Infiltrate the castle
Something is going on in the mystery castle at the top of the hill. You, a small child, have to get there first. Finding the path and avoiding the skeletons on the way.
Games practical masters course SS 2022
Development time: 1 semester
August 13, 2022
My Part
To make the game atmospheric experience, my part was it to add enemy NPCs to the scene. This entailed a system for letting the NPCs patrol. The first challenge was to create a tool which allows to coordinate multiple enemies. But when the player was temporarily detected and the enemy routine was interrupted, the previous coordination must still be restored to allow a successful completion of the level. The second challenge was the player detection itself. Not only should the player be detected inside the view-conde and in line of side, but also depending on the amount of light which is hitting the player.
Learnings
How can you combine a predictable system with a dynamic one? This was the main question for the AI behavior. The player must be able to observe the NPCs and predict their movement. At the same time, the NPCs have to interrupt their patterns when they see the player, return to it, and align with the other NPCs. Otherwise, the “puzzles” could be unsolvable. The idea was to have the planning static but the execution dynamic. In detail, the waypoints are fixed with a timeline, and the movement to the waypoints is executed on the flow. It could be better, but it is good enough!