Beneath The Sand
(2015) Unreal Engine 4
Created while three of my fellow students and I were under an internship at White Paper Games. We were tasked with creating a small game in under three months. My role was scripting, but I worked in multiple areas from the art to level design.
Beneath The Sand is a Side Scrolling Adventure game. The player travels though a tomb, reliving the story of a Pharaoh in an innovative story telling method, avoiding dangers, and completing puzzles.
I've discussed and explained some main technical challenges that I faced during the creation of the game. Showing you the problems I faced and how I reached a solution.
Dynamic Camera system
The camera was not directly controlled by the player, it follows the player but could not be rotated or panned.
I designed a camera system that provides options for the designer. Three options were presented when switching cameras; Side Follow, Full Follow or Static Camera. Variables were available also; Offset and the Speed of camera switch.
Character Abilities
Lane Switching
As the game is a Side Scroller you can't change depths, you're constrained to two axes. We wanted to keep that principle as well as an interactable change in depths
When a lane switch has been activated, they can only decide whether to move forward or backward, leaving an AI to calculate the path to the end lane point.
The player is able to switch the movement from forward to backward, but cannot stop all together, preventing any errors from being in a wrong depth.