Whipslash

​Role(s): Gameplay Programmer/Tech Designer, AI Programmer
Genre: VR action
Platform: Valve Index
Development Time: ~8 months, launched April 2020
Team Size: 11
Engine: Unity
Awards/Accolades: Finalist at the 2020 Intel University Game Showcase at GDC, accepted as one of the 550 games competing in the 2020 Independent Games Festival
Whipslash is a VR action game where players use two lightning-charged axes to battle their way through an army of hostile robots. Players can throw their axes to grapple through the environment or pull enemies closer to whip them away or slash them to pieces.

Whipslash is a semester-long project for a course called Game Design Studio in the Game Design and Development minor at Michigan State University. It was initially prototypted in the Spring of 2019 and was voted on by a team of faculty and industry alumni to be among the games to be accepted into the next semester. The game has also been accepted as one of the 550 games competing in the 2020 Independent Games Festival. In April 2020, Whipslash was showcased at the Intel University Game Showcase through GDC and accepted as one of the 16 finalists.

I served as a systems and gameplay programmer for the game. I am primarily responsible for the game's enemy AI and the "Kung Fu Circle" attack system that is used to control enemy-player interactions. A summary of my contributions can be seen below.

Contributions

  • Prototyped and designed the game's primary mechanics to create a vertical slice of the game that was then approved for further development
  • Designed and developed a "Kung Fu Circle" attack system to avoid overwhelming the player during enemy encounters
  • Designed and implemented an abstract state machine to facilitate development of the enemy AI
Picture
Grunt enemies in the Kung Fu circle
Picture
Elite enemy commanding a group of grunts
  • Developed AI for the "Grunt" enemies in the game, designed to be weaker threats that pounce towards the player to promote attacking with the axes
  • Developed AI for the "Elite" enemy, which is responsible for a group of grunts and can engage in both long and close range attacks to promote throwing of the axes and the dismemberment mechanics, respectively
  • Utilized Scrum development mentalities to manage scope throughout the course of the semester

Takeaways

  • Working and communicating within a large team of varying experience levels and disciplines
  • Learning how to develop games using new technology
  • Catering gameplay to a VR player. For example, implementing systems to avoid motion sickness
  • Balancing feature goals and deadlines
  • Designing systems to appeal to a specific audience
  • Designing interesting player-enemy interactions that would connect with and utilize core gameplay systems
Created by David Robitaille, 2021