It Begins!

Ant Assault has now entered the early stages of production, well and truly ready after thorough pre-production. As the second week is nearing a close, each discipline has made significant progress towards our group milestones and schedules.

Here is a peek into the behind-the-scenes of the development of Ant Assault.

Wall climbing

A significant element of early production has been implementing the game's core climbing mechanic, where the player will be able to walk on walls and the ceiling. Getting this mechanic functional and feeling good has been a significant priority for the team. 

Motion sickness and disorientation have been one of the core concerns surrounding the climbing mechanic. To help alleviate this, designers have conducted a range of playtesting sessions to identify FOV and movement speed values that minimize motion sickness. These playtesting sessions have also identified which surface angles affect players the least. The climbing code has gone through several revisions due to these playtests to ensure that it functions as intended and to provide solutions to our concerns.

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Weapons

Our two weapons, the Carapiercer and the Sap Lobber have both had placeholder assets created. The Sap Lobber has had a very early prototype of its projectile functionality implemented and the upcoming weeks will see a focus on getting both it and the Carapiercer fully functional with damage systems.

Level Design

Ant Assault has made significant progress already in terms of level design from the paper designs, already reaching the stage of the first passes. Each chamber has gone through multiple revisions, each adapting to feedback received after presenting it to other members within the group. Below are more details on the changes which each chamber has gone through and its purpose in the game.

Chamber 1

Chamber 1 is the first chamber of the level, where the players first spawn. This requires that the chamber must introduce players to the main mechanics, and is the place where players first get to experience the climbing mechanics, getting them used to the camera movement and how orientation works, while in a safe space without enemies interrupting and rushing progress.

Initial Stages:

A ‘ditch’ after the placement of the log was added after feedback was received to further expose players to walking up and down walls, even if they choose to not walk on the ceiling. This forces the player to have experience with the mechanic, no matter which path they take. The tunnel entrance to the next chamber is also placed high on the wall, to further reinforce the use of climbing within Ant Assault.  

HUD

This is what the current version of the HUD looks like. At the moment only the health is functional however the ammo counter is very close to being implemented. All aspects of the HUD are subject to change at this point

Enemies

The core systems and behaviours of the two enemies - the worker and the soldier - have been developed. The soldier enemies are strong but have a simple set of behaviours. They will wander until the player is in sight, get in shooting range, and shoot. They will also search for the player if they lose sight. On the other hand, the worker enemies have a more complex system of behaviours despite being the weaker of the two. They will by default, linger around soldier enemies, attacking the player when in sight, and searching for the player when lost. They may also flee confrontations if they take too much damage. The AI was developed to make the Ants feel as if they are dependent on each other, a part of a colony. The worker ants rely on soldier ants to protect them, and the soldier ants rely on worker ants to distract and overwhelm the player.

Although not all necessary features have been implemented yet, the enemies have empty behaviours prepared for weapon use. It is yet to be seen how the intended behaviours will work and whether they will feel good for the player to fight, but it is something that will be heavily tested by the end of alpha.