THE WORLD IS WATCHING

We used line-tracing methods to give our game a more realistic feel when firing projectiles. When the player shoots, the projectile will spawn a specific distance away from them, which triggers a range of effects. This includes a particle effect, camera shake and the player's pitch and yaw rotation being influenced to simulate a recoil effect.

To add even more depth to our game's shooting mechanics, we created three distinct shooting modes. In single mode, the player can fire a single round burst, while semi mode allows for three rounds to be fired in quick succession. The fully automatic mode offers unrestricted firing, allowing the player to unleash a barrage of rounds without any restrictions.

A fun little addition, the player cam aim down sight via an input key. Using a smaller render target placed at the barrel of the weapon, a texture is drawn to an image which is part of a 3D widget blueprint. This allowed us to add an accurate location of the cross hair on the scope, as well as granted any additional customisations on the widget.

Using a post processing affect, we then intensify the depth of field on the player camera to allow for the blurring of the area around the scope of the weapon.

As the person in charge of UI implementation, I had the task of bringing all the UI elements to life using Unreal Engine's widget blueprint editor. This involved designing the widget animations and interaction behaviors. I was responsible for ensuring that UI elements like the health bar, energy bar, helmet visor, and night-vision battery were accurately updated based on the data provided. Inspired by "Halo", I made sure the HUD would turn red when the player's health was dangerously low and blue when stable. Additionally, I also implemented other crucial elements, like the ammunition counter on the player's weapon.

To tackle the challenge of exploring darker and less accessible areas in the game, we opted for a unique approach instead of a typical flashlight. The player was given the ability to switch to a night vision mode. This was achieved by utilizing a post-process effect, a noise mask, and a special LUT texture for color grading. The night vision mode was designed to be finite and worked on a cool-down system, with the battery indicator visible on the HUD as a circular bar.

“Crash Landing” is the main menu level of “The World Is Watching”. Here, the player can be able to navigate through the options listed while having a glimpse at some of the dark, mysterious and eerie theme that will be later offered in the game. as well as present a subtle amount of foreshadowing to the player.

Dark, mystery and horror, those are the primary themes that the environment was designed around. due to the nature of this level the player will need to use their scarce amount of night vision to be able to access certain parts of the city. Whilst, other more forgiving sections will be dimly lit by street lights and neon signs.

Influenced by the narrative of the game, the city is vacant and open to be explored by the player.

When creating, “City” I wanted to merge the theme of a cyberpunk environment alongside that of an unfamiliar, alien setting.

This level was designed for an immersive introductory cutscene to the game. The level drew inspiration from “Halo ODST” where the player plummets through the Earth’s atmosphere via a drop pod.

An onboarding level designed to allow new players to familiarise themselves with the mechanics of the game in a short period of time. The level incorporates dark areas for night vision use, interactive objects and for a little bit of fun, physics enabled, target practice dummies.