Punch Punch City

(December 2013)

PS Vita

The game was developed as a coursework piece for the module titled 'Console Development' with Visual Studio 2010 in c++ using the Abertay Framework. It is a side-scrolling beat 'em up where the objective of the game is to save the city by eliminating all of the enemies. There is an enemy situated on top of every building, carrying a gun and keeping a watch for the player. The player can ascend buildings by wall jumping and defeats the enemies by punching them.

The buildings are procedurally generated with varying widths, heights and separations. The enemies can be pushed off the buildings, losing a great deal of health when they land. The enemies also fade away when killed. The collision detection was implemented using bounding box collisions and line intersections.

Enemy Artificial Intelligence

The enemy AI is implemented using a state-machine of four states: Searching, Attacking, Advancing and Retreating.

Searching

The enemy does not know the player exists so will keep watch for potential threats, alternating between looking left and right whilst remaining in a fixed position. If the player enters the enemy's line of sight then the enemy is now aware of the player.

Attacking

The enemy is aware of the players existence and can see them so will periodically shoot at them until the player is either dead or out of sight.

Advancing

If the enemy is aware of the player but cannot see the player then the enemy will move towards the edge of the building they are on. This will give them a better view to find the player again as the player is likely on a lower building or on the ground. If the enemy is on the ground they will not advance towards the player as it is likely the enemy will walk into a building which is not intelligent behaviour.

Retreating

If the enemy can see the player and the player is too close to the enemy then the enemy will retreat backwards away from the player to prevent being punched. However the enemy will not step off a building to prevent being punched as that would result in losing a lot of health.