Info
Genre: Party game
Roles: Gameplay & Scripting.
Time: 2 weeks
Team: 7 (3 Designers)
Platform: PC
Engine: Unreal 4
Version Control: Perforce
Theme: Physics-based, Goofy
Year:2019
Robotage
Robotage is a 2-4player party game goofy-deathmatch.
Control robots who move by a physic-based spinning ball.
The objective is to push the others off the map and be the last robot standing.
My Contributions
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Gameplay design
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Blueprint Scripting
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Player Controller
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Organized Play-testing
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Balancing
Content
Game Overview
Goal
Be the last robot rolling!
Design Pillars
Physic-based
Goofy
Copetitive
Game Loop
Try not to fall
off the roof!
Push others
off the roof
Mechanics
Controls
Easy to understand, not as easy to control!
One of the assignments for this project was Goofy controls.
We implemented this by making the player control a physics-based ball.
The controls are very easy to understand.
Just aim the controller stick in the direction where you want to move.
But since the characters are physic-based and the movement is Torque-based. Turning and changing directions does not happen instantly.
It's the same thing with acceleration. It takes some time to spin up, Once you do you gain momentum very fast!
Attackers advantage
To give players an incentive to attack rather than just rolling around hiding. We added an "explosion" to the collision. The higher the momentum, the more powerful the explosion.
Embrace the philosophy "The best defense is a good offense"
Dash
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A large amount of force is applied in the direction the player is aiming towards
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The movement change is instant and the player keeps the momentum.
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Can be used to push others or save yourself
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On a short cooldown
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Feedback via Sound, VFX, and Haptic (Controller vibration)
The dash is designed to be useful but dangerous.
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If you intend to push someone out but miss you are very likely to roll out off the rooftop!
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When reaching high speed the robot becomes hard to control.
Fence
The fence is designed to save players from a slowly rolling over the edge or getting a light push once.
However, if you receive a hard push or come in with high speed you will fly through it.
Once a piece of fence is destroyed it is gone for the rest of the match.
HUD
Simple game, simple HUD!
All players start matches with 3 extra lives
Player direction indicator
Blueprints
(Click to enlarge).
Final thoughts
Even though the basic idea of the game is very simple, it took a lot of work and playtesting to balance the player movement and mechanics to were we wanted them to be.
This was our first game project. I think we all learned a lot, Making the game was a lot of fun and I am proud of the result.