Steam Machines: Totally Tanktical
When I was brought onto the team, Steam Machines already had a significant amount of its base functionality completed. This granted me invaluable experience in adaptability, as I familiarized myself with the complicated systems that the game is built on and quickly became proficient enough to navigate others’ code, diagnose problems, and implement new features. The following are some of my major contributions to the game.
Overhauled Movement System and UI
Initially, the player tank’s movement was very clunky and inconsistent, each tread being controlled by a free-sliding lever which could only be manipulated by mouse.
I first reworked the tread levers, first adding numerical constraints to the lever movement so that they moved in slight increments, making driving in a straight line or stopping on a dime much easier.
I also implemented a QAED keyboard control scheme, which interacts seamlessly with mouse controls to allow for multiple ways to pilot the tank. Mouse Only / Keyboard Only mode can also be enabled in the settings menu.
Minimap
One of the downsides of a game with an isometric camera is that navigation can become disorienting.
To combat this, I created a minimap by utilizing a second, overhead camera and converting its view to a raw texture for use in the HUD.
Then, by giving each tank a 2D sprite tagged as “Map”, then modifying the overhead camera’s culling mask, I allowed the raw texture to only display the 2D minimap sprites. This created a minimap that shows a green circle in place of enemies and a blue arrow in place of the player.
Then, by adding rotation constraints to the camera and the UI element, I was able to have both camera and tank rotation reflected in the map.
Gun Mapping System
Guns are controlled by mapping to color-coded buttons, allowing them to be fired independently or in groups. I gun-button mapping and unmapping, as well as allowing enemy guns to be scavenged and placed on the player’s tank.
I first modified the weapon buttons to send unique colored materials to the guns, allowing them to change color when mapped. I then implemented code allowing guns to be unmapped, with their owner being removed and color returned to default. I also solved a long-standing bug where guns continued to fire after being unassigned.
Enabling enemy gun scavenging was very difficult and required much code review. However, after coming to better understand the ownership and controller systems present in the game, I was able to modify some interfering code and worked through numerous bugs to get the mechanic implemented. This was a difficult task, but it resulted in the completion of one of the game’s core mechanics.