Welcome to Earth

Gameplay

Flying Saucer:

I programmed the movement and physics of the flying saucer which serves as the player character. This was done from scratch and not using existing character movement. Additionally, I added abduction mechanic for both collectible and non-collectible objects.

Camera System:

I created and engineered a camera system in which the camera can smoothly rotate, zoom, and follow the player. The camera system allows for smooth transitions and cinematic framing of the flying saucer. The camera by default provides some leading room in the direction the player is heading and can be overridden by player input.
The complexity of creating an alternative controller led our team to restrict movement to a plane, but the camera can rotate and movement can be restricted to any arbitrary plane.

Reactive Sound:

This cannot be heard well in the videos above, but I devised and engineered a reactive sound system for the flying saucer. I composed a short song and split it into different tracks. Different tracks play based on player input. In a sense the player controller and flying saucer are a musical instrument that the player can play with no musical experience. The other sounds in the game were implemented by me as well.

Other Contributions:

My other contributions include managing source control, adding support for keyboard and mouse, adding support for traditional gamepads, engineering and constructing several puzzles, working with AI, working with explosives and destructible meshes, constructing portions of the game map, and generally assisting my team.

Welcome to Earth was created with an alternative controller in mind, but the alternative controller is not required to play.

The above video depicting the controller was created by a teammate and does not show the controller in its finished state. Controller development (and development on the project as a whole) was impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic.