Gigus Games

 Hello everybody! This week I decided to create an Options menu so players don't have to have their eardrums blasted out but our awesome sound track.  It took me a little while to nail down all of the details that make it work, though. I knew that I needed the settings to persist when the game is closed and opened and at first I wanted to save the settings based on the user profile that was selected.  I realized that this wasn't optimal as the game plays sound before a profile is selected.  I then decided to create a separate USaveFile class to save the options. It was smooth sailing for a while, I managed to get the settings to save and load easy enough.  My issue was that although the values saved, the settings weren't applied until the player went back into the options menu and changed them again.  This was not acceptable. I had done a little research into my UGameInstance class and first came across the Init() function.  I thought that it was the p...

 Guilherme Silva   This week, I've been feeling like I've made minimal progress. I've been focused on resolving a few bugs that I inadvertently introduced into the project. Currently, my turrets are targeting and shooting at objects that are already dead, and despite my efforts, I can't seem to rectify this issue. I'm hesitant to simply remove their death animation and opt for them to explode instead, as it feels like a shortcut rather than a proper solution. For now, I've decided to take a step back from tackling these turret issues. Next week, I intend to shift my focus towards finalizing the game loop to incorporate a win condition. Additionally, I aim to inject some narrative elements into our game by developing a tutorial that explains the gameplay mechanics and objectives in detail. This should provide players with a better understanding of how to engage with our game effectively.

 Hello there! This week we made the decision to change the name of our worshipers to minions.  We did this because it feels more appropriate since we are on the evil side and have the ability to buy and sell them.   I worked all week to get our minions the ability to not only power up the player, but the towers as well.  There are three kinds of minions and they each give a special buff to the player's AOE attack and the tower's projectiles!  These buffs transfer into debuffs on the enemies.  The minions also grant damage to the player's attacks, as well as damage, range, and attack speed to the towers. Getting the minions to update the stats in real time proved to be a challenge.  I thought at first that I'd want to do it as a tick, but later decided that since I already had a delegate for gaining or losing a minion, I could alter and use that to send the information I needed when I needed it instead of wasting ticks.  I opted to transfer th...

 Greetings! This week I'd like to talk about how I managed to stitch together the player's AOE attack.  I knew that I wanted something that was castable and would show in the world where it would hit.  With these two things in mind, I immediately thought of how I had already created something that required a button to be held down (the heavy attack) and also something that created a "preview" in the world (the building system).  I quickly got to work to see how I could combine the two systems. I wasn't able to re-use any of the buildable code, however I was able to re-use my weapon code in order to cast the spell.  As a child of the class that spawns the magic projectiles, I put this new AOE weapon in the player's other hand.  I only had to override a few functions by making them virtual in order to alter the code enough to do what I wanted.  As for the "projectile" that this new weapon was spawning, that is where I implemented the building code I ha...

Guiilherme D. Silva  This week I was able to get Two turrets into my game its starting to feel like things are getting fleshed out, its finally feeling like a tower defense. The I added 2 different turrets one is an AOE Turret and the second is a sniper but might be changed to be a cannon for close range cause he just throws a giant projectile from far range, Also I had to adjust the projectile I made them homing to make sure nothing misses so the player doesn't feel like the towers aren't being useless. over all I'm loving the progress our game is going and I cant wait what else my partner and I will apply to flesh out the game

This week, I focused on refining the wave system for my game. Originally, I thought it would be a simple task, but as I worked on it, I ended up adding more features than I had planned. I spent my time within Unreal Engine's blueprint framework, adding small touches to improve the player's experience. For example, I included on-screen indicators showing the current wave, remaining enemies, and a countdown timer for the next wave. These changes made the gameplay more engaging without overwhelming players with complexity. As I tinkered with the system throughout the week, I found myself appreciating the little details of game development. From adjusting enemy spawn rates to fine-tuning UI elements, every tweak made a difference in the overall feel of the game. By the end of the week, I was pleased with the progress I had made. While the wave system may not be groundbreaking, it adds a bit of polish to the gameplay experience. It's these small improvements that make game devel...

 Hello again! This week I'm here to talk to you about Navigation Meshes.  My story begins with the creation of our worshipers, little minions that are going to be the source of your power (and your tower's power).  I created these little guys so that they'll follow you around - only problem is that at first, they didn't. The first time I spawned my little stone golem minion, I thought I could control it with a simple velocity call.  I was completely wrong!  It needs the MoveToLocation() function AND a navmesh. I learned the hard way because our original navmesh looked kind of like this -  and the worshipers still didn't move.  I had to dive deep into the workings of the navmesh and discovered another use for the NavMesh Modifier Volume.  Up until now, we were using them to limit the navmesh.  I discovered that you can use them to add weight to various sections of a navmesh in order to persuade the AI to take those paths instead!  Our new...