To The Edge was completed as a part of my 2nd year team project module as a 5 day long game jam along with 7 other university students, where the theme was ‘De Ja Vu’.
The concept we started with was Star Fox meets No Mans Sky.
This was my second time using Unreal Engine 4, and so this project included a lot of experimentation on how to use it, but after this project, I felt much more comfortable using UE4.
My tasks during this project included initially experimenting with instanced static meshes to create the background asteroid belt without compromising performance. Then making the 5 or so ‘generic’ asteroids we had to use in the background not look repetitive when generated by simply having a slightly varied scale and randomized rotation. Next was to experiment with destructible meshes to make destroying asteroids in your path my dynamic and add some extra juice to the game. Then I took the work of creating the levels that you fly through and while doing so making adjustments to the components I was combining like the mechanics of the ship and its weapons, tweaks to our turret as it initially was a little difficult to navigate and adding a proximity mine to fill some of the empty space in the level and add extra challenge to certain sections.
Itch.io – https://atomictoaster01.itch.io/two-the-edge