Status – EVIL GAMES

Daedalus – Sitrep #6

This week we have added some placeholder audio, set the AI up to factor shadows and sound into their detection process, added a directional threat detector to the HUD, and added a new AI NPC to the game, in the form of the Civilian class.

New AI NPC – Civilian

We’ve added a Civilian NPC who will alert nearby Guard Dogs if they spot the player, then run and hide while the Guard Dogs move in for the kill. We aim to have three types of civilians in the final game, the Engineer (who will work more efficiently with robotic enemies), the Scientist/Doctor (who will be better at alerting human enemies) and the Facility workers (who will be able to lock doors or vents if they see you, etc).

DroneVid8 — The player has alerted a civilian who runs to the nearest guard dog for help

In general, civilians will be the least dangerous enemies the player will encounter, but their ability to quickly alert other enemies makes them an ever present danger as the player explores the facility. We will be adding more types of human enemies over the next few weeks so we should have some interesting AI interactions to show!

Threat Indicator

One of the things we learned from demoing the game at GameBridge was that the 3D nature of movement in Daedalus can make it difficult to tell where someone may have spotted you from. At the time, the build contained only surveillance cameras, so with the addition of moving enemies it became clear that we needed to add some visual aid to the player to help them if they get spotted.

DroneVid9 — An arrow will appear to let the player know the enemy can see them from a certain direction. The colour indicates how clearly they can see the player.

This will look a lot nicer in future builds, but already it makes a huge difference in helping the player avoid immediate detection.

Shadow and Distance visibility

Enemies are now aware of how lit the player is, so if the player hides in complete darkness, they won’t be seen. Speed and distance are also factored into the player’s visibility, if the player moves quickly in a lit up area, enemies will spot them faster. Likewise, the enemy will reach their alert stage later if the player is far away.

Each enemy will have slightly different detection parameters, so learning who can detect what will be a big part of passing through difficult areas.

Audio and AI Noise Detection

We have also added audio detection to the enemies. If the player creates a noise that is within the hearing threshold of an enemy, and the volume of the noise is sufficiently loud, the enemy will begin to investigate the source of the sound. We’ve also added basic audio to the drone, enemies and other miscellaneous sounds to help us test this.

More to follow next week! We are currently looking into adding a hacking minigame to computers in the environment, so if all goes well with that there will be an breakdown as to how it will work in the next update. Thanks for checking out the game! Next update will be on the 5th September!

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!

Deadalus – SitRep #3

This week has been an interesting one for us as we have started to set up AI behaviour and Split Screen multiplayer gamemodes. The feel of the game is starting to come through now that the player has an unpredictable threat to evade, so we will soon move on to creating the greyboxes of the story mode environments and begin fine tuning how the game will play.

Enemy AI

During the last week we began working on basic enemy AI using the Guard Dog that was set up the week before. The AI will patrol an area, detect and chase the player and return to it’s patrol route if they cannot find the player. We will be constantly expanding on the AI as we want a broad spectrum of behaviours that will make the enemies feel like actual humans/drones.

It is also possible to hack and possess these Guard Dogs (as shown last week). This can be used to attack enemies or pass through a hostile area without attracting suspicion. The Quadcopter remains static when hacking, so it is vulnerable to detection if you left it in a bad spot. As well as this, if the Guard Dog is too far from the player they will lose connection to the Guard Dog.

Guard Dogs will not be able to hear the player, which is one of their few weaknesses

DroneVid1 — However if they see the player, they are far more accurate than their human counterparts will be

Split Screen Mode

Replayability is something we are aiming to make the most of, so modes like split screen allow us to provide a lot of replay value relatively simply. At the moment we have a competitive split screen mode, which is a variant of the single player time trial mode. In the current mode players compete to collect the most pickups in a short time period. Whoever collects the most wins. If a player is spotted or killed, they immediately lose all their points, usually winning the game for the other player (unless the other player has no points either, then it’s a draw).

Over the next few weeks we will be adding new competitive and cooperative modes. Players won’t just be playing as drones in these modes either, we aim to have Quadcopter/Guard Dog modes where one player (as a Guard Dog) protects or hunts the other (who controls a Quadcopter).

Auto Turrets

Another new enemy type is the auto turret. These are fixed machine guns that scan an area in a similar vein to the security cameras, however instead of raising an alarm when a player is detected, the open fire with lethal accuracy.

Turrets can be hacked but not possessed (yet at least). Whilst they do not raise an alarm themselves, the noise of gunfire will attract attention unless no one is nearby.

That’s all for this week!

Next SitRep is on the 15th August, with hopefully plenty of new things to show! Thanks for reading!