A Level is Not Just a Map, Its a Playground!

I know its been a while since I posted, but there has been a lot going on with this project recently! I just forgot about my blog.

                                       Now                                                                            Then

To jump right in to whats new, this post we're going to look at the interactive map. The designers and artists worked hard to make the map look nice, it was my job to come in and make it more than just a nice environment for our first playable stage!

The above video should be available in full 1080p 60fps. Lets break it down.

The Dropkick Bridge
Exactly as it sounds, a very simple game object which, when the player dropkicks it, will fall down to build a pathway that the player can progress towards the next checkpoint. As this is the first available stage we aimed to keep it very simple in order to keep the game play focused on the players whilst still including the environment.

The Piston Bridge
The piston bridge is one of the easier obstacles in the stage however through play testing it has proven to be a great section of the stage for player combat. So how does the bridge work? Just like the name describes, it uses a 'piston-like structure' in order to ensure the blocks don't travel as a solid beam, more like a telescopic radio antenna. As each block reaches its maximum extension the next follows, same on the return. By doing this it also allowed me to have a single trigger collision box that spans across the entire distance of the piston, when the player is inside any of the pistons collision trigger boxes they will be dragged in the direction the piston is travelling. Each piston has its own speed which is determined by random at the start of the stage between set variables.

The barricade is a small extension on this checkpoint I added in just to annoy the rest of the dev team when we were play testing. However we chose to keep this in. Behind the stairs on the defensive spawn is a hidden button in the wall, when punched it triggers the barricade to fly up causing the offensive team to have to take the piston bridge to get the ball across the check point. The Stairs
Another little thing that was decided last minute. The idea behind this checkpoint in the stage is that when the offensive team enter the checkpoint, a timer is triggered which when it runs out, lifts the stairs so the offensive team can proceed to the checkpoint. This was done to have a single section purely existing for the players to fight it out. If a player just so happens to be stood on the stairs when they bolt up, they are thrown into the air into ragdoll. Ragdoll everywhere... The Hammers!
My favourite section of the stage! The hammers have a simple lerp responsible of keeping the swinging motion correct. When a player collides with one of the hammers they are instantly triggered into ragdoll and a ridiculous force is applied to them to launch them straight out of the playing area. With 4 players this section is by far the best in the stage in my own opinion, its just carnage. The Piston Pushers
Another interesting section with the ball spawning inside the ring of pistons on the top layer and the 3 pistons on the outer edge. The pistons along the outer edge are on a simple timer based script to keep them in sync with each other, if one catches you, you're gone. The pistons along the top work differently, they use awake/dormant-like structure, at the start of the stage each piston is given a 40% chance to be enabled, so every time you play you don't know which ones are lethal! It is possible to jump over them without triggering them, they only get triggered if the player walks directly ontop of an active piston.