REVERSE was my capstone project during my time at LaSalle College, which was a solo project that we had a year to develop from start to finish. This was also a project that was being worked on at the same time as Cyber Gauntlet, so we were effectively making two separate games at the same time over the course of a year, with this being my first time attempting to design an entire game from scratch.

The main things I worked on was blueprinting the players gameplay mechanics, specifically combat, programming enemy AI behaviours. and designing a combat path and objectives for the player.

Originally I had a very grand vision for what I wanted this project to be - I had a lot of ideas for gameplay mechanics, world design and even a narrative and characters. I realized far too late that I was not equipped to tackle a vision like that - I lacked the time, knowledge, planning and design mindset and wasn’t prioritizing the right things. I had vastly overscoped my project and had to take what I did have and cut it way back to focus on what I could do within the amount of time I had, which ended up making REVERSE into an action focused project.

Details:

  • Self-Made Project

  • Primary Focus: Gameplay Systems Design

  • Time: October 2018 - September 2019

  • Engine: Unreal Engine

Gameplay Breakdown

Combat

The combat system is comprised of three main attacks: short-ranged melee, a mid-range sword combo attack and a long-range energy shot. Each one is useful in specific combat scenarios such as picking off enemies one at a time from a distance, or getting in close to defeat many at once.

For the melee attack combo I attached hitboxes to the players hands and feet that became active once the combo was triggered, which would then play a string of punching and kicking animations. ​

For the sword attack, I attached a sword to the players hand and created a material that would shift its visibility for it. By rendering it invisible, I then attached it to the players hand and had it "spawn" and become active with an effect on the material when the sword blueprint was initiated. I also created swing trail particle effects and attached them the thhe sword in the players animations to make using the sword feel more flashy and powerful. ​

The enemies the player engages are soldiers marked with an electric aura, marking their strength and difficulty.  Defeating enemies helps the player to replenish their energy used when attacking or flying.

The enemy AI was constructed using a combination of blueprints and behavior trees. The enemies patrol their designated areas searching for their target. Once locked on, they'll pursue the player and choose from multiple different attack combinations to attack the player.  

Player Mobility

The player is equipped with a flight ability, for extra mobility in situations such as getting to a higher area, or escaping from an overwhelming fight. The ability is linked to the players SP meter and will slowly decrease over time, while slowly being replenished while not in use.​

To create this, I wrote the player blueprint for activating the ability by checking to see if the player was not currently running another ability and had enough SP to trigger it, while kee[ing it active as the player heeld the key down.

I created a purple material cloud material and used that as the base for the particle effect, which took on the appearance of a surrounding aura for the player that would be active for as long as the player was flying.

Level Flow

REVERSE's level design is split into halves, with the first half being separated into linear zones. The first part of a zone introduces a mechanic or concept to the player, then the second part puts it into practical use. Zones have barriers and checkpoints that keep the player from advancing unless a certain number of enemies are defeated. ​

The second half of the level allows the player to be more open with the route they take to reach the end goal. Since the first half introduces both ground and rooftop battle scenarios, players may choose to travel between the streets and rooftops to reach the final tower.

Post-Mortem

All in all, this project did teach me a lot through the challenges I set for myself and then subsequently had to work through. I learned how easy of a trap it was to get focused on how a game looks versus how it plays and how to prioritize and distinguish between the design aspect and the art aspect of game design.

I also learned about the value of scope and how if someone has the idea for a dream game they want to make, to save that until they have more knowledge and experience before attempting to make that ambitious of a project.

If you’d like to see more accurate examples of the work I can design now, check out my work on my level design project Dark Nexus and my parkour system project Phantom Veil.