Rail Runner-More | ronaldvan

Rail Runner

Pre-Production Planning

Before we worked in engine to prototype mechanics, we had to figure out our theme, story, and mechanics we would want for the game.
The original plan was to have something similar to Prey (2017) in setting and idea but with the intention of having multiple tools to approach a certain situation in game.
The theme that stuck with the game was to escape something but it was vague due to cutting narrative a bit short.
At the end of planning, we decided to explore the mechanics of a gun that make tunnels through walls, grinding on rails, and zip-lining on any part of the map.
For each mechanic we researched certain games for the mechanics; we looked at Far Cry and Tomb Raider for zipline, Jet Set Radio and Tony Hawk for rail grinding, and Portal and a Minecraft mod for tunnels through walls.

Pre-Production Prototypes

The first video is the sandbox that I put together with all the mechanics that me and my teammates were making to see how they all would play together in the same space.
I prototyped out the teleporting ability and the explosion bullet out of the sandbox but I made the overall level to play with the mechanics.
The second video is an experiment in theme/style of the levels where I made a level based off of Tron where players explore a small space of what the game would've been like.
This prototype was also when we decided to stick with rail grinding as our main mechanic for the game but have other mechanics as extra supplement to the main one.
The third video is part of the final prototype where I further tested the theme for the game where it blended spatial design and a sandbox feel to show the game's levels feel later on.
I made the architecture in the third video based off of existing buildings from real life, most of the buildings are mainly from random Japanese buildings.

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Production Planning

After all of the prototypes have been re-evaluated, we split the mechanics into individual levels where we would teach players one mechanic at a time in each level.
Previous approach for the game was in style to Metroidvania but I pitched that the genre would make the game harder to design so I suggested linear levels similar to Bioshock or Dishonored which we end up with linear levels.

Production Levels

Explosion Level

The pictures are the written version for the level where I list out ideas on what the level could be then I would write out the objectives that the players have in the level.
After getting ideas and objectives up, I would go into the layout of the level where I would map the events/encounters and also asking questions to myself on why and what to place for certain parts of the map.
The video next to the pictures is the level in engine which I implemented all of the stuff from what I wrote into the level.
The process spent on this level was one week and it was to teach the players on how to use the explosive bullets in the game.
Near the end of the level, the tunnel is to simulate a mine shaft ride and took some inspiration from Disneyland rides like Matterhorn or Thunder Mountain.

Tutorial Level

This level went through the same process as the Explosion Level where I plan everything on paper first and then implement the level into the engine on my own.
This level took a little over one week because I was implementing the scenic view of the highway and building lots of the blockings.
This level went through multiple iterations in terms of the slow-mo tutorial where I had tried moving walls, moving targets, and the current look which is the mini-moving wall.

City Level

This level went through the same process as the previous two levels where I plan everything on paper first and then implement the level into the engine on my own.
This level took a little over three weeks and I did this level through sickness and some huge events at school.
This level also went through some changes that wasn't documented in the paper version but I would usually talk about it as I make it.
The building that blew up was a level sequence where I didn't use physics animation so I ended up manually making the blocks move like the building would collapse.
The sequence was also influence by Uncharted 2's helicopter blowing up the building sequence.

Development Background

I left the team during production cycle because as a director, I had no control over some of the creative decisions and that when decisions were made without my control, I felt my role in the team was meaningless.
When mechanics were cut, I was worried that the lead designer would have no levels to work on and he wanted to work on levels since he joined the team but his only level in the game at the time utilized one of the mechanics that we dropped.
There were many points in time where I had no creative control on some of the big creative decisions and a lot of those decisions were taken by my producer.
The team lacked in system design so we would end up with enemies being too easy to kill or too hard to kill and that the game would struggle with its identity of either a rail grinding game with some shooting or a shooting game with some rail grinding.
There was also a problem of trying to oversimplify the game for people who may not know how to play an action shooter and we try to at least teach players each mechanics one at a time as they head through the levels in the game.
The team lacked in communication due to some of the meetings not being held on a weekly basis so I end up speaking to some of the team members on my own and when I could.
The UX designer made some good points in development in helping the team figure out ways to mitigate some of the core issues on controls and some of the level design teachings.

Challenges

The team had no artists and the team had no access to the Unreal marketplace assets.
The programmers had a really rough/tough year throughout the project cycle.
Had a very small team at the start (6 person team at the start).
This was our first time using Unreal so we came into this development knowing some things about the engine.
Some of the mechanics were tough to make and required lots of time to make them work more properly.

Lessons Learned

Unreal makes art easy for everyone in the team so less worry on the art.
The tech designers worked on most of the tech stuff which is not ideal when the programmers would be more lost when we slap something together.
Planning would've went better if we had some of the more important designers in the team.
Taking the summer to learn the engine helped gain the edge in working with Unreal to develop prototypes which helped make a general direction for our game.
Although we would've liked more time and attention on mechanics, we could've gotten those mechanics to work better and alternatively, we could've mitigated the issue by cutting them even when it is one of the core mechanics.
Communication should always be constant and meetings were needed more often early on so that we wouldn't diverge in ideas of what we are making.