Hill State Machine
This week’s main focus was getting the Hill objective AI to be playtest ready. Above is a clean representation of the hill’s state machine. For the playtest, what has been implemented has been the Wander phase, Rest phase and Choose phase. The additional phases will increase the hill’s evade behaviors based on it’s health. In it’s current, minimal state, it is functional and works in a gameplay scenario with Cole’s reactive transparency shaders. Below is what the hill looks like currently in game. It wanders randomly between several marked locations in the map, allowing for easy implementation for any levels designed by Kevin or I in the future.
Map Design Sketch
Speaking of level design, Design Team met for a level design 101. Kevin took the lead this week while I worked with the Hill AI. This didn’t stop me from contributing a little during the meeting. A sketch of the map I designed is posted below. It looked into asymmetry and a more open design for players. Next week I’ll clean up this design more and present it.
What Went Well:
The Hill AI is in a playable state and Tyler is happy. When Tyler’s happy, I’m happy! The merge with Cole’s shaders also went well, and it looks great in game. We even had playtests where players loved the hill.
The Hill AI is in a playable state and Tyler is happy. When Tyler’s happy, I’m happy! The merge with Cole’s shaders also went well, and it looks great in game. We even had playtests where players loved the hill.
What could have been better:
I wish I had more knowledge on AI. If I did, I could have programmed and bug tested it a bit faster, and had a more developed hill set up for the playtests. Despite this, I was able to simplify the AI for this week and more or less perfect it at it’s simplest form.
I wish I had more knowledge on AI. If I did, I could have programmed and bug tested it a bit faster, and had a more developed hill set up for the playtests. Despite this, I was able to simplify the AI for this week and more or less perfect it at it’s simplest form.
Hours:
Hill AI (12 hours)
– State Machine plan
– Program hill
– Test hill
Hill AI (12 hours)
– State Machine plan
– Program hill
– Test hill
Level Design (3 hours)
– Meet and discuss what we want
– Draft up designs
– Meet and discuss what we want
– Draft up designs
Meetings (4 hours)
