BLITZFIRE
ROLE : TECHNICAL DESIGNER (SEPTEMBER 2016 - DECEMBER 2016)
PLAYABLE EXE (XBOX CONTROLLER REQUIRED) :
https://drive.google.com/open?id=0Bynxe8QH1U8saWxYQ1lhLTZtVHM

​Blitzfire is a Doom styled first person shooter that attempts to explore the concept of orthogonal unit differentiation. The game features two NPC classes orthogonally differentiated on a few axes. The player has at his disposal two different weapons that map to specific use cases in the possibility space. The goal is to author a level where the player is actively formulating strategies which derive directly from the relationship between his weapons and the NPC classes

PAGE 2 LINK TO PAGE 1

TECHNOLOGY

Blitzfire is built using Unity and RAIN AI. RAIN is an open source Unity plugin that provides path-finding, static mesh obstacle avoidance, animation integration and sensing based perception systems. RAIN is powerful in terms of modelling complex AI as simple behavior trees based control flows.  However, it lacks support in the maintenance of state information. As a middle ground, I encapsulated state machine information separately and had RAIN poll the state machine and branch accordingly each frame. In addition, RAIN does not provide support for dynamic object obstacle avoidance, in this case other NPCs. This had to be handled using a separate system as well.

WEAPONS

The weapons are constructed in the possibility space to author the following mindset:
  • Pistols potentially take longer to kill enemies.
  • Shotguns place the player at danger of receiving damage.
The gameplay pattern a combination of these two weapons produces should in theory be  as follows :
  • Players use pistols so long as the health of the enemies is low, or when risk of receiving damage when getting close to enemies is high.
  • ​Players use shotguns in positions where there is lowered risk of of receiving damage, or enemy health is high.

​ENEMIES

The NPC classes are constructed in a manner that mirrors the weapon design in the possibility space.
  • The soldier is an extension of what makes the pistol effective, i.e. an enemy that has low health and low damage potential but can deal damage instantly.
  • The commando is an extension of what makes the shotgun effective, i.e. an enemy with high health and high potential but fires projectiles that can be dodged.
In doing so we create a space to effectively author a level where players are actively prioritizing waves of enemies instead of randomly firing. Thereby, the engagement of the game stems from it's gameplay and herein lies high level lesson #1 that seems obvious in retrospect :

"There is an inverse relationship between engagement through gameplay and the requirement for high production value" 
​
This does not mean that high production value is not valuable to games. Simply that the more balanced a game system is, the more the production effort can be oriented towards creating theme through narrative, characters and environment design rather than bearing the weight of engaging the player in level design.

DATA BALANCE AND GAME MECHANICS

​In theory, this NPC-Weapon space should be enough to elicit formulation of strategies  through prioritization without any additional game features. The data could be balanced in such a way that enemy health is sufficiently low for them to be neutralized on a reasonable time scale. In such a scenario, the level would be able to accommodate for a higher enemy spawn rate. Conversely, enemy health could be raised.and spawn rate could be lowered. However, there's nothing terribly exciting about this system or continuing to add additional NPC types along the spectrum of projectile - hitscan or high damage-low damage. Where it becomes interesting is where and how additional mecahnics can be added. Herein, lies high level lesson #2 :

"Game mechanics add value when they exist outside of a balanced game system, thereby offseting balance zone."

Conversely, if we were to tune spawn rate and enemy health in a manner such that they lie in the enemy advantage zone, we would necessitate an additional mechanic that restores this advantage to the player. The staggering enemies feature fits nicely in this space. 
When an enemy is staggered, the player can safely assume that the enemy is no longer a threat for a certain duration of time. This should in theory reduce the priority for firing at that particular enemy for that duration of time.

ITERATION 1

The patrol routes were as described in the image. In general, commando's needed to advance on the player faster than soldiers to force the player to make quick decisions and maneuver him/her around the space. The key metrics to tune were as follows :

Enemy health, Player health, Spawn rate, Speed of commando projectile, Delay between enemy fire, Number of shots at given patrol position

The result as described in the video, is a scenario of complete chaos. Following were my observations :
  • The pistol was rendered useless as every point in space had an equal probability of receiving damage.
  • Strategy was impossible to conceive as there was no breathing space to pause and consider enemies.
  • The stagger feature was a complete failure as it was impossible to ascertain the duration of neutralized fire.
And herein lies high level lesson #3.

​"There exists a minimum threshold of complexity, both in level design and game mechanic set to elicit particular player strategies."

ITERATION 2

Based on the previous iteration, the two following changes were implemented to radically change the feel of the game:
  • Points where players can take cover from fire were added. However, cover was designed such that they block fire from specific patrol points. Example : Cover Point A blocks fire from patrol points highlighted in green.
  • When an enemy is staggered, a meter clocks down the remaining stagger duration.
These changes should in theory elicit the following player mindset :
  • Players find suitable cover and use sound cues to decide when to stand and use pistol fire on distant soldiers and shotgun on closer commandos.
  • Players will prioritize enemies based on their stagger state and distance.
  • Incoming enemies, particularly commandos will force the player out of their positions to find more suitable cover.
  • When unable to find cover positions which block all fire, players will use the shotgun to quickly neutralize enemies that jeopardize cover.