Enhancing the Player Experience

One of the best ways to improve a video game is to add a good look and feel to it. A great-looking game will create an immersive experience that will engage players and make them want to keep coming back for more.

For this reason, it’s important for developers to focus on tweaking visual and audio feedback until everything looks just right! It might take some time, but getting these last touches right will make sure your video game has an awesome look and feel – something that players won’t forget anytime soon!

Keeping this in mind, the following chapter will concentrate on improving certain aspects, such as using different animations together and synchronizing them over the network, or adding non-player characters (NPCs) to interact with – features that your protagonist has longed for a considerable amount of time.

Additionally, you’ll be providing a purpose for your players to fight for: the daring rescue...

Technical requirements

To follow the topics presented in this chapter, you should have completed the previous ones and understood their content.

Additionally, if you would prefer to begin with code from the companion repository for this book, you can download the .zip project files provided:

https://github.com/PacktPublishing/Multiplayer-Game-Development-with-Unreal-Engine-5

You can download the files that are up to date with the end of the last chapter by clicking the Unreal Shadows – Chapter 09 End link.

Animating the character

So far, your hero has been exploring the dungeon and searching for hidden treasures while avoiding enemies, but there’s something missing that will really bring it to life – a proper animation system.

In this section, I’ll guide you through the creation of simple animations that will work on the networked environment of your project. This will involve creating Blueprints specifically designed for the animation system and establishing their connection to your character class – you will be creating the needed animation assets and then adding the needed code to make everything work properly.

Creating the animation assets

Animating characters in Unreal Engine involves creating Animation Blueprints that handle the motion and logic of character movement and actions. This book doesn’t prioritize this topic – in fact, it’s not usually the main focus for game programmers! However, having some basic knowledge of...

Adding NPC Actors

While taking a leisurely stroll in the underground and dodging or stabbing zombies can be amusing, let’s not forget the big bucks the king’s shelling out for us. We’ve got a rescue mission on our hands – liberate his knights from the Lichlord’s dungeons before they’re turned into undead abominations. Time to get down to business, my fearless developer!

In this section, you’ll create an Actor Blueprint that will serve as a prisoner your beloved thief needs to rescue (in order to get more experience points). To implement such a system, you will make good use of the Interactable interface you implemented in Chapter 7, Using Remote Procedure Calls (RPCs).

Creating the NPC character

The NPC you will be creating is a simple, replicated Actor that will cheer when the player has interacted with it and will grant some experience points. The first things we need are the Animation Montages that will play the idle and...

Making further improvements to the game

Now that you have solid knowledge of how the Unreal multiplayer system works, it’s time to unleash your creativity and bring your own ideas to life, making your game truly unique and personalized. In this section, I will give you some hints on how to spice up your project, but don’t hesitate to add your own twist to make it uniquely yours.

Let’s make some noise!

Currently, the minions’ hearing senses are only utilized to detect when a character is running. Why not tweak the system and let other elements in the game alert the Lichlord’s minions?

Unfortunately, PawnNoiseEmitterComponent can only be used on, well... pawns, so you cannot attach it to other Actors (it simply won’t work); however, in Chapter 9, Extending AI Behaviors, you built a strong system to alert enemy minions that makes use of the Game Mode. As the Game Mode can be reached by any Actor in the level, you can exploit the AlertMinions...

Summary

Throughout this chapter, you fine-tuned the gameplay logic and added the finishing touches. You began by incorporating some nice animations for character movements and attacks, elevating the game’s overall appeal.

Additionally, you created someone for the players to rescue: a prisoner Actor that can be interacted with and that will grant the thief hero some well-deserved experience points.

Last but not least, I shared a few fresh ideas to take your gameplay to the next level. By incorporating these ideas, you can make the game truly your own and one of a kind. So, get creative and have fun!

Get ready for the next chapter, where you’ll dive into debugging and testing a networked game. This will take your development skills to the next level, something that’s necessary if you want to become a top-notch multiplayer programmer!