The Weapons of Singularity
What follows describes the twists and turns our weapon system underwent during development of Singularity. The life of an original intellectual property is a difficult one, but ultimately the experience was invaluable. It gave us the opportunity to try many different approaches to FPS weapons in order to provide the players with the best possible experience while they maneuver through the world of Singularity.
Early R&D
Raven began dedicated R&D for Singularity’s weapons back in June 2007. The sky was the limit for the kinds of crazy firepower and interactions we could come up with. Over a couple of months we fashioned many different prototypes, some great, others lame, but all giving us valuable experience in learning the Unreal Engine and envisioning fun gameplay mechanics. Below are some of the ideas that showed promise but never made it past the prototype stage for one reason or another.
The Gravity Well Gun
The G.W.G. generated a ball of energy that would pull all physics based objects in the area (including enemies) into its orbit as it traveled across the level. After a few seconds the ball would explode, sending everything flying ragdoll all over the place. The orbiting effect and explosion were both very impressive, but ultimately we didn’t feel the weapon was robust enough to merit full production.
The Size Modulation Device (SMD)
The SMD allowed you to dynamically scale the size of objects in the world. You could shrink a barrel to the size of a battery to pass it through a small hole and then grow it to the size of a Toyota, after which you could shoot it, generating a gigantic explosion. While the idea was interesting, we feared that we wouldn’t be able to come up with a lot of unique uses for this gun, so we had to cut it.
Unification
Jump to almost a year in development and the team was trying to figure out how to keep our main hook (the TMD) on screen at all times. We decided to try merging the TMD’s functionality with that of the weapon system into a single morphing super gun, much like Samus’ blaster in Metroid Prime. Along with the TMD’s aging powers, you could use the D-Pad to switch the weapon into one of four possible states, including a fast firing assault rifle, short range spread shot, high damage rail gun, and a white flailing energy beam that you could target onto enemies for damage over time. The work we did on the weapon morphing was intense and kept our main weapon animator David Gulisano and I in the office many a late night iterating and trying to improve the weapon’s dynamic look. Ultimately though, the team couldn’t come to a consensus on the project; half loved the new look, but the other half thought it was clunky and overly complicated, preferring a more traditional array of independent weapons.
At the end of the day the call was made and we turned the TMD into a glove that could be worn on the left hand. We allowed rapid switching between the weapons and TMD simply by hitting a button mapped to that particular context: hitting the antigravity, impulse, or aging buttons summoned the TMD while the iron sight and firing buttons brought up the equipped weapon.
Back to Basics
Once we returned our weapons to the traditional FPS system, we were able to get the classic archetypes up to snuff in short order. For an experienced FPS studio like Raven these were known quantities, so after getting them feeling pretty good, we spent time adding secondary sci-fi elements to them like the slow motion sniper ability, the Spikeshot’s heat scope, rocket wire guidance, and grenade steering. These secondary fire abilities were something we iterated on for some time to get just right.
Polish, Polish, Polish
As you’ve heard a million times before, making a truly visceral and engaging experience all comes down to polish. Anyone can make a machine gun fire x bullets a second, but adding the little things like screen shake, controller rumble, and gun kick really bring it together. We also spent time adding small elements that most people won’t even realize they’re appreciating but add tiny layers of polish to the game. For example, did you ever notice the fan on the side of the AR9 Valkyrie actually spins up and down to cool the barrel during intense firefights? What about the clamps that snap down on the Auto-Cannon to slow the barrels rotation once you stop firing? They are there along with tons of other stuff.
Over the last 3+ years of development Singularity’s weapon system has gone though drastic changes that required tons of work, but at the end of the day I can honestly say I’m very proud of the results of our labor, and I hope the ideas that didn’t make it in may appear again one day in a title down the road.
Justin Crouch
Senior Software Engineer
Raven Software