The Living Nightmare

The Living Nightmare continues from the ending of Back in the 80's. Jim and Mark both decide to settle down nearby the pizzeria to discuss what happened.

They go to Mark's uncle's Manor, and try to sleep there, but are awakened in the night by Animatronics stalking their house, more of them coming every single hour.

They have to survive till daytime to escape the house unharmed.

Release Date: March 6th 2020
Versions: - v0.1
- v0.2
- v0.3
- v0.4
- v1.0
- v1.1
- v1.2 (latest)

The Living Nightmare was revolutionary in my learning process of Unreal Engine 4. During the creation of The Living Nightmare I learned lots of new functionalities within UE4, and I could finally start coding more on my own, instead of having to rely heavily on Youtube Video's.

Back in the 80's was a great fundation already where I did experiment with coding more on my own, but this game put me up to the test.

One of the main story points I had to take into account was that Jim and Mark both had to be a part of The Living Nightmare, so I had to make some way to make them both playable, that is where the main system came down to.

Player Switching

It's a small but effective system, even for being coded in the Level Blueprint. It sort of simulates a fake multiplayer experience, as you are able to switch between the upper and lower floor, but you have to balance it perfectly to get rid of all Animatronics and survive every hour.

Every Animatronic also has their own functionality, hereby a little insight on this older code to show the functionality of each one.

Bonnie

Bonnie has a simple mechanic, you hear him knock every 30 seconds, and he appears at 1 of 3 windows (Kitchen, Living Room & Upstairs). Once he appears you have exactly 30 seconds to find him, get close to him, and he will disappear again (in 0.3 seconds), which then starts the 30 second timer again.

The system above here is quite bloated, and could be made object oriented, but it does work quite reliable, and there aren't any ways in which this can break.

Chica

Chica has similar mechanics to Bonnie, but not exactly the same. Every 15 to 40 seconds, Chica will slowly open the door. Her opening the door is indicated by a creak sound playing trough the house. She also has a 30 second time before she jumpscares you. If you click the door she opens within that time, the door will slowly close, and it will restart her timer.

This system is also quite bloated and quite unoptimized due to the use of an Event Tick and a constant looping gate which adds to a timer every second. This puts a slight load on the CPU which could be prevented.

Foxy

Foxy is more similair to Chica. Every 40 seconds the TV will turn off. A little Foxy Plushy is watching the TV, and if the TV is off for too long, Foxy will jumpscare the player. The player also has 30 seconds to turn on the TV by simply clicking on it, after which it will turn on again, and the timer will start again.

This system can also be optimized by using the same system I would use for the Chica System, probably using timers that can be controlled easily, and preventing the use from constant Blueprint execution (Like Event Tick or a Gate Loop)

Freddy Frostbear

Freddy Frostbear was a new character to the series, and of course, I had to make him work with heat / cold. So for him, it is slightly different, instead of sound being the indicator, it is only visuals. Every 5 to 40 seconds the campfire will turn off, and ice will slowly start to cover the players screen, making it more difficult to see. Once the screen is completely covered, Freddy Frostbear will jumpscare you.

He also has a slightly different timer. Every 2 seconds it adds 0.1 to the opacity. If the opacity is in range of 0.95 and 1.05 it will jumpscare the player, which means the player has around 20 seconds to turn the fire back on, which is a lot less time than Bonnie, Chica and Foxy.

This system sadly also uses the Event Tick, and the visuals could be a lot smoother, instead of increasing the Alpha every 2 seconds.

Freddy

Freddy works completely different from the others, he doesn't have a "Jumpscare Timer" he just moves when it is dark. Every 25 seconds, Freddy will turn the power off, and he will start moving towards the door along this very long hallway (which was inspired by Phantom Manors Infinite Hallway), once he reaches a certain triggerbox close to the door, he will Jumpscare you. A simple Button on the outside of the door, turns on the lights and pauses Freddy from moving closer to you.

Golden Freddy

Golden Freddy will laugh every 20 to 30 seconds after which the player has 20 seconds to shock him with a controlled shock by pressing a button next to him.

This system is coded pretty solid.

Youtuber Playthroughs

Page updated

Google Sites

Report abuse