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University Professional Project

Operation Takeout

In Operation Takeout you play as a survivor of a world infested by mutated food creatures.
We used Unreal Engine 5, in a team of 8 people, three Games Design and Production Students, one of those being the Producer for the game, three artists and two programmers, one of those two programmers being myself.
I used C++ for the vast majority of my work, and made it accessible and usable through blueprint in the interest of the Games Design and Production student dedicated to Audio Management, to make it easier for him to implement the audio, which I would comment to make it clear where stuff would need to be "plugged in" within the blueprinting system.

What did I do in this project?
I programmed all of the Kitchen, that being the cooking, the order screens and the food points and currency handling, which was all done within C++, although much of it would be called from Blueprints so that the Audio Implementer person on the project would find it easier to find where to implement the sizzling noises and other such noises, again, commenting the blueprints to make the blueprinting clear and orderly, even though the functions were referencing the C++ classes which ran the majority of the actual functionality.
I programmed all of the Weapons, that including the Ammo System, the Hitmarkers and the Hitscan bullet detection method, where I would cast a line from the player's head to where the player was looking to see if that bullet would have hit the enemy, although the VFX on the weapons were created by a Games Design and Production student.
I added all the functionality into the till menu and ammo GUI, although the Graphical User Interface Design was not my work.
I did also partially help on the AI pathfinding when any issues arose although I can't take credit for that work.
Lastly, I spent a lot of time working on and managing the Perforce, keeping everyone's branches up to date, and resolving merge conflicts. I think I espeically enjoyed this, since even from the PS5 Project in my second year at University, I enjoyed managing the GitHub then too, I do find source control surprisingly quite fun although I recognise that I would need to learn a lot more to be to a professional level of using it, and would be willing to given the opportunity. In any group project that I have been in, I have often assumed the role of Source Control Manager, since often nobody else wants to do it, and I quite enjoy it.

Hear the Story of my 3rd Year Professional Project

A Synopsis of the Project


As with many group projects at University, not everyone is equally motivated, if that's either just because they aren't interested in the subject that they've taken, issues that take their focus elsewhere or some other reason.

How did we get around this as a team? It meant meeting as a group, to try and cut scope as the project progressed, while also redistributing work to those who were either more motivated or faster workers. We didn't fall into the trap of "oh, that bit of the game isn't my responsibility to deal with" or that "it's not my problem" but we worked together, to do what we could with the hours that were put into this project collectively.

We tried to go on-campus to work, which I personally was a fan and proponent of doing since I think that it is good mentally to have the commutes in to the University to work on the project and even just for the reason to see other faces. By being on-campus we could more effectively bounce ideas off each other, enjoy a nicer working environment and stay focused. Other members of my group also appreciated that they could recieve instant help with using the Perforce version control software, since that remained a problem for some of our group throughout the year. To make it simpler for the group, I created two video tutorials and a document on using Perforce, simple enough to use, which overall definitely benefitted the team since I didn't need to be pulled away from working on my tasks.

Co-programming with the other programmer when there was any issue on either mine or his tasks for development was extremely effective for increasing both of our productivities. I found it very useful to be helped by him on a couple issues and I believe he also found it very useful to help him on a few issues too. I definitely enjoyed the dynamic between myself and the other programmer, and we got along well both in programming and in a friendly & fun way.

What would I have done differently? I think that I'd agree with the feedback given to me, that I shouldn't've passively let the scope get so big and that I should've more clearly voiced my concern against the ever-increasing list of things to do. Although the Game ended up slightly unfinished in some ways, I am still glad that I stuck to: "The Producer says it therefore it goes" which I'd still stand by since it is necessary to have a final decision-maker in a team for having a clear path which wasn't a problem at all on our project.

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