robertdrozdzunit04

[robertdrozdzunit04]

Feedback

It seems like people enjoyed the weapon feel and switching mechanic, which is good since its the main gameplay loop and if that isn’t good then there is no point in playing the game. It also seems that people enjoyed the hagrid ps1 character that is featured in my game.

So I had a range of things people didn’t really like about the game, firstly the AI and specifically about not being able to know when the player was taking damage since there was no indication, I worked on this by added a simple UI element of health and liniing it to the player health so everytime the player got hit it would change, but that is quite basic and next im planning on added a sound effect to play if the player is hit. Next people complained about the difficulty so i increased the enemies health and lowed the ammo count on some guns to make it a bit more challenging. the one thing i couldn’t change was the pistol since the input axis doesn’t allow for a good pistol mechanic but without it the machine gun wouldn’t work so i couldn’t fix it.

First thing is people said to had a health widget and I did i created a simple heart icon and added the player health integar to the screen indicated how much health the player has. I also reduced the health of some enemies slighty so to not make it super easy but not to make shooting enemies boring. The pistol was a real problem for people which i sadly couldn’t figure out how to fix and didn’t really want to remove it so that is something that i just couldn’t resolve.

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Evaluation

 What went well in this project?                                                                    My Main Goal for this Project was to create a Fun Retro Shooter that switches guns randomly and I believe i Did a really good job at that, and even better i didn’t really use any tutorials to try to figure out the randomisation for this unique mechanic but I actually worked through it until i got the desired mechanic which i did. Another thing i think went well in this project was creating a textures for the level with the grass and brick textures looking really good yet PS1 which was my goal, Lastly what i think went well was the UI design, I made a simple UI that does the job of conveying all the information the player needs without taking up the whole screen.

What could have gone better?                                                                      The Main thing that could of gone better is the actual level, I didn’t have much time to create a good looking level so I had only able to create a pretty basic and kind of boring level which kind of disappoints me since i really like making levels but i didn’t have a lot of time to make them especially since i needed to focus on the actual randomisation aspect of the project. Another part that could of gone better was the enemy designs, currently they are just black boxes that were ment to be replaced but i never got to created my mutant creatures which kind of takes away from the game.

What will you do differently next time? (test earlier, plan more, start dev earlier, find new software? anything)                                                             What I think I should do differently is too do all the research and blog work first so i have as much time as possible to work on all the aspects of the game, second instead of focusing on the art and gameplay at the same time i should, focus on one or the other first so i don’t keep flip flopping and changing direction, Next time Im also gonna try to not complicate mechanics like shooting with randomization factors and keep those simple so the gameplay isn’t effected.

Finally, end on a positive looking forward to the next project, this will be the last thing someone reads so you want to end on a high note.                 I already have a very intresting Idea for my next project and im excited to work on it, Im planning on still making a FPS game but in a unique style that i think will make it stand out and make it really memorable experience to play through.

[robertdrozdzunit04]

Randomness Research Two Types of Randomness

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dwI5b-wRLic

Randomness is essentially something that can’t be easily predict and doesn’t have clear patterns, random is not being sure what comes next and video games emulate this perfectly. I believe that video games are truly the only medium that has true randomness. Randomness in gaming can create some really memorable dynamic gaming experiences that otherwise wouldn’t of happened of happened to anyone since. Randomness can be a really fun way of creating situations in games for the player to tackle that can be totally different from the experiences of another player. But Randomness could also be a determent to a game for example, if every mechanic is random then the game dev can’t perfectly design the levels to be fun and most of the time the levels are either bland and easy or not possible to complete and frustrating.

Input Randomness

The Basics of input randomness is like a procedurally generated level in roguelikes or a random set of cards, input randomness basically is when an random event happens before the player has a choice about it and has to deal with the consequences of that action. Input Randomness is can help with creating dynamic gaming situations like random encounters or like in my game a randomly chosen gun and the player must deal with that randomness that they have been thrust into.

Output Randomness

Output Randomness is when you make a decision and then the randomness takes over and the player has to deal with the consequences of your choice. For example Hit chances in the strategy game XCOM when even a 99% hit chance can somehow still end up in a miss. Output randomness personally wouldn’t really work in my game since the entire point of the game is that basically everythng is random and the player has to deal with the situations that they had no influence over.

[robertdrozdzunit04]

Wider World Research

My Game’s enemies are mutated, zombie like gory flesh lumps, so i need to do some research about parasitic, viruses or mutation in general to create and see how mutants would look like, or even how mutation can affect the brain and actions of creatures when they are mutated.

Mutation:

Mutation is a change of DNA that change range from changing the appearance of creatures to changing how they act, hunt, eat or do. Mutations are normally errors in the DNA that are replicated through mitosis. This will help in creating the enemies since when i think of an error i think, malformed appearance or like double limbs, so i could have the enemies have multiple limbs, or exaggerated faces, that droop to the bottom of the ground. Errors could also be mental such as I could have the enemies be screaming constantly, speaking gibberish but this could also be used for some gameplay mechanics for example, some enemies could be afraid of light sources, or instead of chasing you they would run away from you and all of this could be random adding to the randomness of mutation. There are 4 classes of mutantions that can happen to creatures, the first is Spontaneous Mutation also known as molecular decay.  Its when even a healthy cell can just suddenly get DNA damge that can range by which characteristics the DNA damage does to the creatures, this sort of mutation would be kinda boring and doesn’t allow for a unique theme among the mutations. I kinda want a reason for the mutants if it be a virus, or parasite or toxic radiation. The Second Class of Mutations is Error-prone replication bypass, this basically replicates by accident the DNA damaged cells instead of the correct cells mostly done when the DNA is repairing itself but instead it views the damaged DNA as the repaired Cells. This could work since the DNA Damage is the same and not completely random and more DNA damaged cells are also the same and not just each differently random damaged DNA. next class is Errors introudcued during DNA repair, very self explanatory instead of actually fixing the DNA the DNA repair process accidently damages the DNA causing a likely hood of some kind of mutation happening to the creature. Lastly the most interesting class of mutation is induced mutation basically mutations caused by contact with mutagens and enviromental causes, for example being in contact with specific chemicals like hydroxylamine or radiation like Ultraviolet can cause mutations in the cells, this is the mutation class im gonna do since it also for way more unique mutations and allows for reasons such as radiation posioning and it would allow for mechanics to link back to these like for example a enemy can radiate radioactive material or like throw toxic waste. 

Viruses can causes abnormal features on creatures and people and even make them do things they normally wouldn’t, the most famous virus in fiction are zombie viruses that infect humans and change them into cannibalistic monsters, which is based on rabies.

Viruses are submicroscopic infections that replicate living inside cells of an organism. Once the they have control of the living cells they feed off the other cells and replicate, since the virus must having a living husk to survive it keeps killing and taking over the cells. uses an inspirations of how viruses work i could have different kind of enemies for example since viruses need living cells to live the enemies will try to rush the player and try to infect them and the player will must get a specific health item or something, but for example the virus enemies could be very weak and slow since the viruses are eating the body for sustenance.

Mutagen is a physical or chemical agent that changes the genetic material of organisms that come into contact with it, the more amount of mutagen the organism comes into contact with the more frequent mutations are. Mutagens can affect the transcriptions and replications of DNA and in severe doses can cause cell death, the mutagen can causes aberrant, impaired or loss of functions of particular genes and many mutations may even lead to the formation of cancer. Mutagens can even effect chromosomes such as deleting them, inverting or moving them about. With this information i could create some really interesting enemies, since a mutagen can change a chromosomes then the mutants can honestly end up looking completely different while still retaining human features. The mutants could also have different design features for example mutants with abnormal large arms or many arms could carry larger weaponry that needs to be destroyed before the player has a changed to kill the enemy. There are different types of Mutagens Ionizing Radiations such as x-rays, gamma rays etc, Ultraviolet radiations and Radioactive decay. Most of these radiations cause the DNA to break and cause other damages and it can cause failure to replicate the new DNA. The Other type is DNA reactive chemicals, these are mutagens that directly interact with DNA that can cause mutagenetic compounds in the DNA. Reactive Oxygen Species may cause the body to proude strand breaks and crosslinks.

[robertdrozdzunit04]

ITCH.IO

https://nerow.itch.io/quickrunner3d

[robertdrozdzunit04]

Wider World Research

Castles 

I need to do some Castle Research since my first level will take place in a fantasy castle and i need to learn how to design it a good level that still looks and feels like a castle, so i need to find the most useful castle designs and research how they work, the different levels 

Motte and Bailey Castles

The Motte and Bailey castle is pretty simple design, but its different from all the other castle. Mostly from the fact that the main keep or fort is on the main made hill while the rest of the village is on the ground. Another big aspect of the motte and bailey is its small size and how everything is made out of wood, this would mean that it would be easily flammable and quite easy to break down. Often when building the hill they would create a motte which would be filled with water so the enemy couldn’t easily get to the gates. From the research I believe the Motte And Bailey could be an good tutorial level castle map, very small and simple that could help the player learn the mechanics without being overwhelmed with a massive looming stone structure infront of them. It could also have some unique gameplay mechanics for that specific castle for example some kind of climbing up a hill or using the wood to burn things, i would imagine fire being a big aspect of this castle and a level exclusive mechanic.

Stone Keep Castles

Stone Keep Castles are what most people think they hear castle, a stone block with stone walls surrounding it with stone towers. This is what most mainstream fantasy castles also look like. This is prob i will have in my game since it has quite basic geometry but quite interesting architecture with the towers, battlements and smaller buildings in the middle, it also has enough space to branch out and add some more unnatural things in the castle for example the castle could be covered in like mutant goo or the castle level could be happening during a siege so arrows could be flying, and their could be tunnellers under the ground leading to other areas of the map. This Sort of castle has way more room to create more dynamic and fun levels with multiple levels, areas and secret locations. The transition from wood to stone could also be a gameplay mechanic, for example instead of fire, explosive could be used to create openings, create environment obstacles or use the stone map to damage enemies, the Stone also gives it a more aristocratic feel so the enemies could look and the general surroundings could be quite regency era with redcoat looking enemies or French nobility balls with walls being covered in paintings, fancy food and tons of carpets. This is when a lot of the torture chambers and stuff become more well known in castles this could give me reasons to have more medieval weaponry for the level or the enemies could be executioners or victims of the torturing, for example having an floating iron maiden with a corpse still inside of it.

Concentric Castles

Concentric Castles are basically taking a stone keep castle and improving it in every single aspect, from larger and taller walls, the classic towers with triangle roofs turn into circle shaped roofs best for holding cannons, or catapults. these could lead to a fun off hand way of killing enemies by using a cannon or catapult and launching stuff at them. It could also be a way for transitioning to another part of the level by having to use artillery to bomb a specific area to enter it. These castles normally have a series of walls, this could represent slowly unlocking different parts of the castle giving the player a feeling of progression. these sort of castles also seem to have a bit more random geometry and stuff so i could exaggerate it to create sprawling levels with puzzles, enemies and mini bosses to complete. this type of castle could be the last level where all the skills are tested of the player.

[robertdrozdzunit04]

FPS games Research

Dusk

Dusk is a First Person Retro Shooter that imamates and honors the mechanics and style of early to late 90s FPS games. The Game’s main gameplay task is to reach the exit of the level, I really like this feature and will add it to my game, since the only objective of the game is to get to the exit it allows for main gameplay mechanics and the freedom to get their how ever you want, it also allows the games designers to create dynamic and complex levels with more then one way of getting to the objective. The Games Setting is Lovecraftian Pennsylvania, i really like the style the game went for with the whole creepy cult but it just wouldn’t fit my game since the whole point of my game is to have cutes fantasy world be.. infected with gorey violent creatures. though i can’t use the setting i could use some of the bloody characters for reference since i plan to have mutant looking characters. I could use them as inspiration for my own characters to create very off weird uncanny enemies. The Main Gameplay loop is the fast paced gun play, this is a feature I will definitely have in my game, since my game is a retro inspired game, it would fit to have a fast paced gunplay. that sort of gameplay with fast gun action, quick switching and high sensitivity will add to the chaos of the gameplay and would make it a lot more fun.

Quake

Quake is a classic FPS game from 1996 created by iD software, there first truly 3D game after Doom. This Game is what most retro rival FPS games emulate at least at the core and that is what I will do too. The main objective of the game is like others in the same time peirod, Explore levels, find secrets reach the exit. This is a mechanic that i would also like to have, cause i believe that large and fun levels to run around in and shoot stuff is really fun in a video game and what most FPS games don’t focus on anymore, the entire point of this project is to create a fun FPS game and by learning from the past and tweaking it to fit the modern day would create a really unique experience. The Game has quite large levels to explore, I would also want to have quite large levels to explore, but i would want to go further i would like to create intersecting level paths so if you choose to complete a thing a certain way, then a different path or new area will unlock depending on what you did. I would like to do this because just running around the same boring levels would be kind of tedious and not fun, so having large explorable areas that differ from geometry to theme would make the player really play through the game and explore the different parts of it. The Gun play in the game is really crunchy and punchy, you feel like you are actually using those weapons, This is something to add to my game cause simple gameplay games like mine need really good gameplay feel, sound effects, artstyle it all needs to add up to create a immersive experience so learning from classic games like quake to to design good sound effects, gun animations and looks would go along way to create fun and interesting game.

Cruelty Squad

Is a Retro Tactical First Person Shooter that features an assassin tasked with killing targets in different levels. The Game is known for his bizarre and surreal style of graphics that purposely were made to look bad. The Gameplay involves the choosing the weaponry and equipment you have before each mission and then traversing a open , sandbox-style level to neutralize targets. The game would sadly not work with the player selecting what gun they would like since the game rotation mechanic would kinda not allow that, so even though its quite a fun mechanic to have in a game, adds customizability and different playstyle each time, it just doesn’t add anything to the experience. The Controls of the game are quite off, since its a tactical game the player needs a lot of keys for certain actions and some normal automatic actions like reload needs to be down by holding down a key and moving a mouse down and up to simulate a mag being taken out. I will not use this control scheme cause it will just slow down the fast paced gameplay loop and having a bunch of random mechanics that add nothing to the gameplay or challenges for the player to overcome then it doesn’t need to be here

[robertdrozdzunit04]

Health and Key System

As for any game especially a fast paced FPS game there needs to be a health system so i set up a pretty basic health system but i added some randomization to it that makes it a bit more chaotic and different each and every play through

This Code shows how the Health Pickup Works, First we get the players health but doing a cast, then we use that info of the players half and set it so the player doesn’t pick up the health if their health is 100, i do this so the player doesn’t spam picking up health to get a ridiculous amount of health, once it detects that the player has a lower health then it does a random float in range from a minimum of 5 to 25 and whatever it picks gets added to the current health and then we set it. I used a random in range so that it can be more random, it goes into the fast action gameplay cause if the player gets much less health then it they needed then they have to still be on their toes, and those are the kind of situations i want my game to have, very chaotic situations that require the player to think on their toes to get out of it alive .

This Shows us how the player characters health can be taken away from them, It basically uses the same randomization code that gaining health does but instead once the player has <= 0 health then the game opens a level, a basic way of telling the player you died, that would of been different if i had the time to add such stuff in.

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Character Interaction

For This project I wanted to have a bit more interaction for the player to perform, since currently the only way to interact with the world is by shooting enemies and opening gates and secret doors. I also Wanted the player to have a friendly face at the beginning of the game that gives the player the abilities.

I Began by having the friendly character (PS1 Hagrid) looping an idle animation, I added this so that the its not just a static t-posing Hagrid which would be quite off-putting plus animations help immerse the player into the game so having a character do little idle animation makes the world feel real and believable in the confined context of its game world. 

This part is the actual character interaction. I originally planned for the player to actually Press E and have like text boxes come up with some dialogue but I had no time to really make that but there is still player interaction since the player needs to overlap Hagrid's collision box. I used a collision box cause it was the simplest and easiest method of quickly adding some kind of player interaction. Once the player has Interacted with Hagrid then the Weapon ability will spawn in and allow the player to actually start playing the game. I did it this way so that the player can just figure out the movement first before being immediately flung into gameplay.

This part of the code was the hardest to figure out this its playing a looping run animation and then its being lerped to an specific location. I Used a Timeline so that the chartacter could lerp into another location but not instantly, that was an issue without the timeline is that the character would just teleport to the location, with a timeline which i still don’t entirely understand but it allowed the character to overtime walk towards the location. I used a Vinterp so that the character knows its currently location and its new location which just adds 1000 or takes away 1000 from the actors location, once that is all done it sets the actors location. I did it this way so that a fluid and someone believable yet silly run animation could be played that sees hagrid walk into the sky, it shows the kind of tone i went for the game, it has very gorey violence (PLANNED) but its set in this fantasy not so serious world. 

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Shooting Mechanic

The Main Mechanic of this shooting game is that it changes the weapon after the player runs out of Ammo and getting the weapons to each shoot the same type of line trace while having different damage types, fire rates and ammo counts. So my Goal for the Shooting mechanic was a Mechanic using Line traces and the use if arrays to get random actors in class 

Here I use a Cast To Gun Parent to get the different guns Forward vector and world location,  I did this so that the Line Trace can detect where to start its scan and where it ends if it doesn’t hit anything. I also Used a Gun_Parent to get other information needed for the line trace and the actual randomization code. I get the Max Bullet Distance to help determine the Vector for the Line trace it also allows for each different weapon have different max bullet distances which adds more unique feel to the different weapons if for example a pistol has a lower range then a sniper rifle.

This Code is the actual gun randomization, first we start we a tick that checks every frame for this code, I didn’t want to do it this why cause this could have optimization issues later on but for now, its the only real way i can think of to work this randomization in. Next I used a branch i used this cause without it i had a problem of the game just automatically spawning in and switching the guns out at the start of game. next i used a delay too not check every single time, this was used to optimize the game better and to make it run smoother. Next i used another condition this is where the main mechanic condition comes in, It gets the current guns ammo count and if it reaches lesser then or equal to 0 it will change the gun. I did it like this cause i thought randomizing the gun every 30 seconds wouldn’t be actually that fun since the player wouldn’t have the chance to use their favorite weapons and also it just makes it a bit more realistic and fun to use the weapon first before switching it out. lastly we get to the actual randomization part. I use a array of actors to change the gun that the player is using, I did it like this so that all the different gun information would be changed once the gun changes and not just the gun model 

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Movement System

My Game is a retro fasted paced run and gun game so i needed to create a dynamic and advanced movement system that allows the player to easily and enjoyably traverse the levels. I did this by making a dynamic system that seamlessly changes between three basic movements, sprinting, crouching and sliding. This System also creates a good foundation that allows for new movements to be easily added to the game if need be.

First I worked on a Simple Sprint mechanic that detects if the key is pressed down or released and once it detects that the player is infact sprinting or walking normally it changes the max walk speed with the variables run speed and walk speed, this allows for seamless change between sprinting and running, it also allows me to quickly change how quickly i want the player character to either run or walk without changing all the code.

Next For the Crouch I had to use timelines so that a seamless crouch feel could be created without the need of creating animations, I made a timeline that lasts about 3 seconds that causes the player camera to change on the Y axis to look like the player is crouching then I uses a series of lerps to actual transition the player to its new destination. This also actually changes the size of the collision sphere around the player so stuff like cover and sliding underneath tight gaps can be possible, it adds more creative and dynamic situations for the player this way and also just feels more realistic since we don’t want the player to hide behind cover and yet still be getting shot.

This simple code uses switch movements and e-movements to change what type of movement is being used at what time, specifically this one is detecting if the player is crouching or sprinting while performing a crouch which will do a slide, e-movements have been really useful with this movement system since it allows for the player to quickly change the movement type they are doing and allows me to quickly add new movement systems with ease and without breaking the code.

[robertdrozdzunit04]

Plans for this Week

The General Plan for this week is finishing the AI system that will patrol a certain area and then if it sees the player to follow them and give chase, next would be to work on the weapons to make them feel distinct such as increase the fire rate on some and adding sounds of bullets. But also some other more gameplay additions such as Powerups, jumping platforms and explosive barrels to just give the player more things to do and tackle obstacles in more fun ways then just aiming and pressing left mouse button. Also adding some more stuff to the movement system would benefit the gameplay a lot so i was thinking of adding some sort of dash move to my game it would make the gameplay more entertaining and add to the quick action FPS that I'm going for. Lastly I want to add some sort of end part of the level where the player finishes the level and once that part is done then the MVP will be finally complete.

[robertdrozdzunit04]

Have you got your MVP?

Not quite, trying to work out and fix the the gun rotation took much longer then i planned trying to get the arrays to work and switch out the guns correctly with the correct information and not just switch out the skin, so it took quite a bit to get that working but now that i have the gun rotation working at its current stage then i have got most of my MVP done all i Need know is some AI and a way for the player to end the level. The AI should not be hard to do since im doing the most basic AI currently that just follows you but if i got enough time i will get Ai that Shoots the player as well. Testing should begin Tuesday since Monday will be all about touching up the current MVP mechanics and getting them to where i want them to be and finally on Tuesday I will be able to start testing and making sure its actually fun and playable with no game breaking bugs 

[robertdrozdzunit04]

Reselection on Last Week

Last week my main goal was to implement the gun rotation system or a version of that and I did. The System currently inplace is that every 10 seconds the code will pick a random child actor from an array and switch out the current actor. thanks to using child actors each of the different weapons has different damage, fire rate and ammo size so all the guns feel different and unique and not just a reskinned pistol. The system will still be tweaked on such as instead of changing every couple of seconds it changes once the ammo has run out and adding a gun switching animations would be a nice but thats a bit far with the amount of time i have.

Next was creating the AI, this was a bit harder then expected so I couldn’t figure it out last week and the gun rotation took longer then expected so all i could currently do for AI was being able to kill them, but I do have a plan that will make the enemies follow you so the basic ai will be done this week.

[robertdrozdzunit04]

Project Proposal

Wider World

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Mockup of the Game

The Mockup of my game is a classic arcade shooter with a gun game like mechanic where after the player runs out of ammo the gun will change to either a low tier weapon to like a high tier god like weapon. the aim of the levels is to kill as many enemies as possible while trying to get to the end of the level as quick as possible. the player will have a variety of advanced movement to allow them to complete the game as quickly as possible, such as sliding, jumping and dashing that will be implemented into the game. The Game will have a range of different levels that all have a cutesy cartoon retro platformer artstyle that will highly contrast the gorey violence and mutated enemies that you will be fighting. the plot of the game is that you have a cursed copy of a game that was meant to be a family friendly platformer but instead is infested with disgusting mutated creatures and the self aware video game characters ask for you to cleanse the game for them. the levels will have easy puzzles for the player to solve so that you can get to the end of the level, this will be in place to break up the constant shooting and add variety to the game 

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Plans For this week

This week i want to finally get the gun game rotation thing implemented into the game, so i can finally have the main gameplay loop in the project which would allow me to focus on other parts of the game to make it actually playable and enjoyable, for example just working on some basic enemy AI that either runs at you or tries to shoot you, this AI i believe should be made by the end of the week and finished by the end of next week. Next I also plan on getting some sort of powerups into the game that randomly give the player a buff or temp debuff. Lastly i plan to add some sort of animations to my game mostly to do with the guns and enemies. game feel is everything when making games so making sure the game doesn’t look like a lifeless husk is very important i believe, so adding some basic walking animations to guns and a switching gun out animation is a secondary task.