Role: Technical Systems Designer, Producer
Genre: Action / Roguelite
Engine: Unreal 5
Platforms: PC / Mac
What is
Liquid Trigger?
Liquid Trigger is a fast-paced first person shooter roguelite set in a medieval vampire world with a sci-fi twist. The game is being built in Unreal 5.
The name Liquid Trigger is a placeholder name for the current game I am developing under my company Stray Punch Interactive.
My Work
Modular Weapon System
My largest contribution to the project is the modular weapon system. With the goal of creating a system that can allow designers to easily and rapidly build and playtest any traditional FPS gun, I built the system to contain a wide array of functionality while keeping the weapon builder simple. The system contains variables to control the firing mode, damage amount based on physics materials, alternate from projectile to hitscan, inaccuracy offset, and many other variables along with storing weapon meshes, camera effects, animations, particle effects, and sound effects. The system supports the creation of automatic SMGs, burst rifles, shotguns, bolt-action snipers, grenade launchers, and any weapon in between. In addition, I designed the system to support custom firing modes to allow for the creation of non-traditional weapons. Currently, I am designing a rhythm based laser cannon with a 6 stage charging sequence that will be supported by the modular weapon system.
The system is built as a master class blueprint where guns are created as child blueprints to the master class. As development for the project continues and design needs grow, I will be adding additional functionality to the system.
Movement System
When designing a fast-paced shooter, player mobility options play an important role during combat and level navigation. Many enemies will be engaging the player simultaneously which means the player will need mobility options that creates windows of opportunity to dodge a barrage of attacks both on the ground and in the air. Enemy attacks can be between sudden up-close physical hits to predictable ranged projectiles so dodging needs to be effective against both. The slide mechanic enters a crouched state and instantly cancels momentum while boosting the player into any input held direction. In addition, the player’s jump height is tripled while sliding to create strategic opportunities and add an element of mechanical mastery to level traversal.
The player is given a secondary jump that, depending on if a movement button is being held, will either boost themselves further into the air or act as a dodge which cancels their momentum and boosts them toward a held direction. This mechanic adds options to level traversal, fix movement errors, and allow the ability to react to enemy attacks by dodging in the air.
When designing movement, waiting for momentum to change felt clunky at high speeds and led to the player becoming too vulnerable when having to change directions on the fly in response to enemy attacks. Finding ways to lower and negate momentum in movement was done in response.