Ygg – Downtree Madness is a 3D Fun Racer developed in Unreal Engine 4 and programmed in C++. In the game you build your own soapboxes to engage in Physics-based races on one of five tracks set in the world of Nordic mythology. Only those who master the laws of physics can beat their friends and make it to the goal. Additionally, the game features five playable characters, including an unlockable one.
Ygg – Downtree Madness was my fourth and final project at Games Academy and my first game developed in Unreal Engine 4. The team decided to use the engine mainly for learning purposes. As with all new engines, there were a lot of technical difficulties and bugs to overcome, especially in the starting phase. I was responsible for implementing the core gameplay features and most of the workshop features. While the game was received quite well at both milestones, an overlooked bug in the final build overshadowed the game itself at Goldmaster. The bug was later fixed and the game was showcased at Gamescom 2014.
If there is one lesson we all learned from this project it’s not to start the debugging phase too late, especially when using a brand new engine.
The team:
Melli Gottschalk – Team Lead, Game Design, Art
Josua Hagedorn – Visionkeeper, Game Design, Programming, Audio
Daria Varfolomeeva – Game Design, Art
Eric Vetter – Art
Emily Schuhmann – Art
Stella Behrendt – Art
Michael Beck – Programming
Max Giller – Programming
Markus Wall – Programming