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THE RECKONING

 

Summary

 

A L4D inspired shooter set in the calm town of Charming. You fight your way through town to reach a supermarket.

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Specifications

First Person Shooter

Left 4 Dead 2

6 weeks half time (4h/day)

Unreal Engine, Maya, Mixamo

"Blockout Tool" plugin (UE4)

 

Genre:

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Engine/Tools: 

To view a Blueprint, please press "Fullscreen" beside the name.

THE IDEA

 

With this demo I wanted to build a L4D inspired experience that came as close as possible to the original. Having played the game extensively in the past, I knew it would be a challenge, especially the AI behavior and event scripting.

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I wanted an experience that was replayable and had a feel that the player was in charge of pathing. By having enemy spawns, pickups and pathing alter depending on the playstyle of the player, the experience would "never" be the same.

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Crash.gif

 

Blocking of a viable route with an event.

THE PROCESS

 

The project began with basic scripting, to understand what I was technically capable of. Scripting an enemy that could toggle between states in a behavior tree made me confident for the task.

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I started the design phase with a rough pathing through five zones. These zones where:

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Zone 1: Welcome to Charming

Small suburban area with four houses.

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Zone 2: The Gas station

A larger area with a cross way, a gas station and a restaurant.

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Zone 3: Suberbia

A large suburban area with many houses and roads.

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Zone 4: The Park

A luxurious park with a huge fountain in the center

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Zone 5: The Mansion

A small area located on a hill which where to be the goal. 

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Progress in each zone.

After blocking out the different zones, I felt that the suburban areas where roughly the same. I began to work with the idea of an industrial area to start with and after feedback sessions, I came to that decision.

 

Working with the plugin "Blockout Tools" made this phase more fun and faster with iterations.

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I also replaced The Mansion for a Supermarket to make it more realistic.

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By introducing a river, I could block of parts of the map without making it feel cheap. A bridge gave the illusion of an easy way to the goal. This way was blocked with an event where a truck crashes into the bridge.

River_edited.jpg

 

The river that makes the border for the level without "invisible walls".

SCRIPTING

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This piece was a challenge when it came to scripting. Enemies where initially coded as separate entities. This made them easy to customize but ineffective to work with. After weeks of tweaking, I went for the solution of having a Master-enemy with children built into the code decided by blackboard bools. This made it less complicated when iterating and the general behavior would affect all enemies.

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Behaviour Tree.PNG

 

Behavior tree for all enemies.

The whole tree includes four enemy types: Standard, Wolf, Boomer, Eater. All enemies have different customizable settings and behaviours.

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EnemiesGIF.gif

 

Enemies included in the game. Four are unique with different behaviours.

The behaviour tree works with blackboard bools. The range, when an enemy detects you, is random within a range aswell as when the enemy charges towards the player. These values are increased radically when an event occurs e.g. car alarm. I did this to be able to have invisible spawn points and have enemies come from all sides.

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Demo of the standard enemy inside the master behvaiour tree.

LEVEL OVERVIEW

 

The demo shows part of the full level. It starts north at the road block and ends in the south west, when entering the park. It consists of a main path and has several alternate paths. The vertical climbs give the player a vantage point a chance for both a break and an overlook of the level.

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OverviewArrow.png


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LEVEL WALKTHROUGH

ScreenShot00036.png

 

The player arrives to the town of Charming and is halted by a car that has crashed into a road block. The road is blocked, and the player must move on by foot. The player is introduced to the controls by moving through the obstacles.

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Upon entering Charming, the player has a clear view of the main street through the industrial area with two factory buildings on each side. The player must crouch under some obstacles to reveal the street and factory on the left.

ScreenShot00023.png

 

After only a couple of steps, the player hears a dog bark, and start running towards the player. Since the player has no weapon, flight is the way to go.

ScreenShot00038.png

 

The way back is slow (crouching) so the player is seduced to go left with sound and light. The garage door slams shut behind the player, killing the dog.

ScreenShot00025.png

 

Inside the warehouse there is alot of debris and an unpleasant sound of chewing can be heard. The player moves through and to the office where a weapon can be found. 

ScreenShot00040.png

 

Exiting the office leads to a dead end. The only way to progress is to scale the building with boxes and a ladder. On the roof the player gets a clear view of the goal; the Supermarket.

ScreenShot00041.png

 

By jumping down on a container, the player is in the yard of the warehouse. Here, the main enemy is introduced, and the player is instructed to eliminate it.

ScreenShot00039.png

 

The player leaves the yard by breaking some chains locking the gate. Out on the street, a light on the Burger joint can be seen in the distance and a glaring pickup across the street. 

ScreenShot00048.png

 

Passing through the restaurant gives the player close encounters with enemies and a chance to pick up some ammo.

ScreenShot00028.png

 

Outside of the restaurant, the road is blocked. Here the player must scale the truck and once more get a good view of the goal and the next part of the level.

ScreenShot00035.png

 

On the main road sound of gun fire can be heard from the left. A squad of police officers are helplessly trying to defend the town from countless of zombies. The player is advised to find shelter.

ScreenShot00046.png

 

Progressing through the town center, the player comes across a light statue that line up with the goal and a viable way to reach it via a bridge.

ScreenShot00034.png

 

When getting closer to the bridge, a truck come hurling towards the player, crashing into the bridge bracket. The bridge is destroyed, halting any effort to get across.

ScreenShot00045.png

 

The player is forced to progress into a suburban area. Down the road a flickering light can be seen from a garage and on the road, a corpse along with a glimmering pickup. The pickup lures the player into a scripted event where the car alarm goes off.

ScreenShot00042.png

 

After setting of the alarm, the player is swarmed with zombies and must fight in order to progress.

ScreenShot00031.png

 

The amount of enemies are high and encourage the player to flee toward the light from the park. Here the level ends with a miniboss encounter.

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