Graffiti Prototype n1: Movement

Introduction

Hi I'm Nick, one of the developers/designers that is working with Simo on this upcoming COOL game.  This prototype is the first for our game revolving around parkour and graffiti. In these first 2 prototypes we split them into focusing on controls, 1 including movement, and 1 other prototype focusing on drawing graffiti. I made the movement prototype, while Simo worked on the graffiti mechanic.

Brainstorm Ideas 

For the initial idea of the game, we did a 30 min brainstorm on what we wanted to make.  A lot of ideas revolved around an urban setting with an early PS1 game/Y2K aesthetic. Some other ideas included cooking, a walking sim and extra. In the end because of our interest in a game with an urban aesthetic, we decided to focus on graffiti based on Simo's ideas, having inspiration from Jetset Radio and Bombrush Funk, while I suggested to include parkour style movement which is commonly linked to graffiti culture. So I mainly suggested that movement should revolve about running, jumping and vaulting around.

Questions for Prototype

This Specific prototype focused on the questions on how to control the character? as well as also what kind of aesthetic to implement? 

For movement I decided to focus on a FPS perspective as different games beforehand we're typically in 3rd person, an FPS perspective felt unique. The movement became a WASD style, FPS controller that had a lot of modular variables to manage run and jump speed. A key focus that I wanted to include was to simulate smooth stair climbing. This is typically done by having a slope collider, however in first person, climbing stairs usually feels jagged  due to shifting from different height levels. To simulate this instead of using a slope collider on the stairs, I made it so that a raycast was cast to check for ground, while halfing the player collider. This would check if there was ground and set the position to the hit of the raycast with an offset to avoid the player clipping through the ground. To create the vaulting mechanic I used a script that added a force to the player when pressing F near a red object, signifying an interactable object. The force when be added when a raycast was cast in front of the player and checked if there was a trigger collider with a interactable layer mask. If there was no such collider the player would get a forward force successfully vaulting the player.

The question on aesthetics was mainly answered through various post-processing effects as well the inclusion of the jungle PS1 sounding beat. The lack of any lighting also reinforced the depressing, dystopian urban aesthetic carrying into what we wanted to portray.

Jungle Beat:

https://freesound.org/people/LS/sounds/37661/

C22767449/Nick