Game Design Megathread

[Glass Joe]

...make a richard with it

[Ad Bot]

[McJob]

...make a richard with it

"EXCLUSIVE! GAME DESIGNER UNVEILS richard-GUN GAME AT PAX!"

[Glass Joe]

Chode of Duty: Modern Sodomy 3

[SWAT One]

[McJob]

Here's my changelog from today. Going to make some regular posts from this, assuming I continue working on this regularly.

Feature Entries:

• Ladders are now implemented!
• Water surfaces are now implemented and use Blueprints! TODO: Attach physics volume and post-processing volume to blueprint, add exposed/public variables so designer can control size
• Gooey-Balls now increase power based on player input! Holding the mouse down increases both force and radius. TODO: Add sound and visual indicators; covert "LeftClick" event into a proper input for customisation in options menu.
• The Generator Blueprints are in! No assets yet, but they can be destroyed and already play a particle effect on death. TODO: Attach particle effect to blueprint as opposed to PlayerController, to allow designer to choose appropriate explosion effect when placing a generator.
• Basic Bomb Code is in! Right-Mouse button next to a generator will cause the generator to be destroyed. TODO: Add throwing state, make bomb object that slips off if not stuck to a gooey ball and fail to blow up generator.
• DEBUG: Respawn code added. If you fall out of the map or die, you will be respawned.
• TEMP: Post-Processing layers have been added, so that we can test and confirm post-processing effects (to ensure water ones do not conflict with any others in the level).

Bug Fixes:

• Destructible Boxes now destroy the gooey-ball when they explode, instead of leaving a hovering gooey-ball. REQUEST: Add a particle effect/animation to explain this to player.
• Grapple: Grapple now properly toggles state when you attach to and deattach from a gooey-ball.
• Swimming: Now properly relies on pitch and yaw, so that you can swim up, down, left and right in a water (physics) volume.
• Gooey-Balls/Force: Force increase has been properly factored in, and will no longer create a chain of gooey-balls that would make any programmer weep.
• NPCs: Gooey-balls will no longer get stuck to the invisible vision cone used by NPCs.

Known Bugs:

• EXPLOIT: Water Surfaces/Gooey-Balls: If a player sticks a gooey ball to a slippery surface and then sticks another gooey ball onto that original ball, it allows them to negate the slippery penalty (balls do not stick to slippery surfaces and lose all force) since the second one is technically not touching water.
• NPCs: NPCs don't react at all to gooey-balls, as per schedule. Sticking one onto an NPC will cause them to simply walk slower instead of any reaction. NPCs also lack any code beyond random movement and chasing the player.
• NPCs/Destruction Boxes: NPCs who barely touch the destruction boxes will cause the explosion effect, while a player touching the same boxes will only cause them to slightly crumble.
• Water Surface: Collision box does not move with the water surface, due to the water surface using an offset within the material itself. Suggested fix is to create a material instance where we can obtain the offset value and pass that to the collision box.
• Player: Player parameters not set; jump too low, movement speed too low, no health etc.

Not sure if there's anything else since this isn't an official change list, and so I wasn't tracing all the changes today. We don't start those until we start using source control, which won't be until next week at minimum.

[Cybertails1998]

can we use grapples to spider-man our asses around, like the grappling hook from age of time?

that would be fun as stuff

[McJob]

can we use grapples to spider-man our asses around, like the grappling hook from age of time?

that would be fun as stuff

The idea is that you shoot a gooey-ball and press the grapple button when aiming at it, which converts that ball into a grapple point and you attach to it. This means you could essentially make a massive path of gooey balls and quickly fly around the map. It's there to help you quickly evade enemies.

We'll probably end up nerfing it a tiny bit so that you have to use the gooey-balls themselves to make platforms in certain occasions.

Right now the system is really buggy since it just jumps you to the last one and then drops you. It'll be finished by the end of the week, I hope :)

EDIT: Should be noted, to get out of pools or up ledges you either need to use a ladder or the gooey-ball/grapple. I was originally planning to include a vault button, but:

A) It's surprisingly too complex to set up
B) This way we encourage the player to play with platforms

[otto-san]

what kind of things would you guys look for/suggest in a kind of non-planar beat-em-up game, mechanically speaking. or, are there any games you can think of to look at for reference material

keeping in mind that there wouldn't be a guarantee that entities are on the same depth or w/e, and since it wouldn't be mouse-driven, aiming mechanics would be fairly ambiguous and/or fiddly

[McJob]

Feature Entries:

• DEV: Added a plane to the Water_Surface object, so level designers can view where the highest point of the water will be.

Bug Fixes:

• EXPLOIT: Water Surfaces/Gooey: Gooey Balls now destroy each other when they touch. REQUEST: Particle effect to explain this. SUGGESTION: Make water blueprint kill Gooey on contact

Not happy with today. I spent all day trying to fix an issue; the water volume has a separate collision volume which I'm trying to make follow the water. The water's material has special instructions to deform and move so it can look like it's splashing around.

This is the formula I made today;

World Offset = (Wave Surge Height * (0, 0, ((1 + sin((Time * Wave Speed) + [(Absolute World Position / Overall Speed and Height)Red Mask]) * 0.7) + (0.5 + sin((Time * Wave Speed) + [(Absolute World Position / Overall Speed and Height)Green Mask]) * 0.125)))



And yet, it still doesn't work as intended. The collision volume moves, but it moves at about half the speed and doesn't go anywhere near high or low enough. forget me senseless.

[ZombiLoin]

lol blueprints

[McJob]

lol blueprints

Only just got Visual Studio Pro this morning (got bless the DreamSpark program). Probably going to stick to blueprints because the level designer who is supposed to be helping me doesn't know anything about programming, and I'm pretty awful as well.

[Glass Joe]

don't worry if I knew unreal I could teach you some real big boy coding language

[McJob]

I teach you some real big boy coding language

One day I'm going to turn this into the name of a video tutorial series.

I've done a lot of C (and forgot most of it), and I've done the basics of C++ (and forgot most of it). Everytime I start learning, I get distracted and move onto some other stuff. If I had a proper mentor or a class with a teacher it'd be great. I cannot self-teach.

[Glass Joe]

One day I'm going to turn this into the name of a video tutorial series.

I AM IRON SHEIK

I BREAK BACK, MAKE YOU LEARN PROGRAMMING

[McJob]

forget.

So our producer, one of the most awesome teachers at the college, is leaving for a few reasons. This means that next week, the new head of Digital Media is going to come to our class where we have to present to him what we have so far. He's then going to hand us off to the new game designer teacher (haven't met them yet).

Good news is that gameplay is about a week ahead of schedule, level design is on track, and the environment/character artists are well ahead of schedule.