The brief for the generically named “Puzzle Project” was to create a first-person puzzle game in the theme of game shows like Total Wipeout and The Crystal Maze. My own take on this brief was to introduce a storyline of the player being trapped in a castle courtyard powered by a magical cube in the centre. The player makes their way through four different rooms each presenting a different challenge, each competed room then powers the cube which, once all rooms have been completed, opens a door for the player to escape the castle.
This project was one of my first introductions to UE4 blueprint and was also the piece that I found to be the most intriguing. As each of the four rooms focussed on a different mechanic, the shooting range focussing on counting the number of targets needed to open the door as well as the obstacle course room focusing on different types of damage such as Damage over time, direct damage and area of effect damage.
The main area of difficulty came from the Lightbox room which presented the player with a 6x6 grid of buttons and an interactive digital screen. A pattern of lit up squares corresponding to the grid flashed on the screen when the player approached it, they would then have to stand on the correct squares in the correct pattern to complete the puzzle. This mechanic, whilst challenging in itself at the time, has since formed the basis of my object orientated technical design knowledge which lead to the more advanced and complex design of High Orbit and Burning Skies.
