Dev Log 1

For this Semester I will be making my own video game. I am going to make it a hack and slash similar to that of Devil May Cry.

The main playable character will be that of a Samurai Werewolf.

The Warewolf, I already had sculpted, I just have to retypologize and rig it, but I also have another character, which will be acting as the Enemy AI. 

In terms of the Development process, so far I have started sculpting the enemy Ai model in Zbrush and that’s where the majority of my time is going. I am almost done, all that’s left is his accessories.

Dev Log 2 

I have finished the Zbrush Sculpting process of my Enemy Ai, and recently I brought it into my for retopology. Before I began retypologizing, I made sure to combine parts that made sense to be combined(I.e arms and head with the torso, legs with any footwear and accessories.), once that was done I began to start on my retypology, and I can say without a shadow of a doubt, I HATE IT!!.

Or at least I did at first, I used the Quad Draw tool in Maya which is commonly used for retypology. When I first started, I didn’t quite know what I was doing and had no clue how the mesh would be affected by the rig, but I did reach out to a few professors that pushed me in the right direction, which gave me a bit more confidence in dealing with it. I wanna say that I am halfway there with my low poly and I should have it done by the end of the week.

Dev log 3

This Week I was working on finishing up the retypology of my enemy Ai Character and Uv u wrapping it. I am growing more confident with the quad draw tool and I am starting to understand it more. I was using a low poly character reference for videos so I know where certain loops should be placed. I did a test bake of it on substance Painter, while there are some minor baking issues, it shouldn’t be hard to resolve. When I showed it to one of my professors, he recommended that I move on to my other character which is my Warewolf which is the main playable protagonist.

Dev Log 4

I started working on my low poly warewolf character, and it’s going well, I am around halfway there. While I did think that because I had experience retypolizing my first character, that I was not going to have a hard time, and part of that is true, I do find myself having trouble with parts like the head, figuring out how I was going to make things connect properly and  nicely. I do find it hard deciding what parts are going to be combined or what's not, for instance I plan on making the robe a separate piece from the torso, and I do hope that will be fine with rigging. The goal is to have this low poly done by the end of the week, so fingers crossed. Here are some images of the Wolfs current low poly .

Dev Log 6 ( finished retyploogy)

After nearly a month I finally finished the  retypology of my wolf, and while I am satisfied with how it came out, the same can’t be said about the time it took. Originally I wanted to have both characters low poly’d and textured by the end of February, but it seemed I’m a bit behind schedule. What seemed to t be and issue for me was accepting N gons in certain parts, because I really wanted to keep them all as quads, even though I knew triangles were not going to harm the character as long as they’re not placed at areas where there’s deformation. But now that I finished the retopology I will be looking to texture and rig them.

Dev Log 7(rigged)

After the low poly was was done, I went on to texturing it in substance Painter, I found myself constantly having to go back to maya because  my character wasn’t baking as well as I’d like to, particularly in the head area. With this being somewhat of an issue, I reached out to a former professor of mine, and she believed the bake look good enough considering that it was for the sake of an assignment and the errors won’t really be noticeable when it’s textured and in gameplay, so I slapped some quick textures on it quick then moved on to rigging it.

Just like retypologizing a character, I am brand new when it comes to character rigging, and at first, the idea was to use Unreals Auto Rig tool, but I was having a bit of trouble, then I tried manually rigging it but the weight paint was not applying the way I wanted it to. With Unreal not  working for me it was then onto Maya, and while it’s auto rig tool did well for me, I discovered that the rig  has to match the Unreal Skeleton. While I was looking up tutorials for ways to rig a character model for unreal, I ran into a video explaining how to use a free rigging software called “Accu-rig”, an auto rigging software where you implement your low poly character, it does the rig and you have the option to export as an Unreal fbx. Once I got it exported, I brought into Unreal, retargeted the skeleton, and tested it out. IT WORKED!!!

Dev Log 8(implemented gameplay) 

With my retargeted Character rig now working, it was now time to start implementing the gameplay. I did set up a basic melee combat system using a samurai attack animation pack and it worked pretty well. I also added my enemy Ai, so basic character movement and functions we’re working.

Dev log 9 (more gameplay features and returning)

While I got my basics character movements and functions working for both my playable character and enemy AI, I wanted to see. If I could add more features, particularly for my playable character. I did make a duplicate blueprint for my character just in case the original breaks or whatnot. The first thing I added was a Backstab input so for whenever the player is standing 

behind the enemy, you can execute a quick kill. I also implemented a target lock system so you can focus on the enemy more effectively. I also did a second version of the lock on system, where the player actually faces the targets and then movement is directional based, it sorta works, but not perfectly and I do get errors when testing it out. also added a second attack combo because originally I only had one, but I wanted to take full advantage of the animation pack I downloaded from fab.

Dev Log 10(more refinements)

I am still expanding on my character’s gameplay, while the extra features are looking good, like the quick kill, roll, and block, I tried to implement the feature of target lock, I still had some bugs that needed to be polished out. The first one being that I would get errors when utilizing my lock on system, really I was playing around with the nodes and it worked how I wanted it to (throw crap at the wall till something sticks). The second most prominent bug was whenever I attack the enemy Ai, and they interrupt my combo, movement gets completely disabled. I ended giving my player a whole new attack node setup, which ended up resolving the problem.

Dev Log 11(UI and VFX)

Now that I am somewhat satisfied with my gameplay, it was now time to move onto adding my Ui and VFX. Up to this point the only UI element I had was my character's health bar, so it was  time I added a start menu, and a death screen, etc. i did all this with the use of Widget Blueprints, and it was quite simple to implement. In regards to the VFX, my character holds a sword so it only made sense that I gave him  a slash effect, which I added to the animation montage. I also added the blood splatter effect for whenever characters are hit, it really adds to the combs feeling nicer. I also wanted to add another effect for one of the attacks, which is a sword thrust attack, and while the effects I made for that looks good, it's not spawning the way it should in gameplay, though it works in the montage. the VFX and UI process we’re quite simple, there are some hiccups that do need polishing, and I am sure I should be able to fix them