This is my first project in Unreal Engine and my introduction to working with Blueprints. The game blends the classic Hangman concept with the challenge of "The Floor is Lava," all set in an arena-style level. Players guess a secret word by collecting and dropping letters scattered throughout the level. You win by guessing the word correctly, but lose if you run out of chances or fall into the lava. The current version is still simple, with no detailed level design yet, but the core mechanics—guessing letters, winning, and losing—are all working. I’m really excited about this project and plan to keep developing it!
- Dynamic Letter Generation: Players collect letters dynamically that's placed in the level.
- Lava Hazard: The lava floor rises the more time passes.
- Timer: As of now, the timer is 4 minutes. If the player guesses correct, they gain for example 10 seconds. If they guess wrong, they lose 10 seconds.
- Multiple Guess Chances: Players get several attempts to guess the word.
- Blueprint-Driven Mechanics: Everything is built using Unreal Engine Blueprints.
In this first video, the player guesses the word correctly, leading to a victory. Yay!
Hangman.Gameplay.sped.up.HD.3.1.1.mp4
And here, you can see what happens when the player guesses wrong—they either run out of time or fall into the lava, ending the game.
In this section, I'll explain a little bit the key logic behind how my hangman game works.
To begin, just like in a traditional hangman game, we need to pick a secret word. I created an actor in my scene called WordLogic that includes a function called Select Random Word. This function randomly picks a word from a list for the player to guess, ensuring each playthrough feels fresh. Instead of importing word files, I chose to create a custom word list directly in the Blueprint, giving me more control over the gameplay. I also included a separate function to generate baselines, which visually show the length of the secret word.
Next, I created another actor called DisplayLettersActor, which handles generating letter placeholders, or "widgets," for the player to interact with. The function Create Widgets matches the number of placeholders to the length of the secret word. These placeholders are updated as the player guesses letters, ensuring the game stays responsive and visually aligned with each guess.
The Create Widgets function ensures that the widgets are generated with the correct index placement. This will later on be of help when we want to reveal the letter at the correct place inside the word.
Inside another widget, I created a Letter Holder. This acts as a placeholder for each letter the player guesses correctly. Initially, it shows a generic symbol (I used the letter "N" as a placeholder), which is replaced with the correct letter once the player makes a right guess.
Once the player selects a letter and drops it into the game, the Blueprint runs a function to check if the guessed letter exists in the secret word. This process goes through the letter list and compares it with the secret word, as shown in my inventory system Blueprint.
If the player's guess is correct, the Blueprint saves the letter and its position in the word using a data structure (struct). This makes sure that the game remembers which letters have been guessed correctly and where they belong in the word.
Now, it's time to reveal the correct letter. When a correct guess is made, the Blueprint retrieves the saved letter and its index. Using the index, the game updates the correct placeholder in the letter-widget array, revealing the letter in the right spot on the screen.
This project helped me learn a lot about using Unreal Engine's Blueprint system to create game mechanics. I gained experience managing game logic, especially when it came to generating letters dynamically and tracking player guesses. This is the most work I’ve done with arrays in a game, and it really helped me improve my skills in handling game data.