Hi, I’m Anna, I’m a university student studying ‘The Art of Games Design’. For my final project I chose to create a level in the Unreal Engine. It is going well so far, but I have been told that I need to make things more ‘obvious’ for players.
I thought I would do this by creating an objective trail (similar to the breadcrumb trail on games such as lego and fable), only I have no idea where to start with this.
I thought I would create some form of particle effect and have this linked to my character and any area or item in question that he would have to interact with.
Is this possible and if so, any ideas where to start with producing something like that?
Any help or advice would be much appreciated 
Just as a comment on the “obvious” suggestion – I object to the seemingly common conclusion that all players need their hands held to enjoy a game. As far as I am concerned, making game tasks easier does not necessarily make them more fun.
You could probably do this by creating a spline “path” between the player and the destination, and then having your effect run along that spline. You’d have to create/recalculate that path on the fly though, since the player would be moving around your level, and might go the wrong direction at some point.
It also really depends on the game genre and environment. For example you can use the environments props to show the correct path. A simple example is to use blood splatter to show where the person you are following are. It all depends on what the player actually needs to do. Some games uses colors, others uses lights to indicate the right way, others uses sounds to lure player towards the place you want them to do. I like those solutions much better then having a line showing you where to go. As Rhynedahll indicated, the handholding in current games is getting too much, people don’t SEE where they are anymore, they only look for the blinking light or minimap to get them somewhere. I think that games should rather teach the player to play attention to where they are.
But it’s all up to what you are making, what the target group is.
I agree with this notion, it is of course up to the OP to decided what method to take. However if it’s a case where you want to have some dynamic control over the path, such as choosing when to show it, or when not to (things like blood get cleaned up after all), then spawning said hints along a spline is probably still the way to go.
Thank you for the advice, it is really appreciated. I think I will try the spline.
In all honesty, adding a breadcrumb trail in such an ‘obvious’ way was not my original intention. I was happy enough to add some collectable items in there to show the player where they should go, only my lecturers, incidentally the guys who will be marking my piece seem to think it has to be easier than that. They either underestimate the common sense of the average game player OR my level is really confusing to navigate! That being said, I take the advice about handholding through games on board, and will definitely try to make it different for any games I make of my own accord. Creating game levels to match grading criteria is a pain.
Thank you guys ^^
Yeah, that’s true, a combination of blueprint and a spline would do nicely, and you can make various ways of showing the path, without having it being a full glowing line, pointing.