In the Mind of an Ostrich

In the past months, we have continued to develop our game Ostrich Farm. During testing, we noticed that it can be hard to tell what our ostriches are up to. Since the player may need to intervene with some behaviors to ensure that orders are completed on time, it is necessary to show what the next planned action is. To help with this, I came up with what we ended up calling 'mind clouds'. Here's a brief look at how this component works and how we are using it.

Key Features of the Mind Cloud Component

• Dynamic mind clouds: The component allows for the creation of dynamic thought bubbles that can display various textures, such as hearts, eggs, or a nest. This visual representation helps players quickly understand what the ostrich is about to do.
• Customizable textures: New textures can easily be added to represent different thoughts. A reference to the texture is stored in a data table, making it straightforward to manage and update them as needed.
• Attachment to skeletal meshes: The mind clouds are designed to attach to skeletal meshes, ensuring they follow the character’s movements.
• Ease of configuration: The component is simple to set up and can be reused in another project.

How It Works

Data Table Setup:

We created a data table to store our mind cloud textures. Each entry in the table includes an identifier and the path to the texture file.

Blueprint Logic:

We manage the creation and destruction of mind clouds in the component and use a mind cloud actor with a material billboard to display the texture. There are functions to control the appearance and duration of the mind clouds.

Material Configuration:

To add some extra flavor, we wanted the mind clouds to have soft movement. The material for the mind cloud transforms the uv's of the texture to create a continuous pulse animation.

Future plans

We're looking forward to reusing this component in future projects and will continue to refine it. Eventually, it would be nice to expand it with the following features:

• sequential mind clouds to represent complex behaviors
• material effects based on the type of thought
• sound effects