Kevin Jaszanovits

2-Player arena brawler where players can choose different characters and abilities and fight one another.

The project was pitched in a Prototyping course and brought in as a collaborative project where various students across applicable majors can contribute to its development. I joined roughly a year after its initial development.

When I was first brought on, the foundation of the game had been laid. Tuning the responsiveness and fixing bugs was priority one. A major issue that had yet to be solved was the collision on the characters - the characters would walk through the smallest cracks between barriers. Collision detection was an issue in general, so I implemented a Trace that looks for specific objects and calculates the distance that a character can walk, roll, teleport, or be pushed as to avoid involuntary ring outs or clipping through barriers.

Combat has consistently been revisited by everyone on the Design team throughout development. Much time was spent play testing extensively and seeking feedback to tune the Basic 1-2-3 combo: time between hits, time before the combo resets, the amount of damage, stun, and push back each hit does, and time dilation for more visual feedback.

I gave input that the Fireball should do more damage, but suffer from less push back and less stun as it can be fired quickly. This has been the mindset when tuning the Fireball during play testing. Although much of its implementation and construction was out of my hands, I did add increased acceleration to the fireball the longer it is active, as well as add a specific spawn point to allow for better visual feedback that is character specific seeing as the Tank throws it as opposed to the Mystic firing it from both hands.

As far as the abilities, I spent more time on the Headbutt than any other - this included, tuning stun, push back, the timing in which the Headbutt could be used again, adjusting the timing it could be used after a combo. The Headbutt was intended to do a small amount of damage, but have high stun and push back, so much play testing was needed to properly tune each aspect. The most visual aspect I added was the stretching effect when the ability is initially used.

As mentioned prior, movement was priority one for me when I initially joined the project. As such, I was known as the “Wall Guy,” as much of my time was spent walking the characters into the barriers to try and resolve the various collision detection bugs. Once I had resolved those issues, we were able to implement Arena features. We had spent the first week on the project making concepts for various hazards the arena could have. A common one was the barriers coming down so players could be pushed off. I implemented that feature by creating an actor Blueprint based off of the same Character Base, allowing the pylons to receive damage and disable the collision when it reaches 0, and resetting after a few seconds pass. I also added the smoke and electrical particles for more visual feedback. Our art team implemented the actual Barrier VFX, as well as the visual transition.

One of the major Design features I pitched was the Porfect Combo (I did not come up with the name at the time). The idea is once the Stun Meter, the stars that appear over a character as they take more damage in quick succession, was full, the character would become fully stunned and unable to move and all of the traps and hazards on the stage would activate. This would give the attacking player a chance to win the round immediately. I viewed this as a reward for aggressive play, but also a potential comeback factor for a player that has been losing the round, but gets a few solid combos and ability hits.

Trailer cut together by Video Editing Department at the Academy of Art University.

High Concept:

Outta Brine is a 3D Platformer on the PC where you play as an acrobatic pickle trying to get from a pickle jar on one side of the room to a delicious sandwich in the fridge without getting dirty or being seen.

The conception of this project came from trying to create a fun game for a company based on their product - the Crispy Pickle, Pickle Company.

Pillars:

Tight, Responsive platforming controls.

Interesting, varied level layouts.

Absurd and funny aesthetic.

Target Audience:

PC players.

Indie game enthusiasts.

Credits:

Level layout was built by hand in the Unreal Engine 4 (v.19.2) using brushes and Static Meshes.

Mission elements, functionality, and mechanics were all scripted in Unreal’s Blueprint.

VFX were provided in Unreal’s default Third-Person Template.

SFX were sourced from Freesounds.org as well as from students from the Sound Design department of the Academy of Art University from a past project I had worked on.

The Crispy Pickle logo was created by me using Photoshop.

Game Process and Intent:

The intent was to create a marketable product in the games industry for a company.

Development Time:

Initially 2 weeks with 1 additional week later on in the semester for bug fixes and polish.

Instructions and Planning:

After given this rubric, research was done into past games that have been made for specific product i.e. Pepsi Man and Sneak King (the promotional Burger King game). Knowing it was a food company, I came up with the idea of an I Am Bread style game but with the movement of Ninja Gaiden. Also, the decision was made to proceed with using the Unreal Engine for the project.

Conceptualization and Prototyping:

The first week was spent creating a paper map of a kitchen layout and working on the movement of the Pickle. A content folder was also created so any Materials, Sequences, Static Meshes, Blueprints, and sourced SFX could all be found in one place for ease of access. I altered the jump amount and jump height of the character as well as altered the gravity applied to the Pickle to tune for overall aerial movement and to maximize control. I also created an Event that projects the player forward to act as a dash - giving the player another level of movement.

Feedback and Building the Level:

The first round of feedback was given and the idea of having a roaming AI as a threat to the player and having the ability to flop over to hide in plain sight was conceptualized. The next week was working in said mechanic and making a Block Mesh of the level complete with a beginning and ending Sequence. When the Middle Mouse Button is being held, physics are added to the Pickle Static Mesh and Player movement is frozen. The player can still look around to track the pickle and the AI. When released, the Player will re-attach to wherever the Pickle Static Mesh resides.

Bug Fixes:

Returning to the project after roughly a month, a week was spent populating the level with clutter to add more detail and fixing the Pawn Sensing and Line of Sight of the patrolling AI. Also adding a platforms to jump on and adding a meter before the player is reset to the beginning to curve the overall difficulty of the level.

High Concept:

A mine on a volatile planet that was abandoned because the hole that was bore into the ground began flooding with magma.

The idea came to me from the original story of the Unreal Tournament - a gladiatorial style event that was meant to allow miners to let off their aggression instead of rebelling.

Pillars:

Confined map for intense shootouts.

Multiple levels for more varied gameplay.

Thought-out pickup paths and high weapon spawns to keep the match flow constant.

Conceptualization and Building:

Since there wasn’t much in terms of functionality or scripting that needed to be done because the Unreal Tournament Editor is so dense with content, the first week was spent planning with rough paper maps and building organic structures to navigate through. The point of this assignment was to create a fun map and focus on item/weapon placement to create an optimal flow. I created a content folder to sort whatever custom Materials, SFX, Static Meshes, and Sequences that I would create by hand as not to be lost in the vast content section that comes with the Unreal Package. All environment models were created by me using brushes and converting to static meshes and applying custom materials I had also made. The rocks in the sky and the massive pumps were also animated by me using the Sequencer.

Feedback and Further Construction:

While the level had taken shape, the feedback I received was to add another level to the map to avoid it becoming a meat grinder - players spawning and getting fragged almost instantly. The next week was spent crafting the Basement Floor, adding the magma to damage players and tweaking weapon and ammo placement accordingly.

Posting:

The game still maintained the hectic firefights I had intended when starting the project, but not overwhelming the players. The map is posted in Unreal Tournament and is available to play.