Implementing Destruction Mechanics

What role do destructible environmental objects play in Steel Hunters and what emotions should they evoke?

Undoubtedly, destruction contributes greatly to the immersive aspect of the game, and it lets you feel your character's power and scale—this is particularly crucial if we're talking about gigantic Hunters. It would be weird to play as a huge robot without being able to interact with the environment, right? Wherever gameplay and our technology allows it, we want to keep realism in the game. If you want to break something, you should absolutely be able to! Aaand the most important part—destroying things is fun!

The Stages of Creating a Destructible Object

• TEAM WORKFLOW
• - Planning the numbers
• - 2d rendering and 3d modeling
• - Adding textures + effects + atmosphere interaction
• - Adding objects to the game engine
• - Crushing objects and reassembling their tiny elements

Let's see what this process consists of, looking at the example of car models.

First off, it all starts with planning: our team decides what number of objects will be in a thematic set (a thematic set is a group of models that have common properties, e.g., public transport, cargo equipment, military vehicles, etc.). This is a very important step, as the total number of objects and their parts directly affects game performance.

Destructible objects are very complex when it comes to production, and they are demanding in terms of performance. By combining them into thematic sets with shared components, we can reduce the memory load and processing power needed to display them in-game, so getting this first step right is crucial.

Now it's time for creativity! Our concept artists render the initial ideas onto a 2D canvas, and then it's the 3D artists' turn to take the reins. Here, they model 2D objects in a 3D editor and then start texturing. At this stage, the objects become more detailed, with eye-catching textures and various integrated effects, alongside atmospheric interaction. After this step, the object's gameplay purpose is now forged—its "context."

If all these stages are completed successfully, the objects are unloaded into the game engine to prepare them for destruction and further assembly – such a short life for a newly born object, right? 

Don't be sad - these objects are born to be destroyed, it’s their purpose. All their individual elements must be placed carefully and properly configured for them to be put on the map later. Properly assembled objects can be destroyed, crushed and customized on the map. Their elements can be rotated (e.g. wheels, doors, trunks, etc.) and their color and «state» (e.g. burnt, dusty or rusty) can be changed.

Possible difficulties arising 

The pipeline for destructible buildings is still being fully developed. At the moment, the objects’ material is not taken into account, every building regardless of the material it is made of is demolished (crushed / reassembled) in the same way to bring you a truly realistic destructible environment we will be reworking and tweaking this in future updates. 

Numbers 

Eager to know exactly how many destructible objects are currently in the game? Let’s break down the numbers by category and see how much you could really destroy, if we didn’t have the extraction timer to worry about. Right now this includes trees, houses, vehicles and various small objects. 

If we talk in dev language, there’s Baked Destruction (that includes buildings and various constructions (e.g. electrical towers) and Simple Destruction (smaller stuff - boxes, billboards, etc.). 

Destructible objects in numbers

Final word

That will be all for the process of implementing destruction mechanics, at least the short version. By building destructible environments in Steel Hunters, we hope to underline the potency of our Hunters’ abilities and their omnipotence so to say, adding another portion of entertainment to the gameplay. We are building a streamlined demolition production system where every visual cue will help further immerse you into the game.  

We hope that with the execution of these mechanics we'll achieve our goal and bring you the ultimate hunting experience!