Problems with creating the map & the Door

Author: Aiden Bentz

Blog Entry Part 1: The Problem

While I was working with Perforce, I ran into some frustrating issues when trying to submit the code portions of my game from my PC. Every time I managed to submit my door code, it would somehow end up getting deleted, which meant I had to redo the whole thing from scratch. The door code included some "animations" using Rotators and TimelineComponents, but when I added those back in the second time, they didn’t work—and to make things worse, Perforce still wouldn’t save it properly. I ended up having to recreate the entire door code a third time before it finally worked the way it was supposed to.

And that was just the first issue I ran into this week. The second was all about the map design. I couldn’t come up with a solid version of the map because there was a lack of clear communication within the team. Every member had a different idea of what the map should look like, and I wasn’t sure which direction to take it in, so I ended up stuck at a bit of a standstill.

Blog Entry Part 2: Problem Solution

For the first issue, the solution ended up being a matter of persistence. I had to go through multiple iterations, testing the door functionality repeatedly across different machines used by my teammates. After several attempts, it finally started working properly. I’m still not entirely sure why it didn’t function correctly after my initial rewrite, but I suspect it might have been due to forgetting to set the OpenCurve parameter properly in the blueprints. That small oversight could’ve been what caused all the confusion.

As for the second issue, I took a more flexible approach by creating four different versions of the map, each tailored to reflect what different team members wanted to see included. This way, everyone’s input was considered. Now, I’m waiting on feedback from the team to see which version they prefer, so I can move forward with refining and finalizing the design based on that choice.