Bumpers
Project: Bumpers (Destruction Derby design test prototype)
Engine: Unreal engine 4
Platform: Windows PC
Role: Technical Designer/Scripter
Description: The aim of this prototype is to follow a design test. This test requires to prototype the car mechanics for a new Destruction Derby game. This was produced alongside documentation over the course of 12 weeks.
Responsibilities
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Driving Mechanics
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Setup car & physics
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UI & game loop
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AI Drivers
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Crash Mechanics
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Have a "Party game feel"
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Technical design documentation
Role Breakdown
Scripting: Within this project one of my main roles was a focus on development of the overall prototype. I developed:
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Fully functioning car which had specific damage locations
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Car physics, applied for crashing at specific locations (based off the speed of both colliding objects)
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Implement 1-4 player local multiplayer functionality
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Appropriate crash mechanics applying to a point of contact damage system
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Morph targets to help show damage (morph targets produced on the model within 3DSMax)
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Implement unique abilities for each car class (boost, ram, shield)
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Arena hazards (ensure walls apply damage to the player and bounce off)
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AI development for vehicles including movement and simulating a real player. This meant making "crash decision making" logic such as distance to get a good crash, choosing a different target each time, using abilities when appropriate (e.g. using shield ability when about to be hit)
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UI implementation for core game play aspects
This was my first time working with and developing vehicles of any sort. This compared with the high usage of physics within the project caused a rather steep learning curve to master. The scripting worked out fairly well on this project with a lot being learnt.
Level Design: Level design was a fairly small aspect of this project. The main elements came from meshing and being give some narrative to the overall prototype. I had a large focus on meshing the arena space out and trying to make it interesting no matter what angle the player was facing. I had a bunch of industrial assets available for this project so I attempted to make a believable world space in the back alleys of an industrial complex where derby drivers come to smash up some vehicles, I wanted to give a similar kind of feeling to that of a illegal street race meetup from the Fast and Furious franchise.
Technical Design: For this project I produced technical design documentation (TDD) to help plan out the various systems and mechanics that would be created as well as being a guide for the programming practices and everything else that is required for the project to function as intended. The TDD can be found below in a PDF format.