Little Gatherers
ROLES
Lead Programmer
Game Designer
DESCRIPTION
Little Gatherers is a third person adventure game where the player must navigate a cluttered kitchen in order to recruit mystical twig creatures known as Twigglys and acquire as much food as possible within the time limit. This project was completed during my third year at university as part of a multidisciplinary team for an industry client: Kythera AI.
YEAR
2022
Team Size
8
- 4 Programmers
- 2 3D Artists
- 1 Audio Engineer
- 1 Producer/ UI Artist
PLATFORM
Windows
- Making Use Of Kythera AI
Used an AI plugin provided by Kythera to integrate NPCs and develop their behaviour within our project. I implemented a recruitment system to allow the player to build up an AI colony whilst also building the behaviour trees that described how said colony should behave. I also partook in a lot of in-engine work in order to get the NavMesh complete with NavMesh links to join seperate surfaces together so that AI could leap across.
- Tutorial Objective System
In order to ease the player into the game, I developed a quest system for the tutorial; each objective would introduce the player to a new mechanic and - by the end of it - they would be prepared to go it alone. The reception to this addition was very positive in both QA sessions and when receiving client feedback.
- Pitching To Clients
This project offered me a vital oppurtunity to pitch a project to an industry client. Collaborating with the team, I put together a presentation that would attempt to get our client on board with the project we wanted to make. I volunteered to be the one to actually present to the client where they were ultimately very happy with what was being presented.
Overview & Reflection
Little Gatherers was developed over the course of 4 months for a client as part of a professional project module. For this project, I was lead programmer on a team of 8. Our brief was to create a game of our choice within Unreal Engine 4 with the only requirement being that it had to feature Kythera's AI plugin and showcase it effectively. Their AI had to be the focal point of the game which is why we eventually landed on the idea of leading a colony through a kitchen to steal food. For this project, we covered each stage of the development cycle starting with the initial pre-production stage where we had to develop ideas before pitching them to the client in order to get the green light. Then came the early weeks of development where there were a lot of prototyped mechanics, level designed greyboxes and even full 3D assets with some things naturally not making the cut as the vision for the game was solidified. Throughout the entire process, industry standard team management software such as Jira was used to allocate and keep track of tasks as well as to visualise them within gantt charts. As a team of 8 with 4 programmers, source control was a must with us opting to use Github to safely and effectively backup and update our project whilst avoiding merge conflicts. Additionally, documentation such as a game design document on Confluence, style guides and game flow diagrams were all developed thus giving us all great experience of the collective processes that go towards forming the games we play day in and day out. For the firs time, I even got the experience of havign regular QA sessions with first year students testing our game and reporting bugs to us which were then promptly fixed in time for the next session. I loved this workflow and feel like I greatly benefitted from working with a client with all of these industry standard practices being shown to us. This project was extremely beneficial as I gained vital experience in creating a product with a client in mind as well as regularly communicating with them throughout the process. I had a great experience making this game and thoroughly enjoyed acting on feedback week by week.
Little Gatherers puts the player in control of the "elder twiggly", a mage-like leader wise beyond his years who initally starts alone on a kitchen bench. Throughout the level, the player must recruit twigglys to their colony and order them to steal various pieces of food scattered throughout the level: some food items only require one twiggly to steal whereas others take multiple. This all has to be done whilst also solving puzzles to open up further areas to their colony such as filling the sink to allow them to cross. Players must listen out for audio cues though as, should they hear the chef arriving, they must hide and instruct their colony to do the same. The player is against the clock whilst all of this is going on as the game is supposed to be a mini-heist kind of game where they must get in there and acquire as much as possible before getting out.
This project was also my first full game within Unreal Engine meaning it was a good chance to show I can pick things up quickly as I was essentially in the deep end and had to get to grips with Unreal during development. Working within a multi-disciplinary team was a fruitful experience during this project with us all working as a cohesive unit despite any setbacks thrown our way. I learned a great deal about AI behaviour and the plethora of ways they can be put to use within a game whilst simultaneously familiarizing myself with C++ in Unreal Engine.
Overall, Little Gatherers is a group project that I'm really proud of. Despite University delays and a lack of familarity with the software, me and my team managed to put out a game that I am happy to call ours. I learned so much throughout this project but the ability to take any setbacks in my stride is one I am particularly eager to take forward. Perseverance and determination made this project possible and - in a way - I am grateful for the learning experiences provided by such large setbacks as the ability to thrive in a sink or swim scenario can only benefit me in the long run.
My Full
Contributions
- Looked at gaps in Kythera's existing demos to ensure our game was offering something new to the client.
- Worked with the team to develop and present a successful pitch to our client.
- Adapted development plan when presented with unexpected delays beyond our control (there was a delay in the University getting the AI license)
- Prototyped an initial movement/camera system with inverse kinematics (IK) handles to control ant legs.
- Implemented AI following behvaiour complete with avoidance and dynamic NavMesh.
- Created very clear game flow diagrams to effectively communicate our game idea.
- Adapted quickly to suit a new game direction when we were told 5 weeks in that our previous idea of an ant main character wouldn't be suitable.
- Integrated meshes and Mixamo animations to both the player and NPCs.
- Implemented audio provided by the audio team using Unreal's built-in audio system.
- Developed Main, pause and end menus and implemented assets provided by the UI art team.
- Completed a recruitment system that allows the player to enlist Twigglys to their colony - hooking up the behaviour trees to said behaviour.
- Frequently collaborated with the 3D art team to ensure any art implemenation worked smoothly with mechanics.
- Allocated tasks to the programming team and helped to keep them on track.
- Regular bug fixing throughout development as well as responding to QA feedback.
- Implemented a puzzle where the player must fill the sink to allow their colony to cross.
- Gave the player a magic attack that would allow them to shatter glass objects to rescue trapped Twigglys.
- Got NavMesh links functional thus allowing AI to jump up onto higher surfaces and leap across NavMesh gaps.
- Particle effect implementation.
- Tutorial Quest System
- Scoring facility with game end functionality
- Implemented randomly occuring chef events that would require the player to hide. I also added a non-random chef event that would always occur within the tutorial.
- Animated the UI to add juice to the game by creating more popping in and out as well as UI emphasis when objectives are completed.
- Carried out level design to scatter food items around the play area.