Starstone on PS4

Background

This is a player versus player (PVP) game. The player can select different characters with different skins or functionality. In the battle, there are always four characters against each other. If there are not enough players, the AI will control the character. The arena will be one stage and split into three playable areas, similar to Power Stone 2: a walkable level on an airship, a time-based level, and a walkable level on the ground. The player can interact with items that appear during gameplay, such as health packs, melee weapons, and projectile weapons. Also, the player can boost the character's abilities by collecting and using Starstone. Besides, the game will have a tutorial section with a usable and appropriate UI and clear menus.

Platform	Engine	Project	Time Frame
PS4	Unreal Engine	Uni Project	3 Months

It was a challenging project since we worked in a team of around 20+ teammates with different professionals, but we could not finish this project because of COVID-19 and the lockdown. Fortunately, we could develop a prototype of the game that could run on a PS4.

Since the project targeted the PS4 platform, we needed to tweak performance and test 0n target device. Also, this was the first time I developed a game on the PS4 platform, which is different from deploying it on PlayStore or AppStore, like other mobile games. I needed to package the PS4 package file and tidy up the game icon, splash screen, and name before deploying it to the PS4 devkit.

My Tasks

My role in this project was a UI Programmer. Besides, I was also responsible for the deployment and publishing. Here is the full list of my tasks for this project:

1. UI Classes Foundation
   - Updated base HUD class
   - Updated animated UI base class
2. In-game HUD Integration
   - Bound character properties to in-game HUD
3. Title Screen Implementation
4. Submenus Implementation
   - Menu item components for the settings menu
5. Loading Screen Implementation
   - Async load map
6. Credit Screen Implementation
7. UI Assets Replacement
   - Gathered the latest UI assets from designers
   - Created an example and guideline for the designer to follow
   - Applied UI assets to the existing UI elements
   - Updated default theme uasset to store UI assets
8. Basic Multi-controller Support Implementation
9. Deployment Research
   - PS4 game logo, splash screen, and opening video configuration
10. Research on an alternative solution for remote working

Technologies Used

1. Unreal Engine 4.24
2. Visual Studio
3. PS4 SDK and DevKit
4. DualShock 4 Controller
5. Perforce

Gameplay Videos

Links

Due to the NDA, I am not allowed to share the source code and the build.