Hunter’s Mustafar Health Plan (with Soundtrack)

Remember Hunter? He’s part of our Accelerate program, and he works with Jason, one of Game-U’s instructors, to learn more about game design. Last week, Hunter and Jason worked on that lava 3D platformer game (the one that looks a lot like Mustafar in Star Wars), and this week, they took it even further! Ready for an update on their progress? Hunter’s player now has a working health system, complete with a display bar. Hunter had a lot of fun with that bar! He made it of a sci-fi hexagon material, and he wants to turn the colors yellow and red. Maybe you noticed from the video last week that the player could run across the lava without a problem, but that’s changed. Hunter and Jason went over what volumes are in Unreal (that’s the tool Hunter’s using). Different volumes of materials affect the game in different ways, so Hunter added enough volume to the lava floor to trigger a pain response in the player. (Lava hurts!) Things like pain qualify as “events” to a gaming engine, and can be used to trigger code. So, with Jason’s help, Hunter used Unreal’s “Any Damage” event to read and respond to the pain, reducing the player’s health. That’s not all Hunter did, either. The best games have the best soundtracks, so he and Jason also figured out how to add background music to the game. Another event, “Begin Play,” attached to the blueprint of the game level, tells Unreal to start the soundtrack once the player reaches that level. Hunter’s game is really coming together! Play the video and you’ll hear the soundtrack and see how the player’s health decreases the longer he spends on the lava surface. Next week Hunter and Jason will look into giving the player more abilities. Stay tuned!