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HEXAHEDRON
"Hexahedron" is a 1st person dungeon crawler game made in Unreal Engine 5. It's a huge school project pioneered by around 15 students that cover many different aspects of the game from art to game design. I initially started the project in the Fall of 2022 with two other game designers before we had so many other students working on the game, let alone with an art team. I initially started prototyping map mechanics such as traps, items, and chests. Once 2023 started, I now design the gameplay mechanics of the playable character and was assigned project lead throughout the entire year.
PLAYER
During the project's first semester, the first person character was originally made by another student who graduated shortly after. Since I became character designer, the first thing I did was organized the blueprints in a sort-of Trello fashion dividing the code into two separate categories: inputs (for player-input activated events) and events (for everything else). The player's blueprint strictly uses the event page as I found it easier to place all the code and organize it into a single page rather than divide them into functions as it's less time consuming to find specific nodes.
This was built off of the first person template so the changes I've made were adding movement sway, dashing, shield crouching, player animation via timelines, a modular inventory system for the game's two weapons, a three-point stamina system, and the player UI.
SWORD
Initially made by the former character designer, the sword animation was simply teleporting the sword to the starting position and timelining it to the end position, teleporting the sword back to its resting position. I added an initial windup animation before both the light and heavy attack and added a swing vfx for the sword. I also differentiated both attacks by making the heavy attack slower and costing a stamina point with the benefit of dealing more damage.
DASH
Dark Souls is a slow game but the player's ability to roll helps them traverse the map faster. Given this is a first person game, a simple dash mechanic helps the player get across the map and also makes them think how to use the mechanic sparingly alongside heavy attacks and shield crouching. Dashing also shakes the screen for visual impact.
BOW
This is a feature I've proudly worked on and implemented on my own. The bow can be pulled back and fires the limited amount of arrows the player has and deal more damage than the sword. I've also made the arrows retrievable as a nice attention to detail. Another detail is when the player is crouching while holding the bow, the bow rotates and fires horizontally rather than vertically.
SHIELD
Shielding adds a dynamic layer to the combat sandbox. It can be equipped through crouching if the player isn't holding a bow. It costs stamina points to use but the benefit of equipping a shield is complete immunity to frontal damage. The shield also deflects projectiles via line trace.
INTERFACE
User interface has always been a passion of mine. I make sure UI is extremely easy to understand and non-intrustive. Though the artists in the team most likely plan on creating the UI themselves, I decided to make a simple base where health, stamina, and the player's inventory are all easily readable in a singular circle. I added the key logo in just for fun whenever the player collects a key. Additional UI elements include interaction text before a player interacts with a map mechanic or a red vignette screen when the player's critically damaged.
MAP MECHANICS
During the first semester, I got to prototype a bunch of traps and utilities that helped me get used more to Unreal. These are miscellaneous features such as a health potion, door, flamethrower, falling spikes, etc. that add to the game's sandbox.
LESSONS LEARNED
This was my first project where I collaborated with other game designers and artists, giving me experience of what it's like to work cooperatively in a company. I've also learned how to make gameplay mechanics in a 3D first-person space using blueprints. I've taken what I learned about combat from Mendacity and applied it to Hexahedron's main character with the sword and bow attacks.
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