Pre-Production: Concepts & Ideas

To quickly summarise my project goals, I am aiming to create a gameplay experience that focuses on replayable gameplay mechanics and gameplay loops, within the confines of a wave-based, first-person shooter. By the end of the project, I hope to have a polished game build that ticks the boxes that I have laid out in my research topics.

Project Summary:

The core gameplay is a first-person shooter where the player fends off endless hordes of zombies. The player will have access to a large arsenal of guns and tools to defend themselves. A fully developed level, set in a fictional, ancient Aztec setting. The game will provide different ways for the player to gain more power and change the way they play all while trying to survive for as long as possible against the undead. As mentioned, my main focus will be looking into how I can incorporate more replayable gameplay elements that keep players engaged for longer periods as well as throughout multiple play sessions.

A large inspiration for this project is the Zombies game mode from the Call of Duty franchise. Throughout the project, I will also research similar games that have gameplay loops and mechanics with a similar style.

Core Deliverables:

• FPS gunplay mechanics with a large arsenal of guns to choose from.

• Zombie AI Horde system that endlessly scales with each round that passes

• Unique ways for the player to gain more power and progression from the gameplay

• A unique environment that fits the Ancient Aztec era

• Level Design that is suited to the gameplay by making use of both open and enclosed spaces.

• Optimized Lumen global illumination inside Unreal Engine 5

Game Overview:

You play as a lone explorer who is in search of rumored Aztec ruins that were thought to have been lost. These ruins were known to have been the last place that ancient technology was sighted. Upon reaching the ruins, the world around them seems to break and warp as if they had entered another dimension. The explorer finds an open clearing of ruins with an Aztec temple in the center, surrounded by dense jungle. At the base of the temple, there seems to be what can only be described as a giant's arm erected through the ground. As questions race through the explorer's mind, a barrage of footsteps begins to develop. All of a sudden, one by one, decrepit corpses begin to emerge from the treelines heading straight for the explorer. "What has happened to me, is this real life?"

(This is the point where the player will start the game)

I plan on revealing the points of the narrative slowly to the player as they explore the map and uncover secrets. However, as this is not a core deliverable it will not be a main focus until the more technical deliverables have been achieved.

I won't dive into the full context of the narrative as I want to leave it up to the interpretation of the players as they experience it for themselves. It will also be set as a stretch goal for the 1st stint of the project and then revisited as the technical development has progressed.

Gameplay:

As mentioned in the intro, I plan on implementing a large arsenal of weapons. During my 'Upskill' university module I researched and developed a modular base foundation for a first-person shooter game. I will begin by evaluating the finished version of that project and determining which parts I can adapt and expand for use in this project. I built it with the purpose that it could be used as the first building block and then scaled up to fit the demands of any project. I plan on having 26 core guns that all function in similar ways to traditional firearms. I also plan on making 1-2 unique guns that don't act like traditional firearms in the sense of how and what they fire. I've planned for such a large amount of guns as it will be a core foundation of the gameplay so I want to be able to offer a wide array of options to the player. These can be accessed from different areas of the level and some will be stronger than others. I have chosen a wide range of different types of guns to hopefully provide a nice selection to the players.

(Gun models from Sketchfab & Unreal Marketplace - imported into engine to check scale and textures)

Once I've deemed the meshes suitable I will plan on setting up the functionality for them and getting the animations for the player character established.

Player Progression:

I want to give the player multiple ways of progressing their 'character power' while they play the game. When a player first loads in they will start with just a pistol to survive. They will need to build their way up to gain different more powerful weapons along with upgrades and things like obtainable perks and traits that give the player different bonuses. This sense of progression from starting from zero and building yourself up in different ways has been used as an effective gameplay loop in many different games. As the development continues I will further expand on these elements with more detail.

Level Design:

When coming up with ideas for the map of the game I started with researching different Aztec ruins and temples. This mainly consisted of Pinterest boards and Artstation posts to get a sense of the visual style.

Upon deciding on the Aztec theme, I knew that I would need to start finding asset packs that would fit the style and theme. It wasn't a consideration that I made as to whether I would be using or not using asset packs for the project. This is because I do not have the necessary skills to develop the assets myself within the timeframe of the project.

I began with finding asset packs for the environment that fit the style and theme that I was going for. I aim to use packs that can be used together to help provide the most amount of flexibility and reusability. I will be using a series of asset packs that I have collected over the years as well as some recently acquired asset packs specific to this project.

(Aztec Temple)

(Lost temple of the Aztecs)

(Modular lost ruins kit)

After picking out asset packs that I had access to I decided to look at real-world examples within history to gain some insight and backstory into different areas during the Aztec era. During my initial research, I discovered a region, northeast of what is now Mexico City, called Teotihuacan, loosely translated to 'the place of the gods or the place where gods were created' from the Nahuatl language.

Running down the middle of the area is a great long pathway called the 'Avenue of the Dead'. This avenue is connected to 3 great temples. Temple of Quetzalcoatl, the Pyramid of the Moon, and the Pyramid of the Sun being the largest one.

The true origins of this site remain a mystery still today and it was not the Aztects that initially inhabited this area. Scholars believe the site was established as early as 400 B.C. and quickly became the most powerful and influential city in the region by 400 A.D. However it is also unclear what happened to the city as by the time the Aztecs arrived it had been abandoned for centuries. The Aztecs gave the site its name after being in sheer awe of its discovery.

https://www.history.com/topics/ancient-americas/teotihuacan

I researched many other Mesoamerica areas such as Tenochtitlan and Chichen Itza. During my holiday to Mexico in 2022 I visited Tulum which is a pre-Columbian Mayan walled port-side city. I have a great deal of reference photos that I can use to help shape the environment for the game.

I ultimately decided to use aspects of the Teotihuacan area as I was drawn to the backstory of the area as well as the general area's features. I began by making some very rough drafts and notes of ideas while incorporating aspects of the real-world place to be able to make my own fictional levels.

Very rough general overview of the types of areas I will have.

A more detailed overview of the starting area for the game as well as some ideas for mechanics for the area.

This covers all of the level design ideas so far. I have planned to start working on this area of the game by around weeks 3-4 of development so I will keep notes of any further ideas up until then.

(1st initial ideas on core concepts, nothing set in stone and is very much subject to change)

What is next for the project:

My aim for the first week of development is to get all of the guns hooked up to the player character. This includes idle and ADS animations. I will get them all integrated with my core foundation and amendments to it as well as the player character. I will also get all of the locomotion states for the player character set up. This is the walking, crouching, sprinting, and jumping, all with connected animations using an animation blueprint. I also hope to expand on the initial ideas that I have set for the core concepts and get some ideas decided for the gameplay mechanics.