NEON REVOLT
A FAST-PACED CYBERPUNK FPS
SCHEDULE
4 WEEKS HALF-TIME
TEAM SIZE
3 DEVELOPERS
RESPONSIBILITIES
GAME DESIGN & SCRIPTING
GAME ENGINE
UNREAL ENGINE 5
SUMMARY
INTRODUCTION
Neon Revolt is an in-development fast-paced FPS game set in a Cyberpunk setting that Morris Åstrand, Elliot Celion and me are developing. The project first spawned as a fun side project in september 2024 and has since become a full time passion that we have spent a lot of time on designing and creating so far. The game will eventually release when it is done.
My main role in this project is creating gameplay systems and mechanics. My personal goals so far in this project has been to create modular systems and a complex cover seeking FPS AI.
My contributions so far has been creating
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Modular Weapon System
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AI with different behaviors
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Interaction System
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Health System
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Arena Level to showcase the mechanics.
To complement and showcase my scripted systems for the game I also created a smaller arena-style level.
BREAKDOWN
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Game is currently in development
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Developed in 4 weeks of half-time work and on and off during my spare time for around 12 weeks.
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Primary focus on Game Design and Scripting with Blueprints
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Secondary focus is Level Design.
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First Person Perspective
ASSETS & SOFTWARE USED
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Unreal Engine 5.5
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Miro
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GitHub
GAMEPLAY TRAILER
GAMEPLAY PROTOTYPING
PRE-PRODUCTION
During pre-production we collectively tossed around ideas for the game about game mechanics and how enemies should behave. We determined what each others main areas in the development would be depending on what we want to do. My areas became mainly scripting and game design. I took the tasks of making the AI, a modular weapon system and an inventory. I also made some minor modular systems such as the health and interaction systems. I started documenting all kind of weapon features I wanted to include in the weapon system such as different ammo and damage types, fire modes, and potentially weapon upgrades in the form of attachments in the future.
PROTOTYPING STEPS
The main features for the game that I've developed so far is the modular weapon system, the health and interaction components and the enemy AI. My gameplay prototyping happened in roughly the following steps, I playtested throughout this entire process.
1. Creating health and interaction systems and a first version of the weapon system. You can pick up a gun and shoot dealing damage to a static enemy character with a health component that ragdolls on death.
2. Creating an inventory to store two weapon actors which you can switch between and drop on demand.
3. Expanding the weapon system with modularity in mind. Storing weapons in a datatable with info such as fire mode, fire rate, damage and ammo capacity.
4. First version of the AI running on a behavior tree that can run around or patrol if they have a patrol spline and attack the player when it spots them through melee attacks.
5. Creating an ammo inventory through a struct that exists inside the inventory to store the ammo for all the different ammo types in the game and editing the weapon system to use this ammo for reloads.
6. Creating an ammo drop that replenishes ammo when picked up. It is dropped when an AI dies. The ammo is the same as the AIs equipped weapon ammo type. A pistol wielding AI drops pistol ammo and their pistol.
Early gameplay shooting projectiles.
7. Changes to the weapon system to accommodate AI usage of the system. For example not checking for ammo in the ammo inventory as the AI has unlimited reserve ammo but still has to reload if the magazine becomes empty.
8. Creating a ranged AI that uses EQS to find and keep themselves around half-cover while shooting. When the AI is out of ammo they crouch and reload before standing up and continuing to shoot at their target.
9. Making a small arena to test and showcase the gameplay and the AI.
MODULAR WEAPON SYSTEM
MAKING IT MODULAR
The main goal with the weapon system was to make it as modular as possible to allow my colleagues in this project to easily be able to create whatever weapon they wanted in a fast and streamlined way. I achieved this by creating a base weapon actor which has all functions for the weapons to work. All weapons inherit from the base and it is possible to implement custom fire logic by overriding the base fire event in the parent and creating a new one. The gravity gun from The Lab does this as it is not a normal weapon.
The weapon system uses a data table to organize the different weapons and their respective stats. This makes it easier to create or balance weapons with different stats or features.
THE AI USES IT WITH LIMITATIONS
As the AI isn't using the inventory system this introduced some problems regarding ammo calculations in reloads. I wanted the AI to reload while having unlimited reserve ammo. The solution was to add special conditions if the owner of the weapon isn't the player to skip everything regarding the inventory component and player specific logic.
INVENTORY SYSTEM
To accompany the weapon system I also created an inventory system which holds the actual weapons and the players ammo reserve in a struct. The inventory handles the weapon switching, updating ammo amounts when reloading and picking up ammo. Other than that it is not that complex, I will add a melee specific weapon slot in the future. The player will then be able to have one primary and secondary firearm and one melee weapon available.
WEAPON SYSTEM BLUEPRINT SHOWCASE
The steps to create a new weapon with the modular weapon system.
Bug when the weapon is dropped while firing. Fixed by checking if the weapon is equipped while firing in the full-auto timer.
Ammo getting dropped and picked up by the player.
The weapon base which all weapons inherits from. This blueprint has more functions not shown in the event graph regarding firing the trace, calculating ammo etc.
The current weapons in the game.
AI
AI DESIGN
During this project I wanted to improve and hone my skills in AI design as I've previously done simpler AI behaviors such as the AI design in Necro Blade which was very simple. In Neon Revolt however I specifically wanted to improve my combat AI states using EQS to have an AI aware of its surroundings and use it to find cover to protect itself from enemies.
The idea is to have complex cover seeking AI behavior where act differently depending on what health they have. They are in a defensive state when below a certain health and an aggressive state above that same health. I also wanted the AI to use the same weapon system I created for the player.
EQS showcasing valid half-cover locations depending on where the target is. The AI can look through a window at the bottom.
AI ENEMY TYPES
There are currently two different enemy types in the game, a close-range enemy and a ranged cover seeking enemy.
The close-range enemy runs a simpler behavior tree and walks towards the player and attacks when in range.
The ranged AI uses a more complex behavior tree and runs an EQS to find half-cover to be able to shoot and keep itself protected when crouching to reload. This AI has two different combat states, one aggressive and one defensive state depending on its health. In the aggressive state the AI moves around more while in the defensive state it tries to keep itself to one half-cover. When the player can see the AIs waist area it moves to a new half-cover.
Behavior trees for both enemy types and subtrees that are shared between them.
The behavior of both enemy types. The close range enemy charges the player while the ranged keeps moving around cover until taking damage and goes in a defensive state and stays at one cover until getting exposed to find new cover.
FUTURE AI DEVELOPMENT
As this is an in-development game most things are in a work-in-progress state and subject to change. I have plans for the future of the AI in Neon Revolt. Some of the main AI features I want to implement are:
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More AI types
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More unique enemy types with different attacks and different behaviors.
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Boss Fights
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Boss-like enemies with different phases.
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Limit the number of AI that attacks the player
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To balance the AI I want to add limits to the amount of AIs that can attack the player at one time. Other AIs get placed in a queue and do other tasks like strafing around the target or find cover to reload.
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More AI complexity
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General complexity and behavior improvements such as flanking the player and throwing grenades if the player is behind cover for too long to make the AI feel more alive and reactive.
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Future robotic WIP enemies that can survive losing limbs.
MINOR SYSTEMS
HEALTH SYSTEM
The health system can be used on any object or actor that needs to react to taking damage or "death". Such as AI getting killed and ragdolled, an explosive canister blowing up or a destructible crate that fall apart. These actors implements their own logic regarding on damage and on death events as the current system calls event dispatchers when the health component takes damage or dies. The system is also set up to be able to have different damage multipliers depending on what bone is hit.
Health system blueprint showcase.
INTERACTION SYSTEM
The interaction system is a crucial part in making the game more interactive for the player, it is used for anything that is interactable such as weapons, doors or buttons. It sphere traces forward and downward, saving the hit actor in a variable that is used when interacting, this variable is empty if there is no interactable actor hit by either of the traces. The hit actor from the forward trace is prioritized over the downward trace. The actor also needs to implement an interaction interface and have the "interactable" object type.
Interaction showcase, showing interaction on specific meshes in a blueprint and the prioritization of the forward sphere trace.
OVERVIEW
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Level Start
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Plaza
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Lobby
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Alleyway
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Lookout
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Side Entrance
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Tower
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Balcony
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Stairs
ARENA DESIGN
COMBAT DESIGN AND COVERS
The arena design is inspired by fast-paced shooters such as the Halo games and Doom. The arena is designed with the mechanics such as wall running in mind with a lot of elevation differences. This also required me to create more roaming space to encourage movement as tighter spaces did not feel good to play in. The main courtyard outside of the indoor area has less cover to create a distinct no-mans land area. Most of the cover is also half-cover to make the combat feel more alive as the AI often crouches and stands to shoot over this cover at their target.
MULTIPLAYER DESIGN
While the game doesn't have multiplayer or plans of multiplayer I used multiplayer design throughout the level. Mainly because I felt that creating a multiplayer-esque level would showcase the different mechanics I've created better, and who doesn't like just running around shooting stuff. The level makes use of callouts of distinct areas throughout the level to make it easier to remember them. It also loops around nicely if a player would go all in on movement while playing.
Video Showcase of the Level from an orthographic perspective.
REFLECTIONS
This project has been and still is very fun to work on. I've learned a lot regarding AI design and creating modular systems that can be used in many different use cases and areas of the game. It also gives me more motivation when working with other people as they create a lot of cool stuff which motivates me to work harder to create and showcase cool mechanics and such myself. As game development is a team effort you really do need different people with different skills to be able to create something good and enjoyable.
I do however wish I spent a bit more time on the arena level I created to showcase the mechanics, I am very happy with the level itself but I would've liked to make it larger with even more distinct areas. I will definitely continue developing this project and most likely also this arena which could become something like a shooting range where a player could test out their weapons.
Overall I'm very happy how the game has turned out so far while still being in the middle of development and I'm very excited for the future and how this game will become when finished and released on Steam.