Capstone Project:
Left in Ruins

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I was an Environmental Design Developer, for this Capstone Project at High Point University I had to work in a group of other game designers. Our Group had issues, so I took up the role of a leader, which is something I normally don't do, and I think our group succeeded in the end.
I kept working hard on the project as well as later becoming a leader for the project overcoming many communication issues but overcame them at the end. I started to learn something new in UE5 that not many other students played with before, which was the VFX Niagara Systems. To add more types of traps to the game visually than just spike related traps.
Looking back, I learned a lot from this experience as a person but also has a game developer to solve problems during development.

Unreal Engine 5 Niagara Systems Examples

Spiral ribbon system that changes colors in a swirl.

A Fire trap that lasts for 5 secs and turns off in a loop. Only Damages the Player only when the fire is active.

Sparkle Particles, shifts between 2 Color Values.

I've also done different roles with the game's development some was VFX, changing aspects of the game.

In Ue5 you can rotate a Niagara system to go sideways however increasing the “buoyancy” of the system works like gravity, so the flames went up instead of using the local space rotation.

So looking at gameplay of Tomb Raider the game which inspired this game had projectile traps.

That's how the Fireball Trap was created the game was missing a ranged trap that players had to avoid along with static spiked traps.

One problem was the ending area of the game's level design which did not mesh with the flame trap (Image 3).