Our past couple of streams from The Riftbreaker featured some modifications to the regular gameplay you might have seen earlier. Apart from customizable difficulty settings, we have also introduced some changes to the way the game plays out. We do that using our mission flow system - it is a set of logic instructions that the game carries out once certain conditions are met. In today’s article, we’re going to show you how it works.
Due to resolution constraints the first and last graph in this article are illegible, but the rest of the images can be read if you use the zoom option in your browser (Ctrl + Mouse Wheel Up in Chrome by default) it will be a lot easier. You can also download the images to view them in full resolution.
Complete view of the mission flow for our survival mission.
We set up the mission flow using a visual editor that represents all the operations in the form of color-coded blocks. Each block contains a set of instructions for the game. They can range from displaying an objective to spawning a massive attack wave. It all depends on the designer. All the events that happen in-game that are not controlled by the AI have to be scripted this way. One could say that it slightly resembles writing a simple computer program, although take that with a grain of salt - you won’t run Doom in The Riftbreaker. ;)
In order to make it a little easier to understand, we’re going to take our survival mission flow as an example. The blocks can be ordered in any way you want, but we like setting them up in such a way that you read them from left to right. We start with the Event Start block. It is our entry point and the start of the mission - the game starts following the instructions. Then, we display the controls screen and spawn the player in. After Mr. Riggs lands, three things happen in parallel. First - we hear the dialogue between Ashley and the AI. Second, the player is given a basic loadout of items and resources. Lastly - the game checks if it is in sandbox mode - if that is true, the player won’t get any objectives and no enemy waves will ever attack.
If the game difficulty is set to a different setting than sandbox, the game will follow the graph further and start giving the player objectives. Pictured above is one of the first objectives in the game - build a Carbonium Factory. As you can see, this graph is separate from the main mission flow. How is it possible that the game knows it should carry out this set of instructions? Well, each of the green ‘Event Graph’ blocks can have an underlying set of operations. Once the mission flow reaches such a block, the instructions within are carried out before progressing further. Here you can see that the game displays dialogues, gives the player an objective and waits for the Carbonium Factory to be built. Once it’s done, the graph reaches the ‘End Event’ block and the whole mission carries on.
Attack waves are also spawned using this method. In survival mode, it happens every couple of minutes. Once it is time for the game to annihilate your beautiful base it will read the data stored in a block just like the one pictured above. This block tells the game which direction it should spawn the enemies from (we don’t specify spawn points, that is up to the random algorithm), what kind of creatures should spawn and in what numbers. Naturally, it’s never just one wave.
Here’s what the entire final wave looks like:
There are about 6000 creatures packed up in those blocks!
Which translates into situations like this one:
Our editor allows us to prepare all kinds of events in the game. We can control the camera, the weather, add events that trigger once you reach a certain spot and much more. We will put them to good use in the Campaign Mode, which is closer and closer every day! It’s also worth noting that we are considering launching the game with access to our map and mission editor, so you will be able to utilize these tools as well. If you would like to learn more about The Riftbreaker join our Discord at www.discord.gg/exorstudios
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