Gunship Project

For this arcade-like gameplay demo, control an "Asteroids"-inspired gunship to take on a swarm of autonomous drones, their central base, and, last but not least, a formidable "Plasma Eagle" boss enemy! 

For this project, I designed and implemented all of its underlying systems. This includes the jerk-based physics of the drones and the player, the drones' pathfinding behaviors, the player's weapon and movement actions, the hierarchical multi-object boss and its behaviors, the combat-focused camera and timescale effects, and the underlying "action list" task structure that allows for many of these systems to function in the first place.

As a technical design-focused endeavor, this project gave me the means to more closely study the efficacy of my various systems implementations. While I often had little issue with systems involving physics and player actions, difficulty somewhat frequently emerged when working with my "action list" structure and when implementing the boss enemy's behaviors. Poor design regarding how specific task actions could interrupt and delay other tasks meant that many complex movements and interactions required far more setup than desired, and the absence of a traditional AI behavior design pattern ensured that configuring the boss's multiple attacks and actions couldn't be achieved without similarly involved planning. In working around these system's limitations, I've gained insight into the specific characteristics that led to their poor performance, informing more effective and clever technical design in all of my projects since.