CHRONOCLASM

Masters in Game Design and Development Project
1 Year | Aug. 2022 - Aug. 2023

DESCRIPTION

Chronoclasm is a first person shooter roguelite where the player can slow and stop time at will. I acted as the Lead Engineer and Lead Combat Designer in a team of 4.

I developed ~90% of the project's code, manage the GitHub repository, and handle QA testing and bug fixing.

Additionally, I designed the core combat. Keeping our vision in mind, I designed the enemies and boss, balanced their combat values, and managed the game's difficulty.

With my experience working on other large projects, such as Disaster Golf, I contributed greatly to the project's schedule, scope, and other administrative tasks.

Engineer Responsibilities

Developed ~90% of architecture for the game.
Created prototype systems to showcase options before full implementation.
Advised team on technical solutions.
Streamlined pipelines.
Maintained GitHub repository.
Created builds weekly.
QA testing and bug fixing.
Optimization.
Researched solutions for project problems.

Engineering Skills Learned

Applying OOP patterns, like observer, state machines and pooling.
Practical applications for Linear Algebra in games.
Pooling complicated objects.
Creating state machines.
Input manager with rebind support.
Robust save system.
Implementing randomness in multiple way.
Writing clear documentation for systems.
Managing team GitHub.

Design Responsibilities

Designed enemies and boss.
Designed player's Timestop Grenade.
Balanced combat for all difficulty modes.
Brainstormed to achieve and refine game vision.
Developed tutorial sequencing.
Established playtest goals and plans.
Recorded game play footage for marketing material.
Competitive analysis of similar games.

Design Skills Learned

Developing design pillars, vision statement, and target audience.
Collaboratively designing with others.
Playing with existing systems to create new gameplay.
Compromise with team members.
Analyzing playtest data and creating a plan.
Designing difficulty around a target audience.
Establishing pacing to the core combat.
Tying systems into narrative.

Engineering

Time Stop Structure

This architecture supported the core mechanic of freezing time using Observer and Singleton OOP patterns.
TimeStopManager changed global time at the player's command.
TimeAffectedEntity handled how each object was affected by the time system.
LocalTimer streamlined time-based systems without compromising performance.
ITimeObserver kept time compartmentalized but expandable.
ITimeInfluencer allowed other systems to utilize its functionality in its own way.

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Target Structure

This Target architecture made it easy to review and improve before implementation.
Designed to be simple and expandable.
Abstraction ensured each type was created with a purpose in mind.
Flexibility allowed ResourceBar to be used outside target structure, such as the time gauge.
This system was used creatively to implement bubble shields on enemies!
In retrospective, I would've loved to expand the system to include buffs and debuffs by adding an 'EffectManager'.

Linear Algebra

Heavy use of linear algebra to implement player movement, AI, and more.
Favorite application was using DOT product to establish 'vision cones' for enemies and the boss for cheap.
The diagram to the right was done to figure out how to make enemies flinch in the direction they were shot.
- The vector between the center and impact point crossed with a down vector gave the perfect rotation axis.

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Full Script

Pooling & Performance

Core gameplay of enemy hordes and hails of bullets required pooling to prevent gameplay lag.
Pooled objects include: enemies, projectiles, health and time orbs, and generic VFX such as muzzle flashes.
To the left is a snippet of code for a Pool object that auto expands. Full script available to download.
Pooling managers, such as the EnemyPoolManager, handles requests and returns for pooled objects.
In public playtesting, pooling these objects drastically minimized lag spikes associated with the garbage collector and CPU usage.

Audio Back End

One blocker was our Audio Designer struggled with the Unity audio pipeline, so I established a new one.
AudioClipSO, pictured to the right, is an object that contains data and functions the designer desired.
It allowed for editing sounds in one place to immediately update every instance of that sound.
Aside from streamlining the addition of sounds to the files, it also streamlined their integration to code.
The Audio Designer was incredibly happy with this system saved both time and sanity.

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Design

Core Combat Loop

A core pillar was chaotic, bullet-hell combat which I envisioned as dodgeball in The Matrix.
My favorite goal was making time stop a reflexive instinct for the player.
- Reducing cover in levels was done to keep time stop the most reliable defensive option.
- Binding time stop as "Hold to use" established a link similar to ADS in other shooters.
Keeping time stop a resource instead of cooldown expanded player's choice on when and how to use it, from short dodges to long waves of bullets.
Bullets were made large to feel like dodgeballs, making them more visible and more satisfying to dodge around.

Hover to grow video

Enemies

Enemies are my favorite part of games as they act as primary obstacles. As bullet hell encompasses numbers, I designed simple enemies that attacked in hordes.
Similar to Left 4 Dead, there were Normal and Elite enemies that could be mixed and matched.
Rangers [Normal] stayed back to bait the player into combat.
Babies [Normal] were fast and startle the player, but easily defeated using time stop.
Mines [Elite] were a double-edged sword that created bombs dangerous to the player and enemies, encouraging creative play via resourcefulness.
Turrets [Elite] overwhelmed the player with bullets while their shields punished reckless usage of time stop and grenades, encouraging more thoughtful play.

Difficulty & Pacing

I was in charge of balancing the gameplay difficulty for pacing and accessibility.
Pacing the difficulty during the game ensured the player could get used to enemies and gameplay style before engaging the more difficult challenges.
A trend from playtests was that player skill level affected enjoyment. To improve enjoyment for both extremes, I added customizable difficulty modes so players could challenge themselves in their own way.
In playtests, the solutions for both pacing and accessibility were hugely successful.
- Players said the pacing made them feel more prepared for the chaos near the end of the game.
- The difficulty settings allowed more players to get further into the game and enjoy more of it.

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Time Grenade

The time grenade was a controversial topic amongst the team as some loved it while others preferred a classic version that acted as a normal grenade.
To ensure every voice was heard, I experimented to find a middle ground between the two.
The two arguments were the classic grenade was too generic while the time stop grenade wasn't impactful enough.
The solution was a combination grenade that would detonate, freeze time, and detonate again. The whole team loved it as it felt impactful while still making our core mechanic front and center.

Scope & Cuts

We were bound to run into issues with scope and I wanted to ensure our team maintained healthy habits.
Chronoclasm was originally third person but we lacked animation and had camera issues. Switching to third person resolved both of these blockers in one go.
Mid way of development, I realized our existing upgrade system was dangerously behind schedule. It was overly ambitious and needed time we didn't have, so I suggested scaling back majorly to the system we have now.
The suggestion and decision were both made before too much time was put into the old system, so little time was lost.