Matt
Desert is a weird level, especially when considering Caesar’s design. Generally most of our levels consist of linear paths or multiple linear paths/loops; the challenge comes from reacting and learning the patterns these challenges present. Overcoming these and learning from mistakes feels good, the flow of going through the motions and perfectly completing a level from start to finish, where all your work pays off in that last run feels epic! The feedback is consistent and you know what went wrong and exactly where to go to try again. Desert differs in the fact that it is completely open. There is no defined path, only a fortress in front that requires three keys to enter. There are multiple copies of each of these keys strewn throughout the desert, each with a small encounter to boot, the catch is you have to explore and find them.
The fog is partially to blame, but exploration in a completely open scenario is not fun when you can’t see more than five meters ahead of you, and although the concept of being lost in a sandstorm in the desert is cool, in practice its shit. Especially in contrast to how fast paced the rest of the game is. I knew it was bad when both Ivan and Jordan didn’t finish it, too much walking around randomly hoping to find something. The challenge then became how do you make things discover-able in a sandstorm? Here is what I came up with: (SPOILERS if you want to figure this all out for yourself when you play)
- A rough perimeter wall (this way if you walk out you will likely find it and if followed leads to encounters)
- Subtle difference in ground textures (paths in the sand that lead to encounters)
- Consistent language regarding props (following bushes, rocks and props will point to neighboring encounters)
- Looping Room and fog increase (if you walk too far out you will walk back into the other side of the map and likely bump back into something + fog increases the closer you are to the edge)
The combination of these make the level much navigable once these things are noticed, the idea of backups, as in both ground texture or prop following lead to everywhere you need to go making it easier to discover the trick. The biggest change of all though is scale, though a mission, I moved everything in as it was all just too far away (seen in the diagram above). Having intermediate pieces that are visible between the goal and encounters are really important. Once the pattern is recognized the level becomes much more learnable as each encounter is consistent. What’s cool about it in comparison to the rest of the game is that it is completely open to what order you want to complete it in; you learn what each encounter encompasses then there is a choice of how much you want to gear up before going in and choose what to avoid. In the end, after ironing out the creases it turned out well and although being one of Caesar’s more unconventional levels it provides a much needed break and a variation in gameplay.
Soldier Variant
Ivan
During the project we have introduced multiple enemies in order to facilitate balance, one example being the introduction of a Slinger as a weak Archer. We knew that the Archer enemy felt and played well but during play tests people found the unit far too difficult in the earlier levels. This directly led to the creation of a weaker projectile enemy. Now we realised the basic Swordsman was a unit that needed changing, the main reason for the change was the three slashes that he performs at a frenetic pace as it is hard to read where the blows are landing. This is only multiplied by being flanked by multiple Swordsmen at once. Considering we liked the animation and the size of the Swordsman we decided to create an Elite Guard enemy type. The Elite Guard will use the original animation of the three slash attack while our basic Swordsman will have a slower attack landing only a single blow over the 16 frame flipbook.
The next issue was trying to figure out a colour scheme that will make the Elite Guard stand out from a distance to differentiate the two. The secondary challenge was making him not look so different that it would imply a drastic change in behaviour. We settled on a darker armour set with large shoulder guards, shin and forearm armour.
We operate by the philosophy of getting it right the first time but also not being too precious about work that we can’t scrap it if it doesn’t play well. Animation even though recycled for the most part has been edited; for example lowering the sword to the side while running. Making the game in this fashion has helped us to avoid polishing one element past the usefulness of said polish and improves the turnaround of assets generated.
Weapon UI
Jordan
We have added a weapon and ammo display to the corner of the screen. Players don’t normally have too many weapons at a time to make this entirely necessary but it allows fast changing of weapons without having to wait for the animation to play to see what has been selected. More experienced players will likely swap to what they want using the number keys but this will help new players and also anyone crazy enough to play on controller.
Music
This track features a middle section that deviates from the normal motifs towards a slower, more atmospheric pace. There is enough of a lead up to this section that it still supports frantic gameplay while bringing some variety to the structure of the overall soundtrack. So far I have found too much lead work to be a bit distracting, instead favoring more sporadic rhythmic composition – this song however has ended up pushing that envelope with a lot more lead guitar work. Though a lot of it hasn’t been posted yet I’m also happy to announce that the soundtrack has hit the thirty minute mark! There won’t be a unique track for every stage but I do want there to be a nice variety as well as enough content to support an album release as well.
Armageddon
We recently exhibited the game publicly at Armageddon Expo. The weekend was very busy and it was great to see so many people come through. It was interesting to play test some new and old levels as well as see how changes we made after the last showcase have worked out. One thing we experimented with was giving players ‘lives’ – this allowed those not used to FPS games as well as younger players to make further progress without needing to practice too much. A takeaway from this was that a fair number of players used half a dozen lives to beat what was supposed to be easy levels – we don’t want to use this system in the final game but it has given us a good indication of areas that need a balance pass. A big thanks to the NZGDA for organising the booth.
We have been posting even more updates and work and progress things over on our Discord – come say hi!.