Repeater Roulette Overview 2022

Repeater Roulette is a first person shooter set in the 1960s within an abandoned casino owned by a mad scientist billionaire. You play as the scientists latest experiment who's arm has been gruesomely grafted to a gun. Fight your way up floors of the casino, upgrading your new weapon of choice against the scientist's creations to meet your maker.

No playthrough will be the same with procedurally generated floor layouts and randomised deals where the player can gamble to upgrade. Players are able to create outlandish weaponry with their gun arm stacking various gun mechanisms to create many lethal combinations.

My Contributions

I worked within many different fields during the development of Repeater Roulette. I was on both system and level design and pre-production among other tasks detailed below.

• Produced initial IP

Design:

• Designing Perk System

• Designing Weapon Customization System

• Designing Shop feature

• Designing Enemy archetypes

• Designing Block & Parry

• Creating flow charts for each enemy's behaviour tree.

• Designing Player Movement features

• Organised playtest sessions for feedback

Level Design:

• Designing Modular Combat Arenas that could be added to the procedural room spawner.

• Implementing Rough Art & Lighting passes using pre-existing assets

• Blockouts for Basement, Casino and Lab

Pre-Production:

• Designed gameplay concepts for each enemy.

• Worked with concept artists on Enemy artistic design and Gun arm.

• Contributed to Art Bible.

Misc. Contributions:

• Directed Gameplay and Teaser Trailers

• Directed Voice Acting

• Designed Audio for initial prototype builds
  

• Organised Sprints and Scrums

• Collaborated with all members to ensure the vision remained cohesive

Guns and Perks

The gun was my brainchild. When we were brainstorming ideas for our project, it was evident that many team members were keen on developing a first-person shooter. I was particularly excited about the concept of creating a weapon system similar to the one in Binding of Isaac. In Binding of Isaac, each new item enhances the existing setup rather than replacing it. I was intrigued by the challenge of adapting this system to a 3D space and integrating it into a shooter.

After discussing it with our programmer, James Vanstone, we decided to draw inspiration from Noita. We envisioned a linear system where the gun would follow a specific pattern based on the attachments added to it.

Regarding the art design, we wanted the gun to be attached to the player in some way. I envisioned a sense of progression for not only the player but their weapon as well, so we needed a narrative reason for this integration. I suggested grafting the gun onto the player. We went through several rounds of concepting for the gun and only finalized its design two weeks before our demo day submission. We aimed for perfection, and the design underwent significant evolution during the process.

We needed a way to balance the gun, so we devised an ammo system unique to our game, which encouraged push-forward combat while fitting into the world and style we later coined as "Blood-Deco." I designed a blood absorption system, where players must drain blood from enemies to use as ammo. In the previous iteration, we included reloading with blood vials, and our plan allowed players to keep firing when out of blood at the cost of their own health. This wouldn't kill the player but would reduce them to critical health.

The blood system added depth to the combat loop. Players low on ammo might need to be aggressive to create ammo sources, leading to dynamic and intense gameplay. Conversely, there were moments where players had to hold their ground while absorbing ammo, creating tense and strategic scenarios.

Perks

The perk system provided straightforward upgrades. Each perk had a random chance of appearing and featured a three-tier upgrade system. Some perks were simple, like poison damage reduction, while others were more complex, such as the revealing eyes perk, which acted as an ultimate ability that slowed down time on a cooldown.

Other perks encouraged players to utilize the block system more effectively, such as a perk that allowed the player to parry multiple enemies at once, stunning all within a certain radius. We balanced the more interesting perks through rarity, pricing, and upgrades. Some had a high initial cost, while others became more useful only after being upgraded.

Enemies

I took inspiration from Doom[2016] for enemy design, aiming for each enemy to have a distinct purpose. I created a priority system where high-priority enemies have less health but pose a greater threat, while low-priority enemies are slower and more tanky.

There are four enemy archetypes, with two additional variations for the hoard and brute enemies:

1. Hoard Enemy - Basic enemy; some variations have more health and may possess a ranged attack.

2. Brute - Slow, tanky enemy; when sufficiently damaged, its health increases, and it starts running. There is an alpha variant that is significantly larger with more health and higher damage.

3. Microphone Head - Slow support enemy; it doesn't damage players but disorients and slows them down if it gets too close.

4. Spider Head - Fast, exploding enemy; has low health but deals high damage upon exploding and moves quickly.

Hoard Enemy

I wanted this enemy to be the most versatile and satisfying to kill since it is the most common. It needed tools to keep up with the player without being overwhelming.

To achieve this, we added limb damage that affects the AI's properties. Players can shoot off its head, causing it to die slowly, shoot its legs to make it crawl, or shoot its arms to prevent it from attacking. I increased the health of the torso to encourage players to aim for the limbs. Originally, this enemy didn't have a ranged attack, but after playtesting, we found that adding ranged attacks enhanced the experience.

If we had continued working on this game, I would have liked to transition the experience closer to a 3D bullet hell with more enemies using slow projectiles.

Through playtesting we also found that they were too slow, but speeding them up would make them too overwhelming of an enemy so I designed the pounce mechanic for them. If no enemies were within a certain radius of the player, the ai manager would pick a random hoard enemy to pounce to the player. This meant that during playtesting players were forced to keep moving.

The future plans for the hoard enemies were to have them dressed up in fancy clothing like the microphone head, however we ran out of time.

Microphone Head

The Microphone Head enemy was my favorite. In fact, I have a picture of it on my wall and a 3D printed model of it too! My initial idea for the Microphone Head came from analyzing a Doom level. I was inspired by the concept of forcing players to prioritize their targets.

Since the Microphone Head is non-lethal, players face a strategic choice: they can risk leaving it to focus on more immediate threats, but this comes with the danger that the Microphone Head could hinder them in combat by disorienting and slowing them down.

Designing the Microphone Head was a truly enjoyable process for me. Thematically, it seamlessly integrated into the 1920s casino setting. I appreciated that it was an enemy exclusive to the casino, adding to the contrast between the floors.

Originally, I envisioned the sounds emitted by the Microphone Head to be those of someone trapped inside, suggesting that despite its robotic body, the consciousness within remained intact but powerless. However, after extensive discussions with our sound designer, Eden, we opted for distorted radio sounds instead. Interestingly, we repurposed this backstory for the shopkeeper character.

I had the opportunity to create a teaser trailer for the Microphone Head, effectively capturing the unique aura this character brings to the game.

The Brute

Staying true to the theme of prioritization, the brute enemy has two distinct states: Enraged and Calm. Initially, all brutes are in a Calm state, moving slowly but dealing significant damage. However, once a brute sustains a certain amount of damage, it becomes Enraged, increasing its damage output and speed.

This mechanic forces players to strategize when to focus on taking down a brute, as prolonged battles with an Enraged brute can be highly dangerous. Thus, players must carefully consider their actions and timing when engaging with brutes to avoid facing them in their Enraged state for too long.

Combat Overview

With all these systems working in conjunction, the game as a whole was highly engaging. Given more development time, I would have fine-tuned the animations to eliminate the feeling of delay, which hindered players from fully utilizing the block mechanic as intended. However, the synergy between weapon design and enemy mechanics remained enjoyable, garnering positive feedback from industry experts and playtesters alike.

Level Design

Our desire for procedural generation posed an initial challenge to overcome. Typically, rogue-likes with procedurally generated layouts either utilize 2D environments, such as Binding of Isaac (a major inspiration for our game), or they take place in outdoor environments like Risk of Rain 2.

Lucy Bowling and I pitched the idea of custom-making rooms while randomly generating the actual layout of the floors. This involved procedurally spawning rooms as prefabs, allowing for dynamic and varied gameplay experiences.

I aimed to imbue each floor (Basement, Lab, Casino) with its distinct personality, reflected in the design of the rooms.

In the Basement, I aimed for a claustrophobic, labyrinthine layout. Narrow corridors and lower ceilings were employed to create a sense of being trapped.

For the Lab, I drew inspiration from old-school arena shooters like Quake and Doom, opting for connecting rooms with a very linear layout.

Finally, in the Casino, we opted for more open layouts to encourage creativity, especially since players' power levels would typically be higher at this stage.

Basement

The basement serves as a gentle introduction to combat, featuring a small pool of enemy types. As a result, I prioritized creating claustrophobic rooms that focused more on ambiance rather than providing large combat arenas.

The room layout below depicts two individual rooms I designed together. While all rooms were crafted with the end goal of random generation in mind, only the Casino rooms in the build are randomly spawned. Keeping future generation in consideration, I ensured an even mix of rooms with 1, 2, 3, or 4 doors.

I found pipes to be effective obstacles in the basement, adding depth to rooms with less verticality. I particularly enjoyed creating spaces that still encouraged players to utilize slide and vault mechanics despite the limited vertical space.

Originally, the game's aesthetic was designed to transition from dark and overgrown in the basement to more regal and lavish as players ascend into the casino. I maintained consistent theming in all basement rooms, incorporating pipes and fleshy growths to enhance the eerie atmosphere.

The overarching idea was to evoke a sense of progression, where as players become more powerful, the game shifts from a horror shooter to a power fantasy, mirroring the thematic evolution of the environment.

Casino Rooms

I opted to skip using ProBuilder for blockouts in the casino rooms, instead going straight to utilizing the available art kit pieces to streamline the process and save time for the full art pass.

Typically, when designing casino rooms, I'd begin with a basic, symmetrical shape and then introduce variations by removing sections or adding obstacles to break up the flow.

For example, in the design below, I started with a dual staircase in the middle and then introduced elements like broken catwalks and pillars to create more dynamic and engaging level layouts on the upper floors.

Similarly, in the room below, I began with a basic shape and then introduced asymmetry by incorporating another floor with a spiral staircase, while slot machines filled the middle. Many of the casino rooms I designed featured added levels of verticality to enrich gameplay.

In the itch build, the third room is detailed. I particularly liked this room because despite its small size, it added diversity to gameplay by incorporating hidden enemies and possible loot chests in concealed spaces.

This is the only room where players enter from the top floor. Due to restrictions requiring all doors to be on the same axis, I decided to have players enter from the top and jump down. This added a touch of verticality to the game, enhancing the overall experience.

Lab Rooms

Unfortunately, due to time constraints, we were unable to include a lab floor in the final game. However, blockouts were created, and you can explore one of the rooms by downloading the build below.

The lab floor was particularly exciting to design because it was intended to strike a balance between the openness of the casino areas and the exploration-focused nature of the basement.

Download

The concept behind this room is to introduce verticality to the player and expand the combat area, offering players more options. This creates a contrast in game feel from the close combat of the basement floor.

I found that the crates served a dual purpose: they broke up enemy pathing, provided cover for players, and served as climbable objects. I ensured that the crates were placed just close enough for players to navigate around them, turning the obstacle course into a strategic element of gameplay. Additionally, I added height variation in the floor to enhance visual interest and make the level more dynamic.

[2024] Reflecting on the entirety of the project, I'm filled with a profound sense of pride in what our team achieved in just nine months. One of the most impactful takeaways for me is the importance of adhering closely to an overarching theme, as it was this aspect that truly made our game stand out. Had we continued further, I would have utilised more spreadsheets to balance the game more.