Demoing the game at Orlando iX 2016 to a very positive reception.

Enemy of My enemy

UCF Game Design - Capstone project

Engine: Unity 5 - C#

Development Time: January - April 2016 (4 months)

Role: Lead Programmer / Lead Designer

Team Size: 8 Members

Enemy of My Enemy is a single player action game that juxtaposes destruction and mayhem with the player's inability to kill anything dangerous. 

 

In this project I was constantly wearing multiple hats, communicating with members of each discipline (art, programming, design) to ensure a consistent cohesive vision that not only played great but performed at a consistent frame rate as well.

 

Lead Designer

  • Designed an experience that makes the player feel weak, and forces them to rely on their AI companion for their offense.
  • Designed 4 AI enemies - Pixies, Swordsmen, Archer, Defender, that keep the player moving and using a variety of strategies.
  • Designed autonomous AI companion that consistently follows you, attacks enemies, turns to stone, and charges at you if taunted.
  • Work with level designer to create levels that evenly spaced out new mechanics, and delivered an even amount of new information required to play at any given time.
  • Designed mechanics (Pixies, Defenders) that restrict player offense and generate a give and take between the player and their AI companion.
  • Developed UI/UX of menus, and poster system that serves as player reward for successful gameplay.
  • Develop cartoonish, whacky experience where friendly fire is the standard, and everything can kill everything (except the puny player who can only stun things)
  • Work closely with Art Lead to design the characters and art style in alignment with a cartoon-fantasy aesthetic.
  • Ensure simple, singular cohesive vision across each lead and team member.
  • Crush people's dreams to avoid feature creep and maintain a feasible scope.

 

Lead Programmer

  • Prototyped player controller, AI companion, Pixies, Swordsman, and Archer in two weeks in preparation for game pitch.
  • Programmed and debugged autonomous AI companion using Finite State Machine (Following, Stopped, Attacking, Stoned, Charging) to manage behaviors and provide a smooth, actiony gameplay experience.
  • Constructed AI enemy base class to allow for easy implementation and maintenance of AI behaviors.
  • Implemented AI and player animation state machines and refined transitions for a polished feel.
  • Implemented audio and particle effects for player and AI mechanics for responsive feedback systems.
  • Scripted level systems like poster collection, respawns, enemy spawn points, and zones that affected your companion AI state.
  • Profiled weekly for Frame rate bottlenecks, and relieved bottlenecks or offered advice to other programmer on how to do so.
  • Tested and coordinated playtests, and debugged to improve companion and enemy AI.