Story of Development

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The Brief: 

We were given free reign to create whatever kind of game we wished for this project, however with limited knowledge and understanding of Unreal Engine I decided to keep the concept simple, designing and developing only a handful of systems to make a simple but engaging experience.

Research and Iteration:

Knowing that I wanted to create a game with a grappling hook I researched many different designs and functionality differences between different games. For instance games such as the uncharted series have a rigid rope swing used for simple obstacle traversal whereas Marvels Spiderman use a more flexible swing with a rope that can change in length. Meanwhile the Arkham games grapple draws the player in to the grapple point. During the creation of the grapple mechanic I went through many iterations of different designs, such as rigid swing to wrap around corners or direct draw to the grapple location, I eventually merged these concept into one by giving the player basic movement aside from the grapple and making the grapple flexible in length and provide a pulling force towards the grapple point. This meant that player skill could determine how dynamic the system was used, allowing for fast acceleration to a point and fast turning of corners.

Design Decisions:

Having created a designed an engaging system of movement I had to create the world to use it in. Coming up with the story of a rogue AI bot I designed additional systems such as the enemies the, the endless runner wall of death that chases the player up the level. To create additional challenge the player deals damage to enemies and certain environmental obstacles based on their speed, this further emphasises speed and mastery of the mechanics within the gameplay loop.

Moreover I designed the opening screen to tell the narrative to the player through a retro pc typewriter effect reminiscent of of old programming interfaces

Development and Skills gained:

Through this project I developed my initial skills in game design and development, becoming familiar with the basic functionalities of Unreal Engine and Blueprinting software. I have since taken what I have learned from this and built on it to new heights in my more recent projects see here

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Scripting

• I scripted the functionality of all the elements for the game

  • Movement - Grappling hook

  • Enemies - AI, Health system, Death Scan

  • Scoring - blending time taken and enemies defeated to add replayability and encourage mastery of the mechanics

Design​​

• I designed the concept through iterating on the core grappling mechanic and building around it

• I designed a difficulty curve through the use of different obstacles such as, "firewalls" which need to be broken through and moving walls that cant be grappled

• I designed the narrative and its delivery to not just create a fun game but to tell an interesting story through the gameplay