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A Plug's Life Gameplay Trailer
A Plug's Life is a game made during a Mini Game Jam in April 2024. The theme of this Game Jam was 'Electric' with a 'On A Timer' limitation. I had three days to complete this game from start to finish. This was my first game jam and, with how little time I had, I am happy with the way it turned out.
Game High Concept
A Plug's Life follows three different plug's as they try to get to their own sockets. These plugs control the lights, moving platforms, and the end goal. They need to get to their sockets before the house owner comes in and takes a plug out and before time runs out.
Game Description
A Plug's Life is a 3D platformer game where the user plays as three different plugs all trying to get to their own plug sockets before the timer runs out. There is an light plug that turns the lights on when plugged in, there is a moving platform plug that turns on the moving platforms, and there is a finish plug that completes the game once plugged in.
This game includes a house owner that will occasionally come into the room to unplug a random plug. This means that the player will have to take control of that plug again and go through all of the obstacles to get back to the socket.
In the final part, the player will need to do is climb up the bookshelf using the moving platforms. To do this, the moving platform plug must have reached its socket.
Game Highlights (What I Worked On)
Plug Characters
The player needs to be able to jump between the three characters to be able to control each one individually. I created each plug as a pawn and possessed them when they are being switched to and unpossessed the other two at the same time.
During the switch, the camera flies between the two plugs using a Set Target View Blend node in Blueprints.
House Owner Character
The House Owner character acts as an enemy to the plugs. The character walks along a random spline which goes to either the light plug socket or the moving platform socket. A branch checks to see if that plug is in its socket. If it is, it will be shot out and can be possessed again.
Sockets
There are three sockets in the game, one for each plug. When a plug enters a socket, it will fire an event for that specific socket. For example, when the light plug enters the light socket, the blueprint for all of the lights is called, causing all of the lights to turn on using an event called TurnOn. When the house owner character pulls the plug out of the socket, the TurnOff event will fire, causing the lights to turn off. This works the same way with the moving platforms plug and socket.
Moving Platforms
The moving platforms are the only way for the player to get to the finish socket. The moving platform plug must be inserted into its socket for them to start moving. All of these platforms use a timeline alongside a vector lerp node to move smoothly from location to the other. By using a target billboard acting as a vector for the move to location, I was able to move this target in editor instead of being restricted in the blueprint. This way I could easily see where the platform will start and end.