Hide or Seek

Role: Programmer and Level Designer

Applications: Unreal Engine 5.3

Team Size: 3

Time: 2 weeks

Finish: November 2023

Challenges

I entered this project with essentially zero experience but an intense passion for game design. Leading the team was a significant challenge, especially since I was the least experienced member. Additionally, we encountered difficulties with engine versions, as we wanted to use a pack available in 5.2 while developing the game in 5.3. The import process took about a week, leaving us with less time than anticipated. We also faced several GitHub issues due to large file sizes.


Fortunately, the GitHub issues were manageable. We resolved them by deleting the repository, creating a new one, and utilizing GitHub Large File Storage (LFS) to handle the large files. To manage our limited time effectively, I dedicated extra hours beyond our game development club meetings to work on the project. I also watched numerous level design and blueprinting videos as a crash course to accelerate my learning.


Despite my inexperience, I received valuable guidance from my older peers and had participated in enough workshops to have a general understanding of the processes involved. Through clear communication, persistent effort, and a willingness to learn, I was able to overcome these challenges and lead the team successfully

What I Learned

I am a Computer Science major as well, so I have good programming concepts. However, I knew basically nothing other than that Unreal Engine is visual scripting, which is much different than the Python I was learning. Being able to understand object-oriented programming helped, though.

More technically, I mainly focused on the Third Person Character Blueprints (we made two, one for hiders and one for seekers), as well as how to import and use assets to create meaning. I used Gaea to develop the heightmaps, then the Landscape and Foliage tools to size and decorate the landscape. I had to fix many collisions and edit the environment tools. I spent a lot of time "place-making", hand-editing the level to create natural hiding spots and vantage points. I created several interactable features of the landscape. In this project, I learned a lot about blueprinting, implementing picking up objects, playing animations, showing widgets, and coding for multiplayer.

Next Time

I definitely made some mistakes during this process. We began with a more complex, unrealistic timeline, and barely had enough time to complete the main gameplay mechanics. We originally were going to have the maps switch every few minutes, but we encountered some difficulties with making sure the multiplayer time widget matched, so that ended up being scrapped. 


As with any game jam, timing is always an issue, and there was definitely some amount of crunching. This was mostly due to the asset pack being updated a week into the jam, but as team leader I could have made this process a lot faster by mandating group meetings. 


As some advice to future game designers, beginning a game jam with no knowledge is daunting, but it is a great experience and that is where you will truly learn.