SOUTH GEORGIA PROJECT
This game is a prototype experience focusing on exploring the history of the whaling town of Stromness in the South Georgia Islands in Scotland, with a particular focus on the experiences of the explorer Earnest Shackleton. It is a vertical slice, representative of a larger experience that would feature more areas to explore and more history to uncover, however the scope was managed due to bottlenecks in the team's workflow based on distribution of disciplines.
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PROJECT FEATURES
Some of the interesting parts of the project I worked on.
This game was developed in Unreal Engine 4 using C++ and Blueprints (with the areas I was responsible for primarily using C++ except when integrating into other team member's work). The creation of this project was part of my MProf in Games Development and was developed by myself and a multi-disciplinary team of 6 others.
DIALOGUE SYSTEM
I developed the dialogue system which triggers a linear piece of dialogue when the player interacts with an artefact in the level such as a note. This features both subtitles and an audio voiceover as we were able to secure voice actors for the project. The system works with UE4's default Sound Cues but was later extended to include FMOD Events as well at the request of the team's audio designer.
OBJECTIVES SYSTEM
I also developed a small, linear objectives system to help guide the player through the experience. Objectives can be completed when the player enters a particular area, interacts with an object, completes a puzzle, etc.
JIGSAW PUZZLE
I created the jigsaw puzzles for the player to complete to progress the story. These puzzles would be triggered when the player interacts with the puzzle object, and the jigsaw UI would be added to the screen with all the puzzle pieces shuffled.
I also had to create a custom drag & drop operation in C++ to let the player move the pieces around with their mouse, snapping them into place if the player drops them on or close to the correct location.
Additionally, I integrated audio into the puzzles to provide more player feedback throughout, which involved using FMOD Events as with the dialogue system.
INTERACTIONS SYSTEM
I created the latest version of the interactions system, allowing players to read notes, open doors, trigger puzzles etc.
The general structure was derived from blueprints created by one of the designers, but was adapted to work better with the other gameplay systems and more efficiently overall.
SAVE/LOAD SYSTEM
I developed the save & load system for the game to let the player stop at their leisure and pickup where they left off.
This involved revising and improving on some of the blueprints developed by the designers in C++ to better work with this feature as well as the other gameplay systems.
GALLERY
Here you can find some screenshots of the game.