Iterative Games

Recently, I've been debating the goal of the first unreality project release; My original concept was to release sets of 'monster packs' utilizing existing game content; The first pack was to be titled 'Semper Fi' and would feature UED Marines.

After playing around with the first build of this project in Invasion and comparing it with other released monster packs, I found the experience to be only slightly different than the existing material, and actually inferior to some of the better products. My goal was to create an experience that would add depth over the original Invasion experience, and just adding monsters utilizing pre-built content did not achieve that.

I decided to minimize the amount of new asset creation (skins, sounds, models, animations) and focus instead on making the monsters more interesting to fight. Adding customized secondary attacks added a degree of variety, but most of the monsters in Invasion already feature secondary attacks (melee). The real breakthrough came while trying to build a medic unit - a unit that attacks but also heals nearby comrades. The medic did not use any new content, but changed the way the game was played - medics would always be targeted to be killed first. From this, I decided to focus on improving monster AI as the goal of the first monster pack.

All the monster assets are already completed, but I'm taking the project back to the drawing board and adding more brains.