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Wreck RunnersGenre: Friendslop Co-op extraction game Platform: PC Release Date: In Production Role: Senior Game Designer Wreck Runners is a cooperative "Friendslop" genre game in which players explore the Bermuda Triangle and wrecks to find valuable salvage. Players are equipped with the Scrapjack: a tool that can lift/drop objects and hurl them with force. The goal of the game is to use the Player vehicle: The Orca to drive through the open world and visit POIs. The Scrapjack is used to pick up salvage and place it in the Orca. Enemies are present in the Open World and POIs to challenge players and destroy their salage. Combat in Wreckrunners is unique and involves picking up enemies and throwing them away. Some enemies are too tough to pick up and must be stunned by salvage impacts. Enemies and combat can often result in salvage breaking and players losing valuable progress and combat is designed to have a chaotic and sometimes unexpected outcomes. On this project I was responsible for defining combat for both on foot and vehicle gameplay. This includes developing the content that makes up the combat such as Player weapons and NPC Enemies. Lets have a look at one of the major enemies in the game: the Fogwailer. |
Fogwailer
The Fogwailer is an NPC that challenges the Orca (the player vehicle) outside of POIs and on-foot sections.
It has a flying locomotion that allows it to keep up with the Orca even when it is airborne.
When the Orca is spotted, the Fogwailer will move towards it until point blank at which time it will latch itself onto the hull and squeeze to Orca to deal damage. It will remain affixed to the hull until either it dies or the Orca is destroyed.
The goal of this creature was to create a dramatic Orca level threat that could provide a make or break challenge for Players. It designed to interact with salvage gameplay and the Scrapjack tool to keep these mechanics relevant.
When initially encountered in the open world, the Fogwailer will drift idly along a path placed in the level.
To help players detect it, the Fogwailer will emit a roar audio effect when the players are nearby. This helps players understand the threat and try to locate it.
If the Fogwailer sees or hears the Orca, it will activate its yellow lights and begin moving towards its target. It will accelerate over time so it can catch up to a moving Orca vehicle. This velocity allows players some time to target the incoming Fogwailer with salvage or weapons.
Upon reaching a close proximity to the Orca, it will activate its red lights and play an animation while it hovers in the air. This is the final window of opportunity players have to attack the incoming Fogwailer. When this animation is complete, it will accelerate quickly to the Orca to begin its latch attack.
Player salvage is stored in the interior of the Orca. As players accumulate salvage, the weight of the Orca increases which affects locomotion.
The Fogwailer directly affects the Orca's salvage gameplay in two ways:
- The attached Fogwailer adds weight to the Orca, which can cause it to move slower or stop altogether.
- The Fogwailer opens the hatch near it's attach point and uses its tentacle to sweep around the interior. This damages Players and salvage.
While the Fogwailer can be defeated by hitting it with combat salvage (sharp or dangerous salvage), players might not always have access to this. They may have driven the orca to an area where there is no salvage or are trapped in an unfortunante location.
Because players will always have access to the Scrapjack, the Fogwailer has a route to victory in the form of it's valves. These valves are located around the Fogwailer's body and pop out when it latches to the Orca.
Players must move around the Fogwailer and pull all the valves off to deflate the Fogwailer and kill it.
A single player can accomplish this task but groups of players will be able to perform it more quickly. Since the Fogwailer deals damage over time, speed is key and can make the difference between good teams and great teams.
