Portfolio

Attack of the Zombie Bananas

This was my first project created using Unreal Engine 4 and making my own models in Autodesk Maya. We were given the task of creating an idea for a game and making a level in a little over a week after learning the basics of each program a few days before. My idea was to create a zombie game where killer bananas chase you in an abandoned grocery store. I am proud of this game because this was my first attempt at using either of these programs, and I managed to overcome very significant challenges such as annoying collision detection, creating AI and spawn points, and making stairs that had walls. Below are pictures of the final product.

This is a picture of what the zombie bananas look like in-game. I created the AI using blueprints in Unreal Engine which was a challenge because I did not know what I was doing and still learning how to use the program itself. However, in the end, I successfully made it so that they spawn in designated points around the map and roam around and chase you when they see you.

"Wow the bananas look terrifying!" -- Person who sat next to me during creation.

One of the main models I used for this game were grocery shelves. I made one main version of them in Maya, and then after I made one, I altered it by creating ones that look crushed or slanted to give the whole room a variety so that every shelf felt fresh. 

In the second picture, I created an outer and an inner part of a shelf so that if you should this particular shelf, a hole is created that the player can walk through so it creates a very nice destructible environment. This was one of the major challenges of the project because I had to figure out how to get rid of the debris and change the collision in the hole so that the player can actually go through it.

These are some general screenshots of some rooms in the level.

This is a screenshot of inside a shopping cart which can actually be moved while inside because it has physics enabled. It was a happy accident that you were able to control it.

One of my biggest challenges in the very early stages of development was trying to create a curved staircase with walls. It was impossible to do it in Unreal by extruding the sides and bringing them up because there would be colliding meshes so I took the problem to Maya and created my own version to put in the game. This was challenging because it was the first model that I created myself to import into unreal and I was still learning how to use Maya.

This is the model I created for the zombie bananas of the game. Currently there are no animations for them in-game, but I think that it creates a more horrifying environment. The bananas were meant to look as silly as possible so it created a more funny environment for the game.

The Maya version of the grocery shelf models.