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Case Study

 

World Clock

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 I implemented the World Clock Mechanic because I felt the game needed something that would at the same time encourage the teamwork between the two main characters while providing players with puzzles and platforming challenges. This mechanic is inspired by a similar mechanic in It Takes Two, however, because the player is only controlling one character at a time in Spiritbound Odyssey, some adaptations and changes were made to suit our unique game better.

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Another interesting aspect of the World Clock mechanic that adds depth is the Platform Lever, which changes the platform's colors and allows the player to "plan" their path before they actually engage with the platforming challenge.

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Rail Grinding

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During my research, I found that lots of 3rd person platformers were using some sort of Rail Grinding mechanic to offer faster-paced and different sections of gameplay, and, because of that, I decided to also implement it. Rail Grinding is the most technically challenging mechanic I've ever implemented. I used Spline Meshes to create the rails, and I scripted a complex system that calculates the play ratio of the timelines used to move the Mine Carts by following along the rails to adjust the speed of the Mine Carts after landing from jumps.

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The Rail Grinding can be set up at different speeds, and there are also wooden barriers that increase the challenge. The player needs to jump to other tracks before their track is over, and they need to shield before they hit the barrier, otherwise, their Mine Cart will start to fall apart.

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Magnetic Boxes

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Another important mechanic that I worked on was the Magnetic Boxes. The magnetic boxes offer puzzle opportunities and help control the flow and pacing of levels. The magnetic Boxes were also technically challenging to work with, and, their last iteration works by attaching the boxes to a component of the player character, and then releasing them with the Simulate Physics boolean on, and starting an event on a timer that checks for the vertical velocity of the box. Once the vertical velocity approaches zero for a determined amount of time, the Simulate Physics boolean is turned back off so that players can jump on top of the boxes and use them for platforming.

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Player Feedback

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During the last couple of months of the project, our team decided to start polishing up and getting prepared to publish the game, and that meant that Player Feedback had to go from a "prototype" state to a "finalized" state. This included particle effects, animations, sound effects, HUD elements, and also changing the interactive elements of the game to final materials or textures that would make them stand out from the rest of the environment. I contributed with numerous sound effects, particles, and materials for several different features, systems, and mechanics. Features with sound effects and particles that I worked on include the Double Jump, both characters' Footsteps, Moving Platforms, Falling Platforms, Rotating Platforms, Moving Staircase, Fire Traps, Spike Traps, World Clock Mechanic, Rail Grinding Mechanic, and Magnetic Boxes. They all use 3D audio, and I scripted the sound concurrency settings for most of the sound effects. The particles were a mix of Niagara and Cascade Particle systems.

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Project Postmortem:​

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One thing that went right was the mechanics' prototyping, design, and implementation. We spent a month prototyping different mechanics and then explored and found out the best mechanics, and spent another month developing the mechanics we found to be the most fun.  On the other hand, one thing that went wrong with the project is that we didn't spend time in meetings and in general getting cross-knowledge in general for your mechanics and scripting. People focused on their sprints, tasks, and mechanics, and because of the fast-paced, deadlines-filled schedule we had, we didn't have the time to share code and give others feedback and insights on how to improve their mechanics and design. If we had more time to share code, I'm sure our scripting implementations and the mechanics' design themselves could've been better.

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Project Gallery