Game overview
Game
In Suneter, Kubara robots have taken over a desert planet where Arlo, a curious kid exploring ancient ruins, tries to uncover their purpose. As you play this Third Person Adventure, navigate the dunes, avoid the Kubara, and discover remnants of a lost civilization.
Project
This was a University project that spanned 16 weeks. During the first 8 weeks, we worked together with designers to create a prototype. After this we had 8 weeks to create the full game together with artist and programmers.
Engine: Unreal Engine 5
Programming: Blueprints
Platforms: PC
Itch.IO: Link
My contribution
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Designed and prototyped the basic character movement
Title: Remnants in the sand
Role: Technical / system designer
Team size: 14 people
Duration: 16 weeks
Year: 2022
For this feature I designed and developed
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Level designer tools; editor tools for the level designers to make the progress easier.
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Climbing functionality; The ability for the player to attach to and climb up walls.
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Implement and align animations provided by the artists.
Level designer tools
Making the climbable surfaces tools as free and easily usable as possible for the level designers helps them work more efficiently and push out more content. I made the system using splines that can be placed anywhere in the world and be used as a climbable surface. This way, it can be very easily controlled where the player can climb.
After placing down the ledge, the level designers can drag out exactly where they want the player to climb, adjust the height of where they will be hanging and where they'll surface up to.
Climbing feature
Overview
My biggest contribution to this game is the climbing feature. This allows the player to traverse the game by climbing up and down ledges.
Design intention
As a player, I traverse, explore, and find mysteries of the tombs. The design intention is to make the exploration more intriguing by giving the level design more options in its traversal and making the player more curious about finding the correct path to explore.
Climbing functionality
When the player approaches a climbable ledge, the system detects the closest point of the spline. Once the player is within a specific distance, the system acts like a 'magnet', pulling and rotating the player towards the ledge while retaining some of the jump force to make the movement feel natural. Finally, when the player is within 'grabbable' distance of the ledge, they will automatically attach to it.
Based on researched games, I made the left and right climbing clamp to a minimal distance. This allowed the animations provided by the artist to play correctly without interrupting it.
The player can also jump from ledge to ledge, when they point the joystick up or down, it looks to see if there is either a surface to climb up to or another ledge to climb towards.
Slingshot feature
Overview
I designed and developed the slingshot feature in the previous prototype version of the game.
Design intention
As a player, I want to feel engaged with the environment, giving me the sense of leaving an impact on the world around me. The slingshot feature gives the player a way to interact with the environment, by having objects to destroy to open a new path, or sometimes to just destroy a static object can greatly enhance the player's engagement.
For this feature I designed and developed
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Camera design; positioning and movement changes when aiming
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UI indicator for shooting
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Intractable objects for the player to shoot at.
Camera design
Using a traversal camera setup doesn't always provide the best perspective when engaging in shooting mechanics. To solve this, I created camera states. To keep the most optimum camera positioning when the player needs it.
Surfing feature
Overview
The surfing ability forced the player forward down a hill, making them move left and right to avoid obstacles.
Design intention
The design intention of the surfing feature is to provide players with a unique way to traverse the game world. By introducing a sliding mechanic that restricts the player's movement to left and right adjustments only, it adds a new level of challenge and acts as a good transitions between scenes of the level. Adjusting the levels pace to keep the player intrigued in the game.
For this feature I designed and developed
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Developed the system to surf on specific areas
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Camera positioning and movement changes while surfing
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Character IK system to adjust animations based on speed and rotation
Prototype level
Overview
In order to present and highlight the various features I incorporated into the game, I developed a prototype level that served to demonstrate the functionality and potential use of each feature. This helped give a vision and clear direction for the development team.