Working on level design

Working on level design for the first level, added a 3rd party asset for the robot enemies, created a prologue cutscene, and fixed collision settings for the powerups (they were incorrectly colliding with shots and physics objects). 

Haven't yet decided whether to use this new 3rd party robot mesh, or a custom one, or a completely different 3rd party asset, for the first class of robot enemies in the game. For now, I think this one looks great, but the graphical style will evolve back and forth a bit during development before settling for something final, so nothing is permanent yet...

Level design is time consuming, but the overall plan for the first level is now starting to come into place. In short, it'll offer a nice adrenaline rush to the player, starting with a chase and ending with some problem solving.

A lot of work has gone into evaluating various options for creating the city environment intended for the first level. In the end, a mixture of several 3rd party modular asset packs and homemade models will likely be used. Still deciding on whether outoor city landscapes will be a recurring theme in the game, or just used in the first level, or whether the majority of action will take place indoors in later maps. The gameplay is quite different from other games, so the level design really matters to make the gameplay experience perfect. Large, open spaces are extremely difficult with this gameplay, but then again they're impopular in most FPS game, due to lack of cover, too low density of interactables, and too much time spent on traveling. The aim is to get fast paced 360 combat like classical FPS games, but with this new gameplay element of indirect hits.

To spice things up, a lot of custom physics interactables will likely be added to the first level to make it more alive and interesting - even if the player will initially not have the gun that is central to the gameplay. 

The screenshot shows what will happen to a player who stays still for too long, rather than running away from the pursuing enemies...

Next up: augmentation of the enemy AI to allow them to open doors, following the player everywhere, and building more of the city landscape for level one. Some time will likely be spent studying some real life skyscrapers to model something that'll look good in-game. Adding the traditional cyberpunk feeling is also a goal, and figuring out how to make that in a unique way might not be trivial. Once there are some drafts of that, screenshots will be shared to showcase the style.