A Town Called Happenstance - Update #4
I decided that to get around in the early stages of the game (for reasons that will become clear later), A taxi system would serve as the method to travel between areas. This is something I remember from playing Leisure Suit Larry back in the early 90s. But I want to keep it simple, with no money to keep track of, or worrying about game ending events. It's simply a method to get from A to B.
I had a lot of fun setting it up. Seriously. I did my usual trick of almost throwing the PC off the balcony in despair, then deciding that I was just tired, and needed to sleep on it. Lo and behold, I came at the problem fresh the next morning, and the solution seemed so simple.
I set up an 'in taxi' level, and called this from the doors of the taxi that I had already placed in each level. As soon as the 'in taxi' level loads, it calls a dialog function. The dialog responses are then linked to the individual area levels that need to be called.
For the scrolling background, I adapted the tutorial by CODE LIKE ME for his recurring train tunnel ( • Unreal Infinite Subway )
There's a little bug where the 'where to' question is asked again after the choice is made, but that should be easy to fix.
The second part of the video covers an adaptation of the locked door mechanism included in the project. I switched out the lock mesh for a nice colour panel, and changed the blueprint to switch materials rather than just hide the mesh. Getting the character to know the difference between a locked door and one he has opened was surprisingly easy, and I can't believe it took me all weekend to think of it. Many thanks to Aaron Scott for his help in setting this up, and indeed for building the Point and Click Adventure Toolkit in the first place. As usual, links below.
https://www.unrealengine.com/marketpl... - Point and Click Adventure Toolkit.
https://www.unrealengine.com/marketpl... - Advanced Cel Shader Lite
https://www.unrealengine.com/marketpl... - Synty Studios for all these beautiful assets. I'm no artist, so this project would be impossible without assets like these.