Unreal engine 4 advice?

[Giodude]

I posted this as a blog post, but the more I think about it, the more I realize it would make alot more sense if I just posted it here to begin with:

So I've made a few joke games here and there and I've showed them to friends; Most of which were made in things like twine and rpg maker. I've recently picked up unreal engine 4, since it's the only real free engine that has support for simple 2D platformers. Anyway, so far this is what I have of my game, codenamed "rhythm slash".

It's a mobile game where you flip gravity by tapping the screen, and you have to slash enemies to the rhythm; Kind of like gravity guy meets bit trip. The issue is, I don't know how to go about making him flip. Right now I have it so that he gets launched up the z axis when the screen is tapped, but then he falls right back down afterwards. If I disable gravity, I can't apply force to him at all. I can't make him stick. Is there a better way to do this? I'm using blueprints and I'm at a loss when it comes to programming. The most I know is a bit of JavaScript and it doesn't really come on handy here. Thanks for just taking the time to look at this if at all.

EDIT: Also the background is a placeholder, I'm not that good at making assets. Everything else is original though.

 

[ThoD]

Don't know if there's a correct way of doing it, but since I used to use RPG Maker in the past so much, a certain method has stuck with me when I'm having such issues in an engine. If you can't make him flip, simply make two "rooms" of sort for each possibility (one for correct way and one for inverted one) that are exactly the same with only difference that you have the gravity draw him to the opposite platform with a seamless transition between them, so tapping the screen switches to the inverted thing you want to do and tapping again moves back to normal. You can even add an animation for it so it's like Shift (a game if you have heard of it).

 

[Giodude]

Don't know if there's a correct way of doing it, but since I used to use RPG Maker in the past so much, a certain method has stuck with me when I'm having such issues in an engine. If you can't make him flip, simply make two "rooms" of sort for each possibility (one for correct way and one for inverted one) that are exactly the same with only difference that you have the gravity draw him to the opposite platform with a seamless transition between them, so tapping the screen switches to the inverted thing you want to do and tapping again moves back to normal. You can even add an animation for it so it's like Shift (a game if you have heard of it).

The issue is I have plenty of ideas on how to make him flip, just don't know where the blueprints are and how to connect them. Also for some reason i don't think there's a way to change the gravity in unreal engine 4, since that was the first thing I tried. Thanks for the advice though.

 

[ThoD]

The issue is I have plenty of ideas on how to make him flip, just don't know where the blueprints are and how to connect them. Also for some reason i don't think there's a way to change the gravity in unreal engine 4, since that was the first thing I tried. Thanks for the advice though.

You can change it if you aren't making a game based on a blueprint and instead go the C/C++ method (meaning those that require programming), then you can simply modify it. You can make it instead of dragging you down to dragging you up instead and so on. Just find the part of the code that's responsible for gravity effects and tweak the parameters (eg: if flag X is on, have it work normally and if it's off have it drag you upwards, with the flag switching every time the screen is tapped).

 

[Giodude]

You can change it if you aren't making a game based on a blueprint and instead go the C/C++ method (meaning those that require programming), then you can simply modify it. You can make it instead of dragging you down to dragging you up instead and so on. Just find the part of the code that's responsible for gravity effects and tweak the parameters (eg: if flag X is on, have it work normally and if it's off have it drag you upwards, with the flag switching every time the screen is tapped).

Im not able to do both am i? It's mainly being done in blueprints.

 

[ThoD]

Im not able to do both am i? It's mainly being done in blueprints.

If you are using blueprints instead of C/C++, it's not possible unfortunately. Just started using the engine after half a decade, so still getting back into things, if I find a way, I'll let you know but doubt there is one. For C/C++ though, you can simply edit and expand the code, allowing you to do anything you want with it.

 

[tides]

i don't understand what you want him to do.

if you want him to jump, then you can use the jump function instead of the launch node. if you want him to face another direction, you can just set his X
if you want him to do a flip jump, that is animation