A 3D speed-based platformer with a heavy emphasis on fun movement. My first solo project worked on over 6 months
My Work
Created and playtested all 3 levels
Created title art from scratch using Photoshop
Created and implemented all UI screens
Start From Scratch
I started this project by creating my design document and to-do list.
Vinespire’s 1.0 title screen menu
My Process
Picking It Back Up
Picking the project back up was quite difficult. It had been a while since I had last touched it, and in that time I had learned a ton about Unreal Engine and upgraded the project to the most recent version, Unreal Engine 5.2.
Early Implementation
I then worked on getting an early version of all the mechanics I wanted to include in the game by using the many tutorials on youtube to help me learn unreal engine 5.
Starting Over
Looking at the project with a lot more experience under my belt was interesting. One of the first things I realized was that to make it shine, I had to tear everything down and rebuild things from the ground up.
The First Draft
This is where I first left the project, in a complete state but still with a lot of improving that needed to be done. I would eventually pick it back up almost a year later.
Using What I Had Learned
Some of the big things I learned while working on other projects were the importance of animations and the convenience of the unreal asset store. Neither of which was originally in the project.
The new animations for the start screen
Vinespire’s 1.04 Menus
Iterations
From here, most of my work was dedicated to iterating on my ideas and adding more functionality. I worked on adding the Options menu with a new and improved interface and worked on the title image to add some flair.
The various iterations of my title art
Vinespire’s 1.0 options menu
The new options menu redesign.
Roadblocks
There was a lot of learning when it came to this project, and inevitably some roadblocks came up while I was working on improving the menu. The large majority of them were focused on color choice, something that I have struggled with for a long time. Someone in the course of testing pointed out that my menus and animations were unreadable for anyone with red-green color blindness and this made me take a closer look at my color choice and improve it.
The new colors in the options menu
Small details
After doing a ton of work on the overall shape of the menus I finished out the project by working on the small details, adding camera transitions for all of the menus, ambient wind noises, and more dynamically moving objects to add motion to my backgrounds.
The fully updated menu
Ending thoughts
Working on this project was a ton of fun, and I still want to make improvements regarding its gameplay and levels. It was a journey starting off as someone who had never touched unreal making a project to try and learn it, to nearly a year later, coming back and using all of the new skills I had learned to improve it as much as I could. Overall I am quite satisfied with how the menus have turned out, and this is my favorite project I have worked on to date!
Vinespire’s 1.0 title menu
Vinespire’s 1.0 options menu
Starting menu animations
Vinespire’s 1.10 title menu
Vinespire’s 1.10 options menu
Completed menu animations