WIP - HANG TIGHT

Professional Projects

Fortnite Festival

Fortnite | Download & Play For Free - Epic Games Store

Backstage

A peek at the initial UI that players see when they're entering Fortnite Festival. A simple room where they can see the Upcoming Songs, they can enter the Music Library to see the list of available songs, a compact version of the Leaderboards and the Current Setlist.

In the upper left-hand corner, we also display a list of all active players in the group, along with the platform they're on, the instrument they currently have selected and the difficulty they've chosen.

Music Library

I spent years creating and maintaining the Music Library for Fortnite Festival. It was a massive collaboration between engineering, design and art to create an area to view the songs that players own, songs that have been added to the setlist, and the global/friend scores for the specific song that's being hovered over.

On top of that, we went through many iterations on the best way for players to sort through the library and the quickest approach to reach songs that they wanted to find (with technical restraints on the backend).

A Closer Look at the Music Library Elements

Quick Access Bar

With over 400+ songs available, reaching a desired song took a lot of scrolling or dragging. We created the Quick Access Bar to give players a faster method to auto scroll to a section in the Music Library based on the settings they have selected in the Sort+Filter button.

Song List

Since there are so many songs in the Music Library, and since the primary aspect of Fortnite Festival is performing the songs you select, the Song List was one of the most fundamental elements.

We created a list system that displayed each song in a easily-scrollable format. On top of that, we added two states to each of the Music Library Entries, either Expanded or Collapsed.

The Expanded state was used when the player had clicked on the song, and we utilized UMG animations to create a smooth transition to show extra details about the song; including the length, release year, song intensity, star count and difficulties of previous playthroughs, and any corresponding tags.

The collapsed state was a streamlined version, only displaying vital information.

The Setlist allows players to view the songs either they, or teammates, have added to the setlist.

It was also interactable, so if a player wanted to remove a specific song, they could simply double-click it to eject it from the list.

It also keeps track of the number of songs that can still be added, which adjusts depending on how many players are in their party.

Setlist

Quick Access Bar

Leaderboards

We created the Leaderboard to give the players a screen where they can view their standing amongst others based on the Leaderboard Types they choose.

A Closer Look at the Leaderboard Elements

Instrument Select

While in the Leaderboards, the player can select which instrument they want to sort by. Selecting that instrument will show every high-score entry with that instrument that also matches the Leaderboard Type setting they've selected at the bottom.

The Player List is the primary focus of the Leaderboards; displaying the scores of you and other players based on the settings chosen in the Instrument Select and the Leaderboard Type toggles.

Player List

Leaderboards for Groups

Since performing as a band is possible in Fortnite Festival, we made sure that the Leaderboard could support group scores, allowing teams to look at how their band ranks against others. It can display anywhere from one to four players, displaying the score they achieved together.

Null Leaderboard State

Fortnite Creative
Patchwork

Fortnite | Download & Play For Free - Epic Games Store

PROBABLY COMING SOON...

HANG IN THERE, PLEASE!

Student Projects

Dino Delivery

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1109400/Dino_Delivery/

Menu Functionality

Menu functionality is one of the most used, and most important aspects of any game, often setting a tone for the rest of the game and how the player enters. The main aspect of the UI that I worked on was the options menu, that can be accessed through the main menu and the pause menu. The functionality of this menu is mostly adjusting the settings to best accommodate the player and what they’re looking for in the game. In this menu one can adjust shadow and texture quality, fullscreen vs windowed and the volumes of all the audio options (music and sound effects).

Save Settings

In the initial iteration of our game, we were planning on the player having a longer gaming experience. I implemented a save game to allow the player to exit the executable and return to the same position, with the same trinkets and letters that they had already collected. Since the beginning of our most recent semester, we agreed to remove saving to encourage the player to do a full playthrough (no more than 20 minutes) without exiting the game. Originally, I had full functionality to save the position of both Pip and Parcel, shown in the blueprint screenshot.
As well as the position, I had to maintain data for all of the items the player collects, including letters, trinkets, and knowledge of interactions that had already occurred. Through most of the tasks that I had done during the semesters, this was one of the most data intensive.

Save Settings

Save Settings

Nav Mesh Systems

In Dino Delivery, Pip’s faithful pet dinosaur Parcel follows Pip through the world by following elements called nav meshes. The nav mesh bound (the highlighted green squares) create a walkable area for Parcel to follow. If there is terrain in the bound, the nav mesh will auto select the terrain that Parcel should be able to follow and creates a walkable environment for the lovely companion.

Respawn Functions

Water respawn was going to be one of the main functionalities of our game, disallowing the player to enter any territory that should not be entered (such as water). The example to the right shows an example of a body of water that previously destroyed the player actor and threw the player back to a respawn point that they didn’t know existed. In the lower picture, you can see the checkpoints that are actually invisible in game. Those checkpoints trigger when the player is near, helping them respawn closest to where their actor was destroyed.

Level Streaming Volumes

(Top View of some of the level streaming volumes)
Level streaming allows us to run our magnificent and gigantic map smoothly, by unloading and loading sections of the map when the player is in specific spots. The idea is to unload things that the player has no capability of seeing, and reloading it right before it comes into sight. We’ve gone through many iterations of level streaming volumes, finding the most efficient setup with the least amount of volumes. I originally did a uniform volume set up, but found that the exploration of the game was far from linear in its structure, making the uniform set up not ideal. We then attempted to do a “by section” set up, having each specific village, event or area in its own volume and spawning those volumes when the time is right. This has been the most effective method for level streaming on our map specifically, allowing us to accomplish the feel that we always want without the lag of keeping everything loaded.

Level Streaming Volumes

(Side View of the Level Streaming Volumes)
Level streaming allows us to run our magnificent and gigantic map smoothly, by unloading and loading sections of the map when the player is in specific spots. The idea is to unload things that the player has no capability of seeing, and reloading it right before it comes into sight. We’ve gone through many iterations of level streaming volumes, finding the most efficient setup with the least amount of volumes. I originally did a uniform volume set up, but found that the exploration of the game was far from linear in its structure, making the uniform set up not ideal. We then attempted to do a “by section” set up, having each specific village, event or area in its own volume and spawning those volumes when the time is right. This has been the most effective method for level streaming on our map specifically, allowing us to accomplish the feel that we always want without the lag of keeping everything loaded.

WIP - HANG TIGHT

Professional Projects

Fortnite Festival

Backstage

Music Library

A Closer Look at the Music Library Elements

Quick Access Bar

Song List

Setlist

Quick Access Bar

Leaderboards

A Closer Look at the Leaderboard Elements

Instrument Select

Player List

Leaderboards for Groups

Null Leaderboard State

Fortnite Creative Patchwork

PROBABLY COMING SOON...

HANG IN THERE, PLEASE!

​

Student Projects

Dino Delivery

Fortnite Creative
Patchwork