Posts from my blog – Darryl Spratt's Design Portfolio

Creating a dynamic 3D UI

November 19, 2023November 19, 2023

Since my last dev post, I created the user interface for my game, implemented temporary audio and also made a few gameplay improvements. I also decided on a name for the game: Ramatron! I wanted the user interface to match the neon glow visuals that the game took and seamlessly integrate into gameplay, so that the player can go another round without hassle. A key component of the look revolved around the glow effect that’s rendered in engine, which made it challenging to foresee the end result of the UI art…

Summer ’23 digital charcoal sketches

October 11, 2023October 11, 2023

Over the summer, I wanted to draw portraits from photo references daily using the painting program Krita. The challenge was to work quick and keep a consistent focus. In this post, I show some of my favorite pieces that came out of it.

How to utilize Slices to export UI assets

October 4, 2023October 4, 2023

Exporting UI assets from screen mock-ups can be messy, so a while ago, I devised a process to simplify it. It helps limit human error in the exporting process and speed things up by automating a lot of it. I’ve used it to track and update assets easily, ensuring nothing is missed and also for simplifying future exports for any necessary changes.

How to create a Stepper Widget in Unreal

July 31, 2023July 31, 2023

In this tutorial I go over how to create a stepper and its functionality in Unreal using UMG. It’s quite an extensive step-by-step that also introduces ideas on how to combine different UMG widgets to create more complex ones. Note that this tutorial focuses on building a functional prototype of a stepper in Unreal and does not cover creating the art for it.

How to make state machines in blueprint

May 23, 2023May 28, 2023

Finite State Machines are invaluable design patterns for video games. Knowing this, I was quite surprised at the lack of resources specifically focused on creating state machines with blueprints in Unreal. Most information that you’ll find online will relate to animation management, but state machines have much more applications than that! This tutorial explores breaking things down into states, some essential features, and blueprint implementation methods used in my own project…

2D ram animation and shader design

May 2, 2023May 23, 2023

In my last post, I mentioned that I would create a character. Now I’m happy to share my process of designing the new ram character in my game, creating a shader material to texture it, and bringing it to life with animation. I approached the deign on this character in a similar way to how I approach logo design. I was taught about the idea of visual puns in logos, where you take two or more unrelated ideas and bring them together in a clever way…

Graphite artwork

February 20, 2023February 21, 2023

I’ve been getting back into graphite drawing after years of not drawing much at all and I’d like to share a couple that I’ve completed recently, both were made from reference photos. This beach one is actually the first graphite drawing I’ve made in over a decade, so I was a bit concerned going into it that I would have lost the skill and initially chose it just as an exercise to see where I was at. Thankfully, just after a couple hours, it felt like I was picking up right where I left off and I decided to make…

Expanding gameplay upon the core

January 24, 2023January 24, 2023

Since my last update of my endless runner game, I expanded the main mechanics with a charge ability to smash through new breakable boxes spawned on top of the platforms, and added an automatic slowdown ability to help with survivability. I also created an editor function in Unreal to assist me in visualizing the spawn sequences of the platforms as the complexity of designing them increased. A bunch of new visuals and sound effects were finally added to enhance the experience of the game. Starting with a breakable box prototype I introduced the breakable boxes in my game to provide…

A unique elevator loader

August 8, 2022August 8, 2022

One of the core features of my experimental first-person adventure puzzle game that I’m developing is a world loading mechanic that uses an elevator as the main hub. This is the first feature that I’ve implemented to test how it works since it’s quite central to the overall experience. A simple level loader may not seem that interesting or important at first, but this elevator is a bit different than the typical ones that you’d see in a game…

Controlled randomness in endless runners

July 14, 2022January 24, 2023

I’ve been working on an endless runner in Unreal where the main control utilizes the rotation of a mouse scroll wheel or touch-drag movement to move platforms and bridge your character through the course. One thing I noticed right away through prototyping was that true randomness was not fun at all and just seemed hectic and frustrating while also being hard to calculate the possible paths that the player can accomplish. I’d never want the player to feel like there was no way to continue in their run because a block was impossibly far, that’s a great way to get…

Shimmerfall Springs postmortem

July 4, 2022

A postmortem of my Skyrim level, where I explore what went right and what went wrong, while thinking of solutions to do better next time. I get into utilizing NPCs to give character to the level, focusing on player choice from different class play styles to emergent choices, how I learned from Bethesda’s levels to improve my quality, and the various ways I achieved my storytelling goals. I then get into some challenges I faced, such as scripting the boss battle, optimization issues, and a frustrating one for the players: leaving the level on a cliffhanger.

New brand identity & site

June 29, 2022June 30, 2022

It has been a while since I’ve updated my website, so I am quite exited to finally unveil my new logo and website. I’ve been itching to have my own logo for a while and designing for yourself is a challenging task. This has been something I’ve been slowly building upon overtime and have finally settled with a meaningful design that I’m proud of. With the new logo comes a site that pays homage to some features of my old one, such as the colours, but also brings in some much needed modern features, like supporting different media screens. I…