C3-R080
- Andrew Freer
- Apr 4, 2025
- 2 min read
2nd Place - KPU ENTA Creative Collision Challenge November 2024.
Play with a Virtual Pet named C3-R080 and increase their love for you.
Ensure to keep them happy, healthy and charged!
The Challenge
This was an art jam hosted at Kwantlen Polytechnic University.
We were tasked to take a Robot model supplied to us and do anything with it using our artistic skills. I teamed up with an environment artist and a technical artist and together came up with the idea to make a virtual pet game.
Project Responsibilities
Role 1: Project Manager & Designer
Implemented waterfall methodologies to define clear action plan and tasks for the project.
Created a comprehensive Game Design Document (GDD) and a Master Asset List for team-wide reference.
Utilized Trello for Kanban-style task tracking, ensuring smooth workflow and visibility across all disciplines.
Facilitated the implementation of all member's work to assemble the final product.
Role 2: UI Artist, Rigger & Animator
Created all buttons and UI for the game in Adobe Photoshop.
Rigged the model in Blender.
Animated various states and actions that the character would require during gameplay.
Role 3: Programmer
Created the project in Unreal Engine and established version control using Perforce (P4V).
Created a level, and widgets for the HUD and Menus.
I created a character blueprint and linked the state animations to an animation blueprint to show charged idle, low power idle and charging states.
Using the character Blueprint as the core gameplay manager, I programmed the Character to lose charge over time and to randomly pick up a "virus".
I then added events to be triggered by the UI inputs including how they affect the character's stats and triggering animation montages for feedback leaving notes on where the technical artist could implement their effects and sound.
Challenges & Retrospective
The team had limited hours to work on this project as they had many other commitments but we were able to complete the project by the deadline by keeping the scope to a minimum and taking on the smaller additional roles on the project.
Team morale was down initially as the jam was not limited to games and the other members were worried that the judges would only be looking at the animations and textures and that their work could potentially be ignored. I motivated the team by leading by example and getting a prototype up and running fast so they could see the vision and spark excitement.
Closing Thoughts
This was a great jam and a great opportunity to work on some disciplines I don't usually get involved in and was a great way to test my skills both in Unreal Engine and in team motivation.
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