Week 9; Now with random NPCs that walk around!

 

  • What is the premise of the Assignment 2 project?

The current premise of the project is to deliver a short cinematic sequence to express narrative. The cinematic will feature a conversation between two players that provide exposition to the tasks the player would later undergo in a great slice of the overall game. I've been managing this project through Jira in order to visualise my tasks and stay on track. 

  • Production challenges you have faced?

Currently the biggest production challenge I am trying to face is my lack of being able to build the project. Currently, when i attempt to build the project, the software crashes and doesn't give a discernible reason to it's failure. I have attempted to remedy this by asking for assistance but unfortunately nobody else was able to pinpoint what the error was. I've been working on parts of the project that I can outside of the engine while I try to fix the error. I've looked into various blueprints and still can't figure out what this issue is. My current running theory is that I've imported something to the project that is not compatible with the version of the engine that I am using. 

  • How will you scope the final deliverable to ensure high quality?

For now, the scope is remaining as is until I can figure out the issue that is preventing me from building my project. It will remain as initially scoped; I'll likely have to simplify the cinematic if it takes me too long to figure out the issue. 

Progress
In terms of progress, I've added roaming NPCs into the game. These add life to the scene that would've otherwise seemed bland. As well as this, I've added props into the market to fill the space, as it seemed very open and boring. 



The NPC character roam in a defined box. There are a few minor bugs with these NPC characters. I used a tutorial for the characters but will likely need to go further in depth on my own to refine these characters. For one, sometimes the characters will get "stuck" on objects or on each other. This stops them from moving altogether. As this isn't the primary focus of the assignment, it normally wouldn't be a problem, however sometimes they get stuck on the character that the player is meant to interact with, which messes with the cinematic sequence. On top of this, even if they don't get stuck, they'll sometimes walk between the player and the camera, blocking the view of the player character (especially during the cinematic, when the character can't move).

The below blueprint shows the code that actually triggers the cutscene and stops the play movement until the cutscene is concluded, which was also completed this week. 

Unfortunately I was absent for personal reasons for a majority of this week and part of the following week, so I was unable to work too much further on the task (i.e. fixing the bugs in the game.)



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