| SeaAngel | Date: Tuesday, 2011-12-06, 10:06 AM | Message # 1 |
 3D Modeling
Group: Administrators
Messages: 972
Awards: 1
Reputation: 42
Status: Offline
| Arcade Shooter
Difficulty - You'll need to be familiar with making triggers.
I had this idea while playing Time Crisis at an arcade, it's the same on House of the Dead on the Nintendo Wii. It came out quite well and I figured I'd share it with the community. I'm looking for feedback.
Never Played an Arcade Shooter?
Stage 1: Camera
The camera is probably the most important thing for making an arcade-style shooter; it's the fact its fixed that does it. Basically, the camera is in a first-person style, but without the gun showing up.
When playing, the player will be in certain areas which, I refer to as Combat Zones (CZ), and in each one of these is a locked camera. Set all of these up first. You'll want them to be behind cover like a real person would be in real life. For example, behind some barrels.
Picture
A combination of these creates a lot of different Combat Zones (CZ) which, when strung together by triggers and with some added waves of hostiles, creates an arcade level. Try to keep the camera at the same height and use gradual movements to make it feel first-person. I really have to stress that, as it looks pathetic if the camera goes really fast over some building to the next CZ and instantly ruins the First-Person Arcade Shooter effect.
Tip
I personally use time triggers for my CZ's. That way, my player stays shooting at enemies for around 20 seconds before cinematically running to the next CZ.
Extract
Stage 2: Units
I used zombies, but feel free to use any type of melee unit. You'll want to make them slow moving so the player can have time to react, especially if your hostiles come from around the corners. It's the trigger work that's tedious here. You'll need to make a category for this and have comments separating the different CZ's in order to fix any bugs in the scripting easier. Your first trigger will be the initial spawn. Try not putting too many in (Unless the intention is to make the player feel overwhelmed) 3 is a good number or 5 if it's a hard group that will come at the player from a long distance. From then, you'll want to have a separate trigger which will respawn the hostiles. You'll need the spawn/respawn region to be out of the player's sight (Only while they're in that CZ).
Extract
It is as simple as that. Once you're done with that CZ, turn those triggers off. Turn your CZ Transition (camera) trigger on, and then your next CZ. It's simple yet fun.
Stage 3: Shooting
It wouldn't be a shooter without it and to me this part is why I'm proud of my map. You can have multiple weapons, as in the attached demo, if you really want to. But if you're just keeping it simple and sharing this map with your mates, then you might as well just keep it to the pistol.
Depending on your choice, you may want to make your weapon Instant-Kill, but I prefer to have it damaged based so I can include bosses. The trigger is remarkably simple.
Extract
This is an extract from the demo level and therefore mentions gold and lumber. That is what I use for ammo. I will explain that later.
I use 50 damage for the gun. This trigger is for the pistol. The Assault Rifle does 100 damage, adding variety to my level. Note it plays a sound. It's a little bit of a pain to do as I'd forgotten to make the sound NOT 3D at the time. But by increasing the pitch of the rifleman's attack I made the sound seem like a pistol. You can download free sound effects for your guns and add reload noises if you want, but I stuck to Blizzards as this is a demo level. There's a Unit-Type condition because I'd planned on adding civilians for effect but never bothered...
Ammo
The ammo makes the game feel even more arcade-like.
I used gold as Bullets-per-round as gold and Lumber as magazines. Variables manage these. I used 2 scripts for security and to eliminate cheating. The pistol holds 12 rounds and you start with 6 extra Magazines. When your rounds hit 0, you have to reload. I used the Down Arrow Key for this. And when your Magazines hit 0, you're out of ammo. If you have an exceptionally long level, you might want to implement something such as every 10 kills rewarding a magazine or something where you can click floating magazines to receive some, but it is up to you. My demo level was short, however, and combined with the Assault Rifle, you had enough ammo to last.
Extract
That's the reload scripts done.
----- By this time you should have made your CZs, your cameras, your hostiles (and their spawn points and respawns), and your shooting and ammo scripts. Now for the finishing touches.
Stage 4: Miscellaneous
This is minor, yet VITAL for this to be an arcade shooter!
Go to your game interface and change your cursor to the Target model I've attached. It will give you a cross-hair as your cursor, adding just a little bit more Arcade Style to the map. It wouldn't look complete without it.
|
| |
| |
