The Goal & Design Pillar
The core design pillar was "Accessible Core Loop." The goal was to deconstruct the complex genre of Battle Royale into its essential, functional components and build a robust, modular prototype. The focus was on creating a seamless, authentic player journey from the main menu to victory, emphasizing systemic fairness and a clear ruleset.
Key Mechanics & Iteration:
The Matchmaking & Player Journey
The Goal: Design a seamless online experience that mimics industry standards, making the prototype feel polished and complete.
The Solution & Iteration:
Integrated Systems: Successfully linked a custom matchmaking flow with the Steam Online Subsystem, handling player sessions from the main menu to in-game.
Spawn Island: Implemented a Spawn Island lobby to hold players, creating a social and anticipatory phase before the match begins, a key element for building tension.
Challenge: Managing the state transition between the menu, lobby, and game was a significant challenge. I learned to architect robust game state machines in Blueprints, ensuring UI, player controllers, and game modes communicated effectively without errors.
Systemic Fairness & Dynamic Play Space
The Goal: Create an engaging and unpredictable play space that feels fair to all players.
The Solution:
Randomized Flight Path: The airplane's path is mathematically random, ensuring no single drop location is favored at the start of every match.
Dynamic Safe Zone: The play area shrinks to a mathematically random location within the available area, forcing player movement and creating late-game encounters. The visual feedback (changing boundary colors) was crucial for communicating the rules clearly to the player.
Modular Loot System: Built a system for weapon pickups (Pistol, AR, Sniper) with ammo and health items, establishing the core risk/reward loop of looting versus engaging.
Player Feedback & Polish
The Goal: Provide clear, immediate feedback to the player for all critical actions and states.
The Solution & Iteration:
UI/UX Clarity: The dynamic mini-map, health bar, and on-screen damage indicators (blood splatter) keep the player informed amidst the chaos.
Spectator System: Upon death, the player seamlessly transitions to spectating their killer. This maintains engagement after elimination and provides a learning opportunity, a vital feature for player retention in the genre.
Parachute Mechanics: Iterated on the in-air movement to feel responsive yet weighty, effectively mimicking the parachute drop phase without overly complex physics.
