Fat Duck's Burger Run!! Windows game

Hello everyone! It's time to talk about future of this game.
The newest version (1.4.1) is going to be last version of Fat Duck's Burger Run... in current state. What do I mean by that? Well I'll explain:

ORIGINAL PLANS:

Originally, this project was not intended to be published on the Internet. Heck, this project was never supposed to become 3D platforming at all. It was not originally designed to be what it has become.

First. Let’s talk first about building in this game. That was originally made for the Five Nights at Freddy's fan game (point & click style, similar to official FNAF games). It was school project (which was never fully finished), and at the time I didn’t think I would reuse it in other projects.

Sometime after, I wanted to import that building, as well as all objects from the area in to Unreal Engine 4. That was one part of my newest school project. I had never used Unreal Engine, so things weren't done as well as they should have been (the objects were scaled/rotated badly, never renamed properly, duplicate versions of things existed, objects were imported from many different sources, etc etc.).

The original plan was to make human character to walk inside the house and interact with different objects like doors and instruments. It felt really boring, so I wanted to add something simple to the project to make it more fun: Playable Character (Duck), Collectables (Burgers) and Monster (Ghost), and from those... the game was born.

Since then, the game has been updated from the beginning of the year, as well just before the halloween.

LONG TIME BETWEEN UPDATES 1.3 and 1.4:

As you know, there are more than 8 months between update 1.3 and 1.4. Why is that? As I said earlier. Things like school, another game project, and other hobbies take a lot of time, and I don't have enough time for everything. I also want to finish that previous game project before I'll focus on other game projects.

I also wasn't that motivated to update this game, because I have (now) over 5 years old laptop that can't run 3D programs that well. Everything is so slow and makes editing so annoying and difficult, especially with the program I haven't used that long (Unreal Engine). There is also that weird "0xc000007b" problem that doesn't let me test packaged game projects on my own device, and because of that I have to use someone else's device to test the packed game.

Before summer I had in mind that I could make new monsters like wolf or bear, + whole new areas like forest or some kind of playground. However, I decided to give up those ideas, because I wanted to focus on other projects.

And now that I returned back to this game project, I realized there are more problems which I'll talk about next.

HUGE PROBLEMS:

As I said before, the newest version (1.4.1) is going to be last version of Fat Duck's Burger Run in it's current state. What does that mean?

By that I mean that this game needs huge improvements and lots of fixes. The game may work well in the player's eyes, but the game's code (or in this case.. blueprints) are very messy, poorly done, and work just right to make things work. After all, this project is the first project I've ever done in Unreal Engine, so beginner mistakes can be found everywhere. Because of this, updating the game is really challenging. The game was practically a project with which I learned how to use the program... at least to some extent.

Another huge problem is related to the 3D models. Many objects are scaled/rotated badly in this project, and this causes many other problems. However, the biggest problem is with the DuckJohnn's model. After exporting model from 3D program to Unreal (or vice versa) it's shape and rotation changes. Because of this, making outfits/parts and putting them in the right place is very challenging. Outfits must be pre-positioned and translated in the 3D program before those are transferred to the Unreal Engine. There are other problems with 3D models...

ABOUT 1.4 VERSION:

It was pretty rushed. 3 weeks ago I realized that halloween is near and that I could do something related to halloween. Maybe a video, a fandub, or something, but then I had this game, so I decided after a long time to update that. I originally planned to make a whole new level for the game, spooky halloween themed garden, field or something like that, but because of short time as well these problems, I didn't bother to make that. Eventually, I just had time to do a new monster, as well as a power-up. Then I just added those into Grandma’s house, blew it up and call it a day.

FUTURE:

So, the game needs to be fixed. In order to make that happen, it is worth making the game almost from scratch, that is, remade... done again. This isn’t such a big deal, because the game is pretty small and I don’t have to re-work everything, such as some 3D models or sounds... but before I can start making a remastered version, I need new computer. Desktop pc, powerful enough so I could finally move on properly to making 3D stuff... I also want to evolve as a 3D modeler and I also want to get better at using Unreal Engine. Also before I remaster this game... I should also learn how to use Blender, because I have used another program so far, the study license for which will expire soon. Oh... and one thing... I ALSO need to get the previous game project done. It will probably be completed next summer... I think that was all lol.

FINAL WORDS:

This game... These characters... I think have a lot of potential for something big... Something larger..

Next time, I want to make this game even goofier, scarier, and more fun. The name of the game will probably be changed. I'm also trying to add new features to the remastered version.

When will the remastered version come? I have no idea, but not anytime soon. I can't say anything at this point. It comes as a surprise then.

I will announce a remastered version of this game here on devlog and also in other places such as:

DJ Game Factory:
Youtube.com

DuckJohnn: (for Finnish followers)
Youtube.com

Thanks for your patience. See you again sometime!!
- DuckJohnn