FERA-T4

The process is well-documented in the project plan along with devlogs at every stage of the process. Given the scope of the project, I knew a solo-senior project would be difficult to complete within the time I was allotted. I ended up planning at first and also revising a plan in the middle of the process to evaluate what would be possible by the end of year showcase.

Going into the project, I had no prior Unreal Engine experience but I knew how to 3D model, make music, build some basic game state systems, and a story bible. I had 12 weeks to make the game I dreamed of a reality. The first week researched for days and created a prototype of a character that can move in all directions and jump. I paid special attention to the IK system. On week 2, I tuned player movement and created a basic enemy AI that could be damaged. Player movement at this time had a dodge and a target lock system that I later removed in the later stage of the game because of how clunky the game felt with it inside. I considered these two abilities darlings of mine I hope to implement in another project. The enemy AI could move on their own and target the player. On week 3, I added a stamina bar that can deplete when players dodge or attack and regains over time. I also created the basic enemy spawner that generated waves of enemies using dictionaries. I enabled the ability to pause the game and also respawn/restart from the death screen. On week 4, I created the crowd approval mechanic and fight summary screen. I also made the title screen in After Effects. On week 5, I prepared the high fidelity prototype for the first playtest. This included bug fixing and additional things like a dialogue system to help inform the player how to play the game. On week 6, I created the tutorial through a dialogue system, a visual effect for the player getting hit, and some sound effects for actions in the game. On week 7, the first playtest occurred and I learned a few things: the combat felt flat, the controls seemed obscure still, the stamina system felt restrictive rather than challenging, and some expressed that the pause screen should include controls. I wanted the game to feel challenging not annoying so I took week 7 and 8 to reevaluate the game and study new methods to achieve the gameplay I wanted. On week 9 (spring break), I essentially created a new file and started ground up. I had such little time to complete the new and improved project that I dedicated myself to finishing it. I made a more comprehensive enemy state tree. From that basic state tree, I made three new bosses. The first and second boss unlocked a new ability for the player character like a combo attack and a ranged attack. The player received a dash instead of the old combat roll. There is a blocking system as well as a perfect parry system. One highlight is that when there is a crowd of enemies, only a certain amount will attack the player at a time and otherwise strafe around the character. This system draws from Doom (2016) where the player gives a certain amount of tokens and when the enemy holding the token dies, it gives that token back to the player so another enemy can stop strafing in a circle around the player and attack. Though this system isn’t used often, it helped with the crowding issue the previous playtest had. There is also a stealth system where the enemies use EQS to see the terrain around them when they patrol. So if they do not see the player but get notified of the player’s presence they will use the EQS to search the surrounding area (refer to devlogs to see this in action). An issue that came up was that if the player attacked near a group of enemies, the whole group would block at the same time. To fix this I added a percent chance for the block to occur. I also added a currency system so that the player can buy items. (This was removed in favor of automatically giving the player upgrades instead). The final boss carries a very different set of attacks than the base enemies and the two other bosses. I wanted the final fight to feel very challenging compared to the other two. On week 10, I modeled and rigged all the characters. I also created niagara systems for the vfx. On week 11, I did all the asset sourcing like the arena for the Crucible and made collision boxes for the level. On week 12, I created the cel shader and prepared for the final showcase.