UE Project | Aikomeimccarthy

UE Hamster Project

Play as a small hamster in this laid back platforming game built in Unreal Engine 5 using visual scripting. Players explore into the houses of a hamster village to collect their lost crystals. They must manage their resources and use their skills to platform, solve puzzles and defeat enemies.

Summary of Contributions

I was the sole developer of this game.

I completed tasks such as blueprinting, game design and level design.

The goal was to create a fun, laid back platforming game where players can explore and collect as many times as they want.

Game Design

The Hamster Village

This island is an open area that gives the player freedom to explore while guiding the player to each level. Players are first spawned in front of the hamster king who will introduce them to their goal. Talking to the villagers will not only provide backstory, but will guide players to which house to start with as well as how to prepare. The closest house to the spawn point (House 1) is the easiest level, as the player moves up the hills the levels will get harder.

The Hamster Village: Shop

Players can buy helpful items such as bullets and health with the coins they collect in each level. Bullets are a limited resource that players have to buy, which encourages players to make strategic decisions about when and how to engage enemies. Additionally, health is only gained through buying it in the shop or defeating certain mobs. This heightens risk while rewarding planning and skillful play.

House 1

The bottom of this castle village has coins and enemies with randomly spawned positions for fresh experience with each playthrough. To ease players into the game's mechanics, they first encounter the weakest enemies, allowing them to build confidence and familiarity before facing tougher opponents as they progress. The stairs and the height of the buildings provide the player with a sense of direction and progression. Once the player finds and picks up the crystal, a teleporter back to the hamster village spawns.

House 2

This lava themed level introduces more environmental risks as the player must carefully platform across a series of floating rocks to reach the goal. Additionally, Players must avoid or defeat enemies that chase them. The combination of environmental hazards and enemy threats encourages skillful timing and decision-making.

House 3

This maze level offers an exploration of multiple routes with various challenges and difficulty. The left side offers a shorter route with more traps, while the right side offers a longer route with more enemies, giving the player a choice depending on their playstyle. The large tree with a blue flag located in front of the mountain gives the player a visual landmark and guiding beacon. Environmental cues such as small spikes and disturbed patches of dirt subtly warn players of hidden traps, rewarding careful observation and caution.

Blueprinting

Blueprints I created:

Enemy AI
Enemy Spawners
Dialogue UI and dialogue trigger
Pickups such as coins, health and crystals
Game Instances for pick ups and shop items such as cosmetics and health
Platforms
Teleporters / Portals to other levels
Pressure plates to raise barriers
Spike Traps
Shop system and UI
Player Mechanics: Shooting, Receive Damage, Death and Respawn, Sprinting
UI: Pause menu and title screen

To fix errors found in playtesting, I first play tested to find the bug. Then, I used breakpoints and print strings to help pinpoint where the bug was within my code. I continued to playtest and input print strings and breakpoints until I found where the bug was and what was causing it. I read through my code again and found the solution.