Overreacting was created as part of Global Game Jam 2022 at the University of Lincoln where I worked as part of a 2 man team alongside a programmer. The game is a horde mode with a central objective to defend. The player has 4 weapon types which match the 4 types of enemies. Matching the colours causes no damage, whereas selecting the opposite type deals far more damage than the over two. There is a central objective, the reactor, which you must defend.
My focus was on the AI Behaviour and level design for this game. I implemented a simple AI that could choose whether to focus on the Player or the reactor dependent on distance to each. I used the EQS System in Unreal to determine potential locations for the AI to move to also taking into account not to group the enemies too close together.
As for the level design, I wanted to reflect the theme, Duality. So I mirrored the level left to right with AI spawning on each side. Because of the time constants, building a large level, would have taken a lot of time we didn’t have, so I kept it to a 2 room design. There is the central reactor room with a catwalk around to give as much space as we could to the player while making the target central and obvious. The second room is open and relatively small, to encourage the player to keep moving and make the few numbers of enemies in the game seem a lot more challenging. The approach works with the wave spanner created by the programmer, giving just enough enemies to be a challenge that through skill can be over come.