Customize the HUD

Player UI lives in WBP_PlayerHUD. Floating score numbers use WBP_HitDamage. The game mode creates the HUD widget at runtime and switches tabs with Change Hud Tab.

HUD tab flow

stateDiagram-v2
  [*] --> Start: Level begins
  Start --> InGame: Start Game Btn
  InGame --> GameOver: On Game Over
  GameOver --> Start: Restart Btn
  Start --> [*]: Exit Game Btn

Tab index	Panel	Visible when
Start	Start layout + cannon buttons	Before Start Game
In-game	Player HUD Panel	After Start Game
Game over	Game Over Panel	Lives exhausted

Example — rename the score label

1. Open Blueprints/Widgets/WBP_PlayerHUD.
2. Select Score Count Text (in-game tab).
3. Change Text from the default to SCORE: 0 or your localized string.
4. Compile and save — Update High Score / score logic still drives the numeric value at runtime.

Do not rename the widget unless you update every Blueprint reference.

Example — highlight high score on the start screen

1. Open WBP_PlayerHUD → select High Score Text.
2. Set Appearance → Color and Opacity (for example gold #FFD700).
3. Optionally increase Font → Size.
4. Play DemoMap — start screen should show the saved high score from slot SpaceShooterSaveGame with your styling.

Widget reference

Widget	Updated by
Start Game Btn	Calls Start Game on BP_SpaceRockGameMode
Exit Game Btn	Quits the game
Restart Btn	Calls Restart Game on the game mode
Score Count Text	Game mode score updates during play
Asteroids Count Text	Internal Update Asteroid Count
Remaining Lives Text / life display	Show Life Hearts on BP_Spaceship
High Score Text	Update High Score after load / new record

Cannon selection UI

Cannon Selection passes ECannonType into Start Game:

UI choice	Enum	Ship component
Single shot	SingleShot	BP_SingleShot
Triple shot	TripleShot	BP_TripleShot

Start Game calls Set Cannon Type on BP_Spaceship before Start Spaceship.

Example — floating damage colour

1. Open WBP_HitDamage.
2. Edit the score Text widget colour and the Crit Animation track (used when bIsCritical is true on Show Score).
3. In BP_SpaceRock, critical multiplier defaults range from 1.2 (Small) to 1.8 (ExtraLarge) on Asteroids Score Crit Multiplier — higher multiplier triggers critical popups more often when that logic runs in Show Score.

WBP_HitDamage is added with Add To Viewport, positioned via Project World To Screen, then removed after a short delay.

Test the full flow

1. Save WBP_PlayerHUD and WBP_HitDamage.
2. Play DemoMap.
3. Walk through: start → in-game → game over → restart.
4. Beat your high score once and restart the editor to confirm SpaceShooterSaveGame still loads on the start screen.

Next steps

• Tune difficulty
• Blueprint reference — WBP_PlayerHUD