Dungeon Descent Development Blog

 Author: Xavier Williams Problem:      For the items in our game, we decided to have them be able to be picked up and dropped. The problem I had when implementing this was finding a good way to give the item to the right player. The way I originally tried implementing this feature worked, but it would have led to a problem with items picked up by one player going to another player. This is because it would look for the player controller component in the first index to decide what player was interacting with the item. This works when there is only one player, however once there are multiple, only the first player would be able to pick up items. Solution:      To solve this problem, I changed the way picking up items works. Instead of checking for an interactable object in a straight line and using the player controller in the first index, all the items will use collision detection to detect when a player is standing over the item. This allows the game t...

 Author: Jymeer Wilkins Problem:     So, for these few weeks I've been working on the UI of our game. Things were going pretty smoothly, until I got to the pause menu of the game. I had already had it working pretty well a few days before, but then I noticed a problem. Whenever I would go from the pause menu to the options menu, I could still unpause the game. Because of this, the options menu would never go away. If I pressed pause again, the pause menu would appear over the options menu. Solution:     I fixed problem by studying other games. I've been using Hades' UI as a reference for our own. At first, I was just going to make it where it would just remove the menus and unpause the game if you paused while in the options menu. In Hades, if you press the pause button while in the options, it just goes back to the pause menu. I liked that idea a lot better, so I started to implement it. If the pause button is pressed in the options menu, it removes t...

 Author: Josiah Jones Problem:      While working on enemy AI this week things were going pretty smoothly until it came to having to make melee enemy's without models and just shapes to use in place of models. As I was trying to make an enemy with a rectangle object to use as a weapon, the object would spawn in the right place with the AI but when the AI moved the rectangle wouldn't move from where it first spawned. This problem cause an issue when doing gameplay testing we couldn't test the melee AI to see if they worked and how it would effect are game. Solution:      After researching I'm thinking the problem might be where or how I'm calling the blueprint function "Attach to Object" or the other "Attach to Component" I've tried both. I'm still looking for the solution to this problem but I'm current thinking that I can maybe try to make it one whole blueprint actor instead of seperate actors that im trying to atta...

 Author: Colyn Reed Problem          For this week, I worked on having a working map for the player to navigate and explore. With the theme of our game being in a dungeon setting, I wanted the lighting to be more dark and feel like the player was in a dungeon. I also wanted the walls and ground to look more like a dungeon and ran into the problem of the materials for the walls glitching and looking like they are fazing in and out of the wall. Solution     I fixed the wall texture issue by making sure that each wall I put into the map are connected properly and that they don't overlap because that seemed to be what was causing the problem. With the lighting, I'm still working on getting proper assest that work with the game theme. I'm still trying to figure out how to have good lighting with out immense shadows appearing from the source.

Author: Najee Jackson Problem          For this week, I worked on Procedural Generation. It was going well at first until I ran into the issue of loading all the rooms at the start of a level. Due to this, the player started in one room, which led to no other rooms in the level. This heavily hindered the gameplay as the player had only one room of various sizes to explore each time they loaded in. Solution       I first researched game instances in Unreal Engine 5 to solve this issue. After watching several videos, I used a testing project to see if my theory would work. My initial plan was to use the game instance to load ten rooms connected before the player spawned in. Making the script was pretty straightforward. I made an array of all the rooms that were being used, and if any rooms were created, I added that actor to the array. I then checked to see if that room had any available doors to attach another room to. If it did, I built ...

Author: Jacob McLain My task was to get networking set up so that we would be able to have multiplayer functional for the build. I missed this deadline due to an issue with the method I was attempting to implement networking through. I was attempting to create server and client targeted builds that would run separately and meet up on the server. This was a major roadblock in that the version of unreal we're using doesn't utilize this methodology without more setup. I unfortunately lacked this further setup and was unable to discover what I was missing. I looked through the Unreal documentation as well as multiple YouTube guides to figure out if I was doing a step wrong. The solution came when a fellow classmate informed me that using a dedicated server isn't necessary unless the project is for a game with many players on at the same time, MMO's being an example of this. I was then directed to different documentation that detailed steps to take in order to implement a P...

Author: Parker Boyer Starting off is looking for gun models to use that worked for unreal engine 5.2 which there were constantly none that were free available for use leaving it difficult to test the weapons not only due to lack of player input but also having to use a cube as a testing gun. Second would be once having the system coded in scripts with c++ I realized my system won’t be able to work with the blueprints we had given the player. The biggest problem was when the bullets would get destroyed the second, they spawned in making it even more difficult to test if the bullet was doing damage or not.    For using a gun model, we had a member who was able to take an asset that was for unreal 4.27 and put it into blender to convert it to work with 5.2 allowing me to use the model and put a muzzle socket at the end of the barrel allowing me to spawn the bullets from there. Having my coded gun and bullet not working with a blueprint player I just had to convert what I co...

Title: Dungeon Descent In "Dungeon Descent," you and up to three other players embark on an epic quest to conquer a mysterious dungeon filled with perilous challenges and fearsome enemies. The objective is clear: reach the lowest floor by navigating through procedurally generated rooms, clearing out adversaries, and uncovering powerful weapons and upgrades to aid in your journey. Assemble your team of intrepid adventurers, each with unique skills and abilities, and delve into the depths of the dungeon. The ever-changing layout ensures that no two expeditions are the same, keeping the excitement and suspense alive with every playthrough. Face off against a variety of menacing foes that lurk in the shadows, from swarming hordes of creatures to formidable boss monsters guarding key passages. Your strategic prowess and teamwork will be put to the test as you battle through each room, collecting valuable loot and leveling up your characters. Discover hidden chambers that hold the ...