Development – Page 2

Daedalus – SitRep #4

We’ve been working on a varied set of tasks this last week, with the main additions being vehicles, environment art assets, as well as improved menu/HUD, new AI behaviors and Split Screen Co-op.

Vehicles

One new entity the player will be able to hack are vehicles. In the world of Daedalus most vehicles will be self driven, and as such can be hacked into and commandeered. This will prove to be a useful way of travelling large distances without attracting too much suspicion, or for creating diversions. We may also implement challenge modes that utilize these unconventional ways of using vehicles.

The gif above shows the basic cargo truck, but we aim to add an APC, buggy/4×4 and perhaps some special command vehicles over the course of the next few weeks.

New Assets

To help flesh out how the environment will look we’ve started to create basic whitebox meshes. These have helped to break up the box rooms we had earlier, although it’s very basic at the moment. Over the next few weeks we’ll have more detailed environments with new materials that should look very shiny. We’ve also swapped out some placeholder assets for slightly less placeholder-y assets, such as the mission collectables.

HUD/Menu Improvements

Another area we’ve tried to improve the general presentation of the game is the HUD and menus. This is still all a long way from the finished thing but it serves to help us identify and hone the flow of the menus, as well as what information is lacking in the HUD at the moment.

DroneTest 2014-08-15 11-23-05-36

We will be aiming to add a threat indicator, speedometer and rangefinder/altitude meter to help the player navigate the 3D space efficiently, and also give them a helping hand as to where the may have been spotted from.

New AI Behavior

We’ve been working on fleshing out the AI, and to this end we’ve set up a basic system for investigating things that are out of place in the environment. For example, if a player knocked over a chair, even if no one has heard it a guard will realise it has moved and become suspicious.

In addition to this we’ve set up special waypoints for searching areas that are off the normal patrol route. This allows a level designer to place waypoints where they believe the player is most likely to hide, and ensuring the AI does not randomly search a room looking for the player in odd places. It is also now possible to tag an object as “hideable”, meaning that a guard will prioritize that object in their search as it is easy to hide in/on/under.

Splitscreen Co-op

Whilst we had previously set up a competitive splitscreen mode, we now also have a co-operative splitscreen mode. This is simply a co-op variant of the time trial mode, in which both players work together to collect all the pickups in a level before a timer runs out (while remaining undetected).

Thanks for checking out the blog, more to follow next week on the 22nd!

Daedalus – SitRep #2

This week has been a busy time for us as we prepared the game for it’s first showing at Gamebridge in Middlesbrough on Wednesday. It was a great event, met a load of people I’ve never met before and caught up with a few familiar faces. Also caught a glimpse of some really cool games I’d never seen before, and saw the progress of some I’ve already played (such as the brilliant Gang Beasts).

The reception to the Daedalus build we had was really positive, so thanks to all who dropped by and gave it a go, and a big thanks to Olly Bennet and Bruce Slater for organising the event!

As far as Daedalus progress is concerned we have been working on the following:

Time Trial Mode

This was created for the Gamebridge build as a way to demonstrate the core gameplay components in a short space of time. It will also appear in the finished game as a challenge mode, and it allows us to start evaluating different ways in which the game will play (speedrunning, for example). The mode takes place on a new level that is more akin to what we want to construct, in terms of level design. The level features a network of vents, natural caverns and security measures that the player must avoid while finding all the objectives in the allotted time.

The .gif below shows the player collecting a node in the time trial map. We’ve also experimented more with the areas in this map, so in addition to the corridors of an underground bunker the player can find ways to get into the natural rocky areas surrounding the base.

We’ve also added a flashlight to the drone for dark areas

New Enemy Type – Automated Guard Dog

At the moment I’m working on setting up our first mobile enemy, a robotic “guard dog” inspired by Boston Dynamics’ Big Dog. These machines will patrol areas that may be unsafe for humans and carry a high caliber machine gun that will make short work of the player if they are detected. In times of high alert, they will be called in to assist human search parties in tracking the player.

They are not without their weaknesses however, the player will be able to hack them and take command of them for a short period. This will allow the player to either deal a lot of damage (but alert a lot of enemies in the process) or access areas without attracting much suspicion.

This will also appear as a playable class in the challenge modes, with some challenge modes that are unique to the guard dog.

Alert System

More of a behind the scenes update, the Alert System has been expanded to include regional alerts (so the entire base will not be alerted until the alert has reached a high enough level) as well as multiple stages of alert.

The player can avoid triggering an alert if they are quick enough, as there is a very brief window to escape a cameras view cone. If the player is spotted multiple times, then doors and objectives can become locked until the alert level has diminished.

Main Menu and HUD

We’ve started to expand and tidy up the HUD, moving away from debug text and visuals and test a few nicer looking assets out. As I posted on Tuesday, we have a basic Main Menu which has since been tweaked a little. We intend for the menus to expand the game world a bit, so that even if you haven’t started to play the game you are finding out more about the narrative through the backgrounds etc.

Environments will serve as the main backdrop for menus

The next SitRep will be on Friday 8th August, but I aim to add some more info during the week. Thanks for checking out the game!

Daedalus – SitRep #1

This is the first of a weekly update detailing the state of the current build and changes that have been made since last week. It’s early days at the moment but the game is in a basic enough form to start showing what we currently have:

Player Controlled Quadcopter

My main focus at the moment is creating a Quadcopter that feels intuitive and fun to fly. I’ve also added a first person camera to help in tight spaces, or for edging around blind corners. Whilst the default camera is third person, players can play the whole game in first person if they prefer it, it is definately useful as shown below:

First Person is now an option for those moments when a third person camera isn’t as useful

Hacking

We’ve also added a remote hacking ability to the drone. If the player aims at a camera in a given range (as long as it hasn’t detected the player) it can be hacked and disabled for a short period. Hacking will form a major part of the game as the drone has no offensive weapons. This will cover cameras, terminals for lasers/doors/lifts etc, and computers (for accessing information/emails/passwords):

The player has hacked a camera, stopping it’s movement and disabling it’s vision (represented by the laser)

Surveillance Cameras

In addition to hacking, Tim has refined the camera behavior and tweaked it so it follows the player more accurately, returns to it’s rotation after losing the player, as well as several performance optimizations.

Cameras can be hacked to turn them off for a short period, but this means getting in close without being detected

Objectives

We have a basic form of objective marker at the moment, if the player collects them all in a specific order without being detected for too long, it’s mission accomplished. We aim to flesh this out to include hack objectives and objectives that cannot be completed while the base is on alert.

The cone is an objective, the red colour indicates it is currently unavailable to complete

Laser Triplines

We have a very basic laser tripline in at the moment that will fail the mission if the player touches them. This will be expanded to group them with a terminal which can be hacked to disable the lasers. It is possible to nudge objects between the lasers to disrupt them, allowing the player to fly through without setting off an alarm.

We will eventually set up complex moving laser patterns, and link specific cameras to be triggered by the laser grid. So in the example below, the camera would look at the player if they tripped the lasers:

More to follow throughout the week…

Thanks for checking the game out! It’s all very bare-bones at the moment but things are progressing well. There will be an update like this every Wednesday (provided I am available to update the blog), so stay tuned for more developments.