Adam Parker
The First Day (2024)
The First Day is a first-person narrative game where players control a husband character at the beginning of a zombie apocalypse, where they are responsible for making decisions by sending messages to friends and family through a mobile device. This project was designed for a game jam called The Slow-Burn Horror Jam, and the theme was Slow-Burn Terror, where we had seven days to develop and design the video game project.
Other participants rated the project on its art, music/sound effects, gameplay and theme, where the project executable can be found here: https://adam-parker.itch.io/the-first-day. It was tied for 5th place out of 15 entities.
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The team was comprised of three members: Myself as the programmer, Shalini Dutta as the Level Designer and Narrative, and Kate Tavasoli as the Music Composer and Sound Designer. Our choice of communication was Discord, where we would text each other with updates/requests so that other members could be kept up to date with the game's progress.
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Early Prototype
Before creating the project, I brainstormed ideas with my colleagues, and we agreed to make the game top-down instead of third-person. This will allow us to try and learn new techniques and methods, as we had little experience with the top-down genre.
I implemented a fog of war system where the player can reveal areas and cannot see actors within dark areas until it is revealed. This applies to certain actors or hostile AI that will react accordingly depending on actor class. This ties in nicely with the Illuminate theme as the players are lighting up the landscape and discovering hidden objects within their path. I made a basic mini-map where an arrow marks the player's location in the center of the screen, and the red circles showcase enemies.
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I created a basic AI using state machines within blueprints and created an enemy type that shoots arrows at the player and runs away depending on the distance between it and the player character. The projectile it shoots has physics that will lose velocity, dropping downwards and overlapping with another, destroying itself. I created a basic widget with progress bars to see the arrow hitting the player losing health.
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I created a basic animation blueprint for enemy characters and player character to set their animation movement and retarget some animations to their skeleton instead of t-posing when interacting with the game. I set up the player attacking animation but have not yet created a combo where they can chain attacks or damage the enemy AI.
Gameplay Prototype
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From animation montages, I created notifications that trigger damage spheres where, if they overlap enemies, it will cause damage to the character, as shown in the video.
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Add 3D widgets to enemies to showcase their health when players damage them.
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Give the player the ability to shoot their projectile fireball, which can be used to light fire pit actors to regain their health or be used to damage enemies from a distance.
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The player can jump a limited distance, which they can use to dodge enemy attacks. I calculate the distance by line traces from the camera and limit it, but they can jump up and down from areas that otherwise would be inaccessible for walking.
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My colleague asked me to remove the mini-map from the screen due to wanting another method to guide the player through the level instead.
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Gameplay within level
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I created custom collision channels to reduce the performance strain as the trigger boxes detected other actors who were not the intended actors.
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I migrated the level to my project and adjusted to get the proper mechanics working.
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I created a new type of enemy called the boss, which behaves differently than the regular AI, where he has more health and chooses between a melee and range attack.
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I added a VFX to the boss attack to give it more impact and signal to players that it is radius damage.
Rough gameplay video
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Shalini designed the UI, and I set up the functionality of the buttons and how they switch between the menu and the game.
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I created the NPC actors to whom players can talk by making a data table connected to the actor within the blueprint. The data table is structured with variables containing data for characters' names, dialogues, and talking animation.
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I made a basic enemy that walks up to the player and attacks the player to differ from the range counterpart.
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I created a floating orb that rotates like an arrow to the destination, and when the player hits a checkpoint, it will rotate in another direction to guide the player.
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I have placed firepits along the path so players can light them up, and they act as checkpoints when the player dies so that the player doesn't restart the game again at the beginning.
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I created a death box for when the player falls into the water and underneath the level.
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I added fire pit blazers along the platforms where the player had to jump across so that the player could see the direction in which they needed to jump.
Rough gameplay video
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I have added royalty-free sounds to actors and actions, making the interactions feel more natural and immersive for players.
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Added Kate's music into the game and changes accordingly when either in combat or not in combat and versing the boss.
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The player dialogue box will constantly rotate towards the player camera on tick, and when the player leaves or finishes the conversation, it will turn off.
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I created the credit widget at the end of the game.
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I made collectables that players can find scattered around the main path that can improve the character's abilities, such as damage, health and view range
Play testing
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I sent copies of a packaged version of the game to my friends and family so that I could watch and gather feedback to make necessary changes.
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The biggest concern was guidance, and players could not discern that the orb was a tool to guide the players and would get lost in the open level, running around in the wilderness.
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Players were unsure how to interact with the game due to a lack of tutorials.
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There was a game-breaking bug that would cause players to fall through the world when they jumped.
Game Jam Upload
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I created a widget that explains the controls to players and a few words to describe what they do.
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NPCs will tell players about the game and controls to help them understand what to do, and I will place them on the main path so players can see them more clearly.
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I fixed the jumping so players can not fall through the world anymore.
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Based on the feedback, I fixed minor issues, such as the 3d widget displaying correctly and the grammar errors.