NightCall (Producer)

NightCall is a Far Cry 5 Arcade project

You can search NightCall in Far Cry 5 Arcade or click here

Pillar

1. Fight against cultists.
2. For all playstyles.
3. Stealth

Early Handdraw Map

GamePlay

Stealth: The stealth gameplay requires support from the environment and enemy configurations. For example, players cannot sneak in open areas or in plain sight of others. Therefore, several necessary conditions are needed to implement the stealth gameplay: cover and enemy patrols.

For all playstyles: Meeting all gameplay styles on the foundation of stealth is not an easy task. In order to provide an appropriate gaming experience for players who prefer using assault rifles, I made some changes to the enemy configuration. For example, I added more melee enemies without affecting the strategic situation. In addition, to allow assault rifle players to eliminate heavily armoured enemies quickly, I created more interactive elements in the scene, such as oil barrels and machine guns. After fine-tuning the enemy configuration and scene placement, I successfully enabled assault rifle players to enjoy an interesting gaming experience.

Visual Guidance

In the game, I used light sources, Weenies, architecture, and enemies as ways of providing guidance.

As shown in the picture above, players can immediately notice the towering castle (the end point of the game), a clear path forward, and an enemy resting in the light as soon as they enter the castle.

As shown in the picture above, this is the player's second battle. In this scene, I used torches to illuminate the entire scene and the enemies. I also used red oil barrels to attract the player's attention. For example, there are two patrolling enemies around the oil barrel close to the player, and machine gun guards around the oil barrel in the distance. The straight pathway also forms a natural guidance, allowing players to have a good understanding of the scene structure upon entering for the first time.

Art Design

In terms of scene design, I need to create an atmosphere of "battling against cultists". I believe this atmosphere can be expressed from several aspects: a low-tech feel of the setting (e.g. torches, wooden fences), the cult's impact on the displayed world (e.g. randomly placed corpses, religious artefacts, etc.), and the modification of the original scene (e.g. houses reinforced with wooden boards).

First Fight

During the player's first battle, I made some adjustments to the design:

1. I placed a huge campfire at the centre of the enemies to alert the player of their presence.
2. To prevent the enemies from immediately detecting the player, I positioned the enemy closest to the player with their back facing them as if they were tending to the campfire, while the other enemy was on the other side of the campfire.
3. Regarding the enemy setup, I placed a sniper and a melee warrior, and the attributes of these two units were chosen so that the player would have a certain amount of buffer time even if they were detected.

With these design choices, players have enough time to learn the game's systems during their first battle and a high degree of error tolerance. Additionally, the enemies' actions enhance the game's immersion.

Playtest

In earlier versions, I added a high concentration of fog to create a more oppressive atmosphere in the scene, and only used torches to illuminate the environment. However, after the first Playtest, I received feedback such as "poor visibility", "fog too thick and difficult to aim", and "scene too dark". Therefore, I made some modifications to the scene.

Second Playtest

During the second "playtest," players appreciated the modifications to the lighting, but another issue emerged. In the final tower, players had to climb up floor by floor, with enemies guarding each level. The scene was very narrow, and each time the player climbed up to a new level, they were immediately surrounded by enemies, making the difficulty of the tower very high. Additionally, there was not much space for the player to move or hide, making the situation even more challenging.

So, I made modifications to each level of the tower. I adjusted the areas where enemies patrolled, making them smaller, and reduced the number of props in the scene. Finally, I added cover at the top of each ladder. After these improvements, players would no longer immediately enter combat upon entering a new level, as they would have cover. Additionally, reducing the number of enemies made the combat less intense, and the added space allowed for more player movement.

AI Design

I divided the enemies in the vast map into smaller sections through AI-controlled zones and left a buffer distance between each enemy settlement.

To make the game experience more diverse, I attempted to create varied combat experiences by combining different types of enemies between distant enemy groups.

Performance

The resources that my scene used the most were materials and AI. In terms of materials, I removed many objects outside the player's field of view and used fog to hide some empty areas of the scene.

Regarding AI, since the game had a limit on the number of AI in the first wave, I set most of the enemies to appear in the second wave, solving the performance issues with the AI.

About this game

In this game, you need to kill all targets by all means.

You will have four weapon sets: Sniper, Meele, AR and Alien, each group will provide a different play experience.

I designed a route include all targets, and they all have their guards, and each target's territory will have a different art style like the final target will hide in a fort.

Also, in order to create the atmosphere of "this is a castle controlled by cults", I used a lot of fog and torches to decorate it.

At the same time, I also use a lot of lighting and visual structure to guide, to ensure that players can play according to the route I arranged.

Anyway, Enjoy!