Rites of Ascension
The game project focuses on developing a framework for a multiplayer ready environment. The other main focus was the UI and interface for the game itself. As it is something I also appreciate, I wanted to create a strong UI for the game proof of concept. It includes steam integration, purchasing and acquiring new characters, and selecting your hero before loading into a game. The gameplay itself was not added, as the focus was on the different major components for a multiplayer environment. Setting up chat, pre-game lobbies, post-game lobbies, and more were all focuses of this project
This project was a solo project. The art and models, except for the UI elements which were created by myself, were Epic Store Paragon assets.
Video
Software
Tools Used: Unreal Engine 4, Illustrator, Photoshop
Models from Epic Store
Process
This project took inspiration from other Hero based games that have been created. Some of them include Smite, Eternal Return, League of Legends, and Paladins. These all include different components but the biggest part was the easily navigable store for different characters. I wanted to take a few different components and implement them into a UI and usable code that lets the users have the same amount of control that the current games allow. The code allows for users to purchase their characters and applies the purchase. The purchase is also verified through the server to ensure that funds were not added that were not there when the store opened.
The UI came from different games of similar genres. Doing external research to find the best practices for the shop, main menu, and other pages was a really important component when creating the character shop and main menu. Taking from the right side navigation, as more action based games use that system (Smite/Paladins) that was the logical choice. Despite that, the shops in all games were very similar to one another. This was decided to be the choice for design, as it would be easy to recognize for any user. A simplistic design was also selected for the appearance. Keeping the words floating and easy to read is important for the user. The character viewing UI took a long time as it needed to display the niche's that each of the characters had (attack, defense, or mobility) while also keeping them organized and on the same style as the rest.
Inspiration and Wireframes
There were several iterations of both the main menu and the shop menu. Both of these required some tuning back and changing in order for readability and other factors to be present. Ultimately, the forest background did not work for the UI. Despite it being a placeholder, even if it was made, the colours conflicted too heavily. After some user feedback and testing, smite was the one that won for a strong readable background while showcasing characters. The background involved a blank background with a character in the center. My background changed slightly. It highlights some of the matchups in game with the characters that could be player or purchased. Three point lighting was used with a heavily reflective floor to almost give a frozen in time look to the characters. The animations were taken and modified to be frozen in certain points as well. The shop UI also lost the forest background. It instead gained the reflective floor which was perfect for showcasing the character you wanted to pick. A short animation for the character was ideal for giving a brief introduction to the character class. Below are the images for the main menu before and the main menu after iteration.
Old and New Iterations
Shop Code
The next part involved finding the servers and creating servers for players. The game searches for a valid game, that has enough players, and then adds you into the pre-game lobby. Once the lobby count has reached the maximum, it then starts the game. This was necessary for the match making process for many different users to be combined into a single match. Inside the match, it also lets users have text and chat while using their steam name.
Screens for looking for a game and lobby
Code checks the servers availability and creates games if necessary
Finally, implementing the different teams, ensuring that no once character could be selected by the same team twice, and making sure that those players were separated into teams. There is also a fail safe that, if during character select, someone leaves the game, players will be brought back to the lobby and placed into a faster queue for having an abandoned player. These code pieces allowed the teams to be separated properly and put into the game on different sides.
Character Select and Multiplayer In-Game
Separating into teams and ensuring no double selected character
