— PROJECT NAME
Arcanic Mechanic
— ROLE
Gameplay & UI Programmer
Enemy & Gun Part Designer
— DATE
February, 2024
This game was crafted in Unity by 8 Michigan State University students as a part of the MSU Game Design & Development Minor.
You have been selected to be the champion in a tournament for mages in the heart of your city. However, it is not meant to be won, as those who participate are prisoners, particularly those in the resistance. They use parts that are salvaged from the arena or the military drones they defeat for upgrading their gun. These unconventional parts make the tournament a spectacle to be in awe over, as the combat goes from stale to utterly ridiculous. You must use your environment and the parts you have to your advantage if you want to survive this gauntlet, as this cycle, and become the Arcanic Mechanic.
Arcanic Mechanic Trailer
Major Contributions
For this project, I programmed core gameplay features such as the weapon wheel functionality (including time slowing and weapon part selection), weapon part changing mechanics, and UI systems to display current weapon and durability. I also developed the enemy base class and implemented dynamic damage effects for both enemies and players, such as blinking red on hit, blood effects, and number pop-ups. Additionally, I designed all enemies, created many weapon parts, and developed visual effects like lightning, muzzle flashes, and bullet trails.
Programming Responsibilities
Weapon Wheel
In Arcanic Mechanic, the player’s weapon—referred to as the "cannon"—features three interchangeable barrels that can be swapped out to adapt to different enemies or situations. To ensure players could seamlessly switch barrels during fast-paced gameplay, we implemented a barrel attachment wheel. This weapon wheel provided an intuitive and efficient way for players to quickly sift through their available barrels and select the one best suited to the task at hand. By streamlining this process, the wheel enhanced the game’s pacing and ensured players always felt in control, even in high-pressure moments.
Open/Close Wheel
When the designated key is held, the weapon wheel activates, slowing down time and temporarily disabling camera movement and shooting. This deliberate pause in the action creates a tactical moment for the player to strategize without the pressure of fast-paced gameplay. Once the key is released, the weapon wheel closes, the selected barrel is equipped, and normal gameplay resumes, restoring camera control, shooting functionality, and cursor locking.
Calculate Cursor Angle
This system calculates the mouse's position relative to the screen's origin (0,0) and determines the angle between the mouse position and the positive x-axis. By using this angle, it identifies which of the three parts on the screen has been selected. Additionally, the same logic has been adapted for controller input, showcasing a versatile and seamless implementation across multiple input methods.
Set the Current Part
Once the angle is calculated, the selected part is compared to the currently attached part. If they match, the corresponding section of the wheel turns blue, signaling the selection. The barrel is then updated to reflect this selection, and the visual in the center of the wheel adjusts accordingly. When the key is released and the wheel closes, the newly selected barrel becomes the active one.
Display Parts in HUD
This function taps into the gun inventory, leveraging dictionaries to identify the parts currently equipped by the player. It then dynamically updates the HUD to reflect these selections in real-time. By using this efficient system, players can easily track their weapon configuration, keeping the gameplay experience smooth and immersive.
Effects
In a game as fast-paced as Arcanic Mechanic, it’s essential to communicate critical information to the player quickly and efficiently. To achieve this, we designed a variety of effects, including visual cues for player damage, enemy damage, and part pickups. These effects serve a dual purpose: they provide players with instant, intuitive feedback about their actions and surroundings while also enhancing the overall gameplay experience. By making these effects visually satisfying, we not only improved clarity but also elevated player engagement, ensuring that every interaction felt impactful and rewarding.
Enemy Damage Effect
The enemy's take damage function is activated when a projectile makes contact, triggering a satisfying visual feedback loop. A sparks particle system is instantiated at the point of impact, providing a clear sign that the enemy was struck. Additionally, damage text appears above the enemy, displaying the amount of damage dealt to reinforce the player's impact. To further emphasize the hit, the enemy flashes red briefly using a coroutine, ensuring that the player receives immediate, clear feedback. This combination of effects enhances player satisfaction, creating a more engaging and responsive combat experience.
Floating Text Functionality
This object's randomness is assigned upon instantiation, giving each instance spatial variation and ensuring no two are identical. The SpawnText function, called by the enemy base class, takes the amount of damage dealt, multiplies it by ten for dramatic effect, and calculates a rotation that ensures the text faces the player. It then instantiates the text at the enemy's position, factoring in the calculated randomness and a height offset for proper placement. This approach creates dynamic, visually engaging damage feedback.
Part Pickup Effect
When the player picks up a new ammo part, the collection (pickup) effect triggers to provide clear, immediate feedback. The function uses the part's name and corresponding color, both stored in dictionaries within the gun inventory script, to display the part's name on the screen briefly. This ensures the player is informed of what they’ve picked up. Additionally, the collection visual flashes the part's color on the screen border a few times, offering a more intense and visually distinct alert. As the player becomes familiar with the ammo parts, the color flash becomes an efficient, streamlined method of highlighting which part was collected, enhancing gameplay clarity and immersion.
Player Damage Effect
When the player takes damage, the flash damage effect activates to enhance the sense of impact and urgency. This effect uses a bloodied image, created in Photoshop, which is overlaid on the screen for a brief duration through a coroutine. This simulates an animation, providing a visual cue that reinforces the player's injury, creating a more immersive and reactive experience in the game.
Part Awareness
In Arcanic Mechanic, the gameplay centers on puzzle combat mechanics, where players must strategically swap ammunition to effectively defeat enemies. However, early playtests revealed a challenge: players struggled to identify which part they needed and to recognize what they had collected after defeating enemies.
To address this, I developed systems to enhance player communication and navigation. Scavenger enemies were designed to telegraph the part they carried, giving players a clear visual cue about what to prioritize. Additionally, once a part was picked up, it provided distinct visual feedback, ensuring players immediately understood what they had acquired.
These systems streamlined the gameplay experience, reducing confusion and empowering players to make strategic decisions more effectively.
Design Responsibilities
Weapon Part Design
The core of our game revolves around puzzle-based combat, where players must choose the right weapon parts to overcome different enemies. To support this gameplay, we carefully designed each weapon barrel and ammo type to serve a distinct purpose, ensuring that every combination had a strategic advantage or weakness. Each barrel type was given a clear use case, and ammo types were balanced with strengths and weaknesses to encourage thoughtful decision-making.
At the same time, we needed to make sure that our projectiles aligned with the game's whimsical mage-punk aesthetic, balancing visual appeal with gameplay functionality. This design approach ensured that both the strategic depth and the game's unique visual style complemented one another, creating a cohesive and engaging experience for players.
Chain Lightning
Chain Lightning was designed to excel in situations where players face groups of enemies clustered together. Its ability to damage multiple targets with a single shot reinforces the puzzle-combat philosophy by encouraging players to assess enemy formations and choose the optimal ammo type for crowd control. While it’s less effective against high-health or isolated enemies, this intentional trade-off promotes thoughtful weapon switching and strategic planning. Visually, its crackling energy arcs align perfectly with the mage-punk aesthetic, adding both flair and clarity to its gameplay functionality.
Scavenger Enemy
The Confusing Bullet adds a layer of tactical depth by disrupting fast-moving enemies, forcing them into predictable patterns. This mechanic rewards players who recognize the value of controlling enemy behavior, offering a unique solution to dealing with mobile threats. Its weakness against stationary or slow enemies ensures it doesn’t become overpowered, maintaining balance and encouraging players to diversify their approach. The whimsical effect of enemies veering off-course integrates seamlessly with the game's aesthetic, making it both functional and visually satisfying.
Enemy Design
When designing enemies, we prioritized creating unique and engaging adversaries that complemented the core puzzle mechanics of the game. Each enemy was crafted to have distinct behaviors that challenged the player while remaining fair and balanced in combat. To enhance gameplay clarity, we ensured that enemies stood out visually within the level, making them easy to identify and strategize against. Most importantly, each enemy was designed with specific strengths, weaknesses, and use cases that encouraged players to swap weapon parts thoughtfully. This approach reinforced the game's core mechanic of adapting strategies and tools to overcome diverse challenges, keeping gameplay dynamic and rewarding.
Swarm Enemy
The Flyer Swarm was designed to challenge players with its speed and evasiveness, forcing them to adapt their weapon strategy. As a flying swarm of robotic birds, it delivers quick, small increments of damage while remaining highly resistant to sniper and assault rifle shots. This resistance encourages players to switch to the shotgun or chain lightning barrels, which are particularly effective against its spread-out and fast-moving form. The Flyer Swarm aligns with the game’s design philosophy by pushing players to think critically about their loadouts and rewarding them for using the right tools for the job.
Scavenger Enemy
The Scavenger, on the other hand, serves as a pivotal enemy in reinforcing the game’s puzzle combat mechanics. As a low-health, ranged attacker, it poses a threat through powerful projectiles, requiring careful positioning and timing to defeat. Its role as the sole item dropper makes it essential to target, encouraging players to prioritize it during combat. The Scavenger’s vulnerability to bees and sniper rifles, combined with its backpack telegraphing the part it carries, ties directly into the weapon-swapping system and emphasizes strategic decision-making. Its design highlights the importance of planning and adaptability, core tenets of the game’s mechanics.
Key Learning/Takeaways
Designing for Puzzle-Based Combat
The core of Arcanic Mechanic revolved around a unique blend of shooter and puzzle gameplay, requiring meticulous weapon and enemy design. By creating weapons with distinct strengths, weaknesses, and use cases, I ensured players had to think critically about their loadouts. Ammo types like Chain Lightning and Confusing Bullet were designed to match specific combat scenarios, fostering adaptability and strategy while maintaining a sense of player agency.
Enhancing Player Feedback and Immersion
To ensure gameplay clarity and engagement, I developed visual and gameplay feedback systems that were both functional and aesthetically aligned with the game’s mage-punk theme. From flashing damage indicators to colorful collection effects, every system communicated vital information in ways that were satisfying and intuitive. These effects didn’t just look good—they empowered players to react quickly and stay immersed in the fast-paced action.
Balancing Aesthetics and Gameplay
- Balancing the whimsical mage-punk aesthetic with the gameplay’s functional needs was a central design challenge. Enemy designs like the Flyer Swarm and Scavenger emphasized visibility, clarity, and challenge while complementing the magical yet mechanical world. Similarly, weapons and projectiles blended fantastical visuals with gameplay clarity, ensuring the game felt cohesive while maintaining depth and complexity.
Iterative Problem-Solving and Communication
Throughout development, I tackled complex gameplay challenges, such as ensuring weapon parts and enemy designs synergized with the puzzle mechanics. By refining systems like the weapon wheel, damage effects, and enemy feedback through iterative testing and collaboration with the team, I ensured a polished and player-friendly experience. This project demonstrated my ability to adapt designs, solve problems creatively, and effectively communicate ideas within a multidisciplinary team.