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Tower Ascent Project Reflection

What Went Well?

I am proud of the outcome of the project as I believe I achieved what I set out to. I knew from the beginning it would be a difficult task and just making the character run in a circular motion was a challenge from the very beginning. However, I persevered and created an effective and visually interesting mechanic. Because the main purpose of the project was for it to be a demonstration of technical skill, I think this alone makes it a success. All the extra mechanics of the game add to the quality as it demonstrates I have the skills to make an entire game follow the visually appealing style and not just a single mechanic. 

What was potentially the most challenging task was making the boss fire lasers at the player. I initially created a laser particle effect and made it fire at the player and deal damage based on a line trace. However, because of the curvature of the tower, the laser would have to travel through the inner wall in order to reach the player if they are far enough way. This would have looked incorrect and unfair to the player as there is technically a solid surface between them and the source of the damage. Therefore, I created a laser system that uses the radius of the tower to curve itself by creating many short laser particle effects and placing them end to end. This ended up looking very effective and was also better at testing whether the player had been hit each section of laser could be checked. 

The aspect of the game that I think looks the best aesthetically is the combat. I conducted a significant amount of research into combat in existing games and added as many of their elements as I could. The hitstop on an attack is particularly effective, freezing the game very briefly to emphasise the impact of a strike. 

What Could Be Improved?

This game could be greatly improved with the addition of real modelling and animation. It currently only uses free assets available on Unreal so all the enemies look similar to the player character and the environment is very basic. Some more interesting textures for the terrain and models that better communicate the setting of the game would elevate the game's visual effectiveness drastically. The same goes for the animations. I only have one set of melee combat animations so the attacks for the axe and sword look the same. If I had access to a dedicated animator, I could make the character movement looks more realistic and interesting, and also have unique attack combos for each weapon in the game. 

Aside from game art, the main thing that would improve the game is more content. There were a few mechanics that were not fully explored in the first level so it would be interesting to see them expanded upon more in other levels. This would also allow the player to carry their money and abilities over to a new level, creating a real sense of progression in the game. 

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