Hi everyone,
Welcome to our latest Dev Update on Ready or Not!
This week Community Manager Guinevere has stopped by with a look at how civilians make up a core part of Ready or Not's gameplay loop, and how the team are working to maximise player immersion when interacting with or playing around them.
Now it's over to Guinevere for all the details...
Introduction
Hey everyone,
It's time for our latest Dev Update for Ready or Not! This week we'll be taking a look at some of the animations for our Civilian AI as well as the process by which we're able to create them using Unreal Engine 4's MetaHuman technology.
Civilian Models and Animations
A vital element of any police shooter is the role civilians play in it. They are what set police shooters aside from other games in the genre. Having to account for protecting, managing, and controlling civilians in a potentially hostile or dangerous environment with suspects adds another layer of complexity to each mission. Preparation becomes so much more important - breaching a room means minding your shots and acting quickly to ensure that in the chaos of a firefight innocent lives aren't lost. A suspect with a hostage requires an entirely different approach than one who's in a room alone.
Because of the importance of civilians to Ready or Not's gameplay loop, having them contribute to the player's immersion is a top priority. From their animations to their appearance to how they interact with the player, every civilian is crafted with their own background, motivations, desires, and behavior.
Civilian Preview
An essential tool in making sure each character is unique in their appearance has been Unreal Engine 4's MetaHuman technology, which has allowed us to greatly speed up the process of creation for every character in the game. In the images below, you'll see an example of a character that we were able to put together in just a few minutes. By utilizing MetaHuman, we can match the appearances of characters to the descriptions and histories our writing time has made for them.
Above: Examples of a character created using MetaHuman.
Conclusion
This brings an end to our latest biweekly briefing, this time focusing on civilian models and animations within the game. I look forward to seeing you all in two weeks for more development updates regarding Ready or Not!
Keep your feet on the ground.
Guinevere, Community Manager