Description

HaberDashers is a console-style arcade (kart) racer for the PC in which players control miniature humanoid inhabitants of an everyday home, racing past outsized household items and through rooms as they compete against human and AI opponents with both driving skills and item pick-ups.

About

  • Team Name: SMU Guildhall C29
  • Engine: Unreal Engine 4
  • Genre: Arcade Racing Game
  • Platform: PC
  • RTM Date: May 2020
  • Team Size: 56
  • Develop Time: 12 Weeks
  • Steam Page

Trailer

Personal Responsibility

  • Handled kart physics
  • Designed useful functions and dispatchers for other team
  • Controlled character animation state

Features

  • Single-player and couch multiplayer with split screens for up to 4 players
  • Remote multiplayer using Steam's Remote Play Together feature
  • 8 racers in each race (humans as well as AI)
  • Modular car design featuring at least 4 car bodies, 4 car wheel types, and various paint jobs and decals
  • 4 original characters that fit in the world
  • 3-lap races lasting roughly 5 minutes each
  • Surface types with varying drag
  • Players have the ability to use a drifting mechanic to execute tighter turns
  • One-time use weapons and abilities in the form of on-track pickups

Retrospective

What I learned

  • Due to COVID-19, we moved to virtual development after the first-playable milestone. We had to learn several tool to support development such as Monday, Jira and Zoom.
  • This was my first time to use Unreal for Engine to develop a game with a team. I tried to keep my code flexible and highly Expandability.

What Went Wrong

  • Virtual development broke our face to face communication. We only use typing on Slack to communication with other team. Sometimes they did not respond immediately, so you had to wait. It wasted some time.
  • Communication not enough between disciplines. Sometimes when SD made a feature following the level designer instruction. But one day after, other level designer or producer said it should be applied in another way.

What Went Well

  • Though virtual development has restrict, but we accomplished the game with great result in the end.
  • Debug pipeline went well. When we found a bug, we first reported to producer and report on Jira. And producer will tell the person who in charge for the feature to fix it.