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Cart Game Prototype
An early prototype for a single player cart-pushing FPS built in Unreal Engine
In this game, you must escort a valuable cart through the outer rings of a city to reach the imposing inner-city wall. Defending the cart by defeating the encroaching enemies and exploring the environment will provide you with valuable fuel that you must use to keep your cart running and keep you alive.
This is a very early, proof-of-concept prototype for a game that I plan to build out fully once I finish my MIT xPRO certificate in Game Design program, as well as my first full project in Unreal Engine. It's buggy, very flat looking, and could use some game-feel tweaks, but it is a great showcase of the moment-to-moment gameplay I am looking to deliver with this game.
My primary goal for this prototype was to get something playable as fast as possible, using whatever assets and tutorials I could find to accomplish it. Additionally, I wanted to focus on nailing the system design and balance early to give myself a strong foundation to come back to when I resume development. I accomplished both of these, as well as learning Unreal Engine, over the course of a month. This included multiple paper design drafts to hammer out the core
concept and rework it (multiple times), and then slowly build it in Unreal, while learning the fundamentals of the engine itself.
The core of the moment-to-moment gameplay revolves around balancing two systems:
combat and resource management
Combat
The combat sandbox in the prototype is very simple, but allows for multiple different opportunities.
Firstly, your weapon must be charged up before firing to do sufficient damage. Only a fully charged shot can stun an enemy in one hit, so timing and accuracy are very important. Stunning an enemy causes them to freeze in place and keel over, revealing a vulnerable fuel cell in their back.
Once an enemy is stunned, you must choose from two very different options: grab the fuel cell to use on your cart (which we will touch on in a bit) or shoot the enemy again to cause an explosion that instantly stuns other enemies in a small radius. This tradeoff is what really drives the combat and keeps it engaging. The explosion option provides a great way to get out of a sticky situation and clear large groups, but you sacrifice a very valuable resource to do it. This game loop was the core idea that sparked the rest of this project, and I love how it feels to play.
Resource Management
Within the combat loop lies another system - resource management.
As described above, a fuel cell can be ripped from a stunned enemy instead of blowing them up, but they can also be found scattered around the map. The fuel can then be picked up and deposited in the three receptacles on the cart. Whether you deposit the fuel by walking it up to the cart or throwing it across the combat space is up to you! These fuel cells can be used in two crucial ways:
1 - Fuel the cart
The cart that you must push to the end of the level runs on the same fuel that the robots do, and you must continually feed it into the cart to make progress. If you run out, the cart simply stops until it receives more.
2 - Heal yourself
The other option you are presented with is that you can heal yourself with the fuel. While the purple receptacles on the left and right sides of the cart fuel it, the green receptacle on the rear triggers a small healing field that slowly fills up the player's health bar. If you walk out of the range of the healing field it will not heal you, so you must sacrifice good positioning around the battlefield to lick your wounds.
These two options create yet another tradeoff for the player. Using the fuel as health creates a fun closed loop of "kill enemy -> collect fuel -> heal up -> kill more enemies" that drives the player forward and continually shifts their focus.
Level Design
Given the very early nature of the prototype, I wanted to keep the scale small in every aspect. There is only one combat tool, one enemy type, and one goal. Knowing this, I wanted the level design to be compact, and show everything that I know the full project will have to offer, as well as tell an elevator pitch of the story.
The true focus of the level design is to emphasize the three distinct zones that you travel through:
The rural outskirts - represented by the wide open flat space, populated by natural obstacles to break up sightlines
The dense residential district - seen in the narrow corridor of low structures that create a tight combat space
The inner-city wall - the natural end point of the demo which looms over the rest of the level, signifying its importance and establishing itself as a goal.
The distinction between these spaces is not only created by set dressing and freestanding obstacles but also by elevation and directional changes. Exiting the rural outskirts, you must travel up a small hill to reach the residential district, where a small turn hides what lies next. After working your way through the difficulty spike of the residential district, you must cross a high and imposing bridge to reach the war-like courtyard that sits in the shadow of the inner-city wall. While each zone is small, and their transitions pass by quickly, they subliminally let the player know that they are progressing, and show off the different combat opportunities that each area provides.
The Future of This Prototype
While I haven't worked directly on the Unreal Engine project that I developed this prototype in, I have been hard at work fleshing out the story and world of the game, as well as meticulously planning metagame loops, game structure, and exciting features.
The unnamed world of the game is similar to an alternate-history Paris, only that its inhabitants are raccoons. You play as Rosie, a raccoon on a team of survivors after the AI overthrow of the city killed most of their fellow inhabitants, and sent the rest into hiding outside the city limits. Rosie and her team have developed a super-weapon that could end the AI tyranny, only if they can get it close enough. Being the toughest and strongest member of the team, Rosie must escort the cart through the different districts and walls of the imposing city, straight into the heart of the computerized empire.
The game structure that will serve this story (and vice-versa) will be a twist on the familiar rogue-like formula. With each escort attempt you embark on, you will collect valuable currencies and materials from enemies and the environment that you will bring back to base when your attempt inevitably fails. Your team will use these materials to improve your tools and your cart, allowing you to push further into the city. Before you leave for the mission, though, you must plan your route. As you make more of an impact on the AI battlements, they will construct blockades and reinforcements along your favorite paths, so you will constantly have to adapt your route and plan accordingly.
This is obviously a very, very big project, but I am beyond excited to start working on it. I am not explicitly setting any goals for a Steam release yet, as I want to flesh it out slowly and carefully and see where it takes me. I am as confident as ever in this game concept and will resume working on it passionately as soon as I am able.
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