Unit 71: Object-Oriented Design for Computer Games
Unit 71:
Unreal blueprint is an alternative to programming without coding. This is a simple feature in Unreal Engine, as it makes designing games more accessible to people who are able to programme well in C++ language. This is useful alternative to coding as this allows other game developer's who are not as well in coding to be able to set up basic set ups, allowing the team to work more efficient and quicker then the 3D artist constantly calling his programmer for assistance. However this does not mean that Blueprint is necessarily easy, in fact it can be quite challenging, and takes time to understand what you are doing; but it is definitely not as confusing as coding.
So why use C++ in unreal? The reason is for efficiency. Blueprint will effect the performance of a game, because blueprint needs to be converted into C++, as this is the language used by the Unreal Engine, this won't be too much trouble for a small game with basic features; but if used on a more complex game- such as an RPG, it can severely effect the games performance.
Gun Control Graph:
Here is the gun mechanic, I made for the game. It simple control layout, that the player just have to press left button to shoot an object towards in the direction it shot out from.
Here is the sprinting mechanic I made for my game. It's pretty simple, when the player presses the Left Shift key, the Max Walk Speed increases- this is a built in function of the Unreal Engine, all I had to do set up the character movement- I did this by binding keys in the "Axis Mappings" section of the Engine- Input menu. After doing this all I had to do was join the functions together; its pretty simple, and also a lot more tidy than lines of code.
Health Bar:
Health Bar programming allows the player to know how much health they have left.
Another great function in unreal are the mathematical functions, as someone who does not enjoy maths, I found this feature to be quite a relief, as it allows me to do the least amount of maths possible; all I have to do is connect the things together and it does the math for me. Although I imagine coding would be much quicker for someone is better at maths, every time you want to find one of the functions you have to right click and search for the function, whereas in coding all you would have to do is type it on the keyboard.
Game Maker is more of difficult programme to use if you are not able to do C++ scripting but its also less powerful programme in comparison to Unreal Engine 4. But again, it allows greater customisation and alteration as C++ coding, which allows the programmer to design the game in more specific way then Unreal Engine 4 Graph programming could.
Here are all the Drag and Drop actions in Gamemaker Studio. Gamemaker Studio is a free version of Gamemaker, there are some more expensive versions of Gamemaker available and these have more features.
Part 1:
This is some code I used from my "Shapeman" game, the game consisted of some randomly generating shapes, every now and then the shapes will change into a different sprite. The code is basically showing when the shapes will change- using a countdown.
Unreal blueprint is an alternative to programming without coding. This is a simple feature in Unreal Engine, as it makes designing games more accessible to people who are able to programme well in C++ language. This is useful alternative to coding as this allows other game developer's who are not as well in coding to be able to set up basic set ups, allowing the team to work more efficient and quicker then the 3D artist constantly calling his programmer for assistance. However this does not mean that Blueprint is necessarily easy, in fact it can be quite challenging, and takes time to understand what you are doing; but it is definitely not as confusing as coding.
So why use C++ in unreal? The reason is for efficiency. Blueprint will effect the performance of a game, because blueprint needs to be converted into C++, as this is the language used by the Unreal Engine, this won't be too much trouble for a small game with basic features; but if used on a more complex game- such as an RPG, it can severely effect the games performance.
Gun Control Graph:
Here is the gun mechanic, I made for the game. It simple control layout, that the player just have to press left button to shoot an object towards in the direction it shot out from.
Here is the sprinting mechanic I made for my game. It's pretty simple, when the player presses the Left Shift key, the Max Walk Speed increases- this is a built in function of the Unreal Engine, all I had to do set up the character movement- I did this by binding keys in the "Axis Mappings" section of the Engine- Input menu. After doing this all I had to do was join the functions together; its pretty simple, and also a lot more tidy than lines of code.
Health Bar:
Health Bar programming allows the player to know how much health they have left.
Another great function in unreal are the mathematical functions, as someone who does not enjoy maths, I found this feature to be quite a relief, as it allows me to do the least amount of maths possible; all I have to do is connect the things together and it does the math for me. Although I imagine coding would be much quicker for someone is better at maths, every time you want to find one of the functions you have to right click and search for the function, whereas in coding all you would have to do is type it on the keyboard.
Game Maker:
Game Maker is more of difficult programme to use if you are not able to do C++ scripting but its also less powerful programme in comparison to Unreal Engine 4. But again, it allows greater customisation and alteration as C++ coding, which allows the programmer to design the game in more specific way then Unreal Engine 4 Graph programming could.
Here are all the Drag and Drop actions in Gamemaker Studio. Gamemaker Studio is a free version of Gamemaker, there are some more expensive versions of Gamemaker available and these have more features.
Part 1:
This is some code I used from my "Shapeman" game, the game consisted of some randomly generating shapes, every now and then the shapes will change into a different sprite. The code is basically showing when the shapes will change- using a countdown.
Part 2 & 3:
This next part is about another GameMaker game I made called Brainbox; this game was a top down maze game with maths questions. The screenshot above shows some of the script I used in the game, the script will run when the player reaches the end of the level- this is where the player will be asked a maths question. The script is basically showing what happens when the player select an answer, if they get it wrong, they will be sent back to the beginning of the level, and if they get it right they move to the next level. I didn't copy this from a tutorial, although I did find a tutorial on creating start menu' for games, and I applied this to a multiple choice question, this was pretty easy. The green text is a note, it doesn't actually do anything to the script, so it's similar to a comment in Unreal blueprint.
Screenshot:
Here are some screenshot that show my Space Invaders game. This game was pretty easy to set up, it was a good mix of drag and drop functions and code. I set up alarms, which are events that act like timers, these alarms are a built in function in Gamemaker, Gamemaker has many built in functions like this which do a certain thing, it's just a matter of finding the right ones and using them in the right places.
I personally, okay with outcome. Even tho I felt that I could have done more to improve the game performance and mechanics to it then I could. But Gamemaker was is an easy programme to use, even tho it focuses on C++ coding, it does have a drag & drop feature that makes things a lot more easier to complete and do.
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