We've reached the final week of the production sprint! From now on, a lock on gameplay features will be put into place, meaning that all future additions will be meant to enhance the player experience, as the name of "polish sprint" implies. As so, we have focused on getting everything ready to go for the next phase, have a look below:

Introduction

After some playtesting, we determined we were mostly happy about most of our gameplay: only a few issues popped up and some improvement ideas also popped in our minds. The level itself continues to be an extremely pivotal element of our game which is why we have continued giving it as much attention as possible. Of course, the end of the production sprint was approaching too so we also worked on making everything ready for the next phase. We hope you'd enjoy the following!

Art & Design

This week, a mixture of both gameplay and visuals, heavily focused on the level.

Level

This week we focused on having a some what decent flow for our layout. In the next coming weeks we will light our level and tweak the layout based on playtesting. This will get difficult to get right but we are up for a challenge. After we finish the layout of the level we will start make the finished layout beautiful. But here a couple of screenshots to give an idea in which direction we are going. 

Visuals

Extra foliage has been added, the rocks around the level have been upgraded, more texture work and more props!

Gameplay

Many spots in the level were still not too ideal for sneaking around. As such, we've overall added much more cover to several parts of the facility! Some examples:

Guards

In addition to the changes concerning cover, we've added more patrol routes (blue lines) and guard spawn points used both at the beginning and when players have to escape. (red arrows)

Icons we will add for the guard AI. When the guard get allerted when hearing a sound, the question mark will show up above their heads, when they notice you, an exclamation point will spawn. We would maybe combine this with some voicelines like : HEY! STOP! HALT! FREEZE!

Props

This week we finished up the rocks and added up some new props to spice up the scene a bit more. In the next phase of development we will start lighting the level and add more variation in props within the level. But here is some eye candy to enjoy!

Trying to create an interesting layout with the existing rock asset pack. Scene is very repetitive, this is especially clear when walking past the big cliff walls, so we might add some additional rocks to make the scene come to life a bit more.

Adding some slight variations to the already existing models.

New Props!

Programming

We focused mainly on getting everything ready for polishing during this final segment. As gameplay features will be locked from now on, we had to make sure everything was exactly as we intended it to be. More details below...

Power Source

This week, the power source received a lot of "quality of life" changes and final gameplay features. Have a look down below:

Hold Still

Whenever all players hold still for a search period, the power source will now point towards the closest objective. When escaping, it will always point towards the UFO.

If any player moves or starts charging the power source, the blue indicator arrows will disappear. This change was made in an effort to avoid having players navigate the level completely clueless as to where to go. A sound will repeatedly play with the interval being dependent on how far the power source is from the next objective.

Aim Arrows

The arrow particles indicating the direction of fling previously were not scaled based on final fling power. After playtesting, we determined this was a bit confusing.

The particles will now be scaled based on the final fling power.

Colours

The behaviour of the cables connecting aliens to the power source have been adjusted.

They are now coloured based on the player colour, and the highlight has been reinforced for the charging player.

Shake and Zoom

In an effort to give a stronger feeling to the power source fling, we've added camera shake and zoom, dependent again on how powerful players can expect their fling to be.

Target Indicator

Whenever a player is aiming using the right stick, a target indicator will appear.

It is also coloured according to the player's colour.

Light

The power source light emitting during a charge had a few problems previously. Shadows from the cables would be cast and the falloff was extremely harsh.

Consequently, we found an alternative which resolves both issues and looks better too!

Other Changes

• Cables disappear when disconnected, re-appear when connected
• All players respawn at the power source when any UFO part is picked up
• Lowered the influence of aliens on power source, increasing fling power
• Hover particle added

Menus

The main menu we had previously shown is now functional and included in the current build!

We initially gave mouse control to the right stick but this proved to not be so ideal. Thus, you can navigate menus using both the left stick and D-Pad.

Sounds

Numerous sound emitters were set up in order to have them ready for the polishing sprint, when we will give better and higher quality audio to the game.

• UFO part
  • Collection sound
• Power source
  • Power source crash
  • Power source fling sound
  • Power source idle sound
  • Power source spin-up sound
  • Power source probe sound
• All characters
  • Gun sound
  • Footstep sounds for all characters + animations
• Guards
  • Guard HEY sound
  • Guard death sound
• Aliens
  • Alien downed + death + revive
• Other
  • Pause/unpause sounds
  • Alert phase begins + alert phase ends sounds

Balance & Miscellaneous

To resolve some visibility issues concerning guards, we've given them a small flashlight:

Some other changes:

• Health regeneration from power source: from 15HP/s to 65HP/s
• Replaced player debug ring with a proper material
• Fixed a rare bug that allowed players to kill themselves with the power source
• Fixed input when downed
• Enhanced the power source collision mesh, it shouldn't get stuck as much now
• Optimisation changes concerning dynamic lights
• The guard AI will always make sure to move itself to a location where it can hit players before actually shooting
• Players don't collide with UFO parts anymore
• The global timer continues ticking down even during the escape event
• Numerous bug fixes

Conclusion

That covers just about everything for this week! The coming weeks will be 100% focused on enhancing the player experience through the various means that Unreal offers to us. In the meantine, our current build is available for you to try out right here.

The following is the final control scheme:

See you next week!