Mark Lourenco
Hello. In this project, I focus mainly on coding things that will occur on the environments of the level and also things involving NPCs. Furthermore, I created stylized materials in Substance Designer to use in large ground areas throughout the game.
My Story
My life began in a small town called Antofagasta in Chile, but it did not stay that way. Throughout my life, I have lived in several different cities and countries throughout North and South America. This has allowed me to perfect both Spanish and English while also learning different work ethics from different cultures. Throughout that time, one thing remained a constant: my love for video games. I have played through several games of all kind and have come to appreciate not only the experience, but the effort and meaning behind each work. In the last two years of high school, I participated in a class called Lab Design where I was introduced to 3D Modeling through Rhino3D (for 3D Printing, Laser Cutting, and Vinyl Cutting) and another class called Graphic Design where I was taught the basics of Photoshop. I graduated from the high school Nido de Aguilas (Santiago, Chile) on 2021 and began directly studying at Vancouver Institute of Media Arts.
At VanArts, I was able to further develop many different skills, but primarily blueprint coding in the Unreal Engine, creating textures in Substance Designer, and modeling in Maya 2022/2023. Through this group game project I have also learnt the importance of each role in a team and how crucial communication and managing to work through difficult situations is. My goal is to further develop my skills in coding as it is a whole language that is able to bring many ideas and components to fruition. It is in a way the base of creation in games, and I am always fascinated when learning of new possibilities that I did not know before hand. I also want to further develop my skills in 3D modelling (specifically in hard surface models) and Substance Designer, both of which I enjoy working on due to the creative process of them both.
Unreal Engine
Lillipad Falling
The given skeletal mesh is given the position of start and finished. When the player character steps on the collision box, the skeletal mesh will play an animation and move from point A to point B (depending on the values of the timeline created). When the player leaves the collision box, the opposite will occur. The skeletal mesh will go backwards in the timeline.
Checkpoint System
When the player enters the collision box, their location will be saved in the character blueprint under a damage zone system (later down the page). When the player loses all three lives, they will be teleported back to the checkpoint after a short delay. Scene components are created to move both the location of the teleport and the location of the statue in the viewport of the level.
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The niagara particle system was created by using two images (star and dots) with different settings to give it a celebratory and confetti-like feeling.
Collecting Frogs
When frogs are collected, they will play an animation and slowly fade out after a certain amount of time (change in the dynamic material of the frog). This will also change a value in the game instance so that frogs will appear in the HUB according to how many you have collected within the Forest level.
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The actual tongue attachment and frog moving from point A to B was coded by Efren.
Leaf Fall
When the player enters the collision box, an animation will play on the skeletal mesh to indicate an impact. If the player jumps out right away, it will return to normal, but if the player stays for longer than a certain amount of time, the skeletal mesh will play a falling animation and drop the player.
Level Transitions
When the player enters the collision box, the screen will fade to black and after a short delay will play another level. When entering a new level, a small fade from black will occur.
Liquid Drop
An actor with a droplet-shaped mesh that damages the player when collided is attached to a niagara system with the same mesh shape. Droplet frequency is randomized to add a slight level of difficulty and timing.
Mushroom Bounce
When the actor enter the collision box, they will be launched in the air and an animation will play on the skeletal mesh.
Damage System
Whenever the player collides with a damage zone actor, they will be launched in the air and lose a life. If they happen to be hurt by water, they will be teleported to the last land location they were standing on. If they happen to lose all three lives, they will instead be teleported to the last checkpoint (player start if no checkpoint reached) reached.
Dialogue System
When the player is at a certain amount of distance from a frog at the HUB, an indication will appear to communicate with the frog. The frogs themselves have behavioral trees which make them move around the set navigable areas, the locations they move to are random within a certain range. Then the player gets even closer to a frog, the frog will turn to look at the player, and a variable that affects the behavioral tree will change so that the frog will no longer move around. Once the player leaves that certain distance, the frog will move around again. If the player initiates a conversation by clicking E at a certain distance, the camera angle will change (camera blend) and a dialogue that needs to be continued by clicking E will ensue. During the dialogue, character movement is removed so that the player stays still. An actor with a collision box is used to change a value on the game instance, and that value in the game instance changes the dialogue route, that way dialogue can be diversified. This also allows for the quest giver to give a different request each time the player comes back to the HUB.
Substance Designer
Stylized Mud
Stylized Sand
Stylized Bricks
