Tactical 2.5D Shooter Prototype

Unity | C# | Blender | Adobe Audition

2024

Enemy AI and systems prototype for a fast-paced tactical 2.5D FPS.

Gamefeel and Juice

This project provided an outlet for me to explore several gameplay tweaks to add engaging gamefeel and flow to gameplay.

Throughout the project I experimented with hitstop, slow-mo, camera shake and gibbing techniques.

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Tactical Pathing

Inspired by tactical enemy AI in games like F.E.A.R and Close Quarters, a focus for this project was to program enemies that would find and make use of cover in the environment.

There are many approaches to giving an enemy AI awareness of nearby cover. The method I chose was to make enemies examine nearby walls and hide behind surfaces with normals that faced away from the player.

When combined with behaviour that seeks out the player, the enemy AI will carefully approach the player while taking care to not expose themselves, preferring flanking routes if it meant a safer approach.

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Sprites

I wanted the enemy design and overall atmosphere of the project to be dark, oppressive and abstract. This comes through in the (still very much placeholder) enemy character sprites, which while vaguely humanoid, seem more machine or monster than human.

Other features

• Use of state machines to create enemy AI that detect and hunt down the player.

• Lethal, low TTK FPS combat rewarding proper aim and positioning.