IX
Overview
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This project was created in Unity and was my final year group project while at university. The aim was to create a game by going through all the stages of game production which included a Pitch and Prototype at the start of the year which would then be further developed throughout the year.
Approach
Character Controller
One of the main features I worked on was the Players character controller. Using Unity’s animator, I was able to create a fluid system that used root motion animations to move the character and perform a variety of attacks.
For the main movement, I was able to create a blend tree to move the character in 8 different directions. Using a custom float value, I was able to determine whether the player was walking or running and change the animation style based on this. I was also able to implement turning animations for when the players input exceeded over 180 degrees from the current direction they were facing.
The player has several attacks at their disposal, ranging from a basic attack combo to a lethal jumping attack
Using animation layers within the animator allowed me to switch between different animation states such as attacking, being damaged and dodging.
In order to create the combo attacks, I made use of the events tab in the animation window to create a small window that listens to see if the player has pressed either the normal or heavy attack button. This would then blend the basic attack into the next animation by using the inbuilt animation blend feature.
Certain conditions were established to assess the player's ability to execute the attack. This involved verifying whether the player possessed sufficient stamina to initiate the attack or if the player had undergone an attack, transitioning them from the attacking animation to a damaged state.
I was also able utilize a blocking animation by using an animation mask for the player. This allowed me to blend the blocking animation over the top of movement animations, allowing the player to move while blocking. Using code, I implemented a lerp to gradually blend into the blocking layer, to which I was able to define that when the player was only blocking when they have fully completed the blocking animation. This would also react to when the player was hit by an attack to trigger a stagger effect, giving the player visual feedback that they had successfully blocked an attack.
When it came to the players dodge roll, I created custom animation events when the animation played for the player to avoid damage. These custom events would trigger code near the start and end of the animation to provide invulnerability frames. This would also multiply the players forward transform by a custom roll distance variable to enable the player to have a speed boost during rolling to cover more distance, making the dodge more useful.
Tutorial and Dialogue systems
To teach the player how to play our game, I implemented a tutorial at the start for the player to complete. Throughout this tutorial, the player would learn all the basics of player movement and combat, along with delivering the main story narrative of our game.
The player will start by being woken up in their cell by a guard which welcomes them to the trials of IX. From here the player will learn how to exit their cell and gather their equipment by walking to one of the weapons stands. After this, the guard will prompt the player to perform their attacks on another prisoner to advance the tutorial.
To deliver the main narrative of the game and to guide the player, we also needed a dialogue system to communicate with the player.
I created some UI elements which could hold the text and attached a custom dialogue script. This dialogue consisted of creating a dictionary to hold all of the possible conversations and filtered them into the UI box by generating and typing out the sentence at a given speed.
I also added in checks to see if the player had communicated with the NPC. This allowed the player to see if they needed to talk to a NPC by displaying the IX logo above their head. A red marker would indicate the main tutorial to complete, while the yellow marker would show NPC's that would provide lore to the player.
The NPC’s also have different states that they can be in, such as Idle, Walk and Talking. When communicating with the player, the NPC will also rotate to face where the player is standing.
When the tutorial has been completed, the gate to the next stage of the arena will open using a custom animation. To prevent the player from replaying this tutorial when entering this area again, a JSON file will be created when the player passes through the gate which stores a variable stating that the player has completed the tutorial.
Custom Shaders
I created a fire shader that was used throughout the scenes in sconces and fire pits. I was able to do this by taking an image of a flame and applying noise to it with the Voronoi node in the shader graph. After creating some custom variables that controlled the fires DissolvePower, DissolveScale and DissolveSpeed I was able to multiply them together to create the fire effect.
To create the death effect, I created a shader that takes a texture from the player and then transitions it to a stone texture. This then has a dissolve effect applied over it using the noise, step and multiply nodes within the visual scripter. I then manipulated it with code by using a co routine and a refresh rate variable to gradually swap between the player and stone textures which would cycle through all the listed materials. I then added the previous fire shader with a different colour to add more flare to the transition.
I was able to add in a wobble on the X and Y axis and feed it into the fill of the bottle. Along with this I was able to add in a colour node to get it to resemble a health potion. After this, I attached a script to the potion which would interact with the nodes on the shader and the material. The script is able to take the X and Y rotation of the of the last location of the fluids fill amount along with adding a clamp to the velocity.
Testing
Throughout the year, we further Developed the game by doing rigorous Testing sessions. These sessions would consist of either displaying the game for our class, or to the whole university by having it displayed in the front entrance of the university. Throughout these sessions, we would gain feedback by getting the participants to fill out a curated questionnaire which we would revise and work into further development of our game.
Motion Capture
As we wanted to have custom animations for our main character and bosses, we were fortunate enough to be able to spend some time with the motion capture department with our University.
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This was an amazing opportunity to learn about motion capture and was a worthwhile experience to learn about the process of recording animations and fully implementing them into the game.
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Even though we weren't able to use all of the recorded animations from that day, the ones we did use proved to be useful and turned out amazing.
Marketing
Another major component to the course was to create marketing materials for our game. Using some of our in game assets and logo we were able to create some amazing T-shirts, custom stickers and even a game poster to help promote our game.
Outcome
I learned a great deal from this project and feel that it represents the culmination of everything I have learned so far within the Unity Engine. While I had created many character controllers prior to this, this was the first time I developed one entirely from scratch, complete with full animations. This project provided an invaluable opportunity to follow the entire process, from recording an animation to importing it into Unity.
Working with the Motion Capture studio at the University was an amazing experience, and I'm glad I pushed my team to get involved. The entire team was incredible, and we all engaged in extensive self-study to achieve the first-class grade we received. I'm proud of the game we created together and the dedication and teamwork that made it possible.