Beetle Brawl

< Pepi Engine

⚒️Language: Blueprints (Unreal Engine 5) 🗓️Duration: 2 months

👨‍💼Team Size: 13 (3 Programmers, 5 Designers, 5 Artists) 🎮Game

Shadow Shooters >

Overview

Beetle Brawl is a party game where 2 players command beetles. The goal is to eliminate the enemy player as much as possible so that you are the winner of the battle. There are various obstacles in the level, allowing players to be more strategic in their positioning while adding complexity to the gameplay.

Key responsiblities

Movement and shooting mechanics for the character
A respawn system, preventing camping behavior
The closed gameplay loop of the game.
Parts of the UI in the in-game HUD and the main menu.

Challenges & Lessons Learned

Since this was the first ever team project that I was a part of, I had to tackle a lot of new things that I didn't in the other solo projects that I worked on. One of the main challenges was communication between departments. Since all of us were accustomed to working alone, things were quite difficult in the beginning. Everyone was working in their own bubble for awhile. As time went by, I began talking to the design department as often as possible since I am a gameplay programmer. The more we collaborated, the more I understood how important communication between those two departments really is. In order to match their design vision, I had to talk to them and take part in discussions about the different gameplay elements we wanted in our game. This improved the overall workflow and suddenly communication became much easier.

Another challenge was the clash in opinions between individual designers in the team. There would be heated discussions about what should be in the game and what shouldn't which didn't lead to anything productive. I tried to talk with both parties and play the role of a mediator, attempting to solve the conflict in a way that both sides would be happy. Compromises had to be made but eventually things would work out.

Overall, this project gave me a small glimpse of what challenges I may face whenever I start working in a team environment. I learned how to communicate with the designers about the game ideas in order to produce the highest quality features I could. I also learned a lot about resolving conflicts between teammates about gameplay decisions, and making sure that both partied understand eachother and are satisfied with the chosen approach.

gameplay.mp4

Gameplay Work

As my first team project, I decided I want to be in the role of a gameplay programmer. My work was focused around the character and their interaction with the other player and the different level obstacles we had. I also developed some of the character mechanics like the dash and the shooting, one of the pillars of the game.

Key Responsibilities

Implemented the shooting mechanic in the game
Developed the core gameplay loop
Worked on the movement elements for the player character (e.g. dashing).
Made a respawn system that ensures the players cannot spawn-kill each other.

Other Notable Work

Apart from gameplay I had to work on UI. I developed the Main Menu in the game, alongside the various in-game HUD elements.

My Contributions:

Implemented the main menu
Developed the functionality for the timer HUD element alongside other team members
Importing and using custom textures for our UI.