Milestone 3 - Gameplay Iteration
MONTH 1: GAME DESIGN PREPRODUCTION
MILESTONE 3 - GAMEPLAY ITERATION
In order to improve upon overall gameplay, we had to incorporate additional features to make combat more interesting to the Player and more importantly—more responsive. This milestone we decided to stop development on the Kick ability and focus in on the Reality Phase and Dash/Shift ability.
We also had the idea of adding a new Limit Break System, which could give the Player more options and strategy during combat. As they took on damage, they could fill their Limit Bar and unleash a powerful attack whenever they’ve decided. This feature is introduced and tested during this milestone, along with a new Character Selection feature allowing the Player to select between two different types of characters: a Mage and a Ranger. Each having their own advantages and disadvantages.
I personally worked on and introduced a new Alternate Attack ability this milestone that allowed the player to use the Right Mouse Button to fire a ranged attack. The Mage fires a Spirit Ball and can set barrels on fire that explode within the environment. While the Ranger fires arrows that can pierce through lines of multiple enemies.
Movement, Combat and the Camera system have also all been completely overhauled during this milestone and refined for the Player to have more control.
After a successful milestone last week, we immediately had to focus on polishing and refining all of our existing mechanics.
Primarily, we wanted to introduce more to how the Player combats enemies. I thought to do this first by introducing an Alternate Attack ability that allows the Player to attack enemies from a ranged position. I believed this could be combined with the Dash/Shift Ability so the Player could keep a distance from powerful enemies and pick them off from afar.
In testing, this additional feature felt pretty good and gave some more interesting choices to the Player toward how to approach specific battles with certain enemies going forward.
Newly added Alternate Attack ability allows the player to fire a ranged projectile. Each character has their own specific ranged attack with specialized attributes.
Added Character Selection screen to Main Menu with animating avatars and selection particle effects.
To drive home the idea of adding more Player choices and dynamic gameplay scenarios, we added a Character Selection feature with two different characters; a Mage and a Ranger. The Mage has a Spirit Ball alternate attack ability that can set barrels on fire causing them to explode and damage nearby enemies, while the Ranger has arrows for their alternate attack that does not explode barrels. However, the Ranger’s arrows can shoot through lines of enemies, damaging multiple enemies at once if fired in time.
Each of these new characters have distinctive Limit Break abilities that we designed with the intention to make combat more strategic and interesting. The Mage has an area-of-effect Limit Break that damages all nearby enemies in the surrounding area. The Ranger has the Limit Break ability that allows them to fire 3 arrows simultaneously in a v-shape formation, exploding with enemies on impact. In testing, all of these new features opened up our enjoyment of combat, giving us more opportunities to build and iterate upon it in future milestones. We all felt that we were on the right track with these new features and that it now gave the Player more options whenever engaging with an enemy.
Outside of implementing the Alternate Attack ability, I primarily focused on SoundFX and ParticleFX during this milestone so that the Player would receive good feedback on any/all of their interactions within the play space. For sounds, I designed multiple variants of an audio clip over the same action, such as Attacking, and randomized them so that it would not sound repetitive whenever the Player was performing functions continuously. For ParticleFX, I tried my best to keep them clean and identifiable. My goal was to keep it simple so that the Player wouldn’t become desensitized with over-the-top effects. I believe the results are a great starting placeholder!
New Limit Break feature that allows the Mage to deliver devastating attacks on groups of enemies, or to use when in danger!
Iterated upon the Phase Ability by adding ParticleFX and additional Environmental elements that communicates to the player that they are in a different dimension.
The Shift/Dash ability was improved upon with the ability to cross over gaps, as well as show off some great ParticleFX and SoundFX whenever used!
KEY THINGS I WORKED ON THIS MILESTONE:
Create Continue button on the Main Menu that is grayed out by default, but keeps track of the Player’s last Checkpoint. When the Player triggers a checkpoint, the Continue button becomes available for the Player to continue from based upon their last checkpoint
Adjusted Volume Slider to play a sound after the Player releases the slider button in order to preview the current SoundFX volume
When Player hovers the Mouse Pointer over a button, a sound is played
Refined Player controls and created a dead zone around the character. Clicking upon the character directly will not force the character to try and move to that location
Redesigned Main Camera by adjusting it’s perspective on the Player’s character, as well as preventing the field of view from becoming obstructed in the environment
Designed, added and updated SoundFXs and ParticleFXs on all Player abilities
Scripted additional Combat functionality by creating an Alternate Ranged Attack ability
Scripted functionality so the Player can traverse across gaps using the Shift Ability
Added in-sync sound/particle effects when the Player attacks an enemy or object
Testing and debugging consistently throughout the week to ensure a stable build was made