Custom AI Character so far

Currently I have a custom AI character in my game next to my Custom Player character with just an idle animation, even though i have not gotten any warnings or errors while compiling the scripting in UnrealFrontEnd, following the player still seems to fail and I will continue to investigate this.

Below is a video of what im trying to achieve with the AI following the player, I can also try to move onto adding pathfinding afterwards to stop AI from getting trapped behind certain areas.

Trial and Error

So Ive been working on getting a custom AI character to follow the player as a companion, and through numerous attempts of scraping code and starting from scratch, putting together knowledge ive gained on unreal scripting I have a number of failed attempts to show for it which is quite frustrating.

Ive been able to get the custom AI into the game standing with an idle animation and the closest I have gotten to having the AI follow the player is it running off the map and standing idle twitching...

I'll continue to work on this until I have it solved and functional.

I mostly extended the classes for UTBOT and AIController, above are some samples of code i currently have produced.

Custom Character In UDK

I have got my Own Custom Test Character working in UDK so I now know how to do this when it comes to implementing my finished character model into my game, above is a video demonstration of this. Below are some images!

This took a fair bit of time and trial and error to get working, mostly playing with the FamilyInfo.UC and playerreplicationinfo.uc files located in the UTGame folder and making my own extensions of these in my own Custom Game folder.

Aztec Empire Rise and Fall

Below is a documentry i watched for more research on the rise and fall of the Aztec civilization. It discusses some of the topics of the expansion of their empire, the creation of their own aqueducts, how they favoured human sacrifice and the clash between themselves and the spaniards led by Hernán Cortés

Movable Crosshair

Currently, I am working on getting a cursor or moveable crosshair working once the game starts, I want this crosshair when moved to make the character rotate to its direction so this helps for aiming as well as giving the possibilty to issue commands on the screen for my mechanic.

Ive tried to implement the scripting to do this but havent been successful quite yet and will continue to try and get this working.

My Custom Game Camera

I then began altering the CustomPawn and CustomPlayercontroller.UC files adding scripting to implement my own custom camera. As shown below is part of the code.

After this I edited the IsoCamAngle and CamOffsetDistance numerous times until I had a camera I felt was correct for the game. Below are screenshots and a video of my Custom Camera in UDK.

 

Setting up my Custom Game

Below I organised the files for my Custom Game using Unreal Development Kit. I used a tutorial as guidelines to do this created by a student from the previous year that mentioned the tutorial to me named Henrik. First of all I went to the folder located in my "Local Disk (C) Drive >> UDK >> UDK-2011-09 >> Development >> SRC" and created my custom folder called AztecGame.

 

Within this folder I created a Classes folder and within that folder I have currently created 3 .UC files named CustomGame.UC, CustomPawn.UC and CustomPlayerController.UC to extend the default Unreal Classes. 

From here I could then begin implementing my own scripts to alter mechanics, HUD, camera's etc.

Project Plan

Above is a detailed project plan I decided to create to help myself manage each topic of work accuratley. The project plan may be edited as time goes on and I have currently made the plan up to March. For now I aim to stick to this current plan for my work flow.

Possible Guardian Design 2

This is the 2nd possible Guardian design which is still unfinished yet. This design still goes along the lines of a character thats meant to look unique and not from the aztec enviroment. I will continually build up on this design as well as one or two others until I have a design I feel is appropriate and fits the Guardian.

Aztec Book References

Above are two more images from the book "The Aztecs" by Eduardo Matos Moctezuma. The top image is a small Aztec shrine. Terra cotta, It stands 12.5 inches in height. Since i origianlly had the idea of the Guardian possibly being summoned from a shrine I will reference this image along side some others for that design when concepting. The second object is an art piece of a Jaguar Warrior standing 31 inches in height.

Aztec References and Jaguar Warriors

Above are images for reference from the book "The Aztecs" by Eduardo Matos Moctezuma. These images show some of the different art the Aztecs had as well as a small insight on their culture and architecture. Also above are images on Jaguar warriors, a famous type of elite military unit from the Aztec background. They believed that the strength and agility from the animal would come to them from wearing this armour. For the player's character in my game Im planning on it being an Aztec male and as such are looking at different styles of clothing and background to take reference on designing him.

Possible Guardian Design (Finished)

This is the finished version of a design for the Guardian, the next design i will create will be a less humanoid and more spiritual character from what im currently thinking. Possibly made out of aztec architecture.

Step 3 Mechanic

 

This is Step 3 of each action the player can undertake with the companion mechanic. Within this illustration I have shown that the player can click and drag with the middle mouse button in a circular motion and the guardian will protect the player whilst the player attempts to solve a puzzle. This is only activated at certain events in the game (the player will be told). During this action the player will have a time limit on solving the puzzle, the time limit comes from the total time that the guardian can hold off the enemies.

Possible Guardian Design (Unfinished)

Basic Block Colour

 My current idea for the Guardian is that the player's character discovers a never before seen shrine. The Guardian is summoned from this shrine offering the protection to the player's character.

When it comes to the Guardians design I currently have quite a few different ideas on what it should look like and be however I believe it should have the appearance of not looking like it is from the Aztec background being quite mysterious and usual, standing out from the other Aztec qualities in the world.

A Moodboard

Since im doing a game idea with an Aztec theme ive obviously been researching into the background of the Aztec culture and architecture for my project. Ive taken a book from the local libary on Aztec Culture and have been reading up on this as well as that I decided to create a moodboard filled with Aztec references to get myself jumpstarted to delve deeper into the research.

An Introduction and a Mechanic

Major Project Idea

Theme
An Aztec fantasy themed game,
The game will have an isometric diablo-style camera much like many games from the dungeon crawler genre.

Main Gameplay Elements - Combat, Puzzle-Solving, Strategy

Unique Mechanic
The unique mechanic within the game will be the ability to command an A.I. controlled guardian (that follows the player) to attack and defend from enemies as well as assist with puzzle solving


The players character is limited in combat where as the guardian is much more capable therefore the player must rely heavily on the guardians protection through issuing orders for example commanding the guardian to defend a direction from enemies whilst the player is protected from that direction he/she may then fight enemies from another direction or attempt to solve a puzzle.

    As more enemies come from multiple directions the player must manage commands for the guardian switching directions to attack based on which side is the most dangerous where as the player's character would finish off the few enemies that managed to break through the defensive line.

    Another example of this mechanic could be that there are enemies coming from the flank of the player and so the player commands the guardian to hold the line whilst the player attempts to solve a puzzle to open a door to gain access to the next area. Because of this the player then has a time limit to solve the puzzle before the enemies overwhelm the guardian and breakthrough.

As the game progresses the guardian may unlock skills to be used in combat such as the ability to break down into 3 versions of itself protecting multiple directions however the guardian is weaker in this state as opposed to when its 1 whole. Another skill could be the ability to do an area of effect attack (aoe) to multiple enemies at once with increased damage.

Beginning of a Blog

So this blog is to monitor my final major project through the last year of university, im currently doing a degree in (BA) Creative Computer Games Design and have to design a unique game with at least a working level, character and mechanic.
Through this blog i will showcase work in development, game design ideas and general thoughts.