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Overview

Little Red Gunner is a single-player 2D platform shooter where you take on the role of Little Red Riding Hood as she searches for her missing family members and seeks revenge for their losses. Players must skillfully navigate obstacles and overcome enemies to survive and advance toward their goal of vengeance. 

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Little Red Gunner began as a class project but was worked on for an additional 2 months to allow it to be presented at the East Coast Game Conference in 2021.

Role: Systems Designer, Gameplay Programer

Engine: Unreal Engine 4

Platforms: PC

Duration: 3 Months

Team Size: 5

Contributions

Systems Designer

  • Designed checkpoint system based on player desires and artist needs

  • Assisted with character and AI combat systems 

  • Altered gameplay based on player feedback

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Gameplay Programmer

  • Programmed-level environmental elements and systems

  • Handled pipeline for the player and environmental sprite interaction

  • Maintained simple and responsive grab-and-go controls

LRG Controls.png

Problems & Solutions
 

Problem 1: Player Death

Player death forced the player to begin the level again from the start.

LRG Dead.png

Being a 2D platformer, we needed to create a number or unique levels which would allow the player to have interesting environments to navigate through while experiencing the different game mechanics.

However, during playtesting we found that players often disliked respawning at the beginning of the level after death as they would often loose a large amount of progress they had gained defeating obstacles.

This meant I had to find a way to change the way respawning worked within the game without greatly changing the ways the levels were designed or the methods in which the player character was animated in order to not affect other team members work in negative ways.

Solution 1: Checkpoint System

Programmed a checkpoint actor that would allow the player to respawn when the reached certain points in the level.

image_2022-09-30_123301254.png

I decided that the most effective way to solve this issue was to design a independent checkpoint system within the game.

To create the new system I designed away which the checkpoint would store the co0rdinate values of the character when it was passed through by the player. These values were then sent integrated into the code for the player character to allow the game to know where the player needed to be placed if they died while also resetting the player animation. 

This design method allowed for checkpoints to be placed into the levels entirely independent from other level assets ensuring that the levels or animations would not be negatively affected by their placement in the game.

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