camera view is underneath level when i hit play

The viewport when i’m in the level editor is fine, but when i hit play all i can see is underneath the floor. the camera position doesn’t change when i move the character(or at least i’m assuming i’m moving the character, as before this happened, i could move them. however, now that this is happening i can’t see if the character is responding or not. the output log is showing it is responding when i press the keys, but obviously i can’t see if anything is happening). i haven’t been messing with any settings in the camera, i haven’t even been in the viewport at all. all i’ve been doing before this happened is programming a pawn to respond to the pressing of the E key and the SHIFT key in visual studio. i playtested it after doing this and everything was normal, then i went to test it again and this happened. i have no idea why.
how do i fix this?? and why did it happen??