In this project I had the opportunity to focus mostly on AI development and I was able to push further my knowledge of Unreal Engine 4.

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    In this project I had to act under two major constraints :

- A very limited production time due to a very long pre-production.
- A maximum modularity to keep pace with future iterations.

 

    To meet these constraints, I based the creation of the different AIs on Behavior Trees, a system already implemented in UE4 with which I was already familiar thanks to my Effigy project. In addition, this system being very visual, it is easily accessible to Game Designers and can be modified quickly and easily.

     In order to allow the Behavior Tree to choose the actions to be performed by the AIs, I used another feature of UE4, the Environment Query System, I learned to use this system during the development of this project. It makes possible to retrieve information in space, such as the different positions where to take cover from the player.

    The different behaviors have been realized in Components and ChildActors, which allows them to be quickly removed or added to any of the AIs to support the maximum modularity constraint.

    The Data, meanwhile, is stored in Data Assets, it is a copyable and interchangeable element that allows to easily and quickly change the values ​​of the AIs, such as the speed of movement, the possibility to make melee attack, the weapon held in hand or any other settings essential for the decision-making of the Behavior Tree and the functioning of the behaviors.

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    This architecture allowed a significant time saving on AIs production and easy and fast tweaking for Game Designers, in particular due to Data Assets.