Project Summary

Royale Island Showdown is an online multiplayer shooter. It contains battle royale elements where 4 players dive down onto the island map, collect resources, and try to be the last player standing. Each player has an AI teammate that works with them to win.

Development

This game is an independent project built in Unreal Engine 4. I used the client server architecture to create a stable and secure multiplayer environment. I designed an AI companion with the goal of having an effective and cooperative teammate. The AI had a perception system which closely mirrored the information that was available to the player. It used this information in a modified K-nearest neighbors algorithm to predict how the player would react to situations. The AI added this information to a Behavior Tree to make decisions and execute actions.

Royale Island Showdown was made using a combination of C++ and Unreal Blueprints.

The game is available on Steam. Link to the steam store page

Map overview

The game map has a variety of features and sections, with 1000+ obstacles, walls, and buildings.

The Teams

There are 4 teams each consisting of one player and one AI, denoted by their color.

Locations Across the Map

This composite shows 4 locations from different areas of the map, each from the player’s viewpoint

Starting the Match

All players begin by flying over the island in a plane

When they choose, players can jump out and fall to the island where they want

Moving Around the Map

Players then move around the map collecting gear

The AI moves and collects gear independently while staying near the player and trying to predict their plan.

There is a minimap in the top left corner of the screen which player’s can use to find enemies (not always pictured since some images are from earlier in development)

Collect Resources

There are three types of resources for the players: guns, health, and ammo

Shooting

There are three types of weapons, each with sound and muzzles flash when shooting

Fighting Enemies

The red player on the left is reloading while his teammate is shooting at the blue team.

In this fight, at the beginning the red AI recognizes that the red player is going after the Blue team and runs to lead the way. The blue AI runs for cover behind the tree but once his blue player backs off, he turns to join him.

Additional Technical Effects

There is a border wall that periodically shrinks to restrict play space to maintain pacing and encourages players to interact.

Low health is indicated to the player by light blurring as well as red tinting and vignette. These effects become more pronounced as health drops.

When players are underwater, they slowly lose health. While underwater there is a blue tinting and strong vignette.