Devlog 1: Prototyping

Welcome to the first devlog of Little Night Terrors!

Introduction
Little Night Terrors is a free-to-play single-player platformer.  In this 3D side-scroller you fight monsters called "Night Terrors" to keep your little sister from harm's way.  Moving through the level and fighting monsters without a care won't get you far in the game. The more Night Terrors you come in contact with, the more scared your sister will become. This is shown with a "scared bar", which will also represent your health. Keep this as low as possible throughout the game by choosing your battles and using your care action.

The team is made up out of one person. Feel free to follow along as I learn blueprinting in Unreal to create my first game. Tips and pointers are always welcome.

Naming the game
Originally, the game was going to be called Little sister's Nightmares. Due to the name being a bit too long, I wanted to change it into Little Nightmares, but that name is already taken. This led me to change it to Little Night Terrors. This name kind of contradicts what the game is about, though. The main focus of the player should be the little sister, not the monsters. Chances are I might change it back.

Camera and movement prototyping
To make a side scroller in 3D, I've made it so the player can only move in two directions (left and right). Any other movement keys weren't given any output. These might be used later for climbing/jumping up and down, though chances are this will be enabled by just walking in that direction.  For now I've sped up the rotation between going left and right, since the player is still able to turn the character so the look away from the camera. This will still be changed.
The camera is set on a spring arm that follows the player. Currently, the player will always be at the center of the screen.

Kick and damage prototyping
The player is able to use the kick attack wherever they are. In order to do damage to an enemy, the enemy needs to be within the player's reach. I've set up a program that checks whether or not the player's and enemy's collision box overlap or not. If they overlap and the enemy uses the kick command, the enemy will take damage. 
Programming this gave me my first bug. The program worked as it should when it came to doing damage when the player was within reach. Though when the player moved out of reach, they were still able to deal damage to the enemy. This was because my program only checked if the player was within reach, not when they were out of reach again. 

Visible enemy damage and death prototyping
In order to get in-game feedback, I made it so enemies will change colors when damaged and when they no longer have any health left. The program for this checks when the enemy is damaged along with their remaining health. If an enemy takes damage and its health is still above 0, the program will change its color to red, then back to the original color. If an enemy takes damage and its health is smaller or equal to 0, the color will change to red and then to black. 

What programs will be used?

• Programming: blueprinting in Unreal Engine 4.26.1
• Animation/rigging: Maya (Mixamo will be used due to limited time)
• Modeling: 3dsMax
• Texturing/concept art: Photoshop

By next week I should have my first version of a playable prototype. This will be downloadable for anyone to playtest on the 22nd of March.
See you then with another devlog!