[Help] Looking for advice about how to approach building this game.

Hey guys,

Firstly, please let me know if there’s a better way I can ask for help, or if this post is info-overload.

I’m currently a professional Unity C# Developer, and I’m creating a WebGL game in my spare time using UE4.

The design for this game is simple, but unlike any game I’ve made, and it doesn’t fit neatly into the framework UE4 provides, or so it seems. While I know that I can use UE4 to accomplish this design, I have no idea where to begin or how to handle certain requirements.

Any advice or direction is highly appreciated, the more specific you can be, the better.

So here’s the rundown:

This is a short 2D game. Maybe 5 to 15 minutes to complete, so super robust design is not the priority, but I’m always down to learn good practice. The game is mostly cinematic, lots of cut-scenes and animations and dialog, with automatic running and jumping for traversing levels. These cinematics will stop for player input at times, asking questions in dialog boxes, but eventually lead seamlessly into turn-based gameplay as the character runs into enemies. Then more cut-scenes and dialog and movement. That’s pretty much it. The turned based gameplay boils down to an almost rock-paper-scissors type format against basic AI.

So far I’ve created ParallaxLayer blueprints which all level assets are parented, and move relative to a ParallaxCamera blueprint that I’ve made. Somehow that ParallaxCamera must remain the main camera in the scene in the final design.

I’ve also managed to get the player running at consistent speed to a target location using NavMesh and SimpleMoveToLocation on the 2D assets with 3D collision. I don’t know if this is necessary, I was just experimenting with what is possible.

So here’s some questions that you can address if you wish, otherwise** all advice is appreciated**:

  1. How do I start each scene? Should the player start in the scene, and be animated with Sequencer? Or should I be using PlayerStart and Pawn+PlayerController in the GameMode?
  2. Should the whole thing be scripted through a long series of events in the Level Blueprint using event callbacks from Sequencer?
  3. What should I use to move the character? NavMesh for movement and NavProxy for jumping? Or fully animated? Should I make a playable pawn and use an AI controller or simulate input? Should the sequencer control everything?

Thanks for reading. I’m really just looking for some high-level advice about how I should jump into this stuff. Once I’m set on a plan of attack I can figure out the rest.