During my time as a game developer intern at Prosper I.T. Consulting, I engaged in two live projects that each lasted for two weeks. In the first live project, I worked with a team to recreate several classic arcade games in Unity. I created a modern version of the classic game Asteroids with WASD input to control player movement. Over the course of this two week sprint, I gained valuable experience using Unity and C# to create a game nearly from scratch. This project also brought me experience in working with a team including how to communicate effectively with teammates and reaching out in order to problem-solve any roadblocks I or other teammates had. In the second live project, I worked with a team to prototype a game in Unreal Engine 5. In this project, I worked with several systems within Unreal Engine including blueprints, metasounds, Lumen, Nanite, Niagara, and more.
I created a script that could be applied to any game object to give it screen-wrap functionality. The edges of the screen are used as the boundaries of the gameplay area in order to prevent issues arising if players resize their screen during gameplay.
void Update() {
//Get screen position of object in pixels since we want to check if player is moving off the edge of the screen
Vector3 screenPosPixel = Camera.main.WorldToScreenPoint(transform.position);
//Get edges of screen in world units
float rightScreenWorld = Camera.main.ScreenToWorldPoint(new Vector2(Screen.width, Screen.height)).x;
float leftScreenWorld = Camera.main.ScreenToWorldPoint(new Vector2(0f, 0f)).x;
float topScreenWorld = Camera.main.ScreenToWorldPoint(new Vector2(Screen.width, Screen.height)).y;
float botScreenWorld = Camera.main.ScreenToWorldPoint(new Vector2(0f, 0f)).y;
//Check if object position is moving off the screen AND if the direction of movement is heading off screen, then change object position to other side of screen
if (screenPosPixel.x <= 0 && rbody.velocity.x < 0) transform.position = new Vector2(rightScreenWorld, transform.position.y);
else if (screenPosPixel.x >= Screen.width && rbody.velocity.x > 0) transform.position = new Vector2(leftScreenWorld, transform.position.y);
else if (screenPosPixel.y >= Screen.height && rbody.velocity.y > 0) transform.position = new Vector2(transform.position.x, botScreenWorld);
else if (screenPosPixel.y <= 0 && rbody.velocity.y < 0) transform.position = new Vector2(transform.position.x, topScreenWorld);
}
The ship is constantly orientated towards the mouse cursor and fires when the left mouse button is pressed.
void playerAimShoot() {
//Get mouse position in world units
Vector3 mousePosition = Camera.main.ScreenToWorldPoint(Input.mousePosition);
//Get direction to look at by subtracting mouse position with player object's position
Vector2 direction = new Vector2((mousePosition.x - transform.position.x), (mousePosition.y - transform.position.y));
//Rotate the object to direction
transform.up = direction;
//Shoot if left mouse button is clicked
if (Input.GetMouseButtonDown(0)) {
//Instantiate projectile object at player's position and rotation
Asteroids_Projectile bullet = Instantiate(this.projectilePrefab, this.transform.position, this.transform.rotation);
//Shoot the projectile using the Project method in direction of mouse cursor
bullet.Project(direction);
}
}
The player loses a life upon collision with an asteroid and respawns in the middle of the gameplay area with a brief window of invulnerability.
private void OnCollisionEnter2D(Collision2D collision) {
if (collision.gameObject.CompareTag("Enemy")) {
soundManager.Play(playerExplosionAudio); //Play explosion audio when player dies
playerLives--;
Destroy(collision.gameObject); //Destroy asteroid
//Explosion at where player died
gameManager.Explosion(this.transform.position, this.transform.rotation);
PlayerRespawn();
}
}
private void PlayerRespawn() {
//If player still has lives, bring player back to middle + blinking effect + invulnerability
if(playerLives > 0) {
this.transform.position = new Vector2(0, 0);
StartCoroutine(PlayerRespawnBlink());
}
else { //if player has 0 lives, turn player object invisible and put it on layer to ignore collisions
gameObject.layer = LayerMask.NameToLayer("IgnoreProjectile");
spriteRenderer.enabled = false;
}
}
//Respawn blink + invulnerability
IEnumerator PlayerRespawnBlink(int times = 3) {
for(int i = 0; i < times; i++) {
//Switch layer to ignore collisions, effectively making player invulnerable
gameObject.layer = LayerMask.NameToLayer("IgnoreProjectile");
//Blink by turning sprite renderer on and off
spriteRenderer.enabled = true;
yield return new WaitForSeconds(respawnBlinkTime);
spriteRenderer.enabled = false;
yield return new WaitForSeconds(respawnBlinkTime);
//bring player back to Player layer so it is affected by collisions again
gameObject.layer = LayerMask.NameToLayer("Player");
spriteRenderer.enabled = true;
}
}
Asteroids are destroyed if it collides with a projectile or boundary, and if they are destroyed by a projectile the asteroid splits into two asteroids with half the size of the original and random vectors.
public void OnCollisionEnter2D(Collision2D collision) {
if (collision.gameObject.CompareTag("Projectile")) {
//Play asteroid explosion sound when destroyed by player projectile
soundManager.Play(asteroidExplosionAudio);
//Explosion effect
gameManager.Explosion(this.transform.position, this.transform.rotation);
//Add score based on size of asteroid destroyed
if (this.size < 1.0f && this.size >= minSize) gameManager.playerScore += 5f;
else if (this.size >= 1.0f && this.size < 1.5f) gameManager.playerScore += 10f;
else if (this.size >= 1.5f) gameManager.playerScore += 15f;
//Split asteroid into two smaller asteroids if original asteroid size is at least twice the size of min size
if (this.size / 2 >= this.minSize) {
SplitAsteroid(this.size, new Vector2(this.transform.position.x, this.transform.position.y));
Destroy(this.gameObject);
}
else Destroy(this.gameObject);
}
else if (collision.gameObject.CompareTag("Boundary")) Destroy(this.gameObject);
}
//Create child asteroids when parent asteroid hit by player projectile
void SplitAsteroid(float parentSize, Vector2 position, int times = 2) {
for (int i = 0; i < times; i++) {
Asteroids_AsteroidController childAsteroid = Instantiate(asteroidPrefab, position, Quaternion.AngleAxis(Random.Range(0f, 360f), Vector3.forward));
//Make child asteroid size half the parent size
childAsteroid.size = parentSize / 2;
float childAsteroidForce = Random.Range(minAsteroidForce, maxAsteroidForce);
childAsteroid.rbody.AddForce(Random.insideUnitCircle * childAsteroidForce);
}
}
Asteroids are spawned at random locations outside of the player's screen with trajectories directed towards the gameplay area. Asteroids are only spawned if the current number of asteroids is less than a designated threshold.
void SpawnAsteroid() {
//Get current number of asteroids in play
int currentNumberOfAsteroids = asteroidCount.Count();
//Only spawn asteroid if current # of asteroids in play doesn't exceed max
if (currentNumberOfAsteroids < maxNumberOfAsteroids) {
//choose random side to spawn asteroid. 0 is top, 1 is right, 2 is bot, 3 is left
int spawnSide = Random.Range(0, 4);
switch (spawnSide) {
case 0: //Top side
CreateAsteroid(LeftEdgeSpawn, RightEdgeSpawn, TopEdgeCamera, TopEdgeSpawn, randomVector(Mathf.PI, 2 * Mathf.PI));
break;
case 1: //Right side
CreateAsteroid(RightEdgeCamera, RightEdgeSpawn, BotEdgeSpawn, TopEdgeSpawn, randomVector(Mathf.PI / 2, 3 / 2 * Mathf.PI));
break;
case 2: //Bot side
CreateAsteroid(LeftEdgeSpawn, RightEdgeSpawn, BotEdgeSpawn, BotEdgeCamera, randomVector(0f, Mathf.PI));
break;
case 3: //Left side
CreateAsteroid(LeftEdgeSpawn, LeftEdgeCamera, BotEdgeCamera, TopEdgeCamera, randomVector(-Mathf.PI / 2, Mathf.PI / 2));
break;
default:
Debug.Log("Error spawning asteroid");
break;
}
}
}
//Create random angle between a min angle and max angle for asteroid trajectory
private Vector2 randomVector(float minRadians, float maxRadians) {
float random = Random.Range(minRadians, maxRadians);
return new Vector2(Mathf.Cos(random), Mathf.Sin(random));
}
//Create asteroid somewhere outside play area with random trajectory towards play area
public void CreateAsteroid(float leftEdge, float rightEdge, float botEdge, float topEdge, Vector2 direction) {
//Randomize rotation of asteroid
Quaternion randomRotation = Quaternion.AngleAxis(Random.Range(0f, 360f), Vector3.forward);
//Randomize force to be applied to asteroid
float asteroidForce = Random.Range(minAsteroidForce, maxAsteroidForce);
Asteroids_AsteroidController asteroid = Instantiate(asteroidPrefab, new Vector2(Random.Range(leftEdge, rightEdge), Random.Range(botEdge, topEdge)), randomRotation);
//Randomize size of asteroid
asteroid.size = Random.Range(asteroid.minSize, asteroid.maxSize);
asteroid.rbody.AddForce(direction * asteroidForce);
}
Once the player reaches a checkpoint, an event dispatcher is called in order to begin the next obstacle. The respawn point is set to the location of the checkpoint.
This blueprint creates explosions that loop at certain time intervals.
This obstacle is a recreation of the popular game Red Light, Green Light in which the player is able to move during a green light and not able to move during a red light.
This obstacle pulls the player in towards the middle for random periods of time. If the player touches the middle of the arena, the player is killed.
Minor pitch variance of footsteps was done through Unreal Engine's MetaSounds system. The sound of the footsteps was synced to the player's run and walk animations for a more realistic experience.
