Thread the Needle

Remember Landy? As part of Game-U’s New Jersey Accelerate program, he and his instructor, Cameron, modeled an awesome 3D Kingdom Hearts keyblade in Blender. Now, Landy’s working on a flying obstacle course in Unreal, the industry standard gaming engine. Check out his progress!

Landy’s getting good at putting Unreal to use. For his flyer, he used the engine’s tools to create a beautiful gaming environment, which features a mountain-ringed lake studded with tall stone towers. Landy topped the towers with glowing rings, forming an obstacle course for the player (whose avatar is a small ship) to navigate. Landy next coded a score system that increases the player’s point count each time he or she successfully flies through one the rings. The score displays in blue on the top left of the screen. It’s hard to see for now, but Landy’s got plans to enlarge it in future lessons. Notice the little explosions from the ship’s engines as it flies? That’s Landy’s special “boost,” similar to a power-up, which gives the ship extra speed. To let the player know the ship made it through a ring, Landy added a thread the needle-specific sound effect. To let the player know the ship crashed, he and Cameron coded damage functions that destroy the ship avatar and play more effects. Landy’s game isn’t finished yet, but he’s working quickly and increasingly independently thanks to all his experience with the Unreal engine.

Well done, Landy! You’ve impressed us once again with your creativity, skill, and dedication. Thanks for sharing your newest project! We’re looking forward to seeing what else you do with it. Keep in touch!