Shattered Melodies
PC | XB1 - June 19th 2024
ROLE
Systems and Enemy Behavior Programmer
Systems Programmer
> Created standard game systems including save system and audio settings
Enemy Behavior & Combat Programmer
> Created Enemy archetypes with scaling difficulty and sophistication
> Created unique enemy attacks, projectiles, and damage logic
> Implemented unique boss stage elements with boss behavior and attacks
DESCRIPTION
In September 2023, I was recruited to be a programmer on Shattered Melodies. I started out developing some the save and settings systems before eventually volunteering to work on Enemy NPC behavior due to a lack of expertise on the team. My extensive work on the NPC behavior utilizes Unreal Engine 5's AI system including Behavior Trees, Blackboards, and the Environment Query System (EQS). I created and tested all enemy behaviors including basic enemies, boss enemies, and a special final boss which utilizes all the functionality from the other bosses in the game. Shattered Melodies was released on Steam on June 19th, 2024 and is available here.
Research
A large factor of the player's experience is based on interactions with enemies, and these interactions dictate the difficulty of Shattered Melodies. Much like Tom Clancy's The Division's use of a faction-based system, archetypes were created to fit into Shattered Melodies lore. From most common and weak to rarest and strongest are Alpha, Beta, and Malums. Enemies higher up on the difficulty scale utilize the behavior and functionality from weaker enemies but also introduce new attacks and movement behaviors to keep the players on their toes.
