Devlog 2 - The Big One

Welcome back to another Devlog, this one is a big one with lots of changes!

For starters, the game finally has a name! Lights Out (this will make more sense soon). Along with that the fundamental design for the level has been laid out and is ready.

Lets start off by showing the map!

MAP - The map for this game is simple in concept with it being an abandoned warehouse somewhere, in this warehouse there's some very valuable tech within that could get you a pretty penny. However its not all sunshine and rainbows to get the tech, the place is crawling with guards and they don't look to keen on sharing. The map is also designed to have an eerie feel and give a tense atmosphere due to the very little light available within simply coming from some dim floodlights the guards have placed around and the occasional glowstick you might see if you ever find yourself in the vents to help guide you through them. Not just that but there's 3 floors you have to search through in order to find the tech meaning you'll have to be clever whether you're going up or down or if there's a guard waiting at the top of some stairs. Its not just the lighting and size of the building that makes it feel tense, there's at least one guard in every room but there's also storage containers everywhere so you never know what's right around the corner, but the storage containers and crates can be used to hide yourself from them instead with clever positioning. With the tight spaces and not much room to maneuver around the guards you'll have to think quickly on how to handle every situation which can be handled in a couple of ways if you end up in one. Its not all stress though as somewhere in the warehouse there are two rooms that all the guards seem to avoid for some unknown reason which could provide you with a break from sneaking, even if its only for a moment.

 Now with this map comes the main mechanic of this game to put it simply and to give a reason for the name of the game, that mechanic is turning out the lights. Its not as easy as flicking a switch here though, due to this warehouse being long abandoned the goons inside had to bring their own way to power their lights which come in the form of generators.

Rocks / Lights Out Mechanic - This is a mechanic that can help you greatly whenever needed, simply throw a rock at a generator and that will cause it to malfunction for a few seconds, keep in mind however upon doing this it will destroy the rock, and you don't have an unlimited supply of them so use this only when necessary or when you believe is a good time. When destroying a generator it affects all the lights in the building but not for long. While the lights are out the guards can't seen you but they can still hear you so think carefully what you do after disabling a generator. If you can find another rock while the lights are still out, rocks can be thrown normally and not at a generator to distract the guards by making them investigate the noise from wherever the rock had landed. As i said before there are only a limited number of rocks on the map so be careful with how you use them.

(^The generator^)

This is the blueprint that gives the players footsteps their sound, it works by first checking if the player is crouched which makes no noise for the enemies to hear while moving, however if you move while uncrouched this blueprint will cause it to make noise it  does this by first seeing if you're moving by grabbing the velocity of the player and if that velocity is greater that 0 it makes a noise at the current location.

(Blueprint behind the generators) It works by checking what collided with the generator to verify that its a rock then casting an event to all of the objects classified as a floodlight to hide themselves for a set duration then reappear. Along with that it also sets a boolean used by the guards as true putting them in blinded state where they cannot see the player for the duration the lights are off

Lights Out Mechanic (Couldn't get a GIF to work properly)

While sneaking around this can be used to cause the guards to temporarily lose your trail so you can sneak away if you're caught.

Sneaking / Capturing - Speaking of sneaking you'll be doing a lot of that! the game has the simple but tried and true  crouching mechanic to help you hide yourself behind the various containers around and maybe even squeeze into a vent or two. However if you are seen or heard the guards will walk slightly faster than you when alerted so you need to break line of sight or duck behind something quickly so they lose your trail. If in the worst case scenario you get cornered and end up caught by the guards, don't worry, its not the end for you, yet. Whenever you get hit by a guard you will be captured and  place in a cell they created in the main room (seen in the first image) that you'll have to sneak your way out which will place you back at the beginning of the warehouse so you'll have to sneak all the way back in. Though get caught too many times and that truly will be game over for you and you'll restart at the beginning losing anything you collected.

Capturing Mechanic

The way the capturing mechanic works is by using an altered version of the load checkpoint event we originally created however instead of loading a checkpoint the player themselves got it instead pulls the location of an empty actor placed with the cell and places the player in that location while the screen fades to black so its not a sudden cut for the player. In this code it also has the criteria for the amount of times you can be captured, going over the limit set will cause it to restart the game causing you to lose all progress.

Now then, in terms of progress and how you beat the game.

Gameplay - As stated at the beginning of this devlog, your goal is to steal the technology hidden in this warehouse and escape with all 3 pieces. The 3 pieces are hidden throughout the warehouse between the various floors and rooms and you have to get all 3 and get out without being captured too many times.

(^tech to be collected^)

Along with that there's a tracker to help keep track of the amount you have.

Which works but adding to a variable within the players blueprint every time you collide with one of the pieces of tech along with displaying a message in game with how many you currently have. Upon reaching 3 pieces you will then have to sneak around and find your way to the exit that only works when you have all 3 pieces.

(blueprint behind the escape door)

Now at the very end i will put the changes that i made while playtesting 

Playtesting Results - Overall i was happy with the mechanics i introduced with lights out however alot of the playtesting between the 3 friends i had helping me out did involve a lot of number tweaking which is still actively going on, the biggest things were the game originally being way to dark and trying to change the light level without making the game too bright and ruining the atmosphere of the game, along with that originally alot of the pathing for the guards was very awkward and at one point practically impossible to go anywhere without being seen by someone. along with an accidental mishap of putting a guard too close to spawn and it detecting you as soon as the game started in a small hallway. and in tandem with that the walk speed of the guards was also tweaked quite a bit because i wanted them to feel like and actual threat but not so much that the second you get seen they instantly speed blitz you into a jail cell. Other than that it was simply polishing up sightlines/pathways/obstacles to make the overall experience feel better but it can always be improved and its nowhere near perfect with how it currently stands.

Thats all i've got for this Devlog, Thank you!