OUTRIVAL: The Game I'm Making

Hey guys, I've been making a game and just wanted to show it off after 1 year of dev time.
This is considered a hobby since I'm 1 dude trying to make a large multiplayer game in my spare time.
Estimated time of release is currently set at pre-Pantheon.
Hoping next year to have something (pre-alpha) running on a Dedicated server where people can start running around.

OUTRIVAL
www.outrivalgame.com
big world team strategy

Think the board game Risk but you (and a team) are the units on the map, the goal is to capture territory, pushing back the opponents until eventual elimination.
The idea is to take a huge map similar to Battle Royale games, but break it up into captureable tiles.

Below is the the map (The Battlefield), it took 3 months to get to this point, I consider it far from complete.

To avoid straining my time on art assets I'm currently utilizing the free Paragon assets for the player characters.
Much of my design decisions are laid out on the website.


Disclaimer: I've only ever played games, this is my first time trying to make one. It's been nearly 1 year of development using my very scarce free time.

Szlia said:

How long is a game supposed to be and what do you have in mind for the capture of territory and push back of the opponents? Is it like, say, PlanetSide?

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I never played planetside, so maybe?

I want game times to be in the 30-45min area.

For the pushing/ pulling , if a tile isn't adjoined by an enemy tile, it enters a defensive state where enemy players will take damage over time if within the bounds . Similar to storm circles in BR games, to funnel players naturally toward battle lines.

I'm contemplating "natural death" mechanics to push games to a finale faster, but nothing concrete yet. Not too concerned on this until something is playable

For capturing, right now everything is capture points.. 3 per tile, control all 3 to claim a tile.

Victory mechanics right now are planned as whatever happens first: eliminate all opponents or capture x% of territory.

The intent is 4 teams in a match with a team size somewhere between 12 and 20

pharmakos said:

nice man, keep us updated, and don't be afraid to ask for opinions

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Thanks! I will post updates, I'll also take opinions, no matter how harsh. Everyone here has a lot of strong opinions on games so maybe I can learn something.

Szlia said:

How do players eliminate opponents? Are we talking first person shooter type of actions?

I never played PlanetSide, but you might want to check how it worked. It was a persistent game though, so I am not sure how the territory back and forth worked exactly. I am sure some people on the board played it for a while and could educate us on the matter.

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It's third person more similar to Smite but able to select a "build" like GuildWars. Abilities will be similar to Overwatch... some hit scan, some projectile, some aoe/ targeted, etc

So was planetside persistent or match based? Sounds cool, I shoulda played it.

Videos of some Early Abilities:

Note on Abilities: I'm utilizing the Gameplay Ability System plugin for UE4 which is the system Epic developed for FortNite & Paragon. Abilities are mostly fully ready for network/multiplayer play.

Projectile abilities have been the greatest headache to develop, so naturally I have been developing them first. Below are a few examples.

Gideon is a purveyor of Dark Magic, this Ability "Infinite Power" hits for more damage each successive attack on the same target. Power resets after a few seconds.
Gideon is intended to be highly lethal, damage grows quickly. (7 --> 24 --> 32 --> 59 currently shown in the video). This ability is suitable for downing beefy targets where stacks can grow easily.

2 abilities here:
Flaming Arrow: single target attack that ignites the enemy, dealing damage over time for a few seconds. Has higher drop time from Gravity then most other arrows.

Piercing Arrow: Pierces through targets (up to 3), dealing greater damage for each successive target hit. Maybe makes sense the first targets take more damage, but then positioning to hit multiple targets wouldn't be as meaningful.

Muriel's abilities are "energy" based, and some will have a "lock on" or "homing" mechanism as seen here. Muriel is intended to be a support/defensive character. Her damaging abilities will be more forgiving.

Small update that actually has taken me all week, and still a Work in Progress:

Area of Effect projectile abilities.



3 projectiles shown:

1.) Standard AoE "thrown" projectile, will mimic this to create grenades & stuff for Soldier type classes.

2.) Meteor "Ultimate" ability - supposed to be a long cooldown (1min), doing a lot of damage in a very large area. This projectile is missing some parts : sound while it approaches & ground-assisted targeting reticule to assist in aiming. Right now there's a "debug" reticule you can see (green lines/sphere), this will be replaced with a target reticule on the ground to show the impact point.
2a.) Meteor as seen from another character (Muriel).

3.) Homing projectile with AoE tacked on. Can mimic this to create rockets, missiles, etc

Development notes:
The characters left standing (from the meteor) in the video are on the same team as the caster, and take 0 damage.

Multiplayer makes everything take at least 5x longer to develop.

A main challenge for these abilities was replicating the particle effects. AoE abilities can have a lot more effects involved: initial cast, during flight, explosion, individual hit effect(character) & more.

The Meteor ability had some unique challenges in where it spawned. I wanted the "caster" to see the ability. I could have spawned it vertically above impact point, or above the character's head, or made it a short-range effect.. But instead I opted to try for something "bigger".
Right now you select a target point on the ground and the projectile will spawn 200 meters from there (in the direction the caster is looking) + 100 meters high in the sky, and it'll fly toward the impact point. It can detonate earlier if it hits something along the way, which I intend to change slightly. Right now a single character can "detonate" the ability prior to it reaching the destination, I'm going to change this so it almost always reaches the impact point and will damage targets in its path.

That's all for now.