Position: Individual Project

Engine: Unreal Engine 4

Development Time: 12 weeks - 75 hours

Synopsis: Animadness! Is an individual project created within Unreal Engine 4 meant to showcase a variety of AI interactions and behaviors. It is a first-person puzzle solving game with some light platforming elements.

Overview

The primary purpose of this assignment was to create a project that showcased an ability to script AI behaviors.

I wanted to take this opportunity to create an individual project from scratch rather than modify AI from another existing editor as I already have a few projects showcasing that.

As such I decided to make a puzzle game where players interact with a variety of animals and must come to understand and learn to manipulate their unique AI behaviors in order to proceed.

AI Showcase

As mentioned above, the goal of this assignment was to highlight scripting capabilities and an ability to design AI behaviors.

Owls remain stationary until they see an apple, and may be used to stand on switches creating platforms between islands.

Boars are feisty! And will try to ram the player at every moment they can often accidentally hitting other unaware actors such as the poor owls!

Gators are curious and will chase owls unless they see a delicious pineapple with which they will be momentarily distracted allowing players to lure the owl to a switch.

Puzzle “Chambers” In an Open space

Despite the cute animals and low poly aesthetic, Animadness! at its core is a puzzle solving game.

As such, I wanted to help keep players in a puzzle solving mindset as much as possible through a variety of means from toning down the platforming sections between islands to a gentle and calming influence on the game’s sound and music design.

Likewise I wanted to make sure each island felt like its own “Puzzle Chamber” where players had clearly progressed from where they just were, and would identify the new puzzle components and solve the puzzle at each new island.

Calming & Approachable

Despite it being a puzzle game, I wanted to make the game approachable and lean a bit more into the animals and the world.

As such, I decided on a low-poly and cutesy aesthetic to broaden the audience appeal of the game. (Assets used: Cute Zoo 2, STS Low Poly Nature Pack)

The mechanics are relatively simple: moving, jumping, and picking up fruit, with the rest of the game’s complexity stemming from the animal’s unique behaviors.

Sound wise, I aimed for music that would be upbeat and listenable to for extended periods of time, as well as the background sounds of calming waves. I also recorded and edited a few sounds myself such as the boar’s charge and owl’s scared sound!