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A game mode as an experience

This guide makes an Arena mode: its content lives in a game feature plugin, an experience switches it on, and the game reads the mode's settings once it is ready. Switching back to the menu switches it off again. Open the example project's EXP_Yard_CrateRush and its YardCrateRush plugin alongside: they are built the same way.

1. The mode's content, in a game feature plugin

  1. Edit > Plugins > Add, choose Game Feature (Content Only), and name it ArenaMode.
  2. In its .uplugin, set Built In Initial Feature State to Registered. Gantry activates the plugin when the experience runs; it should not be active before that.
  3. Put the mode's content in the plugin: its actors, components, widgets, data. Game feature actions on the plugin's data asset (such as Add Components) apply while the plugin is active.

2. Settings of its own

Give your experiences fields for what differs between modes:

  1. Create a Blueprint class of Gantry Experience Definition, named BP_ModeExperience.
  2. Add variables: RoundSeconds (float), TeamCount (integer).

3. The experience

  1. Content Browser > Add > Gantry > Experience. The Add menu now asks which class to use: choose BP_ModeExperience. Name the asset EXP_Arena.
  2. Set Experience Tag to Experience.Arena, and fill in RoundSeconds and TeamCount.
  3. In Stages, add Activate Game Features, and add ArenaMode to its Game Feature Plugin Names. Add an Add Input Mappings stage if the mode has controls of its own.
  4. Open the base experience and add EXP_Arena to its Children.

4. Starting it

Any of these activates it:

  • From a menu button: Set Experience By Tag with Experience.Arena.
  • For the arena map: an entry in Project Settings > Plugins > Gantry Experience > Map Experiences, so opening the map starts the mode.
  • While testing: -Experience=Experience.Arena on the command line, or ?Experience=Experience.Arena on the map URL.

5. Reading its settings

In the game mode, or any Blueprint that needs the mode's settings:

  1. Wait For Experience Ready, with priority High if other systems build on this one.
  2. From On Ready, take the experience, Cast To BP_ModeExperience, and read RoundSeconds and TeamCount.

Use Is Experience Active with Experience.Arena to check whether the arena is part of the running chain.

6. Switching back

Set Experience By Tag with the menu's tag switches away. The arena keeps running until the menu is ready; then its stages end and ArenaMode is switched off. A plugin both experiences use stays on throughout.

Next

  • Variants of the mode: list them in EXP_Arena's Children. Each runs the arena's stages first, then its own.
  • A mode made outside the game, as side-loaded content: Your first mod.