Prototyping

Once you've designed the game and researched what you want in it, the next step is to start prototyping a few mechanics to get things going. Prototypes don't need to be stylish or flashy, they simply need to test a mechanic and show it working. The entire point is for the prototype to be quick, simple and rough around the edges. I took the separate mechanics of my idea and wrote down a rough plan of what needed to be done for each one, then went to work adding bit by bit to the prototype.

I started by creating a character controller and mouse look because the character is the most essential part of the game as that's the players entry point. Once the character was in place, I focused on adding the bullets and gun, which went with the character, then set bullets to destroy in order to keep the scene and hierarchy tidy. With the bullets added, I needed something to test them on therefore the next mechanic and item I worked on was the targets. To create these I recycled and modified the interpolation script I was taught how to construct a few weeks previously. I used it to create targets that rise up only once and others which bounce between 2 points. At some point I'd like to implement a pool manager to deal with bullets, bullet holes and especially the targets I'll being creating as this will improve the efficiency of the game.

General shot of prototype

At this stage I was happy with the amount of mechanics that had in my first prototype, so moved on to create a map prototype. It's a simple layout that shows how each player will be positioned opposite each other and locked into separate sections that unlock over time. As it's only a prototype of a straight street, there isn't a huge amount to look at. However it does it's job of showing what I want the game area to like look, which is all it needs to do.

Street layout prototype

I plan to do a quick run-through video of my prototype and will get to it once I've learnt more about how to use OBS.