MONOLITH
Monolith was my and a few friends first project we worked on together after university, with a massive attempt to make something new a fun. Unfortunately during development, we discovered that one of our core features, real time destruction, was unachievable without a lot of money and equipment. Instead of compramising the idea, we decided to leave it for the future and work on other projects, namely one called 'Hopes and Dreams'Potentially one day, If I am ever successful enough to be able to afford the technology, I'll revive this game, but for now it remains dormant.
That being said, I learnt a LOT from this project, like using steam's SDK to integrate multiplayer into the game, and how set things up in blueprints.
Monolith is a small open-world RPG where players customize and upgrade their Monolith, a gargantuan mech, exploring a cityscape and the labyrinthine government facilities hidden below. Humanity is on the brink of its second extinction and you are one of the last people capable of piloting a mech after the cultists catastrophic attack on IONA’s headquarters (institute of the new age). These cultists aim to finally eradicate humanity by summoning demonic forces from the depths of hell, opened up by the Great War. Fight to save what's left of humanity.
The game's main draw was the mech. Fully customizable and interactive within a multiplayer environment, with different people being able to pilot the mech, and those not piloting it, being able to assist it or even defeating monsters themselves, even large ones. The gameplay would have been hectic in a good way, reminiscent to hell divers.
Another one of the games unique mechanics is a fully destructible environment, with namely buildings breaking apart realistically, being affected from where the building was hit and by how much force.
My Contributions
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Overall game concept. I came up with the idea, the world, the gameplay loop, the setting, the characters and the theme.
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Combat Design
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Game narrative.
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Created Design Doc
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Character dialogue
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Level design
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Multiplayer mechanics
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Destructible environments
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Quest system
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Research
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QA Tester
View the design doc below
(click image)
Snippets and rationale
Monolith's design stemmed from a desire to work on something completely new. We wanted it to be completely different from previously worked on projects from university or game jams. On top of that we wanted to further challenge ourselves with systems completely alien to us, like multiplayer. From this desire stemmed a Monolith, a game with ambitions and unique mechanics that weave together multiple game genres to achieve a welcomed iteration on beloved tropes. Looking back now there might be a few things I'd be willing to change to achieve better cohesion, but overall I like the idea of Monolith and I think it's would end up being a fun game to play solo or with friends.
Mech and destruction
The mech is the prime source of dps out put, allowing to destroy hordes of tiny enemies in seconds, and being able to easily topple larger monsters within the game
The gameplay with the Monolith revolves around having a strong presence, drawing enemies to it, whilst having the capabilities to wipe out any threat that engages it. The player needs to feel powerful in the mech, having the environment react to any action they take, whether it be stomping on a small building, or firing a rocket at an enemy, watching it recoil and destroy buildings around it.
The players can also use one of 4 Abilities which would all be assigned to a Monolith part, for example, the OS would have the ultimate ability, which would do devastating damage to the enemy and environment. The Arm weapons would each have an ability and so would the torso. These abilities would all be unique and would lock the player and the enemy into an animation, playing a cool flashy set piece that all players can see in the game.
The Pilot, compared to the Monolith, would be much more agile and quicker, utilizing a boost pack to quickly navigate around the world. Players will have to play as the pilot to leave the monolith if the battery has drained, and they need to find batteries to power it, or to explore. The pilot’s gameplay revolves around speed and precision, being able to essentially fly around but also needing to hit precise shots on enemies as being stationary can lead to death. The player needs to feel fast and nimble, to do this we should utilize actual player speed increase, but also both fun interesting physics, and also camera tricks, such as FOV and zoom when performing an action that would speed boost the player.
Narrative
Greed would always be the fall of man kind. After the Great war, caused by one nation wanting to rule the world, annihilating most of the world, humanity has once again clawed its way to the top. Through sheer determination, skill and, predominantly, Luck we managed to overcome the devastation of the great war. But thats not where this story ends, a side effect of the war was a hole and hell came with it. A large perforation into the earths crust reached deep enough that the denizens of Satan's domain spewed out, attacking the last remnants of humanity.
Before hope is lost, we people have one last bet. Monolith. Large towering mechs that rival the demons powers and restore hope in the remaining few. You begin to learn why and how these monsters beget from that hole, and the answer is grim. There are cultists who would harness the powers of evil in order to live forever. You must stop them.
The world and characters
For the game's narrative, I timelined the history of the world and created detailed area descriptions, a storyboard and character profiles. I did all this and more to embed the feeling of immersion within the player to allow them to suspend their disbelief. The same goes for the world itself.
Want to see more?
I have made a few post on my LinkedIn account about the game, showing off some gameplay clips and more. The post below details early gameplay from monolith, showcasing the quest log system I made as well as mech gameplay
The post below documents the methods of optimisation used within the game and other methods we could explore. If interested click below to view the post
Rationale
We wanted to make Endless Vendetta to create an immersive large project in Unreal Engine, expanding our knowledge of Unreal Engine and overall honing our skills in game development.
We also want to get into industry and other than for indie studios, unreal Engine is the industry standard for game developers, along with C++, hence Unreal Engine was the choice for us.
The game idea came from our hearts and all of us wanted to make this game, it was a passion project before it was a university game, and that passion is reflected in the gameplay and story of the game.