THE ENERGY CASE
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A Detective-style, Action-Adventure game focusing on raising awareness towards energy transition and climate change.
ENEMY AI BEHAVIOR
A system for scripting State-based enemies in Unreal Engine 5, using Behavior Trees to dictate the AI's actions.
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State-Based AI
The AI uses a State Machine to dictate rules for executing certain actions, such as running, attacking, or taking cover.
The Enemy can transition between states when meeting specific requirements, creating a more fluid and natural-feeling AI.
Behavior Trees and Environment Querys
Behavior Trees allow the logic to flow naturally, and the custom BT Tasks that are set up allow designers to easily create new behaviors.
EQS nodes allow the AI to perceive the enviroment, allowing it to make informed decisions based on their surroundings.
Full Designer Customization
The system is designed with designers in mind, allowing customization through the interface of the engine itself, rather than having to delve into the code, or using custom Behavior Tree Tasks, which allow designers to create their own behaviors.
INTERACTION SYSTEM
An extremely customizable system for creating interactable elements in the game world, using actor components.
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Powered by Components
This system fully utilizes the potential of Unreal Engine's Actor Components to create an easily customizable structure to dictate interactions.
Any actor can have a component attached to turn it into an interactable element and give it the necessary functionality, making level creation and prototyping simple and efficient.
A Component for Everything
Different Interaction components can give game elements different functionalities. There are different components for different types of interactions, such as initiating dialogue, picking up an item, playing an animation, or loading a new level.
Priority and Combinations
Multiplecomponents can also be combined together to trigger their effects in sequence.
The system uses a priority value to determine which component should activate first, or if multiple should activate at once.
This allows, for example, to play an animation, add an object to the player's inventory, and open a dialogue box, all when the player interacts with a single object.
USER RESEARCH & TESTING
Using various research methods and techniques to connect with users and iterate, to ensure the game reaches its goal.
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Connecting with potential players
The target audience of The Energy Case is young adults that are just now starting to live by themselves, and thus have a bit more control over their lives.
It is important to ensure that the game targets problems and ideas that are close to these users, and that the development team understand these issues. The best way to achieve this is to talk with users directly, and gather information from them.
Cultural Probes and Activities
Few people on the street will stop to fill out a survey, and they are pretty limited in the types of data they can gather. This is why the research for The Energy Case was made through fun activities instead.
These include coloring a pie chart, throwing plushies at pictures, and creating discussions from prompts, among others. These activities capture the interest of more people while also allowing more personal experiences to be gathered.