Y2 - Freezing Friction

Written By Belian Dezsi

A fast-paced action shooter set in an icy cave, about a robot who is sent to exterminate a HUGE worm and its spawn.

Worked on:

  • Concepting and prototypes

  • World building

  • Enemy design

    • Enemy movement and AI

    • Enemy attacks

  • Difficulty scaling system

  • UI back-end

    • Main and options menu functionality

    • Leaderboard functionality

  • QA

Team size: ~ 18

Platform: PC (itch.io)

Project management tools used: Jira, team Miro board

Engine: Unreal Engine 5.4.4 (Blueprints)

Total development time: 4 months

I joined the development team for two months. Initially, the game was developed as a prototype over a two-month period by designers only. After I completed my work on another project, Sheep UP!, I joined the team along with several other members. Together, we worked on the project for another two months leading up to its release.

 

My Contribution

During this project, I was tasked with working on enemy behavior, difficulty and indicators. Additionally I also took on the task of working on QA and some UI elements.

Enemies:

  • I created a modular and easily customizable enemy movement based on the player’s location and vision cone.

  • I also prototyped diverse attack types for different enemies, including collision-based attacks, proximity-based explosions, projectile attacks, and long-range sniper attacks.

Difficulty Scaling System:

  • I made a modular, customizable difficulty manager based on worm (boss) kills. Early difficulty levels are fully customizable, while later levels scale automatically based on predefined parameters.

  • Difficulty scaling affects all enemies except the worm, modifying their max HP, movement speed, damage, attack speed, movement accuracy, spawn rate, spawn time, and kill score.

UI Backend:

  • I created the base functionality and layout of the Options menu, adding graphics settings, resolution, screen mode, FPS capping, V-sync, and display framerate.

Leaderboard:

  • After receiving a plugin from a former Y4 student (Radu) I was tasked with modifying it to fit out own game. The plugin stores data on an external server belonging to the owner of the plugin and can pull data from there. I made it so that the data is pushed at the end of a run, and then pulled when the leaderboard is opened.

  • I also added a “demo mode” for the leaderboard, to be able to display it on a separate screen on the final showcase day.

  • The base layout and look of the Leaderboard was also created by me.

POST-MORTEM

Freezing Friction was a challenging yet fulfilling project that pushed me to grow as a developer. I’m proud of the systems I designed and the impact they had on the game. The project’s success lies in the collaborative effort of our team and our shared commitment to delivering a fun, polished game. This experience has left me with valuable insights and skills that I’m excited to bring to future projects.

Belian Dezsi
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Y2 - Sheep UP!