I said in the last post that at the end of week 1 I'd have more finalised design choices and would create a post about it. Well I did finalise the design choices, but I didn't make a post about it, sorry!
In my defense, I was getting my hands dirty learning UE5 (I know I said UE4 in the last post, but not using UE5 seemed like a really dumb decision), and more importantly, Blueprints. I gotta say, the more I use it, the more I'm loving UE5. A lot of its systems such as Nanite and Lumen are truly amazing, not to mention Blueprints are way better than I thought they'd be. It took me about 2 days to get myself comfortable learning the editor and learning some of the key systems and standard practices, allowing me to put this scene together for practice.
Major credit to Unreal Sensei for his amazing tutorial found here
Blueprints on the other hand are taking a bit longer to get super comfortable with, but I'm getting there, I think...
In terms of design, I have a much better idea of how some things are going to work, and I've also decided on a name for the game: Mage Mash!
Players can either play with a keyboard and mouse, or controller. With a keyboard and mouse, holding down the left mouse button will move the character to the destination underneath the cursor, using the WASD keys will select one of your 4 abilities arranged in a ring on the hud, and pressing spacebar will cast your current ability. With a controller, the right analog stick will move the player, left analog will select one of your 4 abilities, and R2 will cast your ability.
Projectile abilities that are cast will fire in the direction the player is facing, meaning that attacks are more clearly telegraphed as the player needs to face you first. It also serves as a bit of a balancing mechanic, as players furthest behind will have an easier time lining up their target as they continue forward, whereas those in front will be handicapping themselves if they choose to momentarily run backwards just to land a shot on someone behind them.
When new abilities are picked up they are added to your next empty ability slot. If all 4 slots are taken up though, it will replace your currently selected ability, meaning you need to be aware of what ability you're willing to lose when getting another one.
All players have a shield value. This recharges over time and provides some protection against abilities. Getting hit with an ability will reduce your shield, with the amount being dependent on the ability. If your shield isn't broken when hit, you'll only be pushed slightly. If your shield gets broken however by a more powerful ability, then you'll get ragdolled, losing control momentarily and flopping hopelessly to the ground.
Unfortunately, I might have to scope down with the local multiplayer aspect. Originally I wanted up to 4 people to be able to play on the same machine, but not being much of a developer, this is proving to be both mind numbing and seemingly out of reach for the moment. I'm hoping that further in the future I'll be able to get the multiplayer to the state I want, but for now I'm only going to have 2 people able to play on the same machine, one keyboard and mouse, and one controller. It's becoming frustrating not having development skills that can meet my design decisions. It would be really nice to have a dedicated programmer.
That'll be all for now. Instead of dumping every new design decision here and now, it'll probably be better to give bits and pieces as I develop those aspects. Till next time!
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