Core Defenders
Last School Year Project
Core Defenders is a two-player cooperative experience in which you play as the robots Clic and Clac. In the heart of an abandoned factory, a revolutionary energy source attracts the attention of the Klangs, hostile robots. Join forces with a friend to collect resources and build ingenious defence turrets using creative machines. Face the hordes of enemies together in frenetic battles where cooperation is the key to repelling the mechanical invasion.
We Won the "Grand Prix Jeu Video 2024" at ESMA!
Game Design
I co-designed the turret crafting system, making it as simple as possible.
Here are the steps for creating turrets:
- Players collect scrap metal scattered around the game.
- Players feed the collected scrap metal to a slime.
- The slime transforms the scrap into a "Kit". There are three Kit colours: Red, Blue and Green.
- The player must collect three Kits to create a turret.
Combination system:
- Kits can be combined in different colour combinations to create unique turrets. There are 10 possible combinations of different coloured Kits.
- Depending on the combination of the three Kits, a specific turret is created.
- Each combination produces a unique turret with distinct capabilities.
Technical Design
The enemy's path
I've set up the enemy movement system. To do this, I combined Unreal Engine's NavMesh with a spline so that the enemies would follow the path mapped out and to facilitate the level design work..
Tutorial
I designed and produced the tutorial for the game.
I separated the two players so that each could familiarise themselves with the basic actions of the game.
The tutorial is divided into several stages that explain the aim of the game and the turret construction system
They'll have to work together to repel the last waves of enemies.
I added signs and feedback to improve understanding of the game.
Assistance to Programmers
I helped the programmers by carrying out small tasks, integrating sounds and helping with debugging.
I used Unreal Blueprint and paid attention to optimisation.
Level Design
Layout
On this level, I wanted to rely on the throwing mechanic and on communication between the two players to access the different zones in order to build the turrets more efficiently.
Blockout and Scripting
I then created the level's blockout in unreal engine 5. I scripted all the functions for this level and then created the blockout.
Interations
After a few tests I modified the level to make it more interesting.
Final Level
The level changed a lot over a few weeks to arrive at a fun and functional result.
