Devlog 02: Potion Prototypes

This week we put all of our focus on the starting potions of our game. Potions are the core of our game so we need to make sure that they feel impactful and most of all are fun. We also changed our strategy when it comes to using potions. Initially we wanted our potions to have 2 modes, you could either drink them or throw them. After testing we scrapped this idea and instead focused on just using our potions. This way we don’t need to deal with the additional complexities of the 2 modes and don’t need collision for our potions.

Potions Effects

We started prototyping potions and rethought it a bit. We are prototyping that potions will spawn effects in the game. Here are some things we tried out.

Laser Potion

We made a laser potion which shoots a beam straight in front of the player. The beam doesn’t ricochet but there is a probability that it or another potion effect will in the future. The beam has a pretty big collision radius which is adaptable. Damage gets done in intervals so a player doesn’t get zapped in an instant. For now the visuals aren’t stunning since it’s just some debug drawing done by unreal. But adding some cool niagara effects to it shouldn’t take long.

Fireball Potion

When you get the fireball potion and drink it you will start shooting fireballs to where you are facing. Of Course when another player gets hit, the player takes damage. We are still prototyping the spawn rate, duration and the amount of beams the effect has.

Potion of Falling Rocks

When using this potion the enemy players will have a set amount of rocks falling around them. When hit by one of them the player takes damage. We plan on adding a visual indication for when the rock is close to falling on the ground. This will probably be achieved by having shadows appear.

Future Plans

We plan on adding a witch which would use the same potion our players use. She would spawn in the centre of the map and as the round goes on she would get more and more ‘enraged’ and use potions more and more frequently. She could target a random player or could target all players at once.

We will start adding workbenches to our game. The main purpose of this mechanic would be that the player would have to go to a crafting table in order to craft his potion. This isn’t the case now, instead you instantly get a potion after collecting 3 ingredients. The crafting would be a quick time event and when you succeed you get a random potion. Failing the quick time event will result in you getting blown away and taking damage.

The last feature we plan on adding would be a dash. This would be on a cool down in order to make the user not spam it. This can cause escapes of dangerous areas and or make you the first at a crafting bench.