Devlog: Spreading Fire (Patreon)

Heyo!

This is the first in a series of weekly posts where we show you behind-the-scenes experiments and talk a little about our process. 

This week we've been playing with fire.

If you've played the prototype maps, you've probably used the flamethrowers to spew fire upwards at the giant. Fire can ignite and immobilize the giant's hands, and obscure the player's vision when their head touches the flames. 

We've been exploring different ways that fire can be produced and spread. In our most recent Prototype Update, trees are ignited when hit by a rocket. Here, we've added the ability of fire particles to ignite any flammable object, which allows the fire to spread. As the giant, you can light a tree on fire by touching it with your flaming hand, but let your hand burn too long and it will explode!

The effect uses a combination of particle systems and a custom emitter that produces individual "fire particle" objects, seen as blue spheres in the image above. These objects will ignite any flammable object on contact. We're inspired by games like Breath of the Wild, where these kinds of elemental systems can result in interesting or surprising gameplay. 

In this experiment, flaming trees produce an explosion on impact, making them more dangerous and giving the giant a new way to weaponize them.

There's still a lot we'd like to explore regarding fire, such as:

• What happens when the warrior is lit on fire?
• What other ways can the giant and warrior produce fire?
• How can fire grow and spread naturally in a way that creates interesting gameplay? 

Let us know what you think of this format. Is there anything you'd like to see regarding our development process?

'Till next week!

The Davigo Devs