A fresh start

After concluding that our game would be developed in Unity, we left behind the small prototype we had and restarted, but this time with cleaner code and a better folder structure. This not only helped us creating more content efficiently, but also made sure that everyone (including the person who worked only in Unreal previously) started off knowing exactly what was going on and how everything was set up. Tasks were distributed more explicitly, the usage of Hack ‘n’ Plan was taken more seriously as well. Overall, we started working as a team as it should, rather than each of us individually which only caused confusion and chaos.

Perforce

Part of the credit of this reinforcing team goes to Perforce! Discovering the benefits of working together on the same project on four different laptops was almost jaw dropping (almost though). We realised that having a tool like this is an absolute must when working on a gameproject (or any other project unrelated to games). It enforces communication and makes you aware of who exactly is working on what at any moment, but more importantly when two people (or more) have worked on the same file, you can easily merge the two files into one when uploading. The merge tool sees what differences are there between both files and gives you options to either keep what is the same, add both together or decide which part must be taken from one file and what to disregard from the other. It steps through the whole file and all of this can be done with a couple clicks.

The project

Having a rather dull prototype last week, the difference between this project now and the project last a week is quite big we must say! Let’s go over through what has been added and what the result of this week has become.

Multiplayer

Knowing if your multiplayer game is fun or not. Being able to playtest it with multiple people is an absolute necessity. And you best implement this feature as fast as possible. After we did this (and it only took the time taken to create the controls for the second player), we must say, it was already fun to just move around with another person on the same screen! Strange, yes.

Combat

Of course, simple movement gets rather dull quickly. Making your game competitive, will make your players hooked in and makes them want to play it! Making them want to win it!

The moving castles can now fire three types of projectiles: the grenade/fuse bomb, a regular projectile/bullet a-like and a bouncy bomb. The grenade gets fired and explodes after a certain time, applying more damage the closer you are to the explosion starting from a certain radius. The regular projectile functions as a bullet and traverses a straight path. This lso serves as your main weapon and is provided with infinite ammo. While the bouncy bomb traverses around the map, in a parabolic path due to gravity, with no friction applied when colliding with the ground or sidewalls. It detonates when hitting a player. This somehow  creates a dynamic playing field in which you have to avoid incoming projectiles that only disappear when they either hit you or when they go over the walls.

A grappling hook will also be rare type of projectile. The hook will be used to hook onto enemy players, pulling yourself towards them, with accelerated movement and applying a lot of damage by bashing into them, driving the backwards as a result. The hook can also be used to pull a pickup towards you from a distance. In addition, a mine has been added as an item that can you can drop behind you. It explodes when someone collides with it, creating a blast radius with the same function as the grenade explosion.

All of these projectiles besides the regular bomb requires ammo to use it. See pickups for more explanation. Health was added to create a goal for the players, being bringing their opponents down! Respawning was also added to keep on playing!

Pickups
A big part of our game will consist of pickup-drops. During gameplay, balloons will drop in, holding a pickup that will drop it when colliding with the floor. These pickuptypes will provide special ammotypes, a medkit that will repair any damage and currently a speedboost, that will make your castle a lot faster for a certain time, making it difficult for your opponent to hit you.

Movement

To spice things up a little, we reworked the movement a little by implementing acceleration. This gives a smooth transition from zero velocity to max speed and from max speed to zero. We kept the default movement (simple linear translation) to easily switch between and judge. If that was not enough, we added the dash! The dash just needs a simple input (circle on PS4) making your castle dash in the direct you were going. You can’t spam it, but it helps evading a projectile just in time. And if that was not enough, we added a knockback. This is being executed whenever you fire you cannon (currently it is based on how fast your projectile is traveling, currently only implemented on the regular cannon). It gives a nice playerfeedback we believe. Another knockback has been added whenever you get hit, stunning the player for a short time.

Controls

Controls were added to select the different kind of cannons (a flag is being placed to the currently selected cannon). Other controls were added to be able to place the mine.
Short summary on controller: arrow keys for selecting the cannons, X to fire, Square to drop a mine, Circle to dash, left analogue to move and back triggers (left and right) L2 and R2 to rotate around the pivot.

Camera and Visuals

The camera has been updated so if a player goes out of bounds the camera’s field of view will adapt so all players are still visual on the screen. It moves around smoothly, not stopping to abrupt, but slows down exponentially.

Meshes have been added! Nice meshes add a ton to the fun factor and even more to the playerfeedback. So far we have the castle with its cannons, some walls to show the boundaries of the field, some projectiles such as the bomb, the mine and the hook, a mountain for terrain visuals and a balloon (to drop the picksup). To showcase damage currently, we let the tower of the castlemesh drop down in height. If the top of the tower is below the cannons, you lose!

We are quite proud of what we achieved already on such a short notice and are thrilled to start with the production phase! Starting on Wednesday 6^th of March. We like it already and can’t wait to restart once more, with steady code, proper visuals and a good structure overall.