Synthbiotic Dungeon

*Synthbiotic Dungeon is a work in progress student game. Team Size: 14

Summary

Synthbiotic Dungeon is an isometric, networked multiplayer, dungeon crawler. A dungeon master uses their arsenal of enemies and traps to try to prevent the runners from reaching the end. 2-4 Players

Download on Steam:

Download!

My Contributions

WIP Code Snippets: https://github.com/ElliotBronskillGames/Synthbiotic-Dungeon-Code-Snippets

This game has been my introduction to Unreal Engine 4. The first few months were all about diving in head first and teaching myself Unreal. To name a few, I learned Unreal’s components system, collision system, blueprint system,  AI systems, and, most importantly, how to make them compatible with networked play. Now that I am comfortable with Unreal, I moved into C++, and programmed our AI API. I have programmed the Gun Drone below, a Laser Drone, and am working on many more!

Enemies:

  • Designed and Programmed the enemy architecture using a combination of C++ and blueprints.
  • Programmed the enhanced abilities for each Drone, for when they are being possessed. 
  • Implemented a scalable, class-based State Machine in C++, allowing for the reuse of States across different enemies and preventing the need for cluttered switch-statement designs.
  • Worked closely with our networking engineer to get the AI functional over online multiplayer, ensuring the enemies were replicating data correctly.
  • Used Unreal’s Behavior Trees to define explicit state behavior.

Gun Drone

The Gun Drone fires bullets towards its target. While possessed, its fire rate is substantially increased.

Laser Drone

The Laser Drone charges up a laser and fires towards its target. While possessed, its laser charges faster and has a lower cooldown.

Heal Drone

The Heal Drone seeks out low health allies and heals them. When possessed, this drone can aoe heal drones within range.

Shield Drone

The Shield Drone aims to protect other drones by putting itself in between the runners and its allies. When possessed, its shield completely surrounds it and deflects player bullets.


Gameplay:

  • Programmed the Spectator mode, allowing dead players to cycle through the perspective of alive players.
  • Programmed the Respawn Kiosk, allowing alive players to sacrifice half of their health to bring back all other dead players.
  • Created and programmed the floating text for the Upgrade Kiosk.

Team Collaboration:

  • Concisely communicated progress in bi-weekly standup scrum meetings and helped other programmers optimize their code through weekly code reviews.
  • Submitted bug reports to other engineers, often accompanied with replication details.
  • Frequently playtested and pitched design changes, contributing to the iteration of core designs.
  • Collaborated with artists and designers to determine and implement functionality of new ideas