3D Platformer | Toolkit

(Unreal Engine 4)

3D Platofrmer Starter Toolkit is an organized and affordable project template that provides you the the basics you need in order to start developing a 3D platformed. With color-coded folders all neatly categorized, it is designed for easy modification, implementation, and additional assets.

#1 - Getting Started & Adding levels

#2 - Doors & Switches

Documentation

Level

• • Player Character (b_pc_default)

    • Found in Blueprints>Characters. The toolkit features a premade player character featuring:

      • Health System

      • Double-Jumping

      • Basic Attacking

      • Ledge-Grabbing

    • Player attack can cause damage to actors. In order to trigger this:

      • Open desired actor

      • Add “i_interaction” interface to actor.

      • Call the event “Player Hit”. Naturally, this will be triggered when the player hits this object.

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  • Pickups (b_pickup_base)

    • Found in Blueprints>Pickups. Pickups a key feature for 3D platformers & collectathons. To make a new pickup:

      • Create a child of “b_pickup_base”

      • Search for the event “Pickup”

      • ‘PC” input references the player character cast to the “b_pc_default” class.

      • Add any event functions to be fired upon pickup here.

      • Pickups do not delete themselves automatically upon being picked up. You must manually add “destroy actor” at the end of the function if you want to remove it.

  • Switches

    • Found in Blueprints>Interactables. Switches can trigger events in a level when hit by player. To trigger events, call the “On Switch Flipped” & “On Switch Unflipped” event dispatchers.

    • Reflippable determines whether you can flip the switch only once or more.

  • Doors

    • Found in Blueprints>Interactables. Doors can be opened by calling the “Open Door” event and used to determine character progression.

  • Ledge grabbing

    • To enable ledge grabbing on a scene object

      • Open collisions and set to custom.

      • Set “LedgeTrace” collision option to “Block”

  • Enemies

    • Found in Blueprints>Enemies. The toolkit features a basic enemy setup that can damage the player and features basic AI. 

      • Health Max: Determines the amount of damage that can be taken before death.

      • Behavior Tree: Determines the AI behavior tree that is fired when the actor is spawned.

  • Bosses

    • Found in Blueprints>Enemies>Bosses. Boss are a subclass of enemies with some additional special features.

      • Boss Name: Self-explanatory. The name of the boss that will appear in above its health bar.

      • Event Create Boss HUD: Creates a Boss health bar and name.

      • On Boss Death: Event dispatched that can trigger events when the boss dies.

  • Killzone

    • Found in Blueprints>Misc. A Volume that will damage the player and return them to the last checkpoint when entered.

  • Killzone

    • Found in Blueprints>Misc. Similar to killzone, but launches the playr character into the air upon overlap, rather than return them to the last checkpoint.

  • Checkpoint

    • Found in Blueprints>Misc. A location the player will respond too if they die in a killzone.

  • Level End

    • Found in Blueprints>Misc. An actor that triggers the end of the level when hit by player.

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• Overworld

  • WorldPoint

    • Found in Maps>Overworld. WorldPoint is an actor for the “Overworld” level that the player can move to. World points will be disable at the start of the overworld if 

      • World Point [Direction]: The world point the player will move to when that directional input is selected.

      • Level: the level tag that determines what entry in the Data Table “dt_levellist” is called for reference.

  • dt_LevelList

    • Found in Data>Tables. In order to use levels effectively with the overworld, you must add it into “dt_levellist”.

      • Name: Name that appears in HUD when the player is hovering over it.

      • Level: The Level opened when “EnterLevel” is selected in the Overworld HUD.

      • Levels Unlocked Upon Completion: Levels that are unlocked for travel in the Overworld when this level is completed.

• Music: BGM System

  • BGM Object Class

    • Found in Data>BGM. This is used for playing music in game. Features: 

      • Music Cue: The Sound cue that is played when called.

      • Name: Music Track name.

  • Play Music

    • Called from “Get Universal Game Mode”. Plays a BGM track and stops any current ones.

  • Stop Music

    • Called from “Get Universal Game Mode”. Stops the currently playing BGM track. Can stop instantly or fade out.

• Dialogue System

  • Dialogue Object Class

    • Found in Data>Dialogue. This is used to create dialogue sequences. Features:

      • Name: The character name that appears with this line of dialogue.

      • Line: The text displayed for this line of dialogue.

      • Responses: The responses that will appear to this line that the player can choose.

      • Voice Line: The sound cue played for this line of dialogue.

      • Event Triggers: A series of tags that can fire events during dialogue.

      • Follow Up Dialogue: The new dialogue that begins as soon as this line/response is played or over.

  • Play Dialogue

    • Called from “Get Platformer Game Mode”. Begins a Dialogue sequence that ends when the last line is reached.

  • Event Triggers

    • An essential part of dialogue. This is a way to call events with a tag anywhere at any time. To use:

      • Open an actor

      • Search “Get Universal Game Mode”.

      • From “Universal Game Mode” call the event dispatcher “Event Trigger”

      • From the “tag” node, call “switch on name”.

      • Input the same tag as you put in the dialogue or response line.

      • From that node, create a sequence of events. This will be caused as soon as the line with that event trigger is reached.

• Cutscenes 

  • Play Cutscene

    • Called from “Get UniversalGameMode”. Plays a level sequence with an extra few special attributes.

      • Cutscene: Level Sequence that will be played.

      • Skippable: Is this cutscene skippable. (Skipping input not implemented)

      • EventTriggers on Finish: Event Triggers that will be fired when the cutscene finishes.

  • Pause/Resume Cutscene

    • Self-Explanatory.

• Save/Load

  • GlobalGameInstance

    • The game instance that stores all the data between levels and saves. (E.G. Audio Settings, Unlocked Levels, Total collected Gems, ect.)

  • Modify Save/Load Data

    • Found in Blueprints>Functions in the “f_saveload” function library. And data that you want saved or loaded to/from GlobalGameInstance must be applied from/to the Save Game Object here.