Arkanoid – A Unreal Engine 5 Retro Remake

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Arkanoid - Post Image
Arkanoid - Post Image1920×1080 148 KB

About the Project:

It started out as a single screenshot for a saturday. With a mock-up scene depicting the first level of the classic Arkanoid game. This resulted in me opting to go on a two month development journey.

Project Objectives:

After I committed to remaking Arkanoid, I outlined a few project deliverables I wanted to achieve:

1 – Remake the game in its entirety. I have worked on numerous hobby game projects in recent years, but none of them ever to completion. That is why I made it the core objective of this project.

2 – Set a fixed time frame to complete the project in. I wanted a hard deadline to plan towards, with this being a hobby project I accounted for my spare-time and decided two months would be a good project window.

3 – Learn more about particles. Before I started this project the extend of my knowledge regarding the ‘Niagara Particle System’ was that it existed. That had change.

4 – Practice and Expand my knowledge regarding Blueprint scripting.

I also Identified a couple of objectives that didn’t need to be met during this project:

1 – Don’t 3d Model anything unnecessarily. I have been 3d modelling for over 20 years now and did not need that to be part of the educational journey on this project. Making the vast library of free marketplace content acquired over the years fair game.

2 – This game project can not be released for distribution, not for sale, nor for free. And can only be a personal hobby, educational, and portfolio project.

The Final Product:

Through careful planning, and defining a reasonable project scope, I was able to complete the project in the allotted two months. I will admit, at times I was very tempted to expand the scope with more elaborate game play mechanics or level design. Fortunately I was able to resist, and finished the project on time.

Did I manage to remake of the original in its entirety? Yes, mostly. I did manage to reproduce the level design and basic game play mechanics. However, the pace of my game is substantially slower than that of the original; This was mostly because the intended player, me, does not posses the skill to play it at a faster speed. I also allowed some of the power-ups to be stackable, for example, the triple ball. Another change I made, was removing the possibility for player to invert the horizontal velocity of the ball depending on where it makes contact with the paddle. This was due to personal preference.

Did I achieve my learning objectives? Yes! I understand the basics of the particle systems, with a familiarity of the layout and tools, nothing advance, but a great base to build from. As for working with blueprints? Yes, my understanding and confidence for working with GameInstances; blueprints communicating with each other; and the use of basic construction scripts to facilitate faster project production after prototyping, all improved.

In Conclusion:

Since Unreal Engine 4 release almost nine years ago I have always enjoyed tinkering in the engine. I have had many ideas, for many projects, but I will admit that committing to this single project to completion, even if it is a rudimentary one, has been the most satisfaction I have had working on games. I don’t think the sense of achievement one feels for completing a project in a set time can be replaced. I am looking forward to building on this new personal culture, and setting out more future projects for me to do.

Here is a link to a full playthrough of the remake: (thank you in advance for enduring how bad I am at playing it.)

I did also made a trailer for the game project: (I will hopefully get better at making this type of thing in the future)

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Hi there, @Candescent_Games! I hope you’re having a great day. I just wanted to express my appreciation for your hard work and dedication to developing “Arkanoid” over the past three months. It was truly an honor to witness the development process and to see your victorious long-form playthrough! While I may not have had the opportunity to experience the gameplay myself, I am grateful that you shared your remarkable journey with us in the forums. :grin:

I also wanted to ask how often you have beaten “Arkanoid”? You made the playthrough look effortless! :star_struck:

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Thank you @Zezkaii, I really did enjoy producing and sharing this project with the community immensely. I think with it being a remake of a classic game it had a predefined project goal to work towards, helping me a lot with defining structures and developing discipline.

With regards to the original game: As a child I don’t remember ever getting past the third round unless I got very lucky with the random power-ups; But I do remember enviously watching my cousins beat it. As for this remake: If I was actually good at ‘Arkanoid’ it probably would have saved me a lot of time, as it took me the better part of a week before I was able to manage a successful play through.

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Greetings @Candescent_Games !

I also haven’t had the privilege of playing Arkanoid in its hey day, but I have played other modern block breaker games on my iPad. I hadn’t known that this block breaker type of game existed in 1986, and that its predecessor is a game called Breakout that was released on Atari in 1976. Your retro remake is a refreshing evolution from 8-bit to 4k!

You’ve done a phenomenal job with your version of Arkanoid and your trailer is the perfect homage to the original! Way to make a commitment, challenge yourself to learn something new, and stick to it - all in an impressive span of two months!

After completing your project within your set goals, is there anything that you would come back to add to it?

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Hello @Get_DOVAH_it

Thank you, and yes following through on a personal commitment to the end was the best part of the project for me. In the next month I will try and revive one of my earlier projects with the hopes of applying the same culture to it.

It was interesting looking into Breakout today. Some of the lore/history surrounding its making is fascinating.

One thing I already added was the ability for the player to somewhat nudge the ball direction with the d-pad while the Slow-Mo powerup is active. It helps make those sections more engaging.

I have also thought about a few additional powerup types that have a negative affect on the player paddle: One that shrinks the paddle size; One that might make the paddle temporarily invisible; Another that might give the ball a speed boost; And finally perhaps an explosive mine that destroys the paddle.

I have also thought that some of the levels from the original game needs be re-arranged with regards to their playing order. As sometimes there is an unreasonable difficulty spike for the player.

But mostly I am trying to not fiddle with the project too much for time being, as I need to move on to the next one. A friend recently told me that a done project is better than a perfect but never finished one.

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The pleasure is all mine! Admittedly, growing up, I wasn’t great at block-breaker-type games; that never stopped me from attempting them, though! :laughing:

It may have taken you a while, but you still managed to beat it, which is a win in my book! Kudos again for the incredible job done with this creation; where do you think your developing journey may take you next? Are there any more remakes we may look forward to? :grin:

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Yes @Zezkaii, I remember playing the NES games as a child, I was bad at most of them, but luckily skill and success was not a requirement for me having fun, only playing.

Yes, I will be doing another remake project. I wanted to start a new project from scratch, but my wife has convinced me to bring work done for a previous project forward into a remake project that also builds on what I learned during the Arkanoid project.

I am remaking Lunar Pool, and will start the work-in-progress thread on the weekend. I know it was probably a far less popular game from the time, but I think I should be able to complete the project in a quicker turnaround time. I will see once I spend some time in front of the white board on Saturday.

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