2D Space Side Scroller

Exoplanetary

This was my first attempt at a sprite-based side scroller, and it had a rough start. I was not as fortuitous as I should've been when it comes to layering, but it was a great learning experience nonetheless. It definitely made me more interested in working again on something similar. I know that Unreal is not the most efficient engine to build a sprite-based game, but I guess that challenge is also some of its charm.

The original map design. The final, unfinished product doesn't stray too much from this design. I tried to stay true to it and for the most part it is spot on.

*I can't take credit for this little astronaut. I found him on itch.io as a free download. I could not find again him to give credit to the creator here.

The original map design with mechanic usage indicators to show instances when a mechanic would be used within the level. MT being for manipulate terrain(ultimately a scrapped for time mechanic) and GR for gather resources.

Design Stage

Bringing the Design to Life

Above is a shot of the entire map in it's current playable form. This is a significant upgrade from the first build, which was quite frankly a mislayered mess. It was my first stab at painting sprites with a tile map so I had plenty of room for growth. It took a good bit of re-tiling but in the end I am a better tile painter for it. These 3 just below, along with the full map above are all in editor screens.

These last 4 shots are all in a playable build. The character can jump and fire his weapon. The intention was to have a terrain manipulation gun, which could be used to solve puzzles, reach areas that are generally out of reach, or defeat enemies. I had difficulty adding that to the game, but the idea resurfaced in later projects, which there will be screenshots and explanations of on a seperate page.