Dev Blog Post Mortem

What we accomplished in this final sprint was the implementation of the Endless horde mode and the final consolidation of our 1.0 build. Overall, this project was a resounding success and the amount of work we were able to do in such a short amount of time is truly mind-blowing. 

The Endless horde mode was initially thought to be out of scope. The idea was something I tossed around in my head at the beginning of development but never thought I’d get to. However, when Chase started experimenting with cobbling together some of our existing code, he was able to get a framework for an Endless Mode going extremely quickly with very little new code required. This mode incorporated the enemy detection system used for the arena doors to make the wave system, utilized our modular frame classes to create new weapons, and the star launcher explosions to create explosive deaths of the kamikaze enemies. All of these features came together into a hectic but fun gamemode that I believe really elevates our game to the next level. 

The main way we balanced this gamemode was with the introduction of new enemies to serve as either bosses or power ups for the player, and with the amount of enemies that spawn in the waves. The amount of enemies was mainly controlled by Chase as he was the one assembling the gamemode and his method was creating an exponentially increasing enemy spawn number that slowly increases as the waves go on. The types of enemies and their stats was mostly dictated by me, however this was limited by the options created by Chase. The new enemies added were the kamikaze enemies, the mini-light bodies, the fast heavies, dual wielding heavies, and the God variants for the light and medium frames. 

The kamikaze enemies were modified medium bodies with no primary weapon and couldn’t be hacked. They would explode on death or when colliding with the player. These were meant as horde thinners that would help create satisfying moments with the player shooting one and damaging all enemies around it. Furthermore, every 5 waves is a kamikaze wave where the enemies are only kamikaze enemies. During these waves, players can easily create chain reactions of explosions by killing kamikaze enemies in close proximity to each other. This is incredibly satisfying not only visually but audibly and makes the player feel empowered. 

The fast heavies were meant to put more pressure on the player and make combat against heavies more dangerous since normal heavies are so slow and easy to avoid and juke. The dual wield heavies only spawn on waves 20 and above and are meant to really challenge the player by dealing excessive amounts of damage if the player gets too close to them. Of course these bodies can still be hacked and used by the player. All of this was purposeful in order to provide a more enjoyable experience for the player. 

The God variants of the light and medium frames do increased damage as well as having weapons not seen in the campaign. 

The light body God form has a burst fire shotgun capable of dealing loads of damage up close but still being unreliable at range. The Medium God has a primary weapon that fires heavy body railgun blasts that deal high damage but have a long cooldown. These enemies are meant to be very powerful obstacles against the player as well as being potent advantages for them. This dichotomy comes from the hacking system and the player using their choice to decide whether to occupy this powerful enemy in order to go down the power fantasy route, or fight the enemy if they want more challenge. It is ultimately up to the player’s choice on what experience they are seeking. 

The fact that we were able to get so many features with such polish and depth in only 3 months is truly a testament to our team’s ability. Furthermore, the fact that our base gameplay mechanics of moving, shooting, and hacking, could be brought into such a radically different gamemode such as Endless and still be fun is a testament to how well designed our base gameplay features are. This makes the fact that our ECGA submission was somehow lost and we were denied a chance to be a part of the awards even more of a slap in the face. I really thought that our game had something special and we had this win in the bag just due to the quality of the work Dylan and Chase were able to bring to the table. I just hope everyone in my talented team gets to have long, prosperous careers in the future because they all deserve it.