If The War Comes
If the War Comes follows takes place deep in the Swedish forest where the protagonist ends up after hearing about the legends of an abandoned military facility that lurks somewhere in the woods. Its main theme is urban exploration and takes a bunch of inspiration from games like STALKER, Metro, Fallout and Amnesia. The game also tells about Sweden's position during the Cold War and how society was taught to act “if the war comes.”
My Contribution
This is a huge project that I just started but I’ve already learned so many things. My main focus for this project is to learn more scripting, use Unreal Engine 4 (perhaps 5 in the future) and to make my own 3D models. I’m covering all the roles myself.
What I learned
Unreal Engine 4’s Blueprint: Coming into this project I had no previous experience in using Blueprint or Unreal Engine 4. I started out by looking into tutorials on basics of Blueprint, which later let me learn how to make my own mechanics. With this I’ve also learned how to communicate with actors in the levels through widgets (and how to make them). I am very comfortable with using Unreal Engine 4 and their various tools!
- 3D modeling: I’ve worked with a very limited amount with 3D previous to this project. But never anything that would be final for a bigger project. Because I wanted the style to be realistic I had to learn many things regarding 3D modeling and more importantly: textures and materials. I’m using Photoshop and Blender in order to achieve my goals and I’m very happy with what I’ve done so far!
- Optimization: Because a big part of the game is going to be a large open outside area, I’ve had to learn about optimizing the assets that I use. With 3D comes the texture streaming size, the amount of LODs the mesh has and when to use them. But I’ve also learned how to optimize the use of dynamic lighting in Unreal Engine 4.
- Need vs. wants: For this project I am constantly asking myself what kind of resources I have when it comes to skills in creating what I want. I learn new things on a daily basis with this project, whether it is about creating landscapes, scenery, Blueprint, lighting or sounds. If something is too complex for me to make and not important to the overall theme, I usually try to redesign it or find other solutions to that problem.
- Branching and open story arcs: This is the first time I had to write for a game that isn’t linear, but rather have a more open world kind style. So writing the story this time, the events need to be able to happen out of order while still making sense. The project is still in its early days, so there are still things to learn!
