Over the last few weeks we have posted on individual aspects of the Sharks like the AI, Damage or the procedurally generated Animations. When we set out to do this next gen version we really wanted to raise the bar on the last version, not only just to blow peoples expectations Out of the water ( brilliant pun )but also to really push ourselves and see what we could achieve. We close this week off with Shark Attack Deathmatch in such a awesome state. The sum off all these small individual parts really came together this week and we were able to see how special it is turning out...special and terrifying!
A really cool feature that was added to the sharks behaviour this week is the "side bite". As the sharks swim past you they will twist their head to the side and snap at the player to try rip out a chunk of flesh. The addition of this behaviour really builds up the jump scare factor, even when side bites miss seeing the teeth and hearing the rush of water lets you know how close you were from being torn apart, it leaves you with a unsettling feeling.
On top of the Rag Doll system we have in place for the sharks death, Ed whipped up a great dissolve effect that removes dead sharks from the map elegantly ( before we would just make them vanish instantly). Its a small touch but really adds to the polish.
This week i started on the first official map, all the screen shots you would have seen before have been from our test map (these were mostly test assets that were thrown together to test functionality or are assets from the first game). I will share more details of the new map next week and cant wait to start showing off more screens and videos. The map should take around 2 weeks or so to wrap up.
