If I had not implemented movement as a set of loosely coupled systems with distinct responsibilities, much of the requested extensions and revisions would have required a major rewrite we did not have time for. At minimum, I could disable any of these systems simply without impacting the others, but more often the components were repurposed to offer slightly different experiences. Some requests, like the ability to do tricks and fly, were later scoped back or cut entirely. “We would like the ship to get airborne and do tricks.” - I added a system to blend between a grounded and an airborne state and another system to play potential trick animations. “We would like to use sand dunes to create natural boundaries to the playable space.” - I added a system which observed the incline and added a corrective steering force away from steep terrain. “We want the ship to bend around curves, roll over dunes, and lean with player input.” - I wrote a system which observed the terrain incline and player input to add a configurable offset to the ship’s mesh. Here are examples of feedback that occured. As additional requirements solidified, I often wrote new systems which could be toggled on and off or configured. The first iteration of the protagonist’s ship had two systems that operated independently - move in the horizontal plane in response to player input, and orient the ship to acknowledge the contour of the sands. One example of this was in the design of vehicle movement. During this process, I learned how to better decompose gameplay requirements into distinct problems, which made it easier to pivot when those gameplay requirements changed. Needless to say, we pursued a development plan that was change-tolerant and risk-adverse. This was especially true for our team, given this was our first venture into Unreal Engine 5, and we had additional overhead in Unreal Engine 5.0 from bugs and technical limitations (that would be fixed in later versions of the engine). Seven months is a short time to bring original open world game concept from idea to market. Major Takeaways Prototyping Gameplay Through Composition
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