Evaluation

 I began the creation of my level with a simple blockout of a house which when I look back on could have a had a more unique shape to compensate for gameplay elements and to help keep navigation fun and engaging , but it did get the job done for a prototype and i can easily revisit this in the future. In this evaluation ill just talk bout the most important things that need evaluating

Once i begun the creation of my blueprints for interactions in the game i started to look at my psuedocode and, i had went beyond what my plans were, but this was the case due to me never doing blueprint before and i didn't know how difficult they were but i believe i picked up quite a substantial amount of knowledge towards them which i can take forward and will be an essential skill in the future. I also found that i didn't make many mistakes and the ones i did make were tiny and very basic but the more complicated aspects were fine.

The first blueprint i created was for the picking up of an item but in a cheated way by just showing a widget on screen as to give the impression of picking up items, this worked extremely well and better than i thought it would be, i was quite happy with how it turned out and i even made sure to hide the actor when the widget is displayed so it seem like your actually picking it up. Looking back i would of like to create and texture the base meshes used so you know what it was before you pick it up but thats just something to look at for future development.

The next blueprint i was happy with how it turned out was the keypad, my first idea was to originally have the keypad pop up on screen and use mouse clicks to complete it which looking back would of been a much easier and less time consuming route but instead i looked up and researched into ray casting so i could press from the player in game this took a long time to come to fruition and it still doesn't fully function since i couldn't make a clear button work inside the blueprint, which is defiantly something i would look back on and try to fix or maybe just leave it out depending on how i want to take this forward into the future.

So to conclude i think that my level came out alot better than i thought it would and iv came along way in terms of knowledge of blueprints, iv also found that i really enjoy them and will continue to practice them in my spare time. Looking back i would've like to created more little matinees and instances in my level to pad it out because it feels quite empty as is but is something i could defiantly take forward or even start from scratch with the knowledge iv learned from this build.

Principles of Procedual Programming

I have been informed that in this new unit I must create my own assault course or obstacle course using procedural programming methods inside of the game engine Unreal Engine 4, but before I get round to doing all this I must first attain some ground knowledge and understanding in the principles of what procedural programming  is and  how its used.

Procedural programming is at its core a basic term that does get infinitely more complex the deeper you delve into the subject, it is programming for a game but by using a preset procedure or a set of rules or laws that must be followed for it too work. This is done to keep the code written as organised and concise as possible. This can be written physically in more basic term using just logic which is referred to as pseudo code, this helps to ease people into the process and can also be used for a plan before going into the hard coding.

Procedural Programming is structured by sequencing basic commands in a linear fashion to created codes for game rigging, in this unit I will be doing this process for myself but inside of Unreal Engine 4’s blueprint system which is a useful tool and interface for coding inside of Unreal. As well as just doing this I will b e coming up with my own pseudo code so that i can come to terms of the coding process in Standard English

To understand it you need to look at it from a new angle instead of looking at it as coding you can take the approach of looking at it as though it is just a visual counterpart to C++, and even from here it is at its core telling the computer what to do and what not to do when certain requirements are fulfilled or just when you need it too in game, an example of this would be that you want to get close to a door and it open for you automatically so first of all you need to trigger this so you use a trigger box then you need to tell the computer that you want it to do something when you enter that area so you add an event of collision for the trigger box next you need to reference what you want it to do when this happens and what its n do it too, so you reference the object and then tell it to play the animation or matinee you’ve created of the door moving out the way or opening. This is a very simple example but can be used to code numerous things and rig levels in numerous ways.

Why is it Important?

This whole process is important for game development because coders are relied upon to make complex actions possible inside of game engines, these kind of task are usually completed by teams of people but can be done by small groups or individuals but this requires a far greater amount of work and better understanding of the process, this a process that is both hard to learn and hard to master but opens up a whole wide world of opportunities so it is worth while. It requires alot of practice but if accomplished it will broaden your knowledge pool exponentially of the game industry.