The Forge: Core Gameplay
As you read our Recaps and Changelogs, you may come across upcoming versions that seem sparse in terms of content or not very important at first glance. However, the truth is that every update is loaded with various changes and innovations, even if not all of them are flashy or easily noticeable. Many crucial steps are taken behind the scenes by different team members. Join us as we explore the backstage of Steel Hunters and learn more about the challenges, creative decisions, and peculiar cases that we face during the development process.
This Is Where the Fun Begins
Core Gameplay is the beating heart of our project, as the name suggests. It defines the core principles of the game, such as what's possible and how every object and process works. This includes the position of the camera, the types of movement, physics, weapon variations, interactions players might have, and more. The Core Gameplay specialists work closely with other departments and dedicated teams (we call them "streams" in dev-speak) that focus on and develop specific facets of the game. Some of our streams include:
Systems Stream: Defines the core principles of the game, such as what's possible and how every object and process works.
Hunter Stream: Focuses on defining what Hunters do, their abilities, weapons, and visuals, as well as their common traits and distinctive features.
Game Mode Stream: Responsible for defining what players do in a match, how they do it, and what their goals, requirements, and missions are.
Level Design Stream: Responsible for blocking out and creating specific zones on the maps that serve different gameplay purposes.
PVE Stream: Works on AI logic, types of PvE enemies, their triggers, movements, abilities, and other related aspects.
While changes made by the streams above are often observable by players, Core Gameplay remains an obscure and somewhat hidden part of the game. With this article, we aim to shed light on their work and explore some examples of the tasks this team tackles as the development process continues.
Building Blocks for a Better Future
One of the ongoing endeavors for the Core Gameplay team is to refactor the game systems (Dev 101: refactoring is the process of reworking code to improve it without changing its functionality). A prominent example of this process is the consumables rework. If you've played Steel Hunters, you may be familiar with Repair Kits, Energy Domes, and Colossus Kits. These are all consumables that players can use for different purposes in battle.
But how are consumables created? Initially, they were hardcoded (custom code was written for each one) to perform a certain action, such as healing, providing cover, or providing more ammo. While this was fine at first, the approach proved to be ineffective in the long run: as the number of distinctive items and Hunters grew, so did the number of unique code snippets for them, making things overly complicated.
The Core Gameplay Team has embarked on a mission to reorganize the way different objects and abilities work in the game by implementing a modular system. We now use different code pieces, known as "building blocks" or "modules," that we can combine to create new entities or modify existing ones. This transition provides us with necessary flexibility and significantly reduces the work needed to make changes to systems or build new ones.
While working on this change, we encountered quite a few challenges in the old code. For example, consumables and abilities have different ways of being activated or canceled. The Energy Dome just pops up a barrier, but the Ammo Restoration ability restores ammo over time. So, when the latter is canceled, you still receive some ammo, but if we interrupt the Energy Dome, we can't end up with a half a dome. As it turns out, each consumable can be deconstructed into even smaller modules.
Although some consumables may look the same, they are entirely different inside in terms of coding and logic. Finally, the knot has been untangled, and we'll be able to expand on the consumables in the future having implemented an improved architectural solution or system under the hood.
Burning Issues
Another feature that has been introduced is the effects system. The Core Gameplay Team is collaborating with UI specialists on buffs and debuffs that can be applied to Hunters. This change has two important aspects: first, the game designers want to increase the number of unique effects to introduce greater variety to future Hunter abilities or new weapons; second, the way these effects are applied and shown during the match also needs to be taken into consideration. We want to make it very transparent what effects are already applied to your Hunter or target.
The notion of effects is not new to Steel Hunters. You've probably seen many of them in battle. For example, in a previous update, we redesigned Ursus's Glacial Armor, which grants either a buff or debuff depending on the integrity of the ice shield. Another example is the burning DoT effect from Weaver's Hellfire Mod.
(UN)Limited Ammo
Let's shift our focus a bit from the current challenges and take a retrospective look at something that the team has already successfully rolled out, because weapons and ammo also belong to the domain of Core Gameplay. Some of you might even remember the change we're going to talk about next: the introduction of the ammo management system in v0.12.
There were many prerequisites for such a feature. Initially, all weapons had an unlimited amount of ammo, which made learning the ropes of the game easy. You could get into the match and spam the fire button to no end. But would there be any difference between weapons if every player could go trigger-happy on everyone and everything? Shooting didn't require any effort or mastery, and we wanted our players to learn and adapt to each Hunter and their playstyle.
Ammo management has brought back skill dependency to shootouts, but we couldn't just limit it. We had to change the system and provide a way to get additional ammunition when needed. So, one conscious change brought the creation of other features, such as the introduction of magazines, the "T" ability, and the Ammo Crate consumable. One task for the Core Gameplay Team is to find the balance between all these features to ensure engaging but challenging gunplay.
Size Matters
Developing a game involves a constant cycle of trial and error, and since Steel Hunters is currently in the Alpha stage, we have the opportunity to test different ideas and determine the best practices. As a result, there have been numerous instances where we thought something would work, only to scrap it after testing. Some of you may have even witnessed such experiments.
One challenging case that the Core Gameplay Team had to figure out together with the Game Mode, Level Design, and Art Teams, is the size of our Hunters. Initially, there were discussions about creating Hunters with drastically different sizes. Such a variation seemed engaging, but it soon became evident that certain combinations of Hunters just didn't work together, and there was no way to build a solid game around those differences. As a result, we decided to keep Hunter sizes within the same 6–8-meter range.
However, the past still lives in the game in the form of the Colossus Kit, which summons that giant back to the Arena for a short period of time. The Colossus is another core aspect of the game that we're planning to rework and improve in future. What does the Core Gameplay Team have planned for it? Stay tuned to find out!
Under the Hood
As you can see from the examples and cases mentioned above, Steel Hunters consists of much more than just visual and tangible content like new Hunters, objects on the map, or sounds. Every minuscule decision made by the Core Gameplay Team changes the general way you interact within and with the game, even if you might not notice it at first. There's a limitless list of ideas and concepts that go through the rigorous process of selection, prototyping, the development cycle, and implementation. Even after that, they can be changed or scrapped altogether, but one thing remains unchanged: we're very passionate about the game and its potential, so we never stop searching for new solutions to make it better.