Game Jam theme Chaos
Role: programming
Size: 2 prog, 2 art, 1 anim
Time span: 2-3 days
Engine: Unreal
About
A two day game jam with the topic Chaos
We made a game where you play with 2 people on 1 keyboard, where periodically all movements shuffle around.
There is but 1 rule and that is that there are no rules.
Itch page
Short-form summary:
The main things I worked on were assigning random keys every X seconds and having 1 keyboard control both players.
The 1 keyboard blocked us for a while as you cannot assign 1 Unreal Controller class to multiple actors.
This I circumvented by giving the controller to a central entity, which consumed the input and sent it to other entities needing it (both pirates).
This game jam was my first time working with artists an someone from animation.
Communication and planning was extremely important, aswell as constantly going back and forth between me and my fellow programmer.
Everything had to be planned and made to be reusable quickly, as there was a time limit.
Introduction:
This was a project with me and 4 others over the span of 2-3 days.
The time pressure was on and our goal was to make a game focussed on fun gameplay, cute visuals and nailing the theme of chaos.
My role
Input
My biggest challenge was figuring out a way to combine the new Enhanced Input system working with 1 keyboard for 2 actors, and randomizing all of them.
A controller can only be owned by 1 actor. To fix this I assigned an integer value to all inputs needed. Every time the buttons randomize, it gets as many different integers as needed, and sets those as the requirements in the button checks.
The keyboard gets owned by the gamemode when starting the game, where any keyboard is consumed, converted to an integer, and executed.
The actors themselves, for example when hit, can communicate to the gamemode that the actor should not get input and go into a hit animation.
User Interface
UI was less work, but more exploration.
It was my first time really interacting with the Unreal UI system. I loved how easy it was to implement different things we need, and explored ways to make it work with game logic.
My related tasks were to make main-menu UI, having the control screen show, making a system where any key can be shown as it shuffles through the keyboard, and showing the drink bottle emptying as a timer for the shuffle.
Variety
More smaller tasks and cooperation comes up of course when working on a Game Jam.
Some extra tasks include but are not limited to:
- Brainstorming with other programmer about the working of the traps.
- Thinking about quick fixes for things such as units being out of camera.
- Designing level layout and working out core gameplay.
Relevant Links