Claymore

Going in to the development of Claymore I had a couple goals in mind. Namely, I wanted to grow my skills in Unreal, specifically using the project as an opportunity to learn C++. I also wanted a game that was different to what I had typically worked on, being more combat heavy as opposed to something puzzle or narrative driven.

I had some prior experience with Blueprints and Unreal at the beginning of the project, however, my main goal was to see how I could take my existing knowledge in Unreal and complement these skills by learning a new programming language. I also took time to explore different features of the engine, such as AI and animation.

For the design of the game, I knew it had to stay fairly simple to achieve something polished within the timeframe. While initially I did have grander ambitions, including rogue-lite systems such as procedural generation, I quickly realised I'd have my hands full with just learning C++.

I knew I wanted gameplay to be combat based, and eventually came up with the idea of equipping the player with an oversized sword they could control with their mouse movements. From here I started building out potential interactions and use-cases for a mechanic. What would happen if the player swung constantly? Could I use the blade to deflect projectiles? What if I implemented a dash that carried players forward in the direction of the blade? All these began to layer on top of eachother, adding depth and a sense of uniqueness to the combat. While the project was fairly small, I also wanted to make sure this would be a polished slice of gameplay, so I spent time learning Niagara, level designing with Unreal's free assets, implementing sound effects, and refining my AI to be more complex.

Overall, I feel as though I learnt a lot from this project. Coming in to development I had no existing knowledge in C++, and in a ~6 week period during my uni semester I was able to learn a lot, and reach a point where I can say I am comfortable in the language. While I did not reach all my goals for features, I feel as though this is a project I would like to keep working on, and I'm looking forward to seeing where it takes me.