Now that the greyboxing of our environment is all done, it’s now time to move on and get some other utilities up and running!
Our greyboxed environment is finally looking like a level.
Time is pressing, and so we need to get progress done on the more urgent aspects of the game such as the HUD, and better reflect our idea of being in a film performance. The important things to do in order to overhaul this HUD will involve taking aesthetic cue from film tropes. I also want to throw a clapper in there somewhere, because nothing says ‘film set’ like an old-fashioned clapper.
The HUD is getting there, but there’s still work to be done!
Pushing even further in to the concept of film production, we’ve chosen to restructure the health system in a way that better distinguishes the game from its traditional beat-em-up roots. Instead of a health bar, the game name functions using a Coolness meter. Akin to games such as Tony Hawk’s pro skater, the goal is now to pull off as many cool stunts as possible.
While keeping an eye on as much high-level gameplay mechanics as I could, I also felt that this kind of game would need as much feedback as possible. If anything, the over-the-top nature of the game demanded as many over-the-top effects to keep up. Since I hadn’t touched Unreal’s Cascade system in a while, I needed to do some research…
A particle effect from the 2011 iOS game Infinity Blade
… And for research I referred to the effects of Unreal Engine 4 game Infinity Blade! Once I had reverse-engineered and examined the underlying principles of these particle effects, things started to get on a roll! I started by attempting to replicate the above effect.
A particle effect in action within our scene so far, with WIP assets for the time being.
Then I just got carried away:
I was perhaps having a bit too much fun on these particle effects, adding things from stars, popup text and splashes. I wanted to make sure that the player has overkill feedback to really emphasise each punch, shot and combo.
I also made a point of asking outside sources for their opinion on our controls and overall gameplay, as nailing the second-to-second action is the most important aspect of our game. In this project, nothing should be more important for the player right now than feeling like that action hero who can effortlessly and stylishly defeat rooms full of thugs.