Dev Log : Platform 2
Hello again from Steam Wheels HQ!
David here, back to share more of our Dev journey.
In my last post, I told you about our first steps and sending the project to JKUB. We both knew it was a challenge, but one we were eager to tackle.
The next day, we celebrated our small victory and started drafting a pre-development checklist.
That evening, I dove back into the project, determined to tackle the "Cosy" controller. Our vision was for one of Steam Wheels' control methods to resemble a model train set controller – a simple knob that you rotate to accelerate the train. We thought a basic proof-of-concept widget overlay would do the trick.
So, I opened a new Widget blueprint and started exploring Unreal Engine's options.
Unfortunately, there weren't many to choose from. In fact, there was only one that seemed potentially suitable. And that's where my love-hate relationship with Unreal Engine widgets began.As a man of logic and order - art, design, and crafts have never been my strong suits.
After hours of Googling and skim reading Unreal documentation, I managed to haphazardly throw together a widget. I made sure it was anchored correctly and then focused on what I love – the blueprint code.
The element already had a built-in event that tracked changes made to it and spat that info out via float. I created a function that passed that value to our character for movement, handled the widget's spawning, and bingo!
After experimenting with the new control method, I excitedly zipped up the project and sent it back to JKUB.
Session 2 was another success, but this time it presented the first hurdle – dealing with an area of Unreal Engine that was completely new to me. As I mapped out the game's overall design in my head, I realised this was going to happen all over the place.
For a few days, this definitely hampered my productivity whenever I opened the project. But hey, it was just fun and relaxing to simply play what we had created so far!
Follow our progress and Wishlist Steam Wheels here!
Thanks,
David
