So today (after a few days off which I ensure you were not mispent) I made a few more modifications. Now the character is fully constrained in that he can't look up or down or backwards. This isn't really ideal for the final product, but it's what I was going for in this iteration, so I'm happy. He's also constrained in that his Y-axis is set to be a constant 0. This way he's "2-D" in that he can't just decide to start moving along a 3rd axis.

I also made a little test level which was basically a long ridge of terrain along the X-axis for the lil' guy to run on top of. It turned out pretty well, but I never did go back in and fix my sky box after I moved it. C'est la vie.

Next step I believe will be to change the controls to be a little more appropriate and maybe tweak the camera a bit to be more immersive.

3D Side Scroller

Our current project is a 3D side scroller. 3D in that it exists in the UnrealEngine, but also 2D because it's a side-scrolled. So far I've played with the code a bit and have managed to constrain the camera in a way that's pretty pleasing. Attached a screenshot at the bottom. Next step is to constrain the pawn from looking up and down as well as moving in the Y-axis.

Maze Mod in Review

I have been working with 2 of my co-workers to create a simple mod that was intended to just get our feet wet with regards to modding for UT2004. Our first project was a maze mod in which a player would navigate through a levels we each designed and collect 6 coins to progress to the next level. As of right now I've done all the coding I intended to do for this mod and am just waiting for completed levels from each of my co-workers, so we can add in the coins and declare the project a success. Following is what I did in Unrealscript

• Created a new Gametype called "CoinCollector" (since the objective is to collect coins that just happen to be in mazes, this made the most sense to me)
  
• Changed PlayerReplicationInfo to track the number of coins a player has collected
• Created a CoinPickup that incremencts the coin count for the player that collected the coin
• Changed the win condition for the game to be a player having collected 6 coins (didn't bother to make this work for multiplayer.. in fact currently if more than 1 player picks up a coin, the game will never end)

So that's effectively done. Could obviously be polished, but that's the gist of it and I want to move on to other projects since this one is mainly interesting as an introduction. Once we have everyone's levels with the coins in them I'll zip em' up so the internet at large can view the source and even play CoinCollector on the 3 included maps if they like.

Made a Blog -> Now to Mod

Hi! I'm making this blog because I love tinkering with the mechanics of games and I want to keep some documentation of what I have accomplished and what I'd like to do next. Also, I currently work in a contract position at Epic and I really like the people there, so maybe if they like me too I can get hired. If not I've no doubt I'll have brought something to fruition that I can be proud of and I'll be in a great place to do some wicked modding for UnrealEngine3 based games like UT2007.