WEBVTT 00:07.180 --> 00:08.200 Welcome. 00:08.810 --> 00:12.530 So the previous section was very much review for you. 00:12.710 --> 00:17.370 Hopefully most, if not all the things we did are things you're already familiar with. 00:17.390 --> 00:22.940 From this point on in the course, most of the things we'll be doing will most likely be completely 00:22.940 --> 00:27.380 new to you, not least of which is the gameplay ability system. 00:28.140 --> 00:34.200 In this video, we'll discuss what the gameplay ability system is and how we'll use it for the game 00:34.200 --> 00:35.040 project. 00:35.070 --> 00:36.930 The game will be developing throughout. 00:36.930 --> 00:42.930 This course was designed to teach you all of the main features of the gameplay ability system and how 00:42.930 --> 00:45.100 to apply them in various ways. 00:45.120 --> 00:47.910 So what is the gameplay ability system? 00:48.180 --> 00:55.140 Well, according to Unreal Engine documentation, the gameplay ability system is a highly flexible framework 00:55.140 --> 01:02.250 for building the types of abilities and attributes that you might find in an RPG or Moba title. 01:02.400 --> 01:08.760 You can build actions or passive abilities for the characters in your games to use and status effects 01:08.760 --> 01:13.920 that can build up or wear down various attributes as a result of these actions. 01:13.950 --> 01:19.500 Additionally, you can implement cooldown timers or resource costs to regulate. 01:19.500 --> 01:26.130 The usage of these actions, change the level of the ability and its effects at each level, activate 01:26.130 --> 01:28.330 particles, sound effects and more. 01:28.630 --> 01:35.170 The gameplay ability system can help you to design, implement and efficiently network in-game abilities 01:35.170 --> 01:42.490 from as simple as jumping to as complex as your favorite character's ability set in any modern RPG or 01:42.520 --> 01:43.600 Moba title. 01:43.930 --> 01:48.940 Now that all sounds pretty good, but it's also kind of a little vague. 01:48.940 --> 01:56.350 And that's because the ability system is so vast and capable that it's almost impossible to condense 01:56.350 --> 01:58.780 down into a single paragraph like this. 01:58.780 --> 02:05.020 So we're going to talk a little bit more about what the gameplay ability system is at a high level before 02:05.020 --> 02:10.550 we get started creating the various components of the system in our game project. 02:10.570 --> 02:16.270 So now that we've seen the Documentation's definition, let's actually talk a little bit about what 02:16.300 --> 02:17.340 gas is. 02:17.350 --> 02:20.500 Well, let's say you have the goal to create a video game. 02:20.950 --> 02:26.770 Now there are many different game genres, so for the sake of this discussion, we'll just say that 02:26.770 --> 02:29.160 your plan is to create an RPG. 02:29.160 --> 02:37.230 An RPG or role playing game is typically a fairly large game project involving a number of elements, 02:37.230 --> 02:41.580 including attributes commonly referred to as stats. 02:41.580 --> 02:46.080 And these are values that affect gameplay in significant ways. 02:46.170 --> 02:52.080 Examples of attributes include a form of health or life for the character that the player will control 02:52.080 --> 02:53.160 throughout the game. 02:53.190 --> 03:00.030 Life is typically defined as the amount of damage the character can take before being killed or eliminated. 03:00.060 --> 03:06.480 Damage itself is often treated as an attribute and can be affected by a number of factors, including 03:06.480 --> 03:12.690 the character's other attributes equipment such as armor and weapons, and the effects of magical spells 03:12.690 --> 03:14.610 or anything else that you decide. 03:14.640 --> 03:20.370 Now, other attributes are typically defined to affect various aspects of gameplay. 03:20.460 --> 03:25.560 Attribute values may even depend on other attributes as one attribute changes. 03:25.590 --> 03:32.080 Other attributes that are derived from it often change according to some mathematical formula determined 03:32.080 --> 03:33.630 by the game's designers. 03:33.640 --> 03:39.640 For example, the character may have a critical hit chance attribute called crit, and this critical 03:39.670 --> 03:44.410 hit Chance adds the chance to cause bonus damage when the character attacks. 03:44.440 --> 03:49.020 Now, this crit chance may be derived from a combination of other attributes. 03:49.030 --> 03:55.210 Let's say the character has a resilience attribute or here on the x axis of this graph. 03:55.210 --> 04:01.540 And when resilience increases, critical hit chance also increases by a certain amount. 04:01.570 --> 04:07.470 RPGs often have a large number of attributes that affect various aspects of gameplay. 04:07.480 --> 04:11.310 Now, attributes aren't the only feature of a game. 04:11.320 --> 04:15.520 We mentioned damage and the act of causing and taking damage. 04:15.520 --> 04:18.700 Well, damage is typically caused by abilities. 04:18.700 --> 04:24.580 The character may attack other creatures or players in the game, and attacking involves several actions 04:24.580 --> 04:26.620 that act in unison with each other. 04:26.650 --> 04:32.530 Attacking typically involves playing some sort of attack animation, whether it be a sword swing or 04:32.530 --> 04:35.320 a spear thrust or casting a magical spell. 04:35.350 --> 04:39.730 The attack typically involves hitting the target and causing damage to that target. 04:39.730 --> 04:46.450 Causing damage in an RPG means checking the values of attributes both on the attacker and the target, 04:46.450 --> 04:52.660 and performing a series of mathematical calculations that take these attributes into account before 04:52.660 --> 04:55.840 determining the final amount of damage caused. 04:55.840 --> 05:01.960 If the damage caused to a player or creature is fatal, meaning that it's brought the target's health 05:01.960 --> 05:05.860 or life attribute down to zero, the target may die. 05:05.890 --> 05:10.810 In RPGs, this is usually accompanied by a reward of some sort. 05:10.840 --> 05:17.140 The reward, often issued in RPGs, comes in the form of experience Points or XP. 05:17.620 --> 05:20.560 A character can accumulate experience. 05:20.560 --> 05:27.490 And once this character has amassed a certain amount determined by a threshold for that particular level. 05:27.720 --> 05:33.270 That character may reach a point where it's now eligible for an upgrade of some sort. 05:33.300 --> 05:40.140 We often call this upgrade a level up where the character's level a numerical value designed to be a 05:40.140 --> 05:44.400 measure of cumulative progress in the game goes up. 05:45.060 --> 05:51.360 Now leveling up is often accompanied by an increase in the character's overall power in the game, such 05:51.360 --> 05:57.360 as an increase in attribute values or even being granted newer and more powerful abilities. 05:57.360 --> 06:04.110 By leveling up, the character has become capable of taking on even stronger enemies, causing more 06:04.110 --> 06:07.570 damage, and earning even more valuable rewards. 06:07.590 --> 06:14.580 Speaking of rewards, there are often gameplay mechanics in RPGs that result in strengthening or weakening 06:14.580 --> 06:15.480 the player. 06:15.510 --> 06:22.170 Mechanics that strengthen the player are often referred to as buffs and mechanics that weaken the player 06:22.200 --> 06:25.440 are often referred to as debuffs drinking. 06:25.440 --> 06:30.540 Some sort of potion may increase the player's health or mana or some other attribute. 06:30.660 --> 06:37.140 Casting a spell may temporarily increase some of the player's attributes or decrease attributes on the 06:37.140 --> 06:37.980 target. 06:38.280 --> 06:44.880 Buffs and debuffs can be applied as a result of picking up or consuming items, or they may be applied 06:44.980 --> 06:50.200 as the result of being hit by certain abilities or receiving damage of a certain type. 06:50.200 --> 06:57.880 So effects are some sort of gameplay mechanics that result in changing attribute values, and the reasons 06:57.880 --> 07:02.260 and situations involved depend entirely on the game's design. 07:02.290 --> 07:05.500 Now we've discussed a lot of mathematics thus far. 07:05.530 --> 07:12.130 Attributes have their own numerical values and effects caused by elements in the game often change these 07:12.130 --> 07:19.360 values, but there's often some sort of visual or audio cue associated with any given gameplay mechanic. 07:19.390 --> 07:23.830 A sword hitting an enemy releases a splash of blood on contact. 07:23.860 --> 07:27.040 That's usually some kind of particle system. 07:27.370 --> 07:33.220 A magical fireball explodes on contact, which creates a loud boom sound. 07:33.250 --> 07:39.880 These visual and audio cues are every bit as important as the underlying mathematical calculations that 07:39.880 --> 07:42.280 affect the various attributes in the game. 07:42.280 --> 07:48.360 Now, we've described many features that you see in RPGs, but these are commonly used in many other 07:48.360 --> 07:49.470 game genres. 07:49.470 --> 07:53.430 Shooter games make use of attributes such as health and stamina. 07:53.460 --> 07:59.880 Just about most games involve some sort of health or life, and nearly all games make use of a form 07:59.880 --> 08:03.300 of progress, even if it's not called the player's level. 08:03.480 --> 08:10.470 The point is that games can get quite complex and the more complex a game becomes, the more relationships 08:10.470 --> 08:16.260 the various game elements have with one another and the more difficult it can be to manage all of these 08:16.260 --> 08:17.370 relationships. 08:17.370 --> 08:23.910 It can help if there is a system that allows us to organize these relationships, these attributes, 08:23.910 --> 08:26.850 effects, abilities and gameplay cues. 08:26.880 --> 08:30.210 That's where the gameplay ability system comes in. 08:30.240 --> 08:37.110 Now can you make a complex game such as an RPG similar to what we just described without the gameplay 08:37.110 --> 08:38.180 ability system? 08:38.190 --> 08:39.840 Well of course you can. 08:39.870 --> 08:46.600 Countless games, even super complex RPGs have been created before the gameplay ability system was even 08:46.600 --> 08:47.470 invented. 08:47.560 --> 08:53.470 But those games, at least the ones successful enough for you to have heard about them, succeeded as 08:53.470 --> 08:58.030 a result of impeccable design management and code framework. 08:58.060 --> 09:01.780 The gameplay ability system provides us with such a framework. 09:01.810 --> 09:07.000 The Gameplay Ability system was designed to handle the complexities of the game. 09:07.000 --> 09:08.110 Paragon. 09:08.660 --> 09:16.160 Paragon was a multiplayer online battle arena, or Moba, developed by Epic Games. 09:16.220 --> 09:21.800 A Moba is a competitive multiplayer game involving multiple character types. 09:21.800 --> 09:26.960 Each character type generally has its own set of unique abilities and strengths. 09:26.990 --> 09:33.500 Characters in MOBAs often gain experience, level up and earn new abilities, all in the space of a 09:33.500 --> 09:35.270 single multiplayer match. 09:35.300 --> 09:41.840 It's a game genre that combines just about every technical challenge a game development team can face, 09:41.840 --> 09:47.660 and all of the complexities that we've discussed thus far are generally implemented in MOBAs. 09:47.690 --> 09:54.800 It's the type of game project that absolutely requires a solid framework that is modular, flexible 09:54.800 --> 09:56.090 and scalable. 09:56.120 --> 10:02.930 It must have a code base that can accommodate for attributes, effects, abilities and cues and do so 10:02.930 --> 10:09.180 in a way that is handled well in multiplayer and allows for each element in the system to interact with 10:09.180 --> 10:16.230 any of the others in an efficient and well coded manner to handle such a complex system. 10:16.260 --> 10:19.370 Epic Games created the gameplay ability system. 10:19.380 --> 10:26.460 Sadly, Paragon was eventually cancelled and Epic decided to focus its game development efforts primarily 10:26.460 --> 10:27.630 on Fortnite. 10:27.660 --> 10:32.540 However, Paragon wasn't a complete waste of time, talent and resources. 10:32.550 --> 10:40.920 It turns out that gas, the gameplay ability system, was so well structured, so versatile and so expertly 10:40.920 --> 10:45.040 coded that it can be utilized in any number of situations. 10:45.060 --> 10:50.700 It allows a game to have a complex system of attributes, abilities, effects and cues. 10:50.730 --> 10:54.060 And now it is an integral part of Fortnite itself. 10:54.090 --> 11:00.270 The gameplay Ability System is a masterpiece in software engineering and provides a fully replicated 11:00.270 --> 11:03.030 way to handle complex gameplay mechanics. 11:03.030 --> 11:10.710 Fully replicated means it works in a networked multiplayer environment with lag compensation providing 11:10.710 --> 11:14.640 a smooth gameplay experience even in the presence of lag. 11:14.730 --> 11:18.690 So can you make a complex game such as an RPG without gas? 11:18.720 --> 11:20.310 Well, of course you can. 11:20.310 --> 11:27.270 But learning how to use and implement gas will allow you to do so in a way that is expertly organized, 11:27.270 --> 11:33.840 easily scalable, modular, and with the efficiency good enough for a fast paced, competitive Moba 11:33.840 --> 11:40.500 title, saving you literally years that it would take you to engineer such a work of art. 11:40.530 --> 11:46.770 Gas is the most beautiful piece of software engineering that I've ever touched, and it's my pleasure 11:46.770 --> 11:49.620 to share my knowledge of the system with you. 11:49.650 --> 11:55.800 Unreal Engine developers who wish to expand their capabilities into a realm in which serious, complex 11:55.800 --> 11:59.120 games exist can do so with the use of gas. 11:59.130 --> 12:03.060 And seeing as how you're one of them, it's time to get started. 12:03.060 --> 12:09.510 Adding gas to this course project designed to showcase and unravel the features of the gas masterpiece. 12:09.510 --> 12:11.340 One piece at a time. 12:11.340 --> 12:14.070 Let's see what forms of magic we can create.