Tower Of Old Blog
- Ryan Nicholson
- Dec 11, 2025
- 5 min read
Updated: 3 days ago
(Will be transfered to myself soon)
Trello: https://trello.com/invite/6911d1e4af104ad2d0f14544/ATTIaed3360b4dbf7745f3e21b63c30f517271B18519
Section 1 - Development
Section 2 - Collaboration
Section 3 - Reflection
Section 1 - Development
November, 10, 2025:
I began working on and completed most gameplay features, those being entirely focused on player movement.
The features were:
Movement
Movement bobbing
Movement Speed
Jump
Jump Speed
Jump Boosts
The movement bobbing was to somewhat emulate the Quake movement and better display the speed of the players movement.
Later in the day I had updated the movement speed as I found it was too slow in the original build, the jumping velocity as I wanted the player to truly feel a speed change when they jumped and I increased the players air control to allow them
to more thoroughly decide where they are going.
November, 11, 2025:
I implemented a dash mechanic which players would be able to use by pressing shift and launch the player in the direction they are looking, I work on this much more later.
November, 12, 2025:
Here is where I updated the dash mechanic by implementing an FOV change using timelines which makes the player feel like theyre going faster and adding a dash limit by checking if the player is no longer falling
November, 13, 2025:
I introduced the grapple mechanic, this is almost finished but needs work, like with the grapple not appearing in the players hand after the first use. I also added that when the player releases the grapple button it will stick the grapple cable to the area you were swinging from. I updated this again later in the day by increasing the speed when grappling and I made the disconnected grapple cable disppear after some time to prevent a build up for CPU usage. The HUD part that shows when you can grapple is a future update!
November, 17, 2025:
I added a sliding mechanic with a test crosshair to show the player where they are grappling to. The sliding should only work when touching the floor and it will add a speed boost to the player.
November, 22, 2025:
Began working on wall running mechanics but later depricated it,.
November, 30, 2025:
I merged the sound branch into my "Ryan Dev" branch and implemented the different audios, I changed the pitch of the dash, I added a timeline that will interupt the sliding audio when interupted and I implemented the walking sounds which play with the 3D models walking animation, the footsteps were put into a meta sounds blueprint. I had also then updated the new greyboxed map that was worked on by someone else and I added a spiral staircase with holes inside it.
December, 8, 2025:
Introduced a killbox which is a flat plane with a red colour as I am yet to have any other assets, this will slightly float upwards and will kill the player on contact. I also added cooldowns to the grapple and the slide mechanics. I also introduced an update to the grapple allowing it to grapple onto enemies, which will attach to the enemy socket, this will also do damage. I also added the grapple reload visual to the HUD to show the player when they can next use it.
Section 2 - Collaboration
I created a Trello page and as a group we made a discord server which had different channels for each person and a general disccusion thread to allow us to talk more casually about what is needed.
One of the people on the project was the project manager / creative director therefor the trello page was created for them to work on.
I made the trello page with help from a template. I made the first two weeks of the Agile Sprint workflow and had given a tutorial to the project manager on how to and what to do for the Trello.
Unfortunately, the agile sprint hadn't been updated consistently, by the manager nor the other members so it is difficult to see what work has been kept upto date.
Fortunately the other parts of the Trello I had created were updated more by the project manager, here is the development page:
Unfortunately again, I had made another one for the design team, but this was practically untouched:
Git - Fork
Playtesting
We did some playtesting in class and got loads of helpful feedback. We made a lot of changes based on this, and I think it made the game much better.
The information we took and made changes with was:
Infinite dashes
Inverted swinging
Dash cooldown
Camera changes (slightly)
The things we didnt change were:
I didn’t think omni-directional movement was entirely an improvement for the game. Needing to position yourself by looking around before using the movement abilities added more pressure and awareness, which I felt worked well for the overall experience.
Camera Style (kinda) - The problem of the camera bobbing while standing still has mostly been resolved. Occasionally, after moving very fast and stopping, the camera still leans in the direction of movement, and I think this adds a nice sense of momentum.
Overall, I think these changes have improved the overall experience and I am glad we got to get input from quite afew students in the class.
Section 3 - Reflection
I think I did really well on this project, especially at the beginning. I had a strong push with the work I needed to do, and the sprint plans I made for the first two weeks were already completed after just the first week. Having those clear goals early on helped me stay focused and get a lot done quickly.
After that, things did slow down a bit, but I still kept making regular updates. Like the last project, I think the team I was in had a big impact on how things went. I wasn’t given any assets, so I had to work in a greyboxed world or make and import my own assets. This made the project feel more overwhelming than it should have, and sometimes it pulled my focus away from the actual development work.
I tried to be more independent and pushed for better communication from the team. I also suggested switching to Trello because some people said they didn’t understand Codecks. I set up the boards and explained everything to the project manager, but the board still wasn’t being updated much. This showed me that tools only help if everyone actually uses them properly.
The other programmer was working on a different project, which was fine since I was the main programmer on this one, but it was still a bit frustrating. I would have liked to be in a group that was more active and consistent with their work. Even so, the situation pushed me to take more responsibility and work more independently.
If I were to do this project again, I’d make sure roles were clearer from the start, especially for asset creation. I’d also push harder for regular updates so the whole team stayed on track.
Overall, I’m proud of the prototype I made, especially considering the challenges. The project helped me improve my planning, communication, and confidence, and I feel more prepared for future projects because of it.
Comments