Space Smack

Anchor 1

Game Summary:

Space Smack! is a 1 to 4 player party game exploding with chaos and sabotage. Enter into the vast expanse of space and clash in a variety of minigames. In this controller-only game, cooperate or undermine your friends to become victorious! Features 15 minigames!

Key Features:

Single-player and couch multiplayer with split screens for up to 4 players
Remote multiplayer using Steam's Remote Play Together feature
Party style space themed chaotic fast phased games
15 mini games

Development Methodology:

Space Smack was developed using an Agile development model with Scrum. The team planned milestones for the development of the game and implemented features according to milestone requirements.

Throughout development, the Game Design Document was updated and served as a living document consisting of feature details and projected outcomes from the development team.

My Role: Gameplay and UI Programmer

I was part of the team that was in charge of creating the architecture of the game from which data can be easily transferred to other systems, levels and blueprints.
Created the Game Mode and Game Instance Blueprints which is core of blueprint of our game from which data about various systems can be accessed and modified.
Created in game blueprint tools for level designers for fast prototyping.
Implemented several gameplay features:
1. Base class for interactable objects from which all types of interactable objects with different features are derived from
2. Implemented game start, game over, pause and loading
3. Implemented checkpoint system, spawning system, progress tracker
4. Implemented gameplay for 10 of our 15 mini games
5. Integrated and handled all particle effects managing the spawning, play rate and destroying at appropriate times.
Designed framework UI for loading screens, results screens and progress tracking

Some of the Blueprints I wrote:

Description:

Platform Creator tool blueprint: Creates hexagonal platforms and can placed in the level, level designers can specify tile size and expansion number. A hexagonal tile map will be created and there are various functions that changes the properties of these tiles which changes the tile type and properties

Description:

Dynamically loads the appropriate level and the exact level variant and sets all necessary properties like number of players, game type and loads the level

Description:

Base class blueprint for interactable objects, contains all necessary methods to spawn object type and has information of type of particle effects to spawn at different instances of the game, also contains virtual functions that other derived objects override

Description:

Set up of level blueprint for one of the minigames, Creates/gets all necessary data for the game before it is started and sends all the information to game mode and game instance

Description:

Tracks the progress of a player to finish line using splines, the objects to track and id can be specified in the level editor

Some screenshots Of Game:

PostMortem :

What Went Well

The team was able to create a shippable game
I was able to plan deliverables and their due dates with reasonable accuracy
I was able to solve most problems that arose, though I had to take several home and they took a few days to solve
Communication with level designers went really well
Help was offered often to ensure that all tasks were done on time
All teammates were working in-person

What Went Wrong

There was always a bit communication lost between 2 of the teams each sprint
COVID-19 made it hard to get sufficient playtesting feedback due to the game being multiplayer
There was a lot of miscommunication with the artists
I took on a little too much work and would often take it home to finish so that the other programmers didn't have to worry about it
There was bit of disconnect between leads when planning later milestones that caused issues with deliverable dates being met or confusion about what team was waiting for a specific feature

What I Learned

On a small team, you can think that you're communicating enough and it still not be enough
It's important to discuss with the team if something is unreasonable or there isn't enough time to do it
Make sure to disperse work so that one person isn't always having to take work home
Planning effectively is important to delivering things on time and making sure that each team has all the tools they need

Space Smack

Game Summary:

​

Space Smack! is a 1 to 4 player party game exploding with chaos and sabotage. Enter into the vast expanse of space and clash in a variety of minigames. In this controller-only game, cooperate or undermine your friends to become victorious! Features 15 minigames!

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Development Methodology:

​

​

My Role: Gameplay and UI Programmer

​

I was part of the team that was in charge of creating the architecture of the game from which data can be easily transferred to other systems, levels and blueprints.

Created the Game Mode and Game Instance Blueprints which is core of blueprint of our game from which data about various systems can be accessed and modified.

Created in game blueprint tools for level designers for fast prototyping.

Implemented several gameplay features:

Base class for interactable objects from which all types of interactable objects with different features are derived from​

Implemented game start, game over, pause and loading

Implemented checkpoint system, spawning system, progress tracker

Implemented gameplay for 10 of our 15 mini games

Integrated and handled all particle effects managing the spawning, play rate and destroying at appropriate times.

Designed framework UI for loading screens, results screens and progress tracking ​​​

Some screenshots Of Game:

PostMortem :

What Went Well

Base class for interactable objects from which all types of interactable objects with different features are derived from

Designed framework UI for loading screens, results screens and progress tracking