Feedback Design for Multiplayer FPS Game
- Jirawat Jumponkunawut
- May 24, 2022
- 5 min read
Updated: Aug 25, 2022
Project Wallriders
Team size: 5 - 6 members Duration: August 2021 - April 2022 (8 months)
Wallriders is a first-person shooter game where 2 to 4 players duke it out in an arena where they can run and jump on the walls and ceiling. Each player can collect various quirky guns and will need to shoot the other players to win. Whoever gets to 10 kills first, wins the game.
Target Demographic: The intended audience will be competitive gamers, specifically those who are a fan of arena shooters like Doom and Quake with elements derivative of TitanFall to make the experience unique and distinct from any of the above games.
Responsibility / Contribution
Creative Design Director
UX/UI Designer
Game Feel Designer
Sound Designer
Artist
Project Limitations & Challenges
Limitations
Raw development time = ~200 Hrs
No Artists
Limited Audio Asset library
Challenges
First time developing a multiplayer game
Most programmers will be busy solving networking issues
Research
Apex Legends
Apex Legends is a free-to-play battle royale-hero shooter game. It is used to reference how financially successful games design gun feedback.
The unique lesson that I took from Apex Legends is timing.
Apex Legends' rate of fire is much higher than older titles. For example, a slower gun like a shotgun in Apex Legends has a BMP of around 120 while a shotgun in the original DOOM has a BPM of only around 40.
The difference between 80 BPM makes the older gun design feels “sluggish” when compared side by side with Apex Legends'.
And for the automatic guns, Apex Legends' have the rate of fire slowly ramp up to a plateau which makes the gun feel even more satisfying.
DOOM Eternal
DOOM Eternal is an award-winning FPS game where players use various unique guns to vanquish all demons.
In feedback design, especially sound effect design I found that many SFX in DOOM Eternal feels heavy and full-body while some feel light and cartoonish which contrasts with the former style of sound.
After further analysis, I concluded that the secret to “sound feel” lies in its tone and frequency.
For example, the full-body sound has heavy bass and resonating mid-tone and high-tone while the light feeling sound register from the mid-tone to high-tone.
So with the “tone sensitive SFX”, it is possible to create a gun SFX that feels juicy without sacrificing the opportunity for characteristics like comical or cute.
Gun Concept
Each gun has primary and alternative firing options. The primary fire mode is similar to the usual FPS gun archetype while the alternative mode has some quirks and gimmicks to it.
The team has brainstormed gun ideas and concluded with these guns.
Machine Gun
Primary fire: Standard automatic fire
Alt Fire: Grenade
Fires a grenade in an arc. Smaller AOE than a rocket and less damage. You get more grenades by dealing damage with the primary fire.
Shotgun
Primary fire:
When on the ground, you launch players far away
When in the air, you launch yourself away from where you’re aiming
Alt Fire: Teleport shot
The player fires a single shot. Once that shot hits a surface, the player will teleport to it. This changes the player’s gravity to the gravity of the surface they land on.
Rocket Launcher
Primary fire: shoots a rocket
Alt Fire: Blackhole
Fires a shot that implodes upon impact. The black hole will remain for about a second, holding in place whatever gets caught in its grasp. The shot is slower than a rocket though.
Smart Pistol
Primary fire: High-speed bullet, all secondary fire bullets home to where the first shot went
Alt fire bullets home in on the next primary fire bullet you shoot
Alt Fire: Slow Bullet
Fires the slow bullet. When the primary shot hits a target, these slow bullets will turn and begin to move at an undodgeable speed. They cannot go through walls.
Railgun
Primary fire: Ricocheting laser beam
Alt Fire: Area Denial Shot
Fires a ricocheting laser that does less damage but leaves behind a mist that expands and falls, quickly accumulating damage on enemies. The player firing naturally is not damaged by this mist.
Feedback Design
Each feedback sequence is made up of 3 steps: signal, update, then resolution
Signal | Update | Resolution |
|---|---|---|
What initiates the sequence (usually player input) | How does the sequence progress | How does the sequence end |
Ex: Player Click or Hold left click [M1] | Ex: Sound effect audio play simultaneously to simulate full auto shoot | Ex: Audio stop at the end of its duration. |
And for the case of gun feedback design, the whole big sequence is split into 3 smaller sequences: gunshot, bullet travel, and bullet impact
When combined, they form a sheet that helps me plan out the design and implementation of each firing mode.
“Gun Shoot” Sequence Examples: Machine Gun
The gun shooting is the first occurrence that happens in the gun shooting sequence.
This is an opportunity to convey the sensation and for the machine gun, I want to convey the feeling of “weight” and “body”.
The machine gun’s gun shooting sequence uses these elements:
Signal | Element | Description | Update | Loop? | Resolution |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Click or Hold left click [M1] | Sound Effect | Standard Gun. W/ Solid bass & details in high | Audio play simultaneously to simulate full auto shoot | No | Audio stop at end of it's duration. |
| VFX: Muzzle Flash | Standard Looks. Impactful but died quickly | Duration: 0.3s. Size: Growing quickly. Intensity: 0.7 lerp to 0. | No | Disabled VFX after 0.3s |
| Light: Point Light | Orange tint, illuminating NOT blinding | Duration: 0.3s. Intensity: 0.3 | No | Disabled Light after 0.3s |
| Camera FX | Extra low Amplitute, Low frequency with high details. Died extra quick | Duration: 0.15s. Intensity: 0.2 (steep) lerp to 0. | No | Return to still |
| Character Animation | Rapid in, mid-slow out. Similar to impulse | add 80% instantly, then lerp to 0% | No | Return to normal anim state at (0%) |
| HUD UI: Ammo Box | - | Number changes | No | (int) Ammo = n -1; |
| HUD UI: Crosshair | White cross with dot | add 30% instantly, then lerp to 100% | No | Return to normal scale at (100%) |
Sound effects
The audio clip was developed with tone sensitivity in mind.
The high tone is a “ding” sound and it communicates the mechanical nature of shooting a gun.
The mid-tone is a sampled gun shooting sound, it communicates that the gun is shooting.
The bass tone is a sampled gun shooting sound with bass boosted, it conveys the sensation of weight and impact.
VFX: Muzzle flash
Light: Point Light
The light was triggered to turn on and off with the muzzle flash. When triggered, its brilliance help makes the muzzle flash feel more impactful.
Camera effect: Camera shake
Conveys the sensation of weight and impact by shaking the screen at an instance of the gun shooting and quickly decay to nothing in 0.2 seconds.
Animation: Recoil animation
Conveys the sensation of weight and impact by quickly moving the character's arms backward.
UI: Crosshair & gun UI
The UIs are primarily used to signify the fact that the gun has been shot and the player loses 1 ammo.
While the rest are there to help convey the feeling of “impact” (meaning that something “big” is happening).
“Bullet Travel” Sequence Examples: Rocket Launcher
The “arcade” design pillar allows me to develop the bullet with an unrealistic appearance. So, I used this opportunity to increase the bullet visibility by making it big and emissive, which is helpful in a fast-paced game where the player needs to observe important information in a split second.
Signal | Element | Description | Update | Loop? | Resolution |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Bullet Gameobject Spawned | 3D Model | Emissive rocket head model | Bullet object move forward | Yes | After collide with any object, Destroy |
| Sound Effect | Jet sound W/ thick bass | Audio play on loop. w/ Doppler effect | Yes | After collide with any object, Stop Audio |
| VFX: Smoke Trail | Big black smoke | Smoke emitted from the tail of the rocket head, per distance. Duration: 5s. Color: Black to transparent white. | No | After collide with any object, Stop Emitting new particles |
3D model: Simplified explosive head
Material: Emissive
The emission help increase the bullet’s visibility.
Sound Effect
The bullet has an idle hum sound playing in 3D space. So, when it passes through the player, it creates the doppler effect which helps to further immerse the player.
VFX: Smoke Trail
The trail is used to communicate the bullet’s velocity.
“Bullet Impact” Sequence Examples: Rocket Launcher
The bullet impact is not only useful in communicating where the bullet has landed but it is also another opportunity to convey the sensation. And for the rocket launcher’s impact, I want it to feel heavy and big.
Signal | Element | Description | Update | Loop? | Resolution |
The bullet make collision. | Sound Effect | Biggg Explosion!! | Audio play | No | Play til the end of it's duration |
| VFX: Explosion | Big Explosion w/ fragments | Particles emit from collision point. Rotate toward surface's normal. Duration: <3s | No | Fade to transparent after 3s |
| Camera FX | Extra low Amplitude, Low frequency with high details. Died extra quick | Duration: 0.25s. Intensity: 0.5 (steep) lerp to 0. | No | Return to still |
Sound Effect: Modified explosion sound
The explosion audio clip was bass-boosted to make the sound feel heavier.
VFX: Explosion
Camera FX: Camera shake
The shake has a slower decay than the shooting sequence to make the effect feel large.
The shake occurrence has some latency depending on the distance between the player and the point of impact. It replicates the real-world nature of how the sound would move.
Playtest
In testing, I am looking for the sign of immersion-breaking in UI, the player satisfaction in feedback, and I want to test the overall quality by having the player determine the product’s value.
The playtesting data from the middle phase of game development when there is not as much feedback (no camera effect and recoil animation) confirms that the game indeed is responsive, but at the time the tester reported that the feedback still feel “sub-par” and the tester has valued this game at $0.
An internal testing result from a later phase of game development shows an improvement, especially in the game feedback. Testers express vivid excitement while shooting the gun and reported that the feedback quality “met the industry standard”.
Comments