Project: HERO is a singleplayer hero shooter with the most insane characters we could think of. Play as a caveman who plays basketball, an octopus with eight guns, a magical girl in a space marine suit, and more!

These are problems I faced, my solutions, and the reasoning behind them.

Problem: The game needed an inheritable and dynamic system to manage the player's hero and abilities.

Solution: Ability scripts inherit from a base class, then attach directly to the player using a Hero Manager that pulls abilities and other data from a scriptable object.

Reasoning: Abilities and heroes were compartmentalized in a way that contextually made sense given what they were and how they ought to work.

What I learned: Taking the time to develop architecture pays dividends. Using the game to test ideas or build prototypes became one of my go-tos.

Problem: Glocktopus needed to visually show three animation states at once - weapon count, stealth, and attacks.

Solution: Separate animators. One globally affects the stealth shader, another controls the gun count, and each gun has one to control shooting.

Reasoning: Each of the three states operates mostly independently, so separating each system made sense.

What I learned: It's really important to build in ways for game components to communicate naturally, or else you go back and add lots of band-aids.

Problem: Moving enemies needed to take advantage of cover and consider their health & the player's health.

Solution: A node-based AI system. Each level has a series of nodes for offense and defense positions, then the best one is selected based on health states and the enemy's sightlines.

Reasoning: This solution simulates relatively realistic behavior with a minimal amount of processing, both for the player and their computer.

What I learned: A good strategy is to break down your goals. Once I listed each individual piece of functionality I wanted, it was easy to put it together programmatically in-engine.

Developed using Unity 2021 on top of Unity's FPS Microgame template.

Project: HERO was my major side project for my first two years at Champlain College. I am responsible for the game's core vision and gameplay identity, but I brought in as many as 60 other students to add their own pieces to the game.

Some major elements I am responsible for include the developing the game's ability and hero systems, revamping the player movement controller of the game template, creating a node-based enemy AI movement system, project management for other developers working on the game, and implementation of art and sound assets.

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Like what you saw? Want to play it for yourself? Check out the trailer for Project: HERO and download the game on my itch.io page!

Mason Crochetiere

Technical Designer

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