Action Adventure | Fredrik Westerlund

SUN WUKONG AND THE HAND OF BUDDHA

Summary & Specifications

SUMMARY

As a person who likes to create beautiful environments and atmospheric experiences, I wanted to challenge myself with scripting, using almost no tutorials.

Having scripting as the main focus was certainly fun, because I had to put a lot of time and effort into applying the different rules and conditions to avoid errors and bugs that could arise in a number of ways.

SPECIFICATIONS

Third-person
9 Weeks
Unreal Engine 4
Assets used:

Paragon: Wukong
Paragon: Feng Mao
Paragon: Props
Paragon: Minions
Quixel - Megascans

Mythology reasearch:

SMITE - The game
Wikipedia
Various Google results that directs to chinese mythology

Introduction

INTRODUCTION

"Sun Wukong and the Hand of Buddha" is a third-person atmospheric puzzle game with fighting elements.

Imprisoned underneath a mountain made by the great Buddha himself, Sun Wukong must confront the obstacles inside the mountain that keep him from escaping.

Experience Chinese mythology as Sun Wukong and witness the re-imagination of a "Journey To The West".

Gameplay Concept

THE GAMEPLAY CONCEPT

Inspired by Zelda and Darksiders, I decided to create
a dungeon-like experience where you have to solve puzzles and battle enemies to get to the end.

Since I'm still new to scripting, I analyzed different puzzles and enemies and recreated them in the Unreal Engine. Puzzles typically consisted of standing on a pressure plate or turning a big piece, which to me didn't sound too hard to make.

Once I developed the base mechanics, it was time to create the puzzles. Although keeping the puzzles easy, I still wanted to throw a pinch of more complexity at times to offer some kind of challenge.

The original core mechanic consisted of being able to transform into a variety of different shapes, but due to the lack of resources made up of animals and mythologically based characters, I planned to fully cut the feature. But after a while, I decided to keep one of the forms that actually had mythological characteristics.

Eventually, I developed a new core mechanic that you unlock after battling the Terracotta Army.
The mechanic consists of making copies of yourself,
a direct reference to Wukong's mythological lore, but also to the Stone Tower Temple from Zelda: Majoras Mask. These clones are essential for all future puzzles.

LEVEL OVERVIEW

Level Overview

CLAY STATUES (PUZZLE SOLVER)

GAMEPLAY INSPIRATION:

The gameplay inspiration for this feature came from Zelda: Majoras Mask and Darksiders 2.

In Zelda there were puzzles where you would have to place statues of yourself on pressure plate in order to trigger e.g. a platform to move.

And in Darksiders 2 you gain the ability to summon clones of the player character that can perform similar tasks as the player.

FUNCTIONALITY:

Since the clay statues are literally clones of Wukong,
the first thing I did was to duplicate my player character and then apply a stone texture all over it.

The next thing I did was to remove all player specific features such as being able to deal damage etc. So at this point the clone can only run around and jump.

When controlling a clone, the player has the ability to turn it into a statue, allowing it to activate the 'Statue Platform' its currently standing on. I did this by simply destroying the current living statue actor and spawning a new actor on the same location, giving the illusion of transformation.

If the player has unintentionally misplaced the statues, or simply need to start over with the statue management, they can destroy all the statues regardless of whether or not they are in a living form.

BLUEPRINTS:

Clay Statue Management
Blueprint

IN-GAME FOOTAGE

Clay Statues (Puzzle Solver)

STATUE PRESSURE PLATES

CONCEPT:

To make the gameplay more interesting in my level,
I designed unique pressure plates that only the statues can activate thus forcing the player to switch between his original character and his clones.

These pressure plates play a big part in all the puzzles, but they also appear outside the puzzles for minor events, such as building a bridge to the final boss.

PRODUCTION:

I custom built the platforms using a variety of Paragon assets as well as a Wukong pose that I edited in Maya. And on the platform I added a sphere collision that constantly checks whether a statue is on the platform or not, allowing events to be enabled or disabled in real time.

But what does it mean to activate a platform?
In my case, I wanted the same platform blueprint to trigger different events every time the player stumbles upon them, referring to Wukong being a trickster in his lore.

Now, there are probably hundreds of ways to do this, but the idea that spontaneously came to my mind was to assign each event a number that corresponds as a trigger code. This number can be set indepently on each platform and the recieved values are stored in the player character blueprint to act as a global value.

So if I wanted to have two platforms to be required to open a door, I simply set the value needed on the door and then put in any values in each platform that would together make the number I put in the door.

IN EDITOR:

BLUEPRINTS:

Statue Pressure Plate
Blueprint

IN-GAME FOOTAGE

Statue Pressure Plates

Rotating Tower Puzzle

PUZZLES

ROTATING TOWER PUZZLE

CONCEPT:

The concept I had for this puzzle was very straight forward: I wanted to rotate a center piece with floors in a specific shape that would open up new paths based on its rotation.

PRODUCTION:

Knowing beforehand that I was going to use a lot of meshes to make the tower, I knew right away that building the tower within the blueprint would only slow down the process. So I designed the tower directly inside the level, which means I'd be able to make aesthetic adjustments faster and easier.
Once I was pleased with the design, I would group all the pieces together and then attach them to my invisible blueprint actor, which would contain the script.

With the tower completed, I added two statue platforms to the scene, making the tower rotate 90* for each activated platform. When I managed to make the rotation of the tower work accordingly, the real struggle began. This is the part where I'd have to make lots of rules for the puzzle to work in a lot of different scenarios.

With the tower completed, I decided to improve the puzzle by locking the 'Statue Platforms' behind color-coded force fields, which could be removed with color-coded 'Player Platforms' as long as the player stands on them.

I color coded the force fields with red and blue, and then color coded 'Player Platforms' with matching colors, plus a purple pressure plate to remove both force fields. The colored force fields made the puzzle a lot more enjoyable and offered more activity for the player.

TOWER ROTATION:

(Editor view mode set to "Detail Lighting" for better vision).

TOWER CONSTRUCTION:

(Editor view mode set to "Detail Lighting" for better vision).

BLUEPRINTS:

Rotating Tower
Blueprint

IN-GAME FOOTAGE

HUB PUZZLE

CONCEPT:

When the player first enters this room, they are unable to solve the puzzle because they have not yet learned the ability summon clay statues.
However, the next time they enter this room, they will have learned the ability and will be able to interact with the various platforms in the puzzle.

1) The player summons a clay statue and activates the statue platform, causing the pressure plate at "2" to activate.

2) After activating the pressure plate, the player can step on it to open the gate at "3." If the player would leave the platform, the gate would immediately close again. To reach gate "3," they must send another clay statue across the room.

3) When the player enters gate "3," he notices another statue platform and activates it, which opens gate "4".

4) A blue pickup is revealed behind gate "4" and the player can safely move across the room to pick it up as long as the clay statues stay on their platforms.

5) With the blue pickup in hand, the player can proceed to the main gate at "5" and continue on to the boss.

PRODUCTION:

During development I actually made this puzzle before the Rotating Tower puzzle and back then I had yet to decide what I wanted the second puzzle to be all about. But I knew I wanted to have a puzzle where the player had to use both the main character as well as both of the clones. This concept was later brought into the Rotating Tower puzzle.

Once the puzzle was done, I had to make sure that the 'Player Platform' could be disabled again if the player destroyed the statue giving power to the platform.
During this phase I had to do a lot of playtesting to make sure that the entire gameplay sequence can be done over again without any game breaking bugs.

TOP DOWN:

BLUEPRINTS:

Player Pressure Plate
Blueprint

Statue Door

Blueprint

IN-GAME FOOTAGE

Hub Puzzle

Terracotta Army (Behavior Tree)

COMBAT

TERRACOTTA ARMY (BEHAVIOR TREE)

CONCEPT:

The Terracotta Army is the first AI the player meets.

At first the army was supposed to be pure decoratives, but then I figured it would be a cool idea if those sculptures were to come to life. Since the number of statues is as high as 150, I made them spawn in waves of 25 statues of each wave.

When the statues are coming to life, I wanted them to have a wild behavior because they act as a reflection of Wukong himself. So the statues are running all over the place, hitting Wukong and then running off again. However, being fragile statues, Wukong can easily destroy them in just one go, and can even spin around in a whirlwind-like attack to strike down all the statues around him.

PRODUCTION:

So to make this, I just looked up a guide on how to make an AI roam freely and then attack the player when the player is nearby, using a behavior tree.
I used the Ryan Laley AI tutorials to do this.

BLUEPRINTS:

Terracotta Army AI
Blueprint

(Behavior tree).

IN-GAME FOOTAGE

Boss (Blueprint)

BOSS (BLUEPRINT)

CONCEPT:

I love games that are heavily based around epic boss fights and took this opportunity to make my first fight ever.

Throughout the game, you'll see both decorative and living enemy statues that look just like Wukong, but when you reach the end of the game, you're battling a massive statue that oddly doesn't look like Wukong at all. Knowing that this statue is much larger and looks like someone else, Wukong discovers that this statue is much stronger than anything he's seen before.

Drawing a lot of inspiration from Dark Souls and Final Fantasy XIV, I knew from the very beginning that I wanted to have a big boss who was walking slowly and doing cool spells. And because I used no tutorials to make this boss, I had to examine how bosses worked from other games and try to recreate features that looked fun to make, this also includes the visual indicators on the ground.

PRODUCTION:

The boss's base mechanic is very straightforward, as its behavior consists of moving to the player and dealing damage.

I decided to give the boss two spells that would appear on a regular basis throughout the battle.
The first would be spikes that would erupt from the ground in a line and the second would be explosive floor tiles.

When I created the spike ability I childed collision boxes onto the boss to follow him around wherever he went in order to maintain the same position and spacing relative to the boss.
In this way, I could spawn my spike ability actor and use the collision box transform values to ensure that they remained constant in relation to the boss.

In terms of the explosive floor tiles, I created an array that stored the location information of each individual floor tile and then randomized where the explosives would appear.

I used the same floor tile array to make the boss run to a random corner and cast the spike ability because I wanted to force more movement upon the player.

BLUEPRINTS:

Spike Ability
Blueprint

Explosive Floor
Blueprint

IN-GAME FOOTAGE

Mythological Details

MYTHOLOGICAL DETAILS

THE ENVIRONMENT:

Due to Wukong's rebellious actions in the heavens, the great Buddha himself tricked Wukong into a trap which is a mountain in the shape of Buddha’s own hand, hence to the name of this game.

THE BLUE PICKUP:

When the player interacts with the blue pickup, they get a blue lightning around their body, indicating that they're carrying the power to transform into a dragon-like berserker for a short duration. This theme can be a reference to Ao Guang, who is a dragon king from who Wukong got his staff from.

THE CLAY STATUES:

In Wukong's original lore he can create hundreds, if not thousands of clones of himself using the hair of his fur. But since the game is focused around the element of stone and clay, he creates statue clones instead.

The magic of summoning the clay statues is a reference to "Nu Wa", the chinese goddess of Creation, who created life through clay.

So the ability as a whole has combined elements of terracotta armies, Wukong's ability to clone himself, and Nu Wa's ability to create life through clay.

THE BOSS:

In Wukong's original lore, he does not escape the mountain by himself, but rather is set free by a passing monk who made a bargain with Wukong.

Since the boss is the last "living" being that the player comes across before he escapes from the mountain,

it may be a direct reference to the monk.

SUN WUKONG AND THE HAND OF BUDDHA

SUMMARY

SPECIFICATIONS

​​

Third-person

9 Weeks

Unreal Engine 4

Assets used:

Paragon: Wukong

Paragon: Feng Mao

Paragon: Props

Paragon: Minions

Quixel - Megascans

Mythology reasearch:​

SMITE - The game

Wikipedia

Various Google results that directs to chinese mythology

​

INTRODUCTION

THE GAMEPLAY CONCEPT

​

Inspired by Zelda and Darksiders, I decided to create a dungeon-like experience where you have to solve puzzles and battle enemies to get to the end.

​

Since I'm still new to scripting, I analyzed different puzzles and enemies and recreated them in the Unreal Engine. Puzzles typically consisted of standing on a pressure plate or turning a big piece, which to me didn't sound too hard to make.

​

Once I developed the base mechanics, it was time to create the puzzles. Although keeping the puzzles easy, I still wanted to throw a pinch of more complexity at times to offer some kind of challenge.

​

​

​

LEVEL OVERVIEW

CLAY STATUES (PUZZLE SOLVER)

GAMEPLAY INSPIRATION:

​

The gameplay inspiration for this feature came from Zelda: Majoras Mask and Darksiders 2.

In Zelda there were puzzles where you would have to place statues of yourself on pressure plate in order to trigger e.g. a platform to move.

And in Darksiders 2 you gain the ability to summon clones of the player character that can perform similar tasks as the player.

​

FUNCTIONALITY:

Since the clay statues are literally clones of Wukong, the first thing I did was to duplicate my player character and then apply a stone texture all over it.

The next thing I did was to remove all player specific features such as being able to deal damage etc. So at this point the clone can only run around and jump.

​

​

If the player has unintentionally misplaced the statues, or simply need to start over with the statue management, they can destroy all the statues regardless of whether or not they are in a living form.

​

BLUEPRINTS:

IN-GAME FOOTAGE

STATUE PRESSURE PLATES

CONCEPT:

​

To make the gameplay more interesting in my level, I designed unique pressure plates that only the statues can activate thus forcing the player to switch between his original character and his clones.

These pressure plates play a big part in all the puzzles, but they also appear outside the puzzles for minor events, such as building a bridge to the final boss.

​

PRODUCTION:

​

I custom built the platforms using a variety of Paragon assets as well as a Wukong pose that I edited in Maya. And on the platform I added a sphere collision that constantly checks whether a statue is on the platform or not, allowing events to be enabled or disabled in real time.

But what does it mean to activate a platform? In my case, I wanted the same platform blueprint to trigger different events every time the player stumbles upon them, referring to Wukong being a trickster in his lore.

​

So if I wanted to have two platforms to be required to open a door, I simply set the value needed on the door and then put in any values in each platform that would together make the number I put in the door.

​

IN EDITOR:

BLUEPRINTS:

IN-GAME FOOTAGE

PUZZLES

ROTATING TOWER PUZZLE

TOWER ROTATION:

(Editor view mode set to "Detail Lighting" for better vision).

​

TOWER CONSTRUCTION:

(Editor view mode set to "Detail Lighting" for better vision).

​

BLUEPRINTS:

IN-GAME FOOTAGE

HUB PUZZLE

CONCEPT:

​

When the player first enters this room, they are unable to solve the puzzle because they have not yet learned the ability summon clay statues. However, the next time they enter this room, they will have learned the ability and will be able to interact with the various platforms in the puzzle.

​

1) The player summons a clay statue and activates the statue platform, causing the pressure plate at "2" to activate.

2) After activating the pressure plate, the player can step on it to open the gate at "3." If the player would leave the platform, the gate would immediately close again. To reach gate "3," they must send another clay statue across the room.

​

Mythology reasearch:

Inspired by Zelda and Darksiders, I decided to create
a dungeon-like experience where you have to solve puzzles and battle enemies to get to the end.

Since the clay statues are literally clones of Wukong,
the first thing I did was to duplicate my player character and then apply a stone texture all over it.

To make the gameplay more interesting in my level,
I designed unique pressure plates that only the statues can activate thus forcing the player to switch between his original character and his clones.

But what does it mean to activate a platform?
In my case, I wanted the same platform blueprint to trigger different events every time the player stumbles upon them, referring to Wukong being a trickster in his lore.

When the player first enters this room, they are unable to solve the puzzle because they have not yet learned the ability summon clay statues.
However, the next time they enter this room, they will have learned the ability and will be able to interact with the various platforms in the puzzle.

So to make this, I just looked up a guide on how to make an AI roam freely and then attack the player when the player is nearby, using a behavior tree.
I used the Ryan Laley AI tutorials to do this.