The project - an overview
Gravikey started as a university project, but I continued working on it afterwards as well. I am particularly proud of this games since I made everything about it myself – from the design, the art to the programming. During the project I learned:
- Programming with Blueprints in UE4
- Creating a 2D game and working with Sprites in UE4
- Creating my own particle systems in UE4
- Applying Game- and Level Design practices
- Creating and animating Pixel Characters and Environments
- Creating lighting effects with normal maps for 2D sprites
Try Gravikey yourself by downloading the latest build from itch.io!
Game Design
The key mechanic of the game is the players’ ability to swap gravity by jumping. Certain enemies and objects are affected by this switch, which enables the player to do certain platforming and puzzle solving.
For this project I tried to create a complete Game Design Document for the first time. Below you can find the one-page version of it, or download the complete document if you are interested.
Programming
Using Blueprints was my first real experience programming something on a larger scale. I found this visual scripting tool to be surprisingly intuitive, and after a short while managed to translate my ideas into code.
This first experience helped me to later get into other programming languages like C#, JavaScript and C++ as well.
Level Design
The first levels underwent many iterations, and I am still in the process of improving them further. I especially paid attention the the tutorial level, with which I wasn’t too happy after finishing the Minor Skilled.
Below you can find a comparison between my first version of the tutorial level, and the current one. As one can see I decided to cut a lot from the first level, and thus split it into multiple smaller ones. With this I hope to be able to teach the player the mechanics more detailed and focused.
If you are interested in how the first levels play, you can watch the gameplay video below. Please keep in mind that it is still work in progress and the levels are not currently connected with each other.
Art and assets
As already mentioned, all sprites and animations are made by me. One choice I am especially happy with is using normal maps and thus being able to use in-game lighting.
