Gamedev #2: First game jam
My second game ( updated to UE5)
first time learning Ai and using it in the game. Short and to the point!
Hello folks!
This is the second series of my game journey. the year is 2022 and there is a game jam named: Senscape's Cursed Adventurous Jam
I decided to join it for the fun of the experience also forcing myself to finish a project in a short period. The timing was actually not that bad October 14th to 31st. I had only 4 days to join and make a game so I thought still I can try. Im happy I did it since the crunch just gave me a tiny fun game to talk about today…
You can download the game here: THE LAB THING
lets watch the trailer first:
ok first of all. dont make a trailer like this!
my first mistake: if you have a monster that your entire game depends on. Show it!!!! I tried to hide my monster as much as I could in this trailer which is a mistake. That might be a good strategy when you have poster of your game all over downtown but in this case this trailer is all I have to advertise so yes…
First step: Concept (the monster)
Ok the theme of the jam was announced and I was happy to make a scary game. I started brainstorming in couple of hours and the after few sketches one escape room came to my mind. I wanted a house to scare us and not the monster but the right version of that story in my head was waaaaay too complicated and I did not have enough time to learn how to make it so I kept that for a later potential project. I decided to have a monster who collects people as a trophies for himself.
I hade 4 days to spare so 2 options: either spend time to design a monster with very little background of my character design and find an Ai system in the Marketplace. Or I do the opposite.
There are so many great character assets that I can buy and use in my game. So instead of modeling too long I can buy the model and learn Ai that will help me more in the future. After a while searching for the right thing I found this smiley piece of work which looks exactly like what I needed. what a creep!
He He He…look at that smile…
I digged through Youtube and Unreal Learn tab and taught myself some basics of Ai behavior tree system:
literally the most basic system of roam and chase ( this is a general example not mine)
So just to explain what is happening here. Consider this as a white board of folders and you are labeling each folder with the behavior of our Ai. While he cannot see us ( we are not in the angle sight of him whatever that angle is) he just choose random points on a surface and walks to them and wait and walks to the next one and wait and so on ….. so he is hanging out without us
but we add an If…..
If he sees us( his line of sight hit our body collision mesh) he will move (or run) to the last point he saw us. If we are still there he will catches us ( either kill/damage or even dramatic cliche yell jump scare that I did). if we are managing to get out of his line of sight in that short amount of time I added a middle stage which means he is curious. He is faster after he saw us but now he slows down a little bit! so he will wonder around the last location he saw us more before he goes back to the 1st stage ( roaming)
if that doesnt make sense this is another way of saying it: He will see us he goes from stage 1 to stage 2: Destroy Mode. but we manage to escape from his sight and there is a middle stage between 1 and 2. He will look near the last time he saw us. He chooses 3 random points around our last location and looks those before going back to stage 1. see? Ai is not that complicated and here we go. we have a monster ready for the jam!
Here is a Tik Tok clip of how it works on a test robot model. follow me there for more goofy material: My Tik Tok Account
Second Step: Us! the player
ok now that we have a monster lets make a first person character who suffer the adrenaline of finding a way out from this horrifying beast. Now what I did was to use Unreal default first person character and add some dramatic effects to it. A camera shake as real heads on real necks do… so it feels like a person. Added a flashlight system with a battery that runs out pretty fast and therefore a need to collect batteries through out the game. Also a Stamina effect which is very simple when you know time managing in Unreal Blueprints.
polished icons from tutorials to fit my game’s aesthetics.
And then the last thing I added was an inventory setup so like every horror game we can hit tab and have a backpack to collect items but that ended up using only for batteries since I didnt have enough time to add maybe keys and even a gun to the game! (maybe the right way to face the monster was to kill it) still it was fun learning how to have an inventory system. There are really good free tutorials for everyone out there…
yay I have a backpack what can I put in it? just batteries…do I need a backpack for that? yes
Third Step: Story
As you know its usually more scary if we have less talks and pauses on games in order to get the whole experience in a single run. To be honest I didnt wanted to have a UI system but I thought it might lower my chances in the game jam. I researched some UI tactics of mouse interaction with some paperwork so I can tell my story. So I spread 3 of them to tell enough the mood of whats going on but also not to stop the rhythm of the game. short and simple. As you can see on these moments you realize that we are trapped in an underground research lab and need to get out of it as soon as we can. Dead doctors talking to us
telling the combination of pin lock of the exit door.
I would’ve loved to generate a system of random numbers so the pins on the exit door lock change every time in the game but needed to simplify to be able to finish my project. remember 4 days. this was day 3.
As much as days and weeks we get to finish a project we always waste the first half by some unnecessary details and the other half we just bruth force everything else! yes this is what happened to me too. First 50% detailed Ai of not just looking and chasing but to think and wait and look around in 3 different speeds and emotional sound effects to his steps and musical built up to his approach etc. Waste of time and now I needed to do everything else in a single day. so another listen learned! (hopefully)
Fourth Step: Environment
For the environment part I was pretty confident that I can deliver fast. a research lab that I modeled in Rhino and Unreal. Used Lumen ( that is a new lighting method for Unreal 5) to light my scene and download a couple of asset packs ( that were free of the month in Unreal Marketplace that I claimed long time ago). I used Nanite to save up some performance.
This step actually feeds up the thirds step pretty directly. We start on a cave that shows a tunnel kinda how we discovered this place and then getting inside and see the first clue. I added a pre sale to the collected bodies with this dramatic shot:
Oh the suspense! as we learned from the master…
so after this we get to the only normal room in this game to just know how the game works and thats this room. you can see there is light emphasizes on that closet that you can get inside and hide from the monster. I wanted you to go and try inside the closet and feel ridiculous at first and realize why later. ( also meanwhile the Ai might be walking closely behind this wall and some youtubers heard his footsteps before even getting to the next room so that was a nicer experience for them by luck. Ai chooses random location to hangout)
this is setting up the mood in the first few seconds. and of course the main tunnel which I really enjoyed building up the form + light and texture:
I think i was absolutely inspired by one of my favorite movies Arrival…
I think If I had a budget to hire a sound designer making the feel of this experience could’ve been a dream come true. oh well. im making a free game…
Ok and then after this part we get to the main place. a little fear a little suspense and by passing the tunnel we definitely heard the monster walking around and now we see what he does…
two locations between all these bodies have paper clues that will give us the combination Pin for the exit door at the end of the place. Also each column has 2 locker to hide from monster if he sees us.
The lock was also the same blueprint as the clue paper just adding an interactive system of rolling numbers to get to the right combination and a lock open animation.
Fifth Step: Ending
ok after opening the lock we will walk a long set of stairs that brings up another suspense of people expecting jump scares but no Im not that kind of designer…
you opened the lock you will see what you deserve my friend:
Again I used a free copy righted soundtrack for the ending of this game. Here is the Music Link
Thats it. 4 days and im done…
I cannot believe the amount of good feedback + constructive criticism I got for this game that is helping me finishing my third game DREAM TECTONICS that is coming soon. I love you all for your excitement and support. honestly I cannot believe we are living in a time when I can create these crazy projects and having different people around the world experience it. Just seeing people enjoying my ideas make me feel so happy. I love to take all types of criticism and will never get tired of it.
Ok after thanking you all for helping me going through this journey lets jump into the Good, the Bad and the Ugly…
THE LAB THING Weaknesses BAD
A trailer that is cinematically good but does not show us the “Magic” of the game… ( the mosnter)
Spending too much time on detailing Ai behavior system
Wasted Backpack: bad time management to add more items.
Game is too short it can get longer
needed a better menu system
a small bug in closing the note that I fixed few hours after I saw youtubers finding it. UGLY
choosing the wrong font on my clue notes.
THE LAB THING Strengths GOOD
A polished game in a short time period ( success towards right amount of simplification)
it was scary based on a lot of youtube reactions and people’s messages
one of the most professional looks in the submission list based on jury comments
good performance on low end computers ( i have a friend that has a PC that uses fossil fuels and he tested it as well. it ran smoothly)
Good satisfying ending
I had enough jump scares and not too many…
first person character felt organic and real
The designed drama worked through the environment
correct amount of darkness this time