Hook Up
Genre: Action
Engine: Unreal Engine 4
Plateforme: Oculus Quest (VR)
Missions: Game Design - Programming - Level Design
Hook Up is a VR action game in which the player must reach the highest possible score by crossing a level on rails. To do this, he's equipped with a grappling hook and a pistol, which he can use to blow up collectibles, confront enemies or clear the track in front of him.
The game has no game over, and is based solely on scoring. Taking damage or hitting an obstacle will cause you to lose score and lower the combo gauge, which is necessary for scoring many points.
The most interesting design aspect of this project was to ensure a pleasant, motion sickness-free experience, despite the nervous pace in VR.
In addition, it was very interesting to find bricks with which our gameplay mechanics worked easily and instinctively.
For example, our most successful enemy is the one wearing a shield: it's great fun to rip off this shield with the grappling hook to protect yourself, or to throw this protection back as a projectile towards new opponents.
A lot of work went into the game design, as well as the level design, but my main task and challenge on this project was to be the sole programmer, entirely in Blueprint.
It was my first time working on VR, so I quickly learned that the Oculus Quest would require a lot of optimization.
Aside from the 3Cs and enemy AI, I spent a good part of late production on ways to optimize the experience. The slightest slowdown in VR risked creating motion sickness.
To this end, I created a system for dynamically loading and unloading the level design as the player progressed along the track.
