God of War inspired Level - Blog post 05
Keeping it simple when making level mechanics in Blueprints.
I stepped away from blocking out briefly to create some simple interactions and mechanics using UE5 blueprints. At this point in the project I wanted to start building some reusable mechanics that I could bring into both the current level and future areas.
Here I want to shout out my fellow contributors on this project, Nathan Robinson and Kienan Southern. They have done a lot of great work on the player character, creating the axe and axe throw that I have been using throughout the project. The whole project is on GitHub and I am looking forward to seeing the levels they create!
The first interaction I created was the three rune chests. For anyone who doesn't know God of War has puzzle chests that require you to find and hit three runes around the nearby space before you can open the chest.
I wanted to introduce a simple puzzle element that turns a simple reward into an exploration challenge. Instead of simply spotting a chest and opening it, the player has to search the surrounding area for three runes.
The setup is fairly simple. The chest tracks how many runes have been activated, while each rune checks for a collision with the players axe. Once all three have been hit, the chest becomes interactable.
Here is a short video highlighting the working rune chest. Further down the line I might add a timer, requiring the player to hit all three runes within a certain amount of time. This would add even more variation and complexity onto this mechanic without having to totally redesign it.
Next I created some breakable planks, these are great for adding an additional layer of player interaction to spaces. These are super useful because they allow me to hide paths or rewards behind something the player can interact with. Rather than simply showing the player a chest at the end of a path, I can give them a reason to investigate that specific space and discover it for themselves.
This one was an incredibly simple setup, I check to see whether the box collision on the planks has collided with the axe, if so destroy the actor.
I think the key when blueprinting mechanics during blockout isn't about making them production ready. It's about creating something simple that clearly communciates the design intent. A better setup for this would be adding damage to the axe and then checking to see whether damage has been applied to the planks, but at this stage of the project a simple collision check does exactly what I need it to do.
Finally I wanted to create a lift. This is probably the most useful of the three mechanics because it can achieve multiple things. It can extend the playable area, create a slower moment for character dialogue, connect different elevations and potentially become part of a puzzle later on.
I created a Blueprint containing the platform, an interactable button and two scene components representing the lift's starting and ending positions. I also exposed the travel time, meaning each lift can be easily adjusted depending on the space I'm using it in.
The great thing about this set up is that it doesn't restrict it to being vertical, the scene components can be placed horizontal of one another meaning I can create lifts that go in any direction.
One of the reasons I wanted to do this project was to improve my Blueprinting skills and create some mechanics I can use within my levels. These are all fairly simple but they give me the ability to create variety across exploration, combat and narrative spaces. As the project progresses I want to make some more complicated things and see how they can influence the level design itself.
Next time I will be back to blocking out and adding some of these into the level.
See you in the next one, Howells out!
