Project: StarHack

Platform: IOS/iPad/iPod Touch

GAME WIZARDS

My roles for this game included:

  • Game designer
  • Scripter
  • Asset designer
  • Asset creator
  • Sound editor
  • Level designer
  • Menu and Tutorial Creator
  • Textures and Materials

Notable Team Members: Adam Murphy, Andrew Ojeda.

Click Here To Visit The StarHack Facebook Page

I started out by referencing a lot of different games, I really like space games and looked at the games Freelancer and Descent for ideas.

Once I had a working prototype, I decided to go for a game that didn't involve shooting and combined it with other puzzle games that involved speed and memory.

Here is a video of the final product.

 

The image below shows the flow of the game and the paths the player takes.

This next section is a break down for the visual scripting I did, each section will be shown in order that they appear in the video above.

Each section will have an image of the scripting done in UDK's visual scripting application called kismet, then a description of each in detail.

Clicking an image will open it in a new window to enlarge it.

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This first section is the initial opening screen, this screen has an object with an image of how to properly make selections within the game.

Once the object is touched, it sends out a console command to loads the games menu screen.

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This section controls the main menu, within the menu there are three buttons, a Start button, a Tutorial button, and a Framerate button used durring testing.

The Start and Tutorial buttons load different levels while the Framerate button apply's a console command.

In addition to the buttons, there is a Matinee to animate the planets spin, and another one to animate the camera to have the buttons move side to side.

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Throughout all the different levels and menus, sound is controlled through a separate section.

All of the different sections of sound are controled by remote inputs. This makes it possible to trigger them from any area in the kismet making it easier to manage and reduce clutter.

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After making one enemy, I turned it into a prefab. This allows me to drag and drop new enemies anywhere in the map without having to re-script from scratch.

Each enemy has the kismet scripting shown above. Its main feature is that the target bubbles are randomized so that each time someone plays the game its different than the last time.

When one of the four bubbles are pressed/touched, it then randomizes one of the other three bubbles. This is done to reduce confussion about whether or not a bubble has been touched already.

And last, there is a counter that counts how many times the bubbles have been pressed. Once the counter reaches four, it then sends out a self destruct script to itself, a sound script, and a counter script.

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This section controls the tutorial screen. It has a simple instructions panal that displays on an object that when pressed gets destroyed.

Within the tutorial menu there are three buttons, a Main Menu button, a Move button, and a Reset button.

The Main Menu button returns you to the main menu, the Move button moves the practice drone to make practicing more challenging, and the Reset button reloads the tutorial if you wish to practice some more.

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This is an over view of the next few sections. From this point on, the rest of the scripting will concentrate on the levels script.

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This section controls the properties of the level. It controls the games speed, the beginning cinematic, how and when to attach the ship to the camera, when to slow the game down or speed the game up for special memory units, when to display tutorial screens, and how long the level should last.

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This section calculates how many drones have been destroyed and how many are left.

At the end of the level, if there are less than three drones left, then the player has successfully completed the level.

If there are three or more drones left, then the player has lost and a explosion/fire emitter is turned on around the main ship.

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Within the level, there are two moving enemies. These two enemies movements are controled by one Matinee sequence that also moves the button bubbles and explosion emiters surrounding them as well.

All other enemies in the level are contained in the Prefabs tab, which then house themselves in their own individual tabs with all the scripting seen earlier in the enemies description section.

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This last section shows how the memory drones are controlled.

Rather than having the player activate these drones, the drones are turned on by a distance calculator. Once the player is in sight range, the drone is then activated.

Once activated, the drone reveals a predetermined pattern that is shown with a solid yellow texture. Once finished, it then turns on all the targets and only allows the targets to be selected in the correct order by the player.

Once the sequence is completed, the drones script then sends a self destruct script out to itself, a counter script to the calculations sections of the level, and a sound script to the sound control section.

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