Overview
Flappy Crew is an experimental game made in UEFN. My goal was to create a fully functional 2D multiplayer game written in Verse.
At the time of creating this project, UEFN was not intended for 2D gameplay. It supported basic UI components such as images, textfields, and layout containers. However properties such as X & Y positions for 2D elements were not exposed in Verse. Part of the challenge with this project was developing a workaround for manipulating the position of elements in 2D without having direct access to a traditional coordinate system.
My Role
I created a system using nested layout components that allowed me to manipulate the on screen position of 2D elements within Verse. On top of this foundation, I then built various gameplay systems including:
- Input System - The user is in control of their Fortnite character behind the scenes. The input system reads in the jump movement of the 3D character and translates that to the 2D character on screen.
- Replicated Players - Each player on the server has their 2D character’s visuals replicated across the server for all players to see
- Ghost Data - Previous runs of the local player are recorded and played back on subsequent attempts
- Camera System - A camera system follows the local player while applying the proper local coordinate offsets to all others
- Parallaxing Environments - Along with the camera system are various layers that move at different speeds to create a parallax effect
- Infinite Obstacle Generator - Each server generates a unique set of infinite pipes that players must avoid.
While this project wasn’t the most technically complex or challenging project, it was fun to work in a new framework & find ways to circumvent the expected use cases of the provided Verse API.
