Night of the Living Pins
'Night of the Living Pins' is a small game produced over a week for the rapid game prototype module as part of my second year in studies. For that week the game prompt was "Sport from another world" and I decided to create a zombie twist on bowling.
Players are faced with rounds of zombie pins that gain numbers and speed with each wave. They are equipped with a bowling ball that can be fired with different strengths based on timing. Depending on angle and speed, the player can kill a pin in various ways earning them different amounts of points. (Strikes, spares and the pin hitting pin knock down). In total there are 10 rounds and the main goal is to kill all pins in the coolest ways, utilizing the power-ups that spawn around the map
Project type
Solo
Role
Game designer and blueprint developer
Software
Unreal Engine 5.5
My Contribution
Visual scripting (Combat and physics)
I used this project to explore Unreal’s physics, utilizing features like impulses, linear velocity sets and ragdolls. The Player can grab one bowling ball at a time, which can be thrown when pressing then releasing the right mouse button. The speed of the ball is determined by the throw strength that rises and lowers as indicated by the bar that appears when charging up a throw. When the ball hits a zombie, the recorded velocity is converted into damage. The number of times a ball has hit a specific zombie is also recorded as different scores are rewarded for less amounts of hits needed to kill it, if their health is not zero, the zombie is momentarily stunned instead. When a zombie is killed, their mesh is pushed back, and like the bowling ball, will cause damage based on velocity when colliding with another zombie. I wanted the player to feel, despite being zombies, these were still pins and could enable that same feeling of when one pin knocks down another.
Visual scripting (abilities)
The map features 3 different ability spawners, these are items that when acquired give the player a buff which include:
Blowtorch – Ultimate fireball grants the players the ability to throw flaming balls, setting fire to any zombie it touches. On fire zombies will then spread it to other zombies. The flames will stun the zombie every 5 seconds while also dealing damage, if their health reaches zero due to this, the player earns fire points. On-fire balls cannot be picked up again and will eventually de-spawn.
Bowling Shoes – Increase player speed for a short burst. Useful during later rounds when zombies gain faster movement speeds.
Bowling gloves – Multiplies the throwing force by 1.5 for a short time, meaning zombies can be killed with weaker throws and will be pushed back faster.
Food item – Increases the current health by 40 with a maximum of 100.