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Use GASPALS in your own project

There are two ways to start:

Start from When
The template project (rename it) A new game. Everything is configured.
Your project + the plugin An existing project. Follow Installation, option B first.

Then make GASPALS yours without editing more of the plugin than needed.

1. Create your own game mode

Create a Blueprint child of /GASPALS/Blueprints/GM_Sandbox, for example GM_MyGame, in your project's content.

Setting (class defaults) Value
Default Pawn Class Your pawn (step 2), or a sample pawn.
Pawn Classes Soft The pawns N cycles through; empty it to disable switching.
Visual Overrides Soft The characters M cycles through (and DDCvar.VisualOverride indexes).
Player Controller Class PC_Sandbox or a child of it.

Deriving from GM_Sandbox matters: the visual override manager reads its character list from it.

Note

GM_Sandbox picks the pawn from DDCvar.PawnClass (-1 = Default Pawn Class). If your game should always use the Default Pawn Class, keep the variable at -1 and remove the N mapping.

2. Create your pawn

Make a child Blueprint of SandboxCharacter_CMC or SandboxCharacter_Mover (see Mover and CMC pawns to choose). A child keeps every system wired and lets you override what you need:

  • Tune the components (cover, camera, first person) on your child's component templates.
  • Override pawn functions (Get_PropertiesForCamera, GetTraversalCheckInputs...) for different behavior.
  • Add your gameplay: health, abilities, weapons firing.

Your own character mesh goes in as a visual override (see Add a retargeted character); keep the UEFN mannequin on the pawn as the animation source.

To build a pawn from scratch instead, see Add the systems to your own pawn.

3. Set up your levels

For each level, in World Settings > GameMode Override, pick GM_MyGame. Or set it once in Project Settings > Maps & Modes > Default GameMode.

Each level needs:

Set your maps in Project Settings > Maps & Modes (Game Default Map, Editor Startup Map).

4. Remove demo features

Demo feature How to remove
Pawn switching (N), character switching (M), teleport (J) Remove IA_NextPawn, IA_NextVisualOverride, IA_TeleportToTarget from your mapping context.
Equipment and overlay menus (time dilation) Remove the menu actions from the mapping context, and call SelectNewEquipment / overlay selection from your gameplay.
Mover debug flying (Z) Delete the Input Key node in the Mover pawn's Event Graph.
Demo shooting and spawning On the ragdoll pawn, the aim branches of IA_Takedown and IA_Interact.
On-screen debug prints The camera perspective change prints its name; remove the Print String in AC_CameraSystem.

5. Keep upgrades manageable

  • Put your assets in your project's content, not in Plugins/GASPALS.
  • Prefer child Blueprints and new data assets over editing the plugin's assets.
  • When you must edit a plugin asset, note it: you will merge it by hand when updating GASPALS.

6. Package

  1. Add your maps to Project Settings > Packaging > List of maps to include.
  2. Keep the packaging settings from Installation.
  3. Install a C++ toolchain (Visual Studio 2022 on Windows): the engine plugins GASPALS needs make the packaging tool build a game target.
  4. Platforms > Windows > Package Project.

The demo's Game Animation Widget, Controls and Read Me panels are editor utility widgets: they do not exist in a packaged game.