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Our game is a very dark one, therefore its important that the player have some means of navigation. In the original concept document, the player was supposed to use some sort of coneshaped sonar fireing strait ahead, but I felt like that might not be engough, at least not for the more open world labyrinth we had in mind. Like for instant, an enemy could sneak up behind you and kill you without you knowing what hit you.
Instead me and my teammates started comming up with new methods of navigation.
First I found inspiration from other games, among them splintercell blacklist, where the sonar vision highlights every enemy around you with an outline. I discussed this with my teammates and we came to the conclusion that it may just be too hart to implement for us. but the Idea to have have the ”sonar” effect all around us lived on.
Me and the other programmer in our group made a 3D survival version of the game during a gamejam and we used a sonar that lit upp everything around you and imidiatly realized the benefits of having a 360º sonar in the game. Its not as easy for the enemies to appear out of nowhere and kill the player without the player realizing what happened. and you dont have to spam a button multiple times to see that is around you at the moment. We also added proximity based sounds on npcs around you, which added a lot to the atmosphere.
In our game there are currently many lightsources to help you navigate:
The player default light
the player has a default light source lighting up a small area around the moth.
Sonar
Lighting up a great area around the player for a short time andand triggering a reaction in children close enough to the player. This has a cooldown
Child sonar
its a small sonar emitting from the child that triggers when players uses their sonar. making them easier to find.
Light berry
Currently the games only powerup, the light berry is may be the players most valuble lightsource. when the players pick one up they can carry it for as long as they want, it adds a very useful lightsource illuminating a big area around the player till until the player uses it up ether by throwing it or breaking it on the spot. if you throw it it will travel far and illuinate a great area in its path and can also be used to distract nearby hunter enemies.
Light sources stack and together they can be really powerful.
About Sebastian Wallin
2016 Programming
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