Fuzzy Farmer Frenzy is a game where the player must find and rescue a set number of Fuzzy Creatures in a time limit. The original idea behind this was that this world was ending, and you were saving what you could of their species so it could repopulate with enough biodiversity. Unfortunately the world ending part hasn't been fleshed out yet. Models for the environment were done by me, but most other models like the gun and the fuzzies were achieved with assets provided by Unreal.
Rock Arch and Trees
I made several rock variations in Blender, and the arch is many of these variations merged into one mesh inside the editor. The trees were also made in Blender. I programmed various regions to change the color of the leaves in their area. This produces the effect of the map having several biomes without the need to place different objects in each biome. They could easily be edited by invisible squares above the level.
The Suction effect acts like a reverse wind zone. This creates a 2D grid at one end and raycasts to the other end of the zone. Each ray that hits a physics object then gets force applied to it in such a way that it is then pulled towards the source.
The burst mechanic is far simpler, simply firing a ray forward from the gun, then launching the player in the opposite direction if the ray collides with an object.
All Fuzzies have the same basic wander AI, however green and purple get a special ability to eat berries that the player can collect and throw making it easier to catch them.
Creating this project was definitely interesting, though not something that felt like it would result in an interesting and fun project, at least with the abilities I had when I made it. The Fuzzies were also glitchy, having difficulties transitioning from a state where the vacuum could affect them and to where the AI could affect them. I was unable to find a way for both of these to happen at the same time. Mechanics such as the Wind/Vacuum zone as well as the Recoil Burst were interesting and fun, but could use improvement.
Creating the food system was a later addition, and a challenging one. The goal was to have the AI detect when food was in its radius and trigger a special behavior if sensed. The addition of the fruit also helped give distinct personalities to some of the fuzzies, which would lead to further strategy and difficulty.
I selected this item as I felt it showcased my mastery of the Unreal Engine, my ability to create 3D graphics, my ability to create a Graphical User Interface and communicate with it, and my ability to create AI for my games.
This project demonstrates my ability to program in Unreal Blueprint, and demonstrates my ability to utilize Unreal engine. Fuzzy Farmer Frenzy has several custom 3D Models that demonstrate my mastery of 3D modeling and graphics. Fuzzy Farmer Frenzy demonstrates both my abilities with Graphic Interfaces by having UI elements display game information as well as having a separate Main Menu screen with interactive buttons to take you to the game. It also demonstrated my abilities with Game AI with the titular Fuzzies.
After my instructor first reviewed this and provided feedback, I proceeded to refine the code to make it more optimized to improve performance.
