Developing the fairytale

January 17th, 2014

So, how are we making this game?

There have been quite a lot of posts about the graphics of Woolfe. So much maybe that you might forget there is more needed to make a game. This post is dedicated to the more technical development. We’re not going into too much detail yet…

Level design

This is the bases of what you will actually play… and it al starts with a drawing. Steven, our technical 3d artist is in charge of this. First we create an easy to adjust level made of blocks, we put in puzzles and opstacles and after a lot of pushing and shoving we get something we can test.

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In the above video you can see how the block level compares to the filled in level. Although it’s an amasing transformation, you can clearly see that the gameplay is almost exactly the same.

Character control

Walk, Run, Jump, Slide, Climb, Fight!

It all seems very logical, but there’s a lot going on behind the scenes to get all these actions working in a natural way. Apart from the animations, Jelle and Bas – the programmers of Woolfe – are creating and constantly improving all the small details that makes up the character controller. Things that seem so trivial, like foot placement on uneven terrain and climbing up / hanging on ledges, end up taking much more time than you might think.

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A big part of the Woolfe gameplay involves fighting. We want to create a fast-paced, hack’n slash type fighting experience. What we have now is only the beginning of our fighting developments. It still needs a lot more love over the next few months. Anyway, here is a small video showing some testing of various navigation systems we’re putting in place and a very short preview of our initial fight system. Remember this video is showing work in progress… not what the final gameplay will be.

Enemy control

Apart from controlling your own character we also need enemy characters of course. Creating artificial intelligence is fun and involves all kinds of mechanics to simulate real word intelligence. Can an enemy hear you? How good are his ears? What is his field of view? How far can he see? Will he get tired of following you? What will he do when he can’t find you any more? Lot’s of questions that all need answering… Have a look at what we have so far…

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Game engine

As you might have figured out by now, we’re using UDK (Unreal Development Kit) to make Woolfe. UDK is a version of UE3 (Unreal Editor3) with limited source access.  Although this free to use 3D game-engine with proven track record, has great power, there are some very specific challenges. Mostly because we can not access all components in the engine and have to make work-a-rounds to get non-standard things working the way we want them to.