Possession from a Corner Camera

I made a custom Player Camera Manager for our Ghost Camera and Possessable Camera. This would give the player the feeling of being a ghost, guiding the twin, and getting frightened by the monsters.

• Smooth Camera Transitions
  Smooth camera transitions can happen with a function called RelocateCamera. This function takes in the location, speed, and the interpolation function which gives a lot of freedom while keeping it simple. A RelocateCameraComplete function is called after it finishes. Everything is handled using Event Delegates.

• Camera Shakes/Fades/Effects
  Each of these is done using function calls to Camera Manager or Event Delegates. Flexible but simple.

With the design decision made for the player to play as the Ghost from a corner camera perspective, we decided that a point-and-click mechanic to guide the twin would make a lot of sense. The player, when playing as the ghost

• Can guide the Twin
  This was done using a simple AI controller to make the twin move to a location, and an event delegate to update the position the Twin moves to.

• Can help the Twin interact with objects (Pickup, Use, Store)
  This is done using a line trace from a distance downward and the Actor that it hits is checked and the appropriate interaction function is called.

I made an Inventory system that is used by Twin to pick up small, but useful objects like Keys, Notes, Laterns, etc.

• A Pickup class
  The base class has all the information needed for a pickup from Meshes, and Interaction functions to Pickup Icons and Interaction Text. We set a gameplay tag to identify the pickup

• A Pickup Use class
  This class is used for pickups to be used on. The gameplay tag matches the pickup's tag to trigger any functionality we like (Ex: Open a Door)

For Input, I built an Input Config data asset and an Input handler component for the Enhanced Input System in UE5. Which

• Let the designers add Input Actions, Key Maps, and Triggering conditions for the Input.

• When this is done, the functionality is linked to a function named based on the name of the Input action, and the functionality is exposed to blueprints for implementation using Events.

• This makes adding in Input actions without much work.

• Player controllers help define different inputs for every possessable. Every Possessable having different inputs improves interactivity with the player. It gives the player the feel of playing as a Ghost controlling objects

The storage component can be added to any object in the scene, and it serves the functionality of being a Storable, or a Storage. While dropping or unhiding, A trace is performed around the object to make sure it is a valid place to place the object.

• Storage
  Storage acts as a storage space for holding one Storable. The size of the Storable it can hold depends on the Max Storage Size, varying from Very Small to Very Large.

• Storable
  Storable objects can be stored inside a Storage. And again, it depends on its size to determine whether it can be stored or not.

I do a ton of debugging using Visual Studio's debugger and breakpoints, which help me understand code flow and resolve errors.
And more importantly, visual debug draws and visual logging, for things like object placement and collision handling.
Below are a few examples