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Time Hopper is a horde-like exciting game, which incorporates the best qualities found in other games in the genre, reworking their weaknesses and bringing in extra concepts.
Captain Wayde is a time traveler from 2212, that, while on a routine time trip to search for anomalies, gets stuck in a time loop. In an attempt to exit this time loop, the captain decides to try building a new portal inside his ship but lacks the materials needed in order to power it. He then goes to several different locations in space and time to find the materials to power up this gateway. Will he find the solution he’s looking for once he powers it up?
Time Hopper includes the following features:
- 4 different arenas where the player can fight hordes of different monsters
- Boss fights every 5 rounds in the arenas
- A simple training area to test shooting with the various weapons
- 2 player perks to be upgraded
- 4 different guns that can be upgraded
- Full economy system (multiple types of currency for different uses)
- Simple and sharp user interface with tracking of gameplay statistics
Time Hopper is a Third Person Shooter (TPS) game. It is also an Action-Adventure and Horde game.
The main target-audience are horde-mode game lovers and everyone (over 12/13 years old) who likes survival mode games which include shooting and unlocking achievements, weapons and perks to progress in power level.
Time Hopper is a grinding game. This being said, there is no limitations in terms of gameplay durability and replayability. The player gets rewarded everytime he gets an upgrade and can set goals of his own to reach a determined power leve. Lorewise, the main goal of the game is to unlock the Rumble Arena, which is a special arena that brings together all of the other game arenas. In order to do so, the player has to collect different currencies from the other arenas, fighting his way through hordes of enemies and defeating bosses in epic fights.
The player can perform the following actions:
- Move - The player can move in the different scenarios using the WASD keys on a keyboard. The player’s movement speed depends on other actions he can perform (for example, walking while aiming or reloading a gun is slower).
- Jump - The player can jump by pressing the spacebar.
- Shooting - The player can shoot their weapons by pressing MOUSE1 and aim down sights by using MOUSE2.
- Reload - The player can reload weapons by pressing the ‘R’ key. However, reloading is only possible if the player has spare ammo to reload and the current magazine is not full.
- Melee Attack - The player can perform a melee attack by pressing the ‘V’ key. The attack consists of throwing a punch.
There are three "small" types of enemies and one boss. Enemies spawn in their respective arena and in the Rumble Arena and have different behaviours and attacks. The boss spawns in every arena but the Rumble arena, every 5 rounds. All enemies take more damage if hit on the head compared to the body.
These enemies spawn in the Colliseum arena. They are medieval gladiators and carry a sword and a shield.
They use their sword to attack the player when close enough and the shield is used to protect themselves from player attacks, meaning if shot on the shield, they will take no damage.
These enemies spawn in the Factory arena. They are mechanical robots that attack the player at a range. They shoot lazer bullets from their arms in the direction of the player.
These enemies spawn in the Forest arena. They are other captains (like the main character) that upon the end of the world became zombified and are hungry and fighting for survival. Their attack consists of throwing punches to the player when they are close enough, with the goal of killing the player to then eat their remains.
The boss, called Sylok, the Defiled Captain, is also a captain that, similarly to our player, got stuck in a time loop, but went insane. He then decided to improve his own strength and became the king of all enemies. As he's also stuck in a loop, he spawns every 5 rounds in every arena except the Rumble. The boss has both physical and ranged attacks and increased health. When dying, it drops an increased amount of the arena's currency.
Game progression is a very important factor in grinding games like Time Hopper. The player can progress in many ways.
Firstly, the player has a main progression line that leads them to the apparent final goal of the game: the Rumble Arena. In order to unloch this special arena, the player has to fight in all the other arenas to gather 100 of each currency. After that, a one-time pass for the Rumble Arena can be purchased. This pass is valid until the player dies in the Rumble Arena, in which case a new pass needs to be bought to play that arena again.
Secondly, the player can improve their abilities and upgrade their weapons. This will give the player a better chance of beating more rounds in the arenas and will improve their capacity of killing enemies.
Finally, the player can progress in each arena, trying to beat as many rounds as possible, killing enemies and achieving the highest score possible.
In Time Hopper, the main way to reward the player for their progression is by adding the possibility to keep upgrading character stats (called abilities or perks) and all of the available weapons, for as long as the player wants (there's no upgrade cap, but upgrades get considerably more expensive as they get better).
In the Hub's Computer, the player may choose to improve two abilities: maximum health points and starting arena money. Abilities cost more to upgrade than weapons, as they are rewarded in every arena run from start to finish.
The player’s maximum health is one of the abilities that can be upgraded in the Hub's Computer.
The player can also upgrade the starting money he starts with when joining an arena to spend on the weapon shop.
The player can upgrade the 4 different weapons. Weapon upgrades affect several stats, the most important ones being the weapon’s damage, fire rate and range.
One of the most complex, but engaging, features of the game is the economy system. Time Hopper contains 5 different types of currency that can be used for different purposes. Below a small description of each type of currency can be found:
- Arena Currency/Money - This type of currency is only available inside of each arena and cannot be extracted with the player. The player starts with with an initial amount of this currency, depending on his Starting Money ability, everytime an arena run is started. This currency can be used to buy weapons and ammo inside an arena run and is obtained the same way inside each arena: it gets automatically rewarded to the player for each kill and the amount given to them increases every round.
- Colliseum Currency - This currency is dropped randomly by the enemies associated with the Colliseum arena - the Gladiators - or by Sylok after being defeated in the Colliseum. This currency cannot be used during the arena runs, but can be used together with the other currencies in the Hub to buy the Rumble arena pass and/or upgrades.
- Factory Currency - This currency is dropped randomly by the enemies associated with the Factory arena - the Robots - or by Sylok after being defeated in the Factory. This currency cannot be used during the arena runs, but can be used together with the other currencies in the Hub to buy the Rumble arena pass and/or upgrades.
- Forest Currency - This currency is dropped randomly by the enemies associated with the Forest arena - the Zombified Captains - or by Sylok after being defeated in the Factory. This currency cannot be used during the arena runs, but can be used together with the other currencies in the Hub to buy the Rumble arena pass and/or upgrades.
- Rumble Currency - This currency is only dropped in the Rumble Arena, but it can be dropped by any type of enemy. However, it's considerably rarer than the other currencies (lower drop percentage). Similarly to the others, this currency cannot be used inside the arena runs, but it's fundamental to buy higher level upgrades in the Hub.
Firstly, the Arena Currency/Money is only available inside arena runs. Basically, when the player enters an arena, a certain amount of this currency is given (this can be upgraded in the Hub's upgrade shop) and each enemy kill rewards the player with a certain amount of this currency. The player can then use it to purchase ammo and weapons in the weapons shop inside the arena. When the player leaves the arena this currency is not taken with him, neither are the weapons/ammo bought during that arena session. Secondly, each arena has its own type of currency, that has a certain chance to be dropped by the enemies when killed. These currencies are global to the game and can be taken outside arenas with the player. When the player extracts successfully from an arena session (this is, uses the extraction portal, after defeating Sylok/every 5 rounds, by standing on top of it and pressing E), the currency obtained during that session is saved and extracted as well. However, if the player dies during an arena session, the player loses half of the currency amount obtained during that session. These currencies can be used to buy perks and upgrades and also to unlock the Rumble Arena. These rules are slightly different when it comes to the Rumble Arena. Since the Rumble Arena represents a space-time anomaly, there are no built-in portals that, theoratically, let the player extract safely. However, Captain Wayde's emergency extraction sequence (triggered when his vitals are fading - when the player dies) seems to function properly in this arena, allowing him to extract all of his currency upon death. Finally, the Rumble Arena also has its own type of currency, which is only dropped by the enemies in it. This is a rarer type of currency and is needed to purchase higher level upgrades and perks.
The game’s HUD is very simple. Below is a picture denoting the various HUD elements.
- Player Health Bar - Shows the player’s current health.
- Number of Enemy Kills Needed - Shows the number of enemies that need to be defeated in order to progress to the next round.
- Currencies - Shows the amount of each currency the player holds.
- Current Round - Shows the round the player is currently playing.
- Ammo and Weapons - Shows the current ammo the player has in its magazine and the number of ammunition available to reload. This also shows the weapons the player currently has access to.
- Tooltips - Shows tooltips to help guide the player.
Captain Wayde is a time traveler from 2212, that, while on a routine time trip to search for anomalies, gets stuck in a time loop. In an attempt to exit this time loop, the captain decides to try building a new portal inside his ship, but lacks the materials needed in order to power it. He then goes to several different locations in time to find the materials to power up this gateway. Will he find the solution he’s looking for once he powers it up?
A strange space-time anomaly affected Captain Wayde’s ship, making it only able to access three locations in different time-spaces.
One of the locations is the Colloseum, located in Rome, Earth in the year 70 b.C., populated by ancient rome gladiators who simply enjoy fighting everything that moves.
Another location the ship can access is an overtaken factory in New Hope Colony, in the planet Kepler-22b - the planet that humankind tried to colonize after Earth became toxic and polluted with zombifying viruses and other hazardous chemicals. This factory was however abandoned by humans and overtaken by mechanical robots live that do not want to be disturbed. The portal to this location leads to the year 11574 a.C.
Finally, the ship can also travel to the Brazillian forest previously known as Amazon Rainforest. However, a few years after the end of the world events (in 2098 a.C.), the effects of climate change and the chemicals that were released onto the athmosphere, this forest started being known as Amazon Snowforest. The only inhabitants of this forest at this time are captains that survived the end of the world, but that failed to stay outside of the toxic areas and became zombies.
The main antagonist of Captain Wayde is known as Sylok, the Defiled Captain. This used to be a captain that worked in the same area as Wayde in the past, but, similarly to the main character, got stuck in a time loop while looking to fix space-time anomalies. During this process, Sylok lost access to most of his ship's functionalities (such as weapon shops, currencies and his portal functions started malfunctioning), losing hope. Sylok became insane and decided to try to master the anomaly's rules, using everything to his advantage. He learned how to use his helmet to store viral charge that he would later use to expell onto enemies, collected herbs from the forest that made his body expand from radioactivity and collected materials from the factory and from the gladiators to upgrade his armor tremendously. When Wayde got stuck in this loop, Sylok sensed the presence of a ship with technology similar to the one he once had, and redirected his remaining portal functions to try to catch and kill Wayde to steal his ship using his portals, in an attempt to escape. This is why Sylok appears every 5 rounds (right before the extraction portal sequence from Wayde starts on each arena) in the arenas that Wayde has developed and built safe extractions, but does not interfere in the Rumble Arena (where there are no extraction portals).
After some time fighting enemies on these different locations, Captain Wayde finally gathers enough materials to power up a different portal, and ends up discovering a new location. This new location seems to be largely affected by a space-time anomaly, which Wayde fears was the cause of the time loop he and Sylok got stuck in. He decided to call it ANOMALY GX-331. This location merges all the other places Captain Wayde was previously able to access during his travels and has an immense portal energy that keeps bringing together inhabitants from each one of those locations. The type of inhabitatant that gets teleported into Wayde highly depends on the conditions of the subplace he is currently in, but this did not stop an occasional inhabitant from another area to get teleported to a place he doesn't belong.
As it was to be expected, even though ANOMALY GX-331 does seem to be the cause of the issue, Captain Wayde is not able to decipher how to revert it, and stays stuck in the loop. As time goes by, Wayde starts focusing more on upgrading his gear and starts going onto the to arenas to kill enemies just for fun, growing crazier and crazier...
The Hub is located in Captain Wayde's spaceship and it is the neutral zone of the game, where no enemies spawn and where the player can practice his skills and control most of the game's aspects (settings, upgrades, etc.). The hub contains a main area, shown in the figure below, where the player can access the computer (where the upgrades/perks shop and the arena statistics menus are located) and enter the arenas using their respective doors and portals.
The hub also contains a training area, shown in the following figure, where the player can pick any weapon and shoot at white targets that randomly spawn at different locations.
This arena consists of an ancient version of Rome's Colosseum, with a wide open area where the fighting happens and many doors along the walls where enemies can spawn. Furthermore, the arena contains several ground obstacles, like wooden structures and boxes scattered around the fighting area.
The enemy associated with this arena is the Gladiator, and the currency that drops is shown below.
The Factory Arena is located indoors, inside a futuristic factory. There is a lava pit and multiple fire geizers that damage the player and the enemies when in contact. This arena also features two ramps that connect to a floating tunnel with many holes in its floor. Apart from this, there are also several obstacles spread around the arena.
The enemy associated with this arena is the Robot, and the currency that drops is shown below.
This arena takes place in a forest, after the end of the world. The scenery contains abandoned nuclear research buildings, trees, bushes, a river and snow.
The enemy associated with this arena is the Zombified Captain, and the currency that drops is shown below.
Designing each of these arenas game required the following steps:
- Importing the arena model into Unity
- Importing the corresponding enemy model to Unity
- Extracting the associated materials with the models and re-apply the textures and the tiling, smoothness, metallic, emission and color values
- Defining a Navigation Mesh that the enemies can use to locate the player and move around in
- Program the AI for each arena's enemies
- Place the weapon shop in the arena
- Implement the economy system for the arena
The Rumble Arena is a junction of all of the 3 arenas described above, with a few special rules. Since it represents a time-space anomaly, the sky resembles the apocalypse as everything has purple lighting. The most important part about the Rumble Arena is the presence of dividing portals in all of the segments of the locations present in this anomaly. Each run is different, as everytime the Rumble is loaded, the dividing portals randomly get a rotation angle and the player's and enemies' default spawn positions change accordingly.
The segments and the portals that lead to the other arenas can be seen below. Even in-game, in some of the segments, you can see the portals from other segments in the distance.
One possible Colliseum segment in the Rumble Arena:
One possible Factory segment in the Rumble Arena:
One possible Forest segment in the Rumble Arena:
When the player goes through a portal, it leads to another segment randomly - this is, if you're in the forest, by going through the portal, there's 50% chance to go to the colliseum and 50% chance to go to the factory. The position that the portal leads to is dynamically calculated, as it highly depends on the random rotation of the portals, making it an even furtherly remarkable and unique experience for the player in each run.
In this arena, there is no weapon shop, so the player starts with all of the weapons in his arsenal. Regarding ammo, it automatically refills everytime a new round is started. The drop rates of enemies are also incredibly higher when it comes to currency from the other arenas, and have a small chance of dropping a special currency that can only be found in this arena, which can be found below.
Designing this arena proved to be an exquisite challenge:
- A Unity scene with elements from all other scenes had to be created
- Each structure had to be carefully thought out because of the portal's physics and the navigation meshes for enemies
- The portal mechanics and position calculation proved to be incredibly difficult, because of the randomness in rotation and positioning of the portals
- Due to the calculation of spawn positions being very resource intensive, enemy spawn positions were defined to be the same as the player's starting positions, which sometimes leads to enemy stacking and unexpected physics colisions between the player and the enemies
- The enemy spawners were very hard to balance, since there is no boss fight and in this arena the player starts with every weapon and ammo
Time Hopper includes many sounds to give the player a more immersive experience. The following sounds are included in the game:
- Background music for each arena and for the hub
- Footstep sounds for the player and enemies
- Gun sounds for all weapons (reloading, shooting, explosions etc.)
- Voicelines for all enemies and bosses
- Environment sounds (wind, fire sound, static noise, etc.)
Furthermore, the volume of sounds can be controlled from the pause menu. The player can control the music volume and the sound effects volume in two separate sliders.
Time Hopper was developed using the Unity Game Engine. The game incorporates many assets, containing 3D models developed and animated in Blender and sounds developed using FMOD.
- First Sketch of the Main Character
- First sketches of the arena hub, main character helmet and blade
- First sketches of the extraction portal and the player’s blade
- Colliseum's loading screen
- Factory's loading screen
- Forest's loading screen
- Rumble's loading screen
- The Hub's concept art (unused in-game)
