Driving, Without Physics

A van that the player can use to traverse the map, carry important finds, and interface with the game's core camera mechanic. The van can traverse sloped surfaces, keeping the player's view level with the van. The player can also look around in any direction while driving. The van obeys simplified driving physics with its wheel, acceleration, and deceleration. The van is also forced to stay on "drivable ground," and it will slide along the edge of a road if needed.

Implementation -- Acceleration & Deceleration are fed directly into the Pawn's movement component, based on the player's controls. The wheel's turn amount is also controlled by the player, and it resets when no input is given. The resulting turns obey how a real vehicle turns based on the speed and turned direction of the car. To handle slopes and off-roading, a large number of raycasts are performed at and near the wheels of the van, determining the underlying road's surface angle and whether the van is about to go offroad. That math is fed into the van's global rotation, angling the van as necessary to respect the road's surface angle.

Interactions & Inventory Management

Picking up objects, interfacing with doors & windows, and getting into vehicles are all possible due to the interaction system I built. The player has a small hotbar where items can be carried and placed. This hotbar interfaces with the inventory, as items can be placed into or taken out of it. Some items act as documents the player can find, providing worldly context and story. When a hotslot is full, picking up a new item will automatically place the old object into the inventory and move the new object into the hotslot.

Meanwhile, doors and windows work differently, and they are given more specialized mechanics. They work more akin to a VR game, where the player's camera control affects how they open and close and their speed. The doors, however, also work just by running through them, without the need to interact with them at all. Further, once grabbed and swung, the doors can be pushed open just by walking into them, preserving the behavior of just running through doors without being obstructed.

System Implementation -- Anything that can be interacted with must implement a specific Interface, have a special "GripPoint" component, and have a specified "GripType" parameter set. From there, each object can implement their own responses to being grabbed, from being picked up, responding to click & hold rules, or doing something instantly. An InteractManager handles raycasting objects to determine if they can be picked up. The little hand will hover over objects that are. This manager transfers across pawns as needed to ensure interactions can be handled by non-character pawns.

Inventory Implementation -- The inventory has 2 sections based on whether an object is a document or not. Documents are put in a large list on the right, and other items are placed in a grid on the left. Both types of objects can take up different amounts of space, and the inventory will adjust as needed to find space.

Vaulting System

A 3-in-one system that compliments jumping. When the player walks up to a tall platform, a fence, or a gap between a ceiling and the floor, they may be able to traverse it in a special way.

Implementation -- A box area is continually swept in front of the player, determining if there is a wall/surface in front of them. (The black rectangle). A series of raycasts are sent to determine the "center" of the wall, ensuring a perpendicular vault action. Then, each of the 3 methods are calculated in order (see below). If any of them are possible and the player hits "jump," then the action happens.

Other Mechanics and Systems

I created several other mechanics & systems while working on Quiet On Set. Not all of them have been publicly showcased by Skookum Arts. Others are difficult to showcase visually. I will give brief descriptions of them here.

• The Extractor -- The system for the player to solve the mystery of what happened in the past. This design was overhauled and changed through my time at Skookum Arts.

• Film Reels & Cameras -- Special interactable objects that are used in combination with The Extractor to tell the game's narrative. They are handled separately than basic objects in the world.

• Narrative Importer Plugin -- An automated importer tool built to create & place narrative animations & story segments onto Unreal's Timeline. Capable of adding hundreds of scenes across multiple storylines at once.

• Pawn Possession Stack -- A hidden system I built to handle transferring possession of Unreal's Pawns, as the game's design called for pawns to be able to possess other pawns, without reverting to the character pawn.

• Tackboard -- A cork tackboard with tacks & strings that can be used to connect documents & characters' story lines together.