Umbrella Game [Working Title]
Core Contributions
Movement
Systems
Created a custom physics systems to provide fluidly movement and lets players modify momentum based on how they wield the umbrella
Character
State Machines
Established animation state machine for player character using animations collected from asset packs
Modular
Interactivity
Designed a modular interactive object class that could attach new functionality to scene objects without modifying player controller
Ability
Balance
Balanced movement abilities and other gameplay systems to accommodate level design, feel, and usability
Overview
Umbrella Game is a 3D action platformer that a few friends and I have decided to work on as a side project after graduating from our grad school program. The game is meant to be a heavily movement based experience, as you use your umbrella and other trusty tools to traverse the world.
Game
Design
This project honestly started as a joke in its earliest ideations. During the planning stages of my capstone project, we were discussing ideas of various things when the subject of unconventional weapons came up. With this, my mind pretty quickly gravitated to the idea of using an umbrella. While the idea may not have taken hold during the meeting, I kinda held onto it, always wanting to explore the idea a bit further. I know there’s plenty of umbrellas in games here and there such as Kirby or Peach’s parasol’s but I couldn’t help but think of other possibilities beyond just using it to glide a bit.
In the context of the game, I wanted the umbrella to be a highly flexible tool when it came to movement. It would allow players to perform the traditional glides, but also provide access to double jumps, dashes, riding winds, and cancelling your momentum when necessary. Though, in giving you such a powerful tool, I also thought it would be interesting mechanically to encourage you to give it a way. Similar to the idea of sharing an umbrella in the rain, Players would also be able to toss their umbrella into objects in the scene, which would allow you to use them as new tools to help you along the way. So while you would lose the utility of the umbrella, you could temporarily gain the abilities of various items in your environment.
Altogether I want these factors to come together for a tight gameplay experience, that heavily rewards players that are able to find their flow during traversal. Though the individual mechanics may change as development continues, that sense of flow is the thing I want to pursue the most with this game.
Technical
Development
As far as implementation goes the project is still in its early stages. The foundations for the core movement and some abilities are currently in place. Currently I have incorporated a custom physics in UE4 in a way to better gain and maintain momentum as you move around. You’re also able to shift your momentum a bit by opening and holding out the umbrella, and catch winds with it to help you speed around.
I also developed a special class for interactive objects that are able to interface pretty easily with the player to perform actions. Currently, a small team of us have gotten together to pursue the game a bit further. As of right now I am the only designer and programmer working on it. Overall, it’s been a fun project to theory craft and start on the side and I hope to pursue it further as time goes on.