Project - Dimensional Rift
Sprint 2 3/8/25 - 3/30/25
Dimensional Rift is a fast-paced puzzle-action game where players take on the role of an experimental test subject who has stolen a prototype 'Portal Manipulation Device to escape an AI-controlled facility. Combining elements of problem-solving, strategic traversal, and real-time evasion, the game challenges players to manipulate space using portals while outmaneuvering relentless robotic hunters.
During this sprint, I focused more on constructing the digital level. This was what I worked on the whole sprint because we had to make a paper prototype/sketch since we never actually ended up doing that from the first sprint. This sprint not too much was done overall because of sprint break, so no one did much of anything.
First off, I made a rough sketch on how I wanted each 'room' or 'area' to be connected and where puzzles/chases would go. The few rooms I had sketched out was the starting room, warehouse, hallway, and experimental room. The level sketch still wasn't done and since we were running behind, so I instantly went into Unreal to start building the 3D level. This image here is the starting room where the player gets their portal gun. And in another image you can see the warehouse which will lead into a vent section.
A couple things I could change, the first one being simplicity. Within my warehouse build which I am very proud of, is too abstract and detailed compared to the fact that the rest of the level wasn't built yet. I tunnel focused on the warehouse rather than building a block out for the whole level.
Another thing I would change would be creating a personal notification to before working on the project, to pull from Github. With this mistake, I lost 2 hours of work which was spent on building the warehouse and vent area. By not pulling before working on the project made it clash with my push once I was done working which deleted everything I worked on. Although I was really frustrated about this, when I recreated the area it turned out better and faster.
By Sprint 3, I am hoping to finish the full level with at least 2 puzzles. If I do finish early, my goal is to create the 'chase' which would be a mad scientist model similar to the player model.
Sprint 1 2/18/25 - 3/8/25
Dimensional Rift is a fast-paced puzzle-action game where players take on the role of an experimental test subject who has stolen a prototype 'Portal Manipulation Device to escape an AI-controlled facility. Combining elements of problem-solving, strategic traversal, and real-time evasion, the game challenges players to manipulate space using portals while outmaneuvering relentless robotic hunters.
Drawing inspiration from Portals, Mirror's Edge, and Superhot. Dimensional Rift emphasizes quick thinking, adaptability, and high-intensity problem solving. This game caters to puzzle and action enthusiasts aged 15-25.
This process has been different compared to previous projects from similar and lower level prerequisites that build up to this class. Such as for being a group projects, our class gave us creative freedom after our group pitch was decided. Once in these groups, there wasn't a 'guide' that we had to follow and work wasn't 'due' in the sense of the teacher keeping an eye on you.
The project was shaped around each group members respected rolls and abilities like coding, level design and management. We also used a website called 'Trello' that is like a group checklist to keep up on our goals and its importance/priority.
During our first sprint's kickoff, we focused on getting our backlog of what we want for our game and how we wanted to distribute it like coding wise and structure wise. We decided prior that we would work in Unreal Engine over Unity since that's what we had more recent learnings from.
As work was dispersed, I was assigned to make a 'small and simple character' and a 'portal gun' both with a vibe fitting for an experimental subject and a futuristic gun to fit the vibe of the factory.
An issue regarding my work was first a rookie mistake of exporting my model from Maya without mesh combining it, which when imported into Unreal, was broken into many cubes/objects. Another mistake on my part was when UVing, my UV maps barely overlapped with each other, so when texturing, there were random lines that stood out.
Once textures were done, exporting was different compared to what all previous classes taught us for Unity. The export was to be assigned as "Unreal Engine 4 (Packed). A last issue was once everything was saved and done, and I relaunched the textured file of either models, they became broken. No matter if I tried to reexport the same model from Maya into Substance again, it wouldn't work. But when I exported a file that wasnt those Maya files of the player and portal gun, they were fine. The solution I found was to give another member of my team my substance and maya file and open them on their end, which worked and successfully imported the textures into Unreal.
I completed all of my assigned work during this sprint which was the player model and gun along with both textures applied. So much so our producer had to assign us more work, but with the remaining time wasn't enough to be within sprint 1. Currently I am working on the UI screens like the save screen, player UI, and any other menus the player will interact with. After I will probably work on a basic digital block out or making a puzzle.