Culture Outbreak – Alien Swarm

Map Title: Culture Outbreak

Completion Date: July 2013



Goal

To make a cooperative map where teamwork plays a strong roll in success while players explore a horror themed environment.

Overview

Outbreak is an Alien Swarm map made in Source with 20 minutes of gameplay. Players are called in to rescue scientists trapped in a science facility that is overrun with aliens. Players investigate a lab while dealing with power failures and alien ambushes.

I developed several new features for this map using Source:
    - Fuse Boxes – Tech player must repair fuse boxes to bring power to areas
    - Breakables – Aliens will destroy custom breakables when triggered
    - Boss – The unused "Queen" alien has been scripted to follow custom pathing and attack players and turrets
Role: Solo Project

Engine: Gears of War Engine

Game Type: Third Person Shooter, Single Player

Build Time: 16 Weeks

Play Time: 30 Minutes


 
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	<div style="font-size:17px; padding:5px 10px;">Download Map and Trailer</div>

I sketched out a two floor lab and converted the map in Photoshop to the in-game map system.

I use strong contrasts of light and dark to lead and startle the player. I always left a way to lead the player such as flood lamps and flashlights.

I scripted different events based on number of players and level difficulty setting. The more players in-game, the more enemies will spawn. The higher the difficulty setting, the more variety of tougher enemies will spawn.

To use the Alien Queen, I had to build a custom AI pathing system that allowed the queen to track down players. I prioritized her AI to go after turrets, giving players a longer chance to deal damage to the Queen.

Description

Type

Nadav Pechthold | 973-902-1916 | nadav@nadavworks.com