Ruckus & Rascal

Role

Gameplay Programmer

Engine

Unreal Engine 5.1 (Blueprints)

Duration

10 Weeks

Team Size

12 (4 Programmers)

Ruckus & Rascal is a co-op adventure where you play as two devious raccoons who love causing chaos. Use each other's strengths to complete levels, play together or compete in high-stakes mini-games.

Developed during year 2 of my education at BUas - for this project I worked on the interactables system, various mini-games, player controller and camera.

Personal Focus & Contributions

Like many other interactable items in the game mini-games extend the interactables system.

In the connect4 you compete against your friend.

In the Blackjack players play against the dealer and bet collectible coins that they earn by playing the game.

On their way through the restaurant players will encounter chefs that will try to catch them - enemies can detect players by sight and chase them around the restaurant. Security cameras will detect players and alert all nearby enemies. Enemies can catch players and detain them and if your friend gets caught you have to sneak and rescue them. Players also have a disguise mechanic and can use it to avoid detection.

Mini-games: Blackjack & Connect4

Camera, enemies and other interactable items

Another challenge we faced in this game, was that it's a couch coop game where both players have to stay on screen at all time. To solve this I have worked on room transitions and camera system. To make sure both players are always on screen, I have added room transition volumes which required both players to be nearby to move from one area to another. We wanted the camera angle to be fixed for each room, so room transition volumes are invisible corridors - as players move from one room to another, the camera smoothly interpolates to a new position. The camera also tries to always focus on the action - it moves closer if players get close to each, or further away when in needs to keep both of them visible on screen.