devisedproject
devisedproject
Devised Project
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devisedproject 5 years ago
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Narrative
The narrative is focused on the short period within which Kunoichi are known to be active - the 8 years between 1561 and 1569. Kunoichi have been founded in 1561 following the legendary and most fatal fourth battle of Kawanakajima. This iconic battle was a part of a long conflict between Takeda and Uesugi clans and caused the highest number of casualties on both sides. Following this battle Takeda decided to form Kunoichi and started planning a Suruga invasion (territory of weakened by the death of the clan鈥檚 feudal lord Imagawa clan). After years of Takeda-Uesugi and Takeda-Hojo conflicts, Takeda realises the Suruga invasion in 1569. This is the last significant action of the clan before the death of the clan鈥檚 feudal lord, Takeda Shingen, in 1573. Following this date any information on Kunoichi activity or existence end.
Due to to the historical background, the game鈥檚 narrative focuses on the period of 1561 to 1569.聽The mission briefings which can be found on the mission selection screen follow all the key events (political content) and information (cultural content) in the time period chosen. That includes the result of the fourth battle of Kawanakajima, forming Kunoichi, Kunoichi background (purpose and recruits), Kunoichi training, Takeda-Uesugi conflict, Takeda-Hojo alliance, Takeda-Hojo conflict and the great Suruga invasion. The training story starts from the moment the Kunoichi were formed, however the post on-boarding levels story starts from the initial Suruga invasion planning phase at the beginning of 1560s and ends with the realisation of the Suruga invasion using frame narrative (the story comes back to the motive it originated from).
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devisedproject 5 years ago
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Gameplay mode management
The game includes 2 types of gameplay modes - an on-boarding and a regular one. The on-boarding mode is used for the first 2 training mission to allow for creating a progressive on-boarding. The mode can be easily configured on a scene level (see image for reference).
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The mode used in the level determines behaviour types used. For instance, during on-boarding levels the collectables/interaction points will only appear one at a time to allow for guiding the player through the level, while during regular levels all collectables will be displayed right away to allows the player to choose which route to take and plan a collection strategy ahead. Moreover, as in the on-boarding levels the collectables are treated as interaction point (or markers the player has to reach), there is no need for the player object to use collection animation. Instead the player object will switch to idle state upon reaching the destination. In the regular levels the player object will always play collection animation upon reaching the destiny (in order to visualise the scroll collection).
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devisedproject 5 years ago
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Enemies implementation
As mentioned in the documentation, there are 3 different enemy types: foxes and samurai of 2 types (red and black). Samurai are dynamic enemies, while foxes are static. All samurai (both red and black) follow patrol routines which are set through the use of Transform arrays. Every samurai is given an empty GameObject for the Waypoint Patrol. Each Waypoint Patrol contains a set of waypoint objects which include only Transforms. Each samurai instance only needs a reference to the Waypoint Patrol object containing the waypoint. The game scripts handle counting the Transform objects and setting a Transform List for an enemy patrol route. The dynamic enemies will always follow the route from the first to the last waypoint and then loop from the beginning of the List. Find images below for reference.聽
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While it is not used in the game currently, all enemies are set up to be customise-able in terms of their name, copy (text that appears if they catch the player) and NPC image. This in the future could be used to create unique NPCs.
All enemies use a visualised field of view (FOV) for player detection. Both the FOV visualisation and player detection are based on the use of Ray Casts. FOV visualisation uses Layer Mask to detect obstacles and create a shadow effect (the FOV behaving similarly to light when hitting an object). The FOV is also customise-able (e.g. FOV distance and angle) on enemy instance basis (every instance could use unique FOV settings). The red and black samurai types are differentiated using FOV customisation (apart from the armour colour, the black samurai use a FOV of an increased distance and view angle to spot the player easier). Find the images below for reference.
The player detection was previously based on RayCasting and the use of LayerMasks. However using the layer masks for detecting a dynamic object (player) caused issues with detection (the enemies weren鈥檛 properly detecting the player if the player has previously been in a close proximity while being behind an obstacle). Rather than using the LayerMasks for managing the detection system, a more efficient way was found through the use of RayCasts and monitoring the enemy FOV angle and distance from the player. This has also been the reason for moving the detection check functions outside of the self-contained FOV scripts into the enemy management scripts. While it could be determined a less efficient way of coding, it has improved the gameplay performance and therefore used as the final player detection system.聽
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All of those features have been set up in this way to allow for the scripts to be easily reusable and new levels to be easily created. Most of the development time during this project has been invested in creating a dynamic back-end to allow for an easily customise-able game experience from on level-to-level basis. This includes both the easy game expansion as well as improved gameplay maintenance (any bug fixes or improvements can be easily applied across the game objects).
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devisedproject 5 years ago
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Final level design
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The level design went through multiple iteration from experimenting with isometric style (first image), a flat orthographic camera view room, multi-floor levels to simplified isometric environments. The were 2 reasons for this decision:
- the simplified style was found most suitable for the theme of the game due to the popularity of minimalism in Japanese culture (for the same reason all assets were developed in a low-poly style)
- this style was more suitable for managing the level in terms of positioning and visibility of collectables and enemies and such layout has was found to be easier for the players/testers to understand and interact with聽
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devisedproject 5 years ago
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Environmental design inspiration
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The environmental design inspiration came from point and click stealth games such as Where cards fall, This war of mine and Neighbours from hell. Not only the level design, but also other features where inspired by the games mentioned above. Such features included the player movement (point and click) and camera mechanics (allowing the player to move the camera around using WASD or by keeping the cursor close to the screen edges), as well as level end goal system (collecting objects in order to complete a level).
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