GraveRobbers
GraveRobbers
Embedded Files
Loot the cemetery and escape before midnight!
Loot the cemetery and escape before midnight!
About
About
Graverobbers was my solo game jam project entry for the week-long 2020 GJL Game Parade Jam. This took place at the start of my third year at university. It's been published to itch.io and judged by industry professionals against all the other submissions.
As a solo dev, my responsibilities covered every aspect of the project. Note that I did use marketplace assets: the low-poly cemetery models, and the cheesy Halloween music & sound effects.
Main Systems Overview
Main Systems Overview
Time & Escaping
Time & Escaping
Time - the player must escape with the gold before the time runs out
Gate - the gate will open and close as time dwindles, offering the player multiple chances to escape
Pickups & Scoring
Pickups & Scoring
Coins - pick these up to increase the score
Cross - place it one on the altar to pause time
Ghosts
Ghosts
Ghosts - these patrol the graveyard, knocking coins off the player's purse on contact
Mechanic Snippets
Mechanic Snippets
The following is the UE4 blueprint scripting for the control of the gate opening and closing, as well as spawning additional coins, as the timer goes down.
Within Game Mode Blueprint
Within Game Mode Blueprint
Game Mode Blueprint > Gate Controller - Part 1
Game Mode Blueprint > Gate Controller - Part 2
Essentially, the script above opens the gate for short periods of time at various intervals throughout the game, giving the player a choice:
Escape early and keep the gold they have
Stay for longer to acquire more gold
Every time the gate is closed additional gold is spawned to reward the player for staying longer. The overall approach is a rather unoptimized, but it's simple, quick, and it worked in my limited time.
To spawn the gold, first this event is called:
It signals all the Gold Spawners in the level to spawn more gold by calling "Spawn Gold" on each of them. Given more time, I would've implemented this using event dispatcher's for a cleaner, more optimised solution.
Within Gold Spawner Blueprint
Within Gold Spawner Blueprint
Gold Spawner Blueprint > Spawn Gold - Part 1
Gold Spawner Blueprint > Spawn Gold - Part 2
Each spawner has a minimum and maximum gold spawn amount. For each gold coin to spawn - a sound is played, and a coin actor is spawned and shot up, spinning, in the air. The vertical direction is random but limited within a cone of +/-10.
The little touches are what gives it that satisfying feeling when they're spawning in. I would attribute these to the following three:
the random delay between the coins
the popping sound
the random vertical trajectory
Contact Me
Contact Me
You can contact me at alannah.morrison7@gmail.com, I'll get back to you as soon as possible. Alternatively, I can also be found on the following platforms:
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