User:Mpark92/sandbox

Maze Shooter
Developer(s)	Michael Park
Programmer(s)	Michael Park
Engine	Unreal Engine 4
Platform(s)	Microsoft Windows
Release	October 16, 2016 (2016-10-16)
Genre(s)	Third-person shooter Strategy game Racing game

Maze Shooter

Maze shooter is a science fiction third-person shooter(TPS) video game developed by a university student named Michael Park. The game is powered by Epic Games' Unreal Engine 4 and developed by using both Unreal Editor and Visual Studio. The game was announced during Hack Western 3, which it describes that the game's total development time was less than 36 hours. The game takes place in-near future where violence becomes a new trend in the entertainment business. In the game, randomly selected criminals are sent to a maze with deadly traps waiting for them.

The game's main core style and design is based on the film The Maze Runner (film), which is based on James Dashner's The Maze Runner. The game similarly follows the first movie's set up, where in the beginning the main lead character shows up in the middle of the maze and tries to escape it. During the escape, the lead character encounters hostile robots and must eliminate them in-order to advance.

Game play

An illustration of a protagonist whom a player controls and a tracking camera just behind, slightly above, and slightly facing down towards that character.

Based on third-person shooter and racing game genre, Maze Shooter is made of three gameplay modes: Elimination, Escape, and Hybrid.

The game uses the general third-person shooter control method. The character can be controlled by using the WASD keys from the keyboard to move around, and move the mouse around to rotate the camera view. The character also can shoot by clicking the left mouse button, and aim by clicking the right mouse button.

Elimination

One of the three gameplay modes available in the game. Once player is spawned in the maze, the player must eliminate all the enemies or as many as possible within given time or set a record. The core key concept of this gameplay was taken from Hunger Games (film), which is based on the novel Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins, where people from different districts fight in a closed area.

Escape

Another gameplay mode available to play in the game. Once player is spawned in the maze, the player must find the escape route to escape the maze. There are many obstacles such as AI machine programmed to terminate the player and prevent them from escaping the maze. The core key concept of this gameplay was taken from The Maze Runner (film), which is based on the novel The Maze Runner by James Dashner.

Hybrid

Another gameplay mode available to play in the game. A combination of both elimination and escape mode. The player can win the game by either eliminate every threat in the maze or escape the maze first.

Synopsis

Setting

Maze Shooter sets in a science fiction universe created by Michael Park. In the year 2095, humanity demands shocking entertainment to lead a new trend. As a result, the entertainment industry created a survival death race in a maze to create a new trend in the entertainment business. To minimize the ethical issues due to its extreme violence and gore, the life sentence prisoners were selected as contenders. As a prize, a freedom with no criminal record.

Character

As of March 2018, current available character is the default mannequin character provided in Unreal Engine 4. It has no gender nor a unique look to identify its sexuality. All the motions used by the mannequin are also provided along with the character asset in Unreal Engine 4. The mannequin's structure is similar to human skeleton to mimic the human body movement.

Development

Unreal Engine 4

Unreal Engine 4 is a game engine developed by Epic Games. The engine itself has been primarily developed for First-Person Shooter (FPS) genre. However, it has been used on variety of games with other genres as well. The engine's core uses C++ and it has a internally developed node based script language called Blueprint, which is developed to reduce both the development time and difficulty for new developers. One of the recent successful game powered by Unreal Engine 4 is PUBG Corporation's PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds (PUBG), which is mostly developed using Blueprint initially. Unreal Engine 4 has been known by its reputation by game developers. It also won numerous awards, including Guinness World Record awards for "Most Successfull Videogame Engine."

Maze Shooter uses Unreal Engine 4 as its game engine. Developer Michael Park decided to use Unreal Engine 4 because of its known reputation with other developed games by the game industry.

Blueprint

Blueprint is a visual scripting system developed by Epic Games, used on Unreal Engine 4. It is a complete gameplay scripting system based on the concept of node-based interface for developers to work within Unreal Editor. Because of Blueprint's simple user interface, a lot of major components of Maze Shooter were made by using Blueprint. As a result, it has shorten the development time by significantly to meet Hack Western 3's project submission deadline.

C++

C++ (Cee-Plus-Plus), is a programming language used on Unreal Engine 4, which is also used on developing Maze Shooter. However, due to the limited amount of time given from the hackathon, C++ was only used on minor components of the game such as character's functionality setting.

#include <iostream>

int main() {
    std::cout << "Hello, world!\n";
    return 0;
}

Hack Western

Hack Western is a hackathon organized by a team of the University of Western Ontario students, located in London, Ontario, Canada. It is a free computer technology related event that features various prizes and awards. Students can participate the event either individually or in groups up to 4 members. It is a 36 hour non-stop event held annually with more than 500 students across the province participates it.

Hack Western 3

Maze Shooter was developed during Hack Western 3 on October 16, 2016. The event was held in the University Community Centre (UCC) building located at the University of Western Ontario, London, Ontario, Canada. The event began on Friday October 14, 2016, and held until Sunday October 16, 2016. More than 500 student across the province of Ontario, Canada, have participated. Since Hack Western 3's main topic was Fintech and Blockchain, game projects like Maze Shooter did not win any prize.

References

External Links

Devpost on Devpost

Michael Park's Personal Web Portfolio on Web

Maze Shooter Alpha Version Github Repository on Github