Persistent Progression and Save Systems

I designed and implemented a persistent save/load system for our roguelike gameplay, enabling player character data and progress to carry over across levels.

This is a crucial system because we had to figure out a way to carry over the player's score and the crystal fragments collected. But more importantly, how to carry over all the upgrades the player has chosen. This was done by having the saving and loading code work in the game instance blueprint, having it take the player data from the player blueprint via data structure.

Although this is more back-end work, I believe it is a great example of how technical skills can be important in design work.

Player stats are recorded in this Struct to be manipulated during the game, and the save system captures this data to be loaded.

Unlockable Classes

Tank: Survivability-focused with lower mobility.

Mobile/Speed: High mobility speedster with lower durability

I decided to create two classes that are opposed in playstyle. Inspired by RPG disciplines, I made sure to implement buffs and nerfs to specific areas to highlight the strengths of a class.

I have used Struct once again for the default stats of each class to easily plug and change the values of the player stats when they select a Class.

I designed a simple interface that quickly highlights each class’s stats and available options, while also preventing players from choosing classes they haven’t unlocked with the required crystals.

This interface appears when the player approaches the Class Totem. It shows the player what they can look forward to and unlock in the future.

These Blueprints showcases how I scripted a tutorial NPC interaction. This NPC will essentially explain what the Class Selector Totem does and how to unlock them.

In this Blueprint, I created a text array that displays dialogue sequentially by iterating through each index whenever the player interacts with the NPC, similar to the dialogue style in Pokémon games.

A video snippet of showcasing the NPC interaction with the Jira task.

UI and player feedback

Designed and implemented a dynamic player HUD, including:

• Ability availability indicators

• Dynamic dash gauge

• Weapon-responsive crosshair

Solved third-person readability issues by:

• Using crosshair state changes to communicate reload timing

• Clearly differentiating weapon states without relying on character visuals

Modern shooter games’ solutions heavily inspire the player HUD. The change of crosshair shape when swapping weapon types are taken from games like The Finals and Valorant. Valve’s Deadlock heavily inspires the dash counter and ammo count. I believe this is an excellent way for players to keep track of resources while not diverting their focus to the edges of the display.

This is the overview of the Designer tab of how I managed the player HUD, with each of the elements are binded to variables to be updated on the fly.

This is how I designed the reloading animation in the Widget Blueprint.
Basically, by using Timer by Events, I subtracted the time from when the reload started from the actual game time. That is measured as Elapsed Time. It is then converted into a percentage, where it is set into a radial progress bar that replaces the crosshair.

Another Timer by Event will trigger when the radial reaches 100%, which will then replace back the radial progress bar with the current weapon’s crosshair.

Sound and VFX

I have sourced Royalty-free sound effects from online libraries, then combined them with custom synth sounds using the Sound Cue system in Unreal.

I believe sound effects are key to interactivity as it help make the game feel alive for the player.

These are some examples of Royalty-free VFX I have sourced form the Fab Market. Customised/edited the particle parameters such as size, color, lifetime, spawn rate, and timing to have consistency and clear communication to the player.

Portal VFX

Environment Interaction

Implemented destructible environmental systems using Chaos Geometry Collections:

• Rocks that explode on impact

• Designed and implemented reactive crystal systems:

  • Area-of-effect damage crystals.

  • Area-of-effect healing crystals.

Designed a pickup mechanic where crystal fragments spawn out of destroyed crystals.

• Purple crystal fragments spawn from purple crystals; they are a currency to unlock Classes.

• Green crystal fragments spawn from green crystals; they are used as potions to restore health.

My main idea here was to add another way for the player to interact with enemies. I always keep true to design pillars. So, creating the crystals as a level mechanic was a simple addition, yet an effective approach to opening more combat strategies.

I created these crystals using the built-in Modeling Mode in Unreal.

Green Crystal Breakdown

This level mechanic heals the player and nearby enemies. It also drops health potions when destroyed. To create this mechanic, I split it into two blueprints to work alongside the Chaos System. The blueprint with the rocky base handles its health points, and once they reach zero, it spawns the crystal fragments(the pickup) and the other Blueprint, which contains the Geometric Collection.

The partnering Blueprint Actor contains logic for outputting healing or dealing damage(in this case, healing). It also spawns the Geometric Collection, which shatters upon impulse impact. In addition, spawns the exploding Niagara effect.

The purple crystal mechanic is essentially a damaging AOE that affects both player and enemies.

Blueprint Actor that handles Niagara Effects and the damage logic.

It spawns a Multi Sphere trace and stores overlapping actors in an array. Then ignores them if the same actor is already in the array. This prevents the actors from getting damaged multiple times.