Solo Project:
Memory Lane (Gears of War)
MemoryLanegameplayvideo from Morgan Davis on Vimeo.
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Role: Level Designer
Game: Gears of War
Engine: Gears of War Editor (Unreal)
Production Time: 8 weeks (180-200 hours)
Playtime: 3-6 minutes
Goals:
1. Make a polished Gears of War map
2. Change the gameplay (in this case, cover is not essential due to the enemy types)
3. Do Voice Acting
4. Have a funny story
Overview
Memory Lane is a single-player map for Gears of War. It takes place at the mansion of Grandpa Green. The player (Tim Green) follows his Grandpa through the mansion looking for a lost book.
Enemies: Nemacysts and Wretches
The gameplay plays like this. Player and Grandpa go in a room, kill enemies, then look around for his book. They find Grandpa's pills, his dirty magazine, until finally they find the address book he was looking for. Grandpa merely wanted to call all his girlfriends!
Game: Gears of War
Engine: Gears of War Editor (Unreal)
Production Time: 8 weeks (180-200 hours)
Playtime: 3-6 minutes
Goals:
1. Make a polished Gears of War map
2. Change the gameplay (in this case, cover is not essential due to the enemy types)
3. Do Voice Acting
4. Have a funny story
Overview
Memory Lane is a single-player map for Gears of War. It takes place at the mansion of Grandpa Green. The player (Tim Green) follows his Grandpa through the mansion looking for a lost book.
Enemies: Nemacysts and Wretches
The gameplay plays like this. Player and Grandpa go in a room, kill enemies, then look around for his book. They find Grandpa's pills, his dirty magazine, until finally they find the address book he was looking for. Grandpa merely wanted to call all his girlfriends!
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Skills Demonstrated
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Design Notes
Technical Challenge: Pawn Replacements
So, Gears of War's main character is Marcus Fenix. In order to use any other character, one must replace this pawn using the Possess Pawn Node (this essentially puts a new character on top of the AI features of Marcus).
However, here's a list of all issues that come with doing this:
1. Marcus stays in the level even after you possess him with a new pawn.
2. The health of the new pawn does not regenerate like Marcus'
3. Marcus' weapons have to be replaced if you want to use a specified set.
4. At every checkpoint, Marcus and all of his guns/ammo reappears.
So, Gears of War's main character is Marcus Fenix. In order to use any other character, one must replace this pawn using the Possess Pawn Node (this essentially puts a new character on top of the AI features of Marcus).
However, here's a list of all issues that come with doing this:
1. Marcus stays in the level even after you possess him with a new pawn.
2. The health of the new pawn does not regenerate like Marcus'
3. Marcus' weapons have to be replaced if you want to use a specified set.
4. At every checkpoint, Marcus and all of his guns/ammo reappears.
The Spawning of the New Character over Marcus.
Solutions:
1. I spawn the player in a blank, dark room outside the level. Cinematic mode is on, so players can't move around during this moment.
2. I use a console command node in Kismet to change the settings of the pawn
(Console command: set pawn_NPCCOGMaleWithHatAndBag bhealthisrecharging 1 )
3. The Give Inventory Node is helpful here.
4. I use the give inventory node at every checkpoint only if the player had died before. In fact, I actually repossess the pawn each time at the checkpoint, only after the 2nd time the checkpoint is activated (on death).
1. I spawn the player in a blank, dark room outside the level. Cinematic mode is on, so players can't move around during this moment.
2. I use a console command node in Kismet to change the settings of the pawn
(Console command: set pawn_NPCCOGMaleWithHatAndBag bhealthisrecharging 1 )
3. The Give Inventory Node is helpful here.
4. I use the give inventory node at every checkpoint only if the player had died before. In fact, I actually repossess the pawn each time at the checkpoint, only after the 2nd time the checkpoint is activated (on death).
Technical Challenge: AI Pathing of Grandpa Green
Grandpa's AI was even more ridiculous because not only did I possess Dom (Marcus' sidekick) like I did with Marcus, I also had to give him AI paths.
Problems:
1. Grandpa often got ahead of the player because the Kismet ran through quickly.
2. Grandpa lost his AI data at checkpoints (biggest problem)
3. Grandpa was saying incorrect UI scene/sounds
Solutions:
1. I put trigger volumes in that essentially trigger the rest of the AI paths. "AI Go Here" nodes only go if the player triggers the volumes.
2. Holy smokes this was fun. I had to keep remaking a new grandpa at every checkpoint, naming the new pawn a new grandpa name. Then I had to connect that namedvariable to the correct order of the sequence without overriding or going back in the logic.
3. Remote events and order of Kismet flow/logic had to be addressed so that no Kismet was running when it was meant to be cut off or ended.
Grandpa's AI was even more ridiculous because not only did I possess Dom (Marcus' sidekick) like I did with Marcus, I also had to give him AI paths.
Problems:
1. Grandpa often got ahead of the player because the Kismet ran through quickly.
2. Grandpa lost his AI data at checkpoints (biggest problem)
3. Grandpa was saying incorrect UI scene/sounds
Solutions:
1. I put trigger volumes in that essentially trigger the rest of the AI paths. "AI Go Here" nodes only go if the player triggers the volumes.
2. Holy smokes this was fun. I had to keep remaking a new grandpa at every checkpoint, naming the new pawn a new grandpa name. Then I had to connect that namedvariable to the correct order of the sequence without overriding or going back in the logic.
3. Remote events and order of Kismet flow/logic had to be addressed so that no Kismet was running when it was meant to be cut off or ended.
Events in Kismet to connect Grandpa's AI back.
Restreaming in levels makes things difficult.
