, such as in small holes in the ground, throughout an entire floor, or as moving spike cubes.

​

​

When the player comes in contact with a spike, their controls gets disabled for the duration of their death and regain the controls upon respawning.

​

STEEP SLOPES:

Because of the project's strong default gravity, I discovered that steep slopes behave like a slide, preventing the player from executing any actions until they reach the end. I saw this as an unintentional feature that I wanted to experiment with, so I decided build the slopes in various ways.

The slopes would sometimes behave as slides that the player would slide down quickly and other times they would act as little elevation impediments that the player would have to jump over in order to reach higher ground.

However, as the player progresses further into the game, the more dangerous the slides get, as they will eventually hurl the player off the map if they wind up on one by accident.

​

FALLING PLATFORMS:

To raise the difficulty and put more pressure on the player, I decided to include some kind of platform or ground that activates a type of behavior when the player stands on it.

With Super Mario in mind, I went with a classic choice of falling platforms that trembled in place to alert the player that something was about to happen before dropping.

The trembling and falling sequence starts when a collision box has detected whether or not the player has landed on it. I used two timelines to regulate the flow of the movement: one to control the trembling and another to control the fall pace.

When the platform reached the bottom of its fall, I made sure it respawned in its original spot so the player could step on it again.

​

During this performance, I received an unintentional effect in which the platform blinks at its original position, informing the player that the platform is about to respawn. It's an effect that can be seen in a lot of games, so I chose to maintain it.

​

LEVEL OVERVIEWS

Level 1

Level 2

Level 3

FULL GAMEPLAY

Camera Delay
Blueprint

COINS:

if no checkpoints have been visited since their death, they will respawn at the beginning.

PORTALS:

Because of the project's strong default gravity,
I discovered that steep slopes behave like a slide, preventing the player from executing any actions until they reach the end. I saw this as an unintentional feature that I wanted to experiment with, so I decided build the slopes in various ways.